Jotaro Tasaki, Hendrik Engelbrecgt, Ryosuke Yamanishi: A Study on the Application of Speech Processing for Evaluating Engagement in Game-Streaming, The 2024 Technologies and Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference, 2024 (to appear)

Game streaming has become global entertainment, offering viewers a combination of gameplay observation and parasocial interaction that transcends borders. This paper explores the multifaceted aspects of engagement in game streaming across language barriers as part of a bigger project that explores the utility of automatic speech translation for game streams. A comprehensive framework that categorizes streaming elements into game and non-game content examines how these elements enable viewer engagement. We delve into the social dimensions of streaming, where both linguistic and non-linguistic interactions build parasocial relationships. Our study utilizes an experimental approach to isolate the impact of linguistic and non-linguistic elements in streams. We conducted an experiment with 1,236 participants who were exposed to game streams with modified auditory and textual components to isolate the effects of non-linguistic cues on engagement. Our findings suggested that non-linguistic elements did not significantly influence viewer engagement. This paper contributes to offering a vision for understanding digital spectatorship and interaction in game streaming. Future insights are presented that could help global engagement in streaming.