Template 1 – Initial Template

The male template shows distinctive motivations of streaming of the male interviewees.

Most clear motivations that came out in the male interviews were those related to intrinsic motivation and motivation derived from the community.

5.1.1. Community Motivation

In the female Twitch Affiliate streamer interviewees, the most noticeable motivation was the one related to community. The following quote is an example of how community motivates female twitch affiliate streamers:

F5: “Networking and building community is so important, Twitter is a big one,

you can meet and share a lot on it, all social media are good to grow your stream!”

Most significantly the community was referenced, but not always necessarily as a direct reference of motivation. In the same way as the male interviewees, though they did not always mention that community is the main driving force, it still shows how important it is to them to become successful, and gives them a positive feeling:

F1: “I really love Twitch for the fact it’s becoming more like a social network,

where Twitch streamers and their spectators connect together, and create content together.”

For male streamers motivation from the community was found to be the second most significant motivator. There were several references which were not necessarily referring to motivation directly but shows how important the community is to male streamers and could play a bigger or even the biggest role in motivation to stream.

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The following quote from demonstrates an example of how community motivates male Twitch affiliate streamers to start broadcasting:

M1: “For me, it always has been and always will be the community. The friends I

have made along the way have defined me as both a streamer and as a gamer, and everyone I’ve met will forever hold a place in my heart. There is nothing better in this world than sharing laughs and good times with people who care about one another”

Similarly, an example of a reference to community, not necessarily being a direct reference as a motivation, is as follows:

M5: “I think it really involves the audience and makes them feel like they are here playing with me when I’m able to ask their advice or rely on their experience”

5.1.2. Intrinsic Motivators

The most significant motivator for male Twitch streamers with most references to it is internal, or intrinsic motivation. An example of such reference of intrinsic motivation – challenge-seeking in particular – is:

M3: “It was not too long after that they announced the affiliate program for

twitch. This was my stepping stone to achieve something that I wanted so badly years ago and that’s eventually making twitch partner”

For most of the codes of Internal (Intrinsic) Motivators in female interviewees, results showed relatedness to competence and bettering one’s self:

F2: “I saw how fun it was to stream and wanted to take myself a step further and

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get all the achievements that were required. And to also push myself to not be so shy and get out of my shell”

Although the following quote is not a reference of motivation, it explores the question related to upsides of using Twitch as a streaming platform. However, it shows importance towards the self-esteem which is one of the intrinsic motivators:

F5: “upsides would be you can really help yourself with self-esteem issue,

anxiety, depression, you learn to love what you are cause there’s people supporting you”

5.1.3. Motivation from Enjoyment of video games

Notable significance was given to enjoyment of playing video games, which was most of the time combined with references to community such as the following:

M4: “I just enjoyed playing games and decided to stream so people could watch if they wanted to”

Although not the most significant it also worth mentioning that 1 male interviewee emphasized learning motives for streaming:

M2: “I started streaming myself at the very end of February 2018 to give people

the same outlet and resource I had as a means to enhance their gameplay and possibly learn some new techniques to incorporate into their play style”

It was noted that in females, the motivation derived from enjoyment of playing video games was a less significant than in males. Even though it was found to be of less importance it

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was still important to take note of. The following quote demonstrates an example of how females found motivation in enjoyment of playing video games:

F2: “I stream because I had for as long I can remember loved to play games”

5.1.4. Monetary motivator

For the male interviewees, the monetary reason to stream was considered less important than intrinsic and community. Although the external motivation of money was not as important as the internal feeling of satisfaction, or the notion of building a community, it still is as

important to mention:

M2: “I found myself enjoying it a lot and realized I could make a little extra

money doing something I was already going to do anyhow so why not give it a shot”

There have also been several indirect mentions of monetary motivation such as:

M2: “Upsides to being a Twitch Affiliate is exposure for sure and the ability to make money doing something you love”

The above was a reply to a question dealing with positives and negatives but could be an unconscious motivation simply for mentioning that it was one of the upsides.

