ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Twitch, a live streaming social gaming site, as a melded social media platform that integrates the social affordances of online gaming sites with those of social networking and video sharing. Although rich in opportunities for acquiring the resources, skills, and competencies typically associated with civic gaming experiences, such multifaceted gaming sites place greater social demands on participants, thereby altering the nature of participation in such a way that has encouraged its commodification. The result is a type of hybrid gaming culture that blends aspects of participatory cultures with traditional top-down mediaspheres in which participation is metered, apportioned, and monetized. Implications regarding the civic potential of Twitch as an exemplary hybrid gaming culture are discussed.
