Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming by T. L. Taylor (review)

In the introductory chapter of t. l. taylor’s Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming, the author uses a seemingly straightforward subheader to help outline her research goals for the book: “Games Matter.” While many readers may find this declaration self-evident, the pressing need for scholars to take notice of gaming’s cultural importance rightly remains a critical concern throughout the book. Taylor points out that gaming has become a potentially constant media presence in our lives with the power to shape the way we work, play, and socialize with others. She goes on to outline the larger stakes involved with these connections, writing that “everyday life, filled with both work and leisure, is where people regularly navigate deeply political, culturally productive, socio technical systems. It is where politics comes at us sideways” (11). With this dynamic in mind, Watch Me Play examines gaming’s growing role in our lives by focusing on the emergent Twitch social media platform, in which gamers can live stream their gameplay and build an online audience of subscribers. Ultimately, the book then offers a template to consider the many ways politics comes at both broadcasters and viewers sideways, focusing on how the platform commodifies ideas of play and community, structures complex labor practices, and hastily regulates the community formations taking place on the site.

The scope of Taylor’s book presents a challenge given how large Twitch has become in recent years and how its still-emergent status presents a volatile case study. Spurred on by Amazon’s $970 million acquisition in 2014, Twitch has hosted millions of broadcasters and viewers over the last several years, developed intricate advertisement and user donation systems, and begun to influence ways industry producers can market games through streaming communities. In fact, the platform has become so successful that Time Magazine named the popular Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins one of the one hundred most influential people in 2019. Considering these developments, Taylor can certainly make a strong case for Twitch’s cultural influence, but working out its specific impact on gaming audiences and the industry takes a far more nuanced approach. Thankfully, her work expertly builds a historical framework for Twitch and outlines how patterns of behavior have evolved on the platform without overcommitting to any last-word assessments of its influence.

Watch Me Play structures its analysis by deftly looking at different ways Twitch fits into historical continuities in media studies and works as an extension of larger trends in the game industry. Taylor first places Twitch within the broader context of online streaming, drawing parallels to other forms of live media production and internet viewing cultures. She then focuses in on Twitch broadcast labor and builds on her previous work in E-sports by examining how Twitch and competitive gaming have developed a complementary relationship. Taylor then shifts gears again to interrogate both formal and informal community management on Twitch message boards and the roles that platform affordances and corporate regulation play in structuring this communication. Finally, Taylor offers closing thoughts on the future of game streaming and the different ways Twitch speaks to the larger concerns in the field of cultural industries. If this sounds like a lot to accomplish within the span of one book, it absolutely is. Yet despite the varied ways in which industry, technology, and media convergence all seem to vie for one’s attention, Taylor admirably rallies many of these concerns around the express notion of community. As the title Watch Me Play suggests, Taylor’s book often encourages us to view Twitch foremost as a dialogue between gamers and viewers, and it is this connection that leads to many of its greatest insights.

As with the author’s past work, Taylor shows great instincts in charting a nascent trend in game studies as she chronicles Twitch moving from a relatively unknown niche platform to...