Emotional Energy and Group Membership on Twitch.tv

Abstract: With the rise of the commercial gaming industry the phenomenon of watching others play has become more and more common. One platform that has made this accessible is Twitch.tv. This paper investigates the interaction taking place on Twitch between streamers and viewers from the perspective of interaction ritual theory (IR theory). Previous research on Twitch has investigated this interaction but none has so far done this from the perspective of IR theory. IR theory has been criticized by previous research as it states that interaction has to take place face to face in order for the ritual to be successful. This paper adds to the discussion on the applicability of IR theory to none-face to face interaction. The research question was; how is emotional energy and the feeling of group membership created in interaction on Twitch? The results show that emotional energy and a sense of group membership is created through the combined efforts of the streamer and viewers. The key points of the results are how the streamer as ritual leader charges symbolic objects with emotional energy to get different reactions from the viewers. The viewers power to create inside jokes as symbolic objects which define group membership and how the occurrence of raids and hype trains act as spikes of emotional energy.