Jonathan Bard - Gamers and Streamers

CONTENTS

Words in the glossary appear in bold type the first time they are used in the text.

THE START OF VIDEO GAMING CULTURE

Even though theyre often competing against each other, gamers have always wanted to share what they know with other players. Before streaming or posting videos was possible, gamers would write guides on how to win against other players, solve puzzles, and beat games. These guides were then published in magazines and books.

As video games became more popular, a new hobby was born: watching people play. In Japan, on a popular television show called GameCenter CX, the host Shinya Arino plays games and viewers watch his funny actions as he tries to win. The show is a huge success and has been on television since 2003!

LETS PLAY!

A Lets Play is a video of someone playing through a game while making funny or amusing comments. This type of video got its name because gamers sometimes start these videos by saying, for example, Lets play Oregon Trail or Lets play StarCraft. The gamers who create these videos are called Lets Players.

STARCRAFT WAS ONE OF THE FIRST POPULAR COMPETITIVE VIDEO GAMES, ESPECIALLY IN SOUTH KOREA. THE SOUTH KOREAN TV CHANNEL, OGN, SHOWS STARCRAFT TOURNAMENTS AND OTHER VIDEO GAME COMPETITIONS.

THE RISE OF STREAMS

Internet speeds became a lot faster in the early 2000s, which made uploading and watching videos easier. In 2007, a website called Justin.tv started. It was built for live video streaming. This site allowed anyone with a and an email address to stream all kinds of videos, from events to their daily life. At its peak, a new video began streaming every second!

By 2011, the creators of Justin.tv had made something bigger: Twitch, a website for streaming video games only. In its first year, Twitch saw about 3.2 million different visitors per month. By 2012, that number jumped to 20 million!

A RECORD-BREAKING STREAM

In 2018, professional gamer Tyler Ninja Blevins set a new Twitch record for the largest number of viewers on a stream. Ninja invited a football player and two rappers to join him playing Fortnite. Over 600,000 people watched this stream at the same time, almost doubling the old record!

FORTNITE IS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR GAMES STREAMING ON TWITCH, WITH VIEWERS WATCHING OVER 1 BILLION HOURS WORTH OF GAMING IN 2018!

GOING LIVE!

Video games are pretty easy to live stream. With Twitch, all a gamer needs to do is set up an account, install some , and start playing! Some gamers go fartherthey use webcams, microphones, and special software to film themselves as part of the stream. Viewers can see and hear the gamer!

To stream a video game, the computer records the sound and video of the game, and uploads this data to a website such as Twitch. Then, the website will send that data out to viewers. Data is sent over the internet in pieces called bits.

BITS, BYTES, AND MEGABYTES

Computers think in . This means all data a computer uses is made of 0s and 1s. One 0 or 1 is called a bit. Eight bits makes one byte. The size of a common video is measured in megabytes. Each megabyte is 1 million bytes!

SINCE IT WAS CREATED IN 2011, TWITCH HAS GAINED MILLIONS OF VIEWERS. THOUSANDS OF GAMES ARE STREAMED EVERY DAY IN OVER 20 LANGUAGES!

NEXT-LEVEL STREAMING

Most casual gamers only add their voice to their videos. Its even more fun to see the gamers face as they play. Many professional gamers take their videos to the next level with a powerful computeror two! They may also use a , special lights, and powerful cameras to record themselves for their videos.

With a camera on their face, streamers give their thoughts on the game as they play it. They can even talk directly to their viewers, who can post comments in real time on the ! People watch streams not only for the game, but also to see the gamers and how they react.

STAYING COOL

Like a lot of devices, computers can get hot when you use them. While most computers stay cool with fans, gaming computers need something more. To beat the heat, many gamers use liquid cooling, which uses tubes of liquid to cool the computer quickly. Liquid cooling is also quieter!