By Kiera Watson
Recently, I read the article "A whole theater of others": Amateur Acting and Immersive Spectatorship in the Digital Shakespear Game Play the Knave by Gina Bloom, Sawyer Kemp, Nicholas Toothman, and Evan Buswell. This article introduced me to the concept of video game theatre and got me thinking about how video game spectatorship has evolved drastically in the last decade. I would argue that, due to the popularization of livestreaming websites such as Twitch and YouTube, video game audiences have developed to become more like what we would consider traditional theatre audiences, particularly audiences of interactive theatre.
My first point to consider is the role of the player in video game settings. In 2009, Clara Fernández-Vara describes how the player plays both the role of interactor with the software as well as audience to the game's aesthetics and experience (6). As the player experiences and explores the software, they discover and witness how their actions result in a reaction in the narrative environment. Fernández-Vara also provides a perspective on video game spectatorship from external parties. She describes how games that have connections to real life live events such as Street Fighter and Dance Dance Revolution lend themselves to audiences as well as video game competitions and e-sports tournaments. Further, players with unique skills and knowledge of games can foster audiences but she stipulates that distribution to these audience is most often through prerecorded sessions and that spectators of video games must have some sort of foundational knowledge of the game mechanics to enjoy watching any form of video game content (7). I would argue that this perspective no longer applies to the current presence of video game spectatorship.
First, let’s consider the relationship between spectator and player during sessions of Play the Knave. Bloom et al. noted that spectators of these sessions were active participants in the gameplay and often gave advice and directions to the player. While they themselves were not interacting with or able control the software, by watching they established an understanding of the mechanic to a point where they felt confident enough to advise those in control. To me, this is reminiscent of a livestream audience and the “chat” function on streaming sites. During livestreams, audiences can advise and comment on the live streamer's “performance” both within the chat and, in some cases, using text to speech mechanics. Viewers can also interact with polls and in some cases gamble non-monetary points furthering their interaction with the stream. This allows for a more immersed and fully interactive experience for spectators. Play the Knave also shows how audiences can learn game mechanics from a spectator perspective. In the world of livestream, streamers often play newly released games and thus the audience learns with them how the game is played. This in turn makes video gaming more approachable to inexperienced players and spectators. Finally, I would rebuttal the notion that for video games to be an immersive and entertaining experience the game should be competitive or reminiscent of a “real life” live event. As I write this the most popular game on Twitch is Grand Theft Auto V, a game that is played in either narrative form or as an open world, followed by games such as Minecraft and Valorant. This demonstrates that video game audiences find entertainment and immersion from a wide array of video game genres, not only those they feel reflect other audiences they have experienced.
In conclusion, since Fernández-Vara’s article in 2009 there have been extreme changes to the video game landscape and how spectators interact with gaming. The explosion of online live streaming has helped to cultivate a wider and more interactive online audience for video gaming that is reminiscent of the audiences seen at Play the Knave sessions recorded by Bloom et al. As online streaming continues to grow in popularity, I expect that we will continue to see significant changes in how audiences engage with video gaming and more research into their behavior.
Works Cited
Bloom, Gina et. al. “A Whole Theater of Others: Amateur Acting and Immersive Spectatorship in the Digital Shakespear Game Play the Knave.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 67, 2016, pp. 408-430.
Fernandez-Vara, Clara. "Play's the Thing: A Framework to Study Videogames as Performance." 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory (September 2009).
Mason, David. “Video Games, Theater, and the Paradox of Fiction.” The Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 47, no. 6, 19 Jan. 2015, pp. 1109–1121., https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12200.