1. Thanks, chat! – How is Changing How Video Games are Designed
Timothy Penix
Full Sail University
Timothy Penix
Full Sail University
Email: penixta@tigermail.auburn.edu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/penixta
Contact
1. Chase. (2014, March 1). TPP Victory! The thundershock heard around the world. Retrieved May 6, 2016, from https://blog.twitch.tv/tpp-victory-the-thundershock-heard-around-the-world-3128a5b1cdf5#.aa5ssf1sa
2. Clark, T. (2016, March 15). Twitch’s “Stream First” initiative integrates chat with a new wave of games. Retrieved May 6, 2016, from http://www.pcgamer.com/twitchs-stream-first-initiative-integrates-chat-with-a-new-wave-of-games/
3. Corriea, A. R. (2014, February 28). Twitch Plays Pokémon suggests the service could evolve into a games platform. Retrieved May 12, 2016, from http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/28/5456564/twitch-plays-pokemon-suggests-the-service-could-evolve-into-a-games
4. Creator of Twitch Plays Pokémon. (2014).
5. Jackbox Games. (2015). Jackbox Party Pack 2. [Video Game]. Chicago, Illinois. http://jackboxgames.com/
6. McWhertor, M. (2014, February 14). How Twitch is crowd-sourcing an amazing Pokémon multiplayer game. Retrieved May 6, 2016, from http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/14/5411790/twitch-plays-pokemon-creator-interview-twitchplayspokemon
7. Schell, J. (2015). The experience is in the player's mind. In The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses (2nd ed., pp. 119-121). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
8. Statt, N. (2014, February 19). 'Twitch Plays Pokemon' is now a fight for the soul of the Internet. Retrieved May 12, 2016, from http://www.cnet.com/news/twitch-plays-pokemon-is-now-a-fight-for-the-soul-of-the-internet/
9. Twitch. (2011). Twitch logo. Retrieved from https://www.twitch.tv/p/brandassets
10. Twitch. (2016, March 14). Announcing Twitch developer success at GDC 2016. Retrieved May 6, 2016, from https://www.twitch.tv/twitch/v/54484883
11. Twitch PAX. (2016, April 22). PJSaltan 2016 @ PAX East 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from https://www.twitch.tv/twitch/v/62225803 Game play starts at timecode 1:47:03
References
From standing around and observing the first video games in the local arcade to watching a
live broadcaster playing the newest released PC or console game, gaming enthusiasts have
not only enjoyed playing video games, but watching others play them as well. With watching
others play video games, the desire to want to have a say in what is going on or wanting to
interact with the person or persons playing has been there. In 2014, a “social experiment”
was created called Twitch Plays Pokémon and the viewers in the channel chat got to do
exactly that: watch a video game and have a say in how it was played.
The purpose of this poster is to discuss the history of Twitch Plays Pokémon and how its
influence has brought about the “Stream First” program with Twitch and how this new
partnership between Twitch and game developers can change how future games can be
designed and developed to incorporate outside input to influence or manipulate the design
and mechanics of the game.
1. Abstract
Game designers and developers have started including an “audience” factor in games like
Fibbage or Quiplash (Jackbox Games, 2015), where the audience could influence who would
win a round. In March 2016, 2 years after the Twitch Plays Pokémon started, Twitch
announced “Stream First”, where Twitch developers would work with game designers and
developers to create new games that could be broadcast on Twitch and the chat could
influence or manipulate the game at will (Twitch, 2016).
During the announcement, a few games were shown to include a digital build of the card
game Superfight, where broadcasters had to convince the chat (audience) to vote for their
drawn cards to win the match. During Pax East 2016, Twitch debuted a game called Move or
Die, a platformer competitive game designed by Those Awesome Guys, where the Twitch
chat would manipulate the game as far as game modes, lighting, health of the players playing,
and many other factors (Twitch PAX, 2016).
2. Introduction
The creator of Twitch Plays Pokémon (2014) has provided data from the beginning of the
channel to April 2016. This data is broken down by average concurrent viewership (average
taken per hour, per day) and chat activity (per hour, per day) for the length of the channel.
Chart 1 shows the average concurrent viewership during the play through of Pokémon Red
from February 12 to March 2, 2014. Chart 2 shows the chat activity during the play through of
Pokémon Red from February 12 to March 2, 2014. Chart 3 shows the average concurrent
viewership of the channel from April 2014 to March 2015.
Chart 1 and Chart 2 shows that as game progressed, the concurrent viewership and chat
activity went up and down, depending on what was happening that day within the game. It
should be noted that on February 18, the creators introduced new modes to help the chat
and viewers control the game, called “Anarchy” or “Democracy” (Statt, 2014), explaining the
significant drop in chat activity for that day. In Chart 3, after hype for the channel subsided,
average concurrent viewership numbers still remained high enough to support continuation
and support for the game and channel.
3. Twitch Plays Pokémon Data
On February 18, the creators introduced new modes to help the chat and viewers control the
game, called “Anarchy” or “Democracy” (Statt, 2014). Viewers could vote for which mode
they preferred to use, along with commands for the game. Anarchy meant that all inputs
were accepted. Democracy took all inputs over the course of a few seconds and the highest
number of a specific input was implemented as the next move within the game.
This new mode can be related to the Flow channel by Csikszentmihalyi (Schell, 2015). The
viewers are inputting the commands for the game and it can be exciting (Anarchy), but when
the activity gets to be too anxious, a mode can be made to bring it back down to control
(Democracy) and when the activity gets to near boredom, the cycle repeats. This new method
of using the flow channel can help to structure game design to accommodate 3rd party input
to the game, to ensure that the game is not fulling swinging in one direction or another.
4. Anarchy vs. Democracy Two years after Twitch Plays Pokémon was released to the world, hundreds of viewers still
flock to the channel to interact and join in what was declared a “social experiment”. Game
designers and developers have started to reach out to Twitch to design and create games that
take the wonders of the interactive viewers and hope to make the next big socially interactive
game. If developers and designers look at the success of Twitch Plays Pokémon and reflect on
the data from launch to the first year of release, along with the implementation of Anarchy
and Democracy, this is incentive to create more games that take 3rd party input that redesign
the game itself during play. The potential of these newly designed games could change what
people perceive as the common co-op game and encourage more interaction not only with
the game itself, but the other viewers as well. Twitch, whether the company knows it or not,
is on the brink of changing how video games are designed. All they need are willing and able
viewers to help play those games and have a PogChamp time.
6. Conclusions
On February 12, 2014, an anonymous developer in Australia started a “social experiment”
(McWhertor, 2014) on Twitch where viewers could not only interact with the game being
played, but influence how the game was play and what the outcome would be (Chase, 2014).
This was Twitch Plays Pokémon and it started a new method of game design and
development.
Since the success of Twitch Plays Pokémon, other broadcasting channels have begun to spring
up where viewers are challenged to master and complete other games. This started the idea
of Twitch’s “Stream First” program (Clark, 2016), where Twitch developers would work with
game designers and developers to create new games that could be broadcast on Twitch and
the chat could influence or manipulate the game at will (Twitch, 2016).
5. Since Twitch Plays Pokémon
Chart 1. Average Concurrent viewership, Feb 12 – Mar 2, 2014 (Twitch Plays Pokémon, 2014)Image 1. Screenshot of Twitch Plays Pokémon (Corriea, 2014) Chart 2. Chat Activity, Feb 12 – Mar 2, 2014 (Twitch Plays Pokémon, 2014) Chart 3. Average Concurrent Viewership, Apr 2014 – Mar 2015 (Twitch Plays Pokémon, 2014)