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PP 050 A Question of Culture? A Comparative Study of Motivations to Watch Digital Game Live Streams Among American, British, and Chinese
Users
D. Possler1, N. Schmeil1, Q. Ji2, C. Klimmt1, W. Ding3, Z. Lu4, W. Wang3
1 Hanover University of Music- Drama and Media, Department of Journalism and Communication Research, Hanover, Germany
2 Florida State University, School of Communication, Tallahassee, USA
3 Nanchang University, College of Journalism and Communication, Nanchang, China
4 Fudan University, School of Journalism, Shanghai, China
Watching live streams of other people playing digital games and comment on them in text-based chats has become an increasingly popular element in
gaming culture. For example, the digital game streaming platform twitch.tv attracts more than 100 million unique viewers per month (twitch.tv, 2015).
Such platforms can be categorized as hybrid medium combining broadcasting, game experiences and social media functions (Hamilton, Garretson, & Kerne,
2014). Researchers have just begun to explore the uses and gratifications (Katz, Blumer, & Gurevitch, 1974) of watching digital game live streams (e.g.,
Sjoeblom, 2015). Due to their exploratory nature, these studies tend to focus on users of one single country and did not account for cultural differences
that may shape both the motives for using hybrid media (Kim, Sohn & Choi, 2011) and gaming culture at large (Shaw, 2010). Our study addresses this
lack of research and investigates, whether the motives for watching gaming live streams differ across cultures. Among the many cross-cultural differences
(Hofstede, 2011), we focused on the way individuals of a culture are integrated into groups. Collectivistic cultures (e.g., China) are characterized by strong
in-group membership. In contrast, ties in individualistic cultures (e.g., U.K. or US) are rather loose (Hofstede, 2011). Consequently, collectivistic cultures
should score higher on social motivations, while entertainment motives should be more important in individualistic cultures.To investigate our assumptions
we conducted a bi-lingual online survey in May and June 2015 in the U.S. (n=1,352) and in the U.K (n=362), as well as during November and December
2015 in China (n=335). Users’motives to watch gaming live streams were assessed with 27 items derived from past studies on digital game streaming (e.g.,
Sjoeblom, 2015), eSport broadcasts (e.g., Lee, An & Lee, 2014), online videos (e.g., Haridakis & Hanson, 2008) and sport programs (e.g., Raney, 2008). Sev‑
eral measures were taken to prevent bias in the cross-cultural assessment – including check of construct equivalence by experienced local researchers and
translation-backtranslation (Esser & Hanitzsch, 2012; van deVijver &Tanzer, 2004). Results indicated that the motives for watching digital game streams are
very similar across the countries. Factorial analysis resulted in the same three factors for each country: information, social involvement and habitual enter‑
tainment. However the composition and weights of these factors differ across the samples. Regressions of these motives on the average daily use of streams
revealed the assumed cultural-differences: Hedonistic entertainment motives are by far the strongest predictors of streaming use in both collectivistic cul‑
tures, the U.K. and the U.S.. In Contrast, in the collectivistic culture of China social motives are rather dominant. Consistent with past findings (e.g. Sjoeblom,
2015) our results show, that digital game live streams offers rich potential for a multitude of gratifications. Moreover, similar to past studies (e.g. Kim, Sohn
& Choi, 2011) we found that cultural contexts – especially the distinction between individualistic and collectivistic cultures – are essential to understand
viewers’motivations. This stresses the importance of future cross-cultural analysis to understand digital game live streams and gaming culture at large.