Badges, Bits, and Bots : Exploring the effect of chat badges on Twitch interactions

Abstract: This study aims to observe and understand what effect influence-earned and appointed badges have during Twitch streams and their interactions. Twitch is the most popular live streaming platform online and draws in a large number of content creators, with its primary draw being video game live streams. During video game live streams, streamers play a game and interact with viewers, of which there are different types depending on monetary contribution and status given by the broadcaster. Using ethnographic observation, two weeks’ worth of streams on a medium sized channel were viewed and later analysed with thematic structure, focusing on streamer-audience, viewer-subscriber, and the place of moderators and VIPs. The results show that while badges can delineate who is a regular viewer and who is not, beyond this they show little significance towards the positions of different audience members. Moderators and VIPs are shown to have more sense of regularity and more power over or exemption from chat limits. Additionally, those contributing monetarily are shown to get extra appreciation via on-screen alerts and triggered audio segments, making the streamer aware of their contribution. In chat, this earns them an additional badge, showing their level of contribution to the stream. This did, beyond recognition on stream, not show a longitudinal affect towards people who contributed monetarily. Overall, badges thus did not hold significant power, but observations raised more questions that inspire future research.