Monetary motivation’s significance was found to be less significant in females, with less references to it than in Male Twitch Affiliate Streamers, however it is still significant enough to analyze. The following quote showing that there is a motive to make Twitch streaming a career:

F4: “I really would like to make money and have twitch as a job honestly. I was able to gain affiliate in that week where I jumped in followers and was able to get

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3 subs on my first week of affiliate”

There was also a single indirect reference to gaining money, however it does not show it as being a main motivator but as an added benefit:

F5: “Upsides, the path to Affiliate Program isn’t really hard to reach, compared

to Partnership, so it’s really nice to get 3 emotes, to be able to have subscribers, to earn money out of hours and hours of stream!”

5.1.5. Extrinsic Motivators

With regards to external (extrinsic) motivators, it was found that they were not as significant as internal motivators. This quote shows how the streamer felt motivated to start streaming from other streamers whom he followed:

M1: “I had many opportunities to meet streamers who only had a handful of

followers, up to streamers who had thousands of viewers every stream. All of them motivated me to start my own stream”

In females, what was found to differ from the male interviewees was the significance of external motivators, some being their own family, others found social benefits attractive. The significance of external motivators was just as significant as internal motivators:

F1: “My biggest motivation for becoming a Twitch affiliate was my kids”

5.1.6. Gender Differences/Gender Equal

From this template one can also notice how the theme of ‘gender differences’ was referenced more than gender equal. The male affiliate streamers believed more that male and

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female streamers broadcast for different reasons, with different styles and requirements to become successful:

M2: “I think for girl most of their viewership typically is due to looks or just the

simple fact they are female. Typically, the more attractive a girl is the more viewers she will get. Skill is not a huge factor for female streamers although if they are very skillful and attractive they are going to do very well in the streaming world”

Agreeing with the results of the male interviewees, female interviewees also thought male and female streamers broadcasted on Twitch for different reasons, with different styles and requirements to become successful. The difference noted with female streamers is that they gave more detailed accounts of this, and were more conscious of female streamers using their body to attract viewers:

F1: “Skill definitely plays a part, if there was a female streamer as good as Ninja

the gamer world would probably lose its mind. However, females do get a lot of attention if they have cameras and IF 1. That are obviously attractive, and 2.

Show a LOT of unnecessary cleavage. You’ll see on some social media of women wearing clothes that purposely show more of their body than needed, I mean it’s just streaming, whatever you’re streaming”

Only a single male streamer thought that female Twitch streamers shared the same characteristics as male streamers answering “yes I would say” to the question of whether the same characteristics apply to female streamers in order to become successful. Only one interviewee refused to comment on the same question.

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The same as with male interviewees, only a single reference was made to the theme of Twitch Affiliate streamers being equal when dealing with gender:

F2: “I don’t think that it’s harder for them to become successful, but I think that

they have to put more energy into it. And the reason for that can be different things, for me example I have had a lot of time to work on my social skills through my childhood and my work because I work with and meet new people every day.

And to answer the last question, yes, I think physical appearance and skills play the same role for most of the time for both genders”

5.1.7. Twitch Benefits

With regards to benefits that Twitch offers as a motivation, most male streamers mentioned Twitch’s functionalities such as the emotes Affiliates get, or ability to have subscribers:

M1: “It is well known, easy to use, and offers tons of ways for people to make a name for themselves”

Most streamers did not regard these benefits as a main motivator but showed that they were attractive factors to the streamers.

These benefits were not given as much significance in females as other factors like monetary motivation, similar to the male interviewees, but still significant to analyze:

F3: “The features such as the ability to have custom emotes is really fun, and the fans really love them too”

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5.1.8. Entertainment Motivator

When analyzing the factor of entertainment, this mainly dealt with whether the streamers’

spectators found their content entertaining and whether that gave them more motivation to stream. This did not seem as significant as other motivation such as enjoyment of playing video games as only one source (one streamer interviewee) referenced it:

M2: “I think watching someone stream a video game is the same as watching

someone play football or any sport for that matter. Entertainment is whatever you want it to be and everyone gets to decide on what their entertainment will be”