Video Games (again), Online streaming

I guess this is kind of a part 2 to my previous post about sexualization in video games. This time I wanted to focus on a more recent phenomenon and that's online streaming. Many people have begun to record live streams of them playing video games. This has become extremely popular, with some streamers having tens of thousands of viewers online at watching at the same time. Because it has become so popular, some of the top streamers have made it their living. Through donations, deals with streaming sites, ad revenue, and subscribers, they can make upwards of a few thousand per week. 

However, when anything becomes monetized there are going to be people who try to take advantage of it for all it's worth. This is where some females gaming streamers come in. Instead of just using their commentary and video games to draw in audiences, they use sex appeal. The world of online gaming is mostly populated by males age 15-30 (rough estimate), this means that it's hard for females to enter that world without some kind of boost. They started wearing sexy outfits or acting a certain why to appeal to male fans and get more subscriptions on streaming sites like Twitch. It's become a serious issue among streamers and fans because they feel the stream should focus more on the games and that these women are just selling their bodies. 

This kind of reminded me of the Youtube article we read, and how user generated content is becoming more and more prevalent. These streamers are usually also sponsored by different companies and they often have influence on what gaming products people should get. I thought that this is a good example of how user generated content is becoming more than a hobby for some people. They're turning it into a real profession. This is why it's dangerous for female streamers to use sex appeal to gain an audience. 

This particular streamer, Yuuie, makes donations almost like a competition for her subscribers. She rewards them by giving them different perks on her stream or by literally selling area on her body for their names. This could link back to when we talked about cultivation effects or social cognitive theory. People watch this and think that it's okay that these girls are selling themselves. It's not prostitution but it can be seen as something similar. It's possibly even more dangerous than just cultivation because the audience is active and participating in this too. They are promoting this kind of streaming, which will make other girls want to stream like this because it works and they make money off of it. It's a serious issue among the top streamers and it's still a hot debate among the online gaming community.