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Book Launch: Streaming by the Rest of Us: Microstreaming Videogames on Twitch

February 20 @ 15:00

 Technoculture, Art & Games Research Centre (TAG)  is excited to announce the launch of Streaming by the Rest of Us: Microstreaming Videogames on Twitch, a new book by Mia Consalvo, Marc Lajeunesse, and Andrei Zanescu. The event will feature a discussion with the authors, moderated by TAG co-director Rilla Khaled.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

An in-depth investigation of the Twitch streamers who make up the largest population on the platform: those streaming to small audiences or even no one.

The vast majority of people who stream themselves playing videogames online do so with few or no viewers. In Streaming by the Rest of Us, Mia Consalvo, Marc Lajeunesse, and Andrei Zanescu investigate who they are, why they do so, and why this form of leisure activity is important to understand. Unlike the esports athletes and streaming superstars who receive the lion’s share of journalistic and academic attention, microstreamers are not in it for the money and barely have an audience. In this, the first book dedicated to the latter group, the authors gather interviews from dozens of microstreamers from 2017 to 2019 to discuss their lives, struggles, hopes, and goals.

For readers interested in livestreaming, and Twitch in particular, the book rethinks the medium’s history through accounts of the everyday uses of webcams, with particular attention to notions of liveness and authenticity. These two concepts have become calling cards for the videogame livestreaming platform and underlie streamer motivations, the construction of their practices (whether casual, serious, or anywhere in between), and the complex “metas” that take shape over time. The book also looks at the authors’ own practices of livestreaming, focusing on what can be gained through experiencing the lived reality of the practice. Finally, the authors explain how Twitch’s platform (studied from 2017–2023) informs how streamers structure their every day and how corporate ideologies bleed into real-world spaces like TwitchCon.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Mia Consalvo is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design at Concordia University. She is the co-author of Real Games: What’s Legitimate and What’s Not in Contemporary Videogames (2019) and Players and their Pets: Gaming Communities from Beta to Sunset (2015). She is also co-editor of Sports Videogames (2013) and the Handbook of Internet Studies (2011), and is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames (2007) as well as Atari to Zelda: Japan’s Videogames in Global Context (2016).

Mia runs the mLab, a space dedicated to developing innovative methods for studying games and game players. She’s a member of the Centre for Technoculture, Art & Games (TAG), she has presented her work at industry as well as academic conferences including regular presentations at the Game Developers Conference. She is the Past President of the Digital Games Research Association, and has held positions at MIT, Ohio University, Chubu University in Japan and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Marc Lajeunesse is a research associate, course instructor, and the coordinator of TAG, the Technoculture, Arts, and Games Research Centre. His recent work examines toxicity in online game spaces, with an emphasis on player-led strategies for in-game toxicity mitigation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrei Zanescu is an Assistant Professor at Concordia University, specializing in the intersection of Hollywood film, prestige television, and blockbuster video games. His research explores the cultural resonance of blockbuster games, the processes of legitimizing these works at trade shows and award ceremonies, and the impact of AAA game-making on global gaming culture.

 

🗓: February 20, 2025
🕒: 3:00 PM
📍: TAG Lab EV 11.435

Details

Date:
February 20
Time:
15:00
Event Category:

Venue

TAG Lab (EV 11.435)