Most of us have that one game… the game that we hold near and dear. The game that we believe we are the best at. Few challengers would dare attempt the task of defeating us. Well, Twitch has given us the ability to showcase those mad skills for an audience to watch in real time. There is no editing of montages or cutting of embarrassing moments. If a mistake is made then we get to hear about it from an up to date comment section.
Twitch has garnered the fourth largest audience during peak hours in only four years as over 43 million people watch streams of video games each month. With more of us getting into the streaming game, it raises an interesting question. Does streaming for a live, and sometimes overly critical audience effect our ability to play games?
The guys at PBS Game/Show did an episode on their YouTube channel on the matter. They say that if you are good at your game then the experience will actually enhance your ability especially during the easy stages of it. However if you stream a game and your abilities do not match the difficulty of the game then it may have a rather negative consequence.
Many gamers on Twitch are competing for viewers which adds a another whole level of complexity as entertainment becomes a major factor since, obviously, level of entertainment directly relates to number of viewers. Couple this with multitasking and there is the potential for at least sub-par gaming and at most, embarrassing moments such as on camera break downs. The latter could potentially be a good thing though as the cynical internet loves to see people either do really well or fail in a very entertaining way.
Check out PBS Game/Show‘s video on the subject as they go a little more in-depth on the live-streaming phenomenon and the potential effects on our gaming prowess.
