What do people perceive in watching video game streaming? Eliciting spectators’ value structures

Abstract

This study attempts to offer new insights into viewers’ perceptual process of watching video game streaming to uncover their value structures with a qualitative method of soft laddering interviews based on means-end chain (MEC) theory. A total of 60 experienced spectators in Taiwan were recruited via snowball sampling. The laddering interviews identified viewers’ perceptions of 9 attributes, 9 consequences, and 8 values that construct a hierarchical value map (HVM) consisting of salient attribute-consequence-value chains. The results show that fun and enjoyment of life as well as warm relationships with others are two major values perceived by game streaming viewers. In addition, this study preliminarily compared viewers’ laddering chains of different preferences for male and female streamers at the attribute level and found a slight divergence. The findings complement the existing literature in the game streaming field and provide practical implications for streamers to more closely meet viewers’ needs.