How Live Streaming is Impacting Dungeons & Dragons

With the rise of the Internet and improvements made in both available websites and technology, live-streaming has quickly become an up-and-coming area for the game Dungeons & Dragons.

Live-streaming allows all types of people to broadcast their games over the Internet. This allows people to gather and watch others playing games on a scale that could never have otherwise been realized. There are a number of platforms that can be used, such as Twitch, YouTube, or on the live-streamer's own website.

An advantage of streaming games this way is that it allows people to play with others no matter how far away from each other they are.

"I found a shop I was going to, it was in Pensacola. I could go and I could play there. When I moved back here, I got back in contact with the owner, and I was DMing over Skype and I was running games for them just because they didn't have enough people that could run games," said Zachary Travis, local player and game master. "They definitely weren't streaming on a popular Twitch channel, but they would record the games and play it in shop and people could watch it on their website."

A number of live-streams can easily be found online.
Erin Harris

Another draw for live-streaming games is the interactive aspect which allows watchers or listeners to connect with the people they are watching on a larger scale. Many platforms allow people to post comments as the games are happening live, allowing the players to see what the watchers are thinking or respond to them in real-time. It gives listeners a sense of getting in on the action.

"One of the best bonding moments with my brother was sitting down and playing Halo 2 together. There was a large portion in the late 2000s and early 2010s where no game had couch co-op. There's something you lose in gaming, period, when you aren't in the same room as people," said Travis. "These streams- just watching video of people, whether you know they're a celebrity or not, whether you recognize their names or not, you get this illusion of sitting with your buddies playing."

With tools becoming easier to obtain and use, more and more people are able to stream their own games. Performing an Advanced Search on Google for "Dungeons and Dragons live stream" returns a number of different available shows.

Wizards of the Coast, the company that currently publishes the D&D brand, had previously broadcast its official games as podcast but began offering a live streamed version in 2013. They now offer several games that can be watched live or found afterwards on YouTube. The team streams around 20 shows that are either sponsored by or produced by Wizards of the Coast and provides over 50 hours of content a week to its viewers.

While a limited amount of people can fit around a table,
the world of online streaming provides much more room.
Erin Harris

PAX, a convention that often features Wizards of the Coast sponsored D&D games and frequently live-streams them, was most recently held at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Google Maps reveals that while the interior of the center is spacious, many more people are able to access the game through the use of live-streaming.

Live-streaming games is not limited to just officially sponsored games. Critical Hit, for example, has been live-streaming their games for almost a decade. This team has their own website that also keeps archives of their previous games.

People who have grown up while playing D&D have seen the way live-streaming has changed the landscape.

"I've watched several live-streams. The use of the Internet and the use of all the live-stream versions- that technology now being so readily available has really helped bring D&D to where it is now," said Chris McNish, local player and dungeon master. "I started with first and moved to second edition and now we're what? Fifth? So it's changed dramatically."

Google Trends shows there has been a steady increase in searches for the term 'livestream,' though results for 'dungeons and dragons live,' has been growing more slowly.

Media such as the show Stranger Things may be responsible for some of this growth. People who want to play the game but do not know how or do not have people to play with can join in this way.

Even people that are far away can be brought
into the game through the use of streaming.
Erin Harris

"I like live-streams a lot, there's plenty that I do watch. They really have helped the hobby take off. Tons of people who come to this store to play, they've seen Critical Roll," said Joey Castellanos, Heath Springs game master. "I'm glad live-streaming has taken off for Dungeons & Dragons, that it has opened the doors for people to play and see what it's like."

Platforms cater specifically to live-streaming are continuing to grow. One result discovered through Google Advanced Search, a website called TechCrunch, showed that in the third quarter of 2017, Twitch had well overtaken YouTube in terms of growth.

"While I don't watch a lot of the streams, I think it's so good for the hobby to just have one of the biggest streaming networks that's competing with cable and YouTube, Twitch, a regular basis where people are going 'I need to be at my computer at this time so I can watch people roll dice and play pretend," said Travis.

Howard Fisher, chairperson of the Department of Communication at the University of Scranton, had some thoughts on this as well.

"I’ve even seen on social media that there are online-only groups where people from all over the country/world can get together and play a board game on the computer.  I haven’t joined one of those or watched it played, but I think that’s a wonderfully creative way of getting people together," Fisher said. "Anything that can broaden the fan-base is probably better in the long run."

Information found on https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/30/twitchs-concurrent-streamers-grew-67-in-q3-as-youtube-gaming-declined/