VICTORIA NG
PEER RESPONSE
Twitch - the streamers' platform all around the world by Yubin Hong (source)
I found Yubin’s analysis of Twitch informative. The explanation of Twitch’s layout was useful, and effective in pointing out why Twitch might have a good user interface. Yubin also chose to analyse how Twitch helped users interact with their viewers, as well as create and maintain an audience/fanbase. I think that Yubin made a good choice in analysing both, as both features are important for Twitch to be used effectively. Yubin also went into some flaws Twitch has, both technical (buffering), and social (user interaction), which I found good – I think an effective discussion should analyse both pros and cons.
Yubin also lightly touched on a lack of female interaction, which they put down to Twitch being biased towards ‘male interests’. I found myself disagreeing with this. Twitch is (to the best of my knowledge) primarily targeted towards video gaming streams. What I argue against is that it is not a ‘male interest’ to speak of, rather that the environment itself is far more welcoming to males than females. There was recent news about a professional female Overwatch player, who was accused of hacking – the accusers said if she wasn’t, they would quit the game. She proved, onstage, that she wasn’t hacking, and they did – but my point is, she should never have had to. The players, I argue, wouldn’t have said anything if she was male.
Perhaps I have gone widely off-topic in this review. Nevertheless, Yubin’s judgement touched a sore point that a personal grievance of mine – the lack of female representation in a professional (or even casual) competitive video game scene. It is comments like this that continue to encourage the belief that only males want to play video games – and therefore, only they are allowed to. I’m sure Yubin didn’t mean it that way. However, that’s how it can be interpreted.
In hindsight, maybe the reason Yubin didn’t go further into it is that this is a controversial topic. It was probably a wise decision. However, putting aside their very brief mention of this topic, I thought Yubin did a great job as they analysed all parts of Twitch and how each part attracted users and viewers.
(Yes, I am biased. After all, I’m a female gamer.)
Gestalts theory applied to JK Party by Joyce Huang (source)
I enjoyed reading about Joyce’s critique of the Just Kidding Party YouTube channel. I found it an informative read. Joyce took the time to explain Gestalt Theory, which I found extremely useful as I’d never heard of it before. It also helped that she used simple language, so I could focus on processing her information rather than trying to decipher it.
Joyce’s work went into detail, picking specific concepts in relation to the theory she was using, and she then explained how the JK Party channel used these concepts to draw in and retain their audience/regular viewers. She also further linked it to two blogs of other classmates, and compared them (one seems to have followed the concepts in Gestalt theory, while the other seems to have not). I’ve always found that the use of a real-life example is a really effective method for me to learn, both in and outside of a classroom, and here is no different.
While Joyce hasn’t triggered a reaction as heated as Yubin has, I found their work no less enlightening to read. Joyce did a great job of defining the theory, explaining how aspects of it can be manipulated to help influence and connect with viewers, and then showing how the Just Kidding Party YouTube channel took advantage of the theory to appeal to viewers. It was well presented and both the formatting and choice of vocabulary made it for a clear and understandable read.