Twitch (still) plays Pokémon: When spectators become archivists :

Argyrios Emmanouloudis

doi:10.3983/twc.2022.2239

Twitch (still) plays Pokémon: When spectators become archivists

Authors

Argyrios Emmanouloudis University of Amsterdam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2022.2239

Keywords:

Fan labor, Streaming, User-generated content, Video games

Abstract

In 2014, an anonymous user changed the way that game streaming worked. Through the channel of Twitch Plays Pokémon on Twitch, viewers were able to control and play the classic Pokémon Red game in real time. Without any prompt from the stream's management, fans started documenting the stream's history and records. I examine how this case transcends the regular case of user-generated fan art and becomes one of the first examples of pure fan-generated narrative, often through references to archived material.

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Published

2022-03-13

Issue

Vol. 37 (2022): Fandom Histories

Section

FanLIS

License

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