Abstract
Video game streaming (VGS) has attracted millions of users and shown unprecedented growth globally. With technological development, these appealing media have largely influenced the sustainable development of society and the economy. VGS creates a pleasant atmosphere and provides various novel features to please the viewers, induce positive emotions, and facilitate users’ engagement. Integrating several personal characteristics as moderators, this study applied cognitive emotion theory to explore the antecedent of viewers’ engagement in VGS. Using 308 empirical data, the research results reveal that broadcaster attractiveness and the para-social relationship are positively associated with the viewers’ positive emotion, which eventually leads to engagement. In addition, personal characteristics play significant roles as moderators between VGS features and the viewers’ positive emotions. The results provide theoretical implications for VGS research and useful insights for VGS platform managers and policymakers to enable a sustainable profit model and the growth of VGS.
Highlights
Video game streaming (VGS) is a real-time video social media platform that combines traditional broadcasting and internet gaming [1]
As for the last stage, that is, the behavior stage, we proposed that the three aspects may enhance the viewers’ states of positive emotion, which lead to their engagement behavior in VGS
The results suggest that the stronger a positive emotion experienced by a viewer, the more likely he/she would engage in the VGS
Summary
Video game streaming (VGS) is a real-time video social media platform that combines traditional broadcasting and internet gaming [1]. The number of its users has continuously increased over the past years. As of December 2020, the number of live-streaming users in China had reached 617 million, an increase of 57.03 million from March 2020, accounting for 62.4 percent of all Internet users, with VGS users accounting for. Since technological innovation often efficiently balances economic progress, resource consumption, and environmental challenges, the development of VGS is directly linked to sustainability [3]. VGS implemented a sustainable business model to engage and enable viewers without depleting natural resources, which benefits all parties involved, including the broadcaster, the viewer, the platform, society, and economic progress
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