• *Before I begin I think Twitch is an almost unsuable website. The amount of ads is utterly bonkers. Even with things like uBlock Origin it's just still plastered with advertisements * *

I love watching E-Sports on Twitch. Seeing the highest level turbo-nerds duke it out in games is a lot of fun and helps me understand better ways to play certain games. However there is another side of Twitch I fundamentally don't understand. I suppose I don't understand the whole "para-social" dynamic in general but it seems even further obfuscated on Twitch. I'm not even talking about the biggest streamers either. I have watched some people with 13 viewers play and the dialogue between chat and the player seems stunted and inhuman. It's all very odd to me.

I'm not trying to make a generational critique at all; however it really seems like Twitch is really bad the social component of gaming/online culture. The site itself seems bad for both creators and viewers alike. I know YouTube has it's many problems but it at least it seems design to facilitate some communication and community building. Twitch just seems like website "Brought to you by BRAND-X , NEEDLESS AMAZON SERVICE, and PRODUCT_THAT_HAS_NOTHING_TO_DO_WITH_GAMING".

I don't really see the appeal of Twitch outside of the very narrow display of "high-level" gaming. Could someone explain how it's created such an important digital space in the current walled gardens of the net?

  • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I think on twitch it is way more common and more acceptable for streamers to replace words with emotes IRL.

      • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Sure, but back in the day I think it was like a handful of those maybe, these days you could build a whole dictionary out of twitch emotes, and the worst thing about it is I've come to hate some streamers because I can't get past the constant emote talk.

        I specifically hate the ones replacing everything with -ge like sadge, madge etc... Shit is incredibly annoying and cringe.

        • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I specifically hate the ones replacing everything with -ge like sadge, madge etc… Shit is incredibly annoying and cringe

          :very-intelligent: