Not Content to Just Be a Gamer: A Motivation Analysis of Gaming Content Creators on YouTube and Twitch

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Date
2021-05-01Author
Young, Andrew James
0000-0003-0526-1536
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YouTube and Twitch have become the homes for watching others play video
games. Previous studies show that consumers of content on these new media channels
harbor similar motivations to television viewers (Rubin 1981; Sjoblom and Hamari
2017). But what motivates players, a new class of media producers, to perform for an
online public?
This study analyzes content creators’ motivations through an innovative dual
approach. We conducted interviews with small-audience gamer-creators (N=11) guided
by both the uses and gratifications approach and by self-determination theory. The study
found that producing content primarily gratified a gamer-creator’s social and personal
integrative needs, as well as their affective needs. The study also found that creating
content on YouTube and Twitch provided the gamer-creator with an environment
conducive to intrinsic motivation through the satisfaction of their autonomy, competence,
and relatedness needs.
Although research on content creators is in its infancy, the dual approach that the
study develops may provide a useful basis for future studies on gamer-creators as well as
content creators in other spheres.