Boomer

So I didn't quite make it to 2 posts in a week, but I'm still counting this as a victory! In my last post I mentioned that I'll be going back to uni in the new year, and that I wanted to start sharing some of my research here. That might sounds like a strange thing to do, I mean who'd want to read sections from some dusty old dissertation by a stranger on the internet? Hopefully you, internet lurker, as it's about let's plays, online gaming communities, and what people get out of creating content for the internet. It wouldn't exist with out the Rooster Teeth community, so sharing it here feels like it's completing some weird sort of circle! I've been a part of the RT community since 2004 and have been heavily involved in the UK community ever since (Ran or was involved with RTUK 2004-2019, and RTX London Head Guardian 2017-2018 (RIP)). In that time I've seen countless sub-communities emerge and grow, individuals rise to prominence in the community, and watched Rooster Teeth grow from a handful of mates recording in a bedroom to the behemoth that it is today. In all that time and above all else I've been absolutely fascinated by one thing, the community, particularly the people running meetups, creating content, and generally pushing themselves to grow. Why do they do it? Why did I do it? I mean I KNOW why I did it, but I really wanted to understand. So in 2015 I joined the Institute of Creative Technologies at De Montfort Uni, spurred on by Monty Oum passing away (Keep Moving Forward), and I studied MA Creative Technologies. My dissertation aimed to understand the rapidly expanding world of streaming and let's play content creators, and focused on "Value-Generation in the Let's Play Gaming Sub-Culture". I'm happy to say it did quite well (won Best Project 2016); published as an article in the Journal of Creating Value (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2394964318804705); won Best in Track (Consumer Behaviour) at the Academy of Marketing Conference in 2018; turned into a chapter in the book 'Value Construction in the Creative Economy: Negotiating Innovation and Transformation' (Chapter 12: 'Value Transformation: From Online Community to Business Benefit'). The stuff my dissertation was turned into became quite business-focused, which is totally not my intention when I started, but I think it went that way as not many people are researching this stuff...I just wanted to understand the community, my friends...you...me. So that's what I'm doing next. After 16 long and amazing years of running the RTUK event (with the help of some amazing people!) I've "retired". Now I want to improve the real lived experience for community members. With the world as screwed up as it is, I want to help tackle online toxicity, to give people a roadmap to build healthy and sustainable communities...and I'm not doing that by just reading work by OTHER dusty old academics. I want to connect with people, share in their experiences, understand what matters to them most, and ultimately help them come together in a positive way. Speaking of positive, enjoy a few of my favourite photos from RTUK (and one RTX Austin 2011 and RTXatHome)...I've realised I didn't take as many photos as I ought to have! [Photos L-R: RvBUK 2004 [Credit me], RTX Austin 2011 [Credit Dominic Dobrzensky], RTXatHome [Credit Jackie for screenshotting!], RTUK 2014 [Credit unknown], RTUK 2014 [Credit unknown], RvBUK 2013 [Credit Dave Jewitt], RTUK 2017 [Credit me], RvBUK 2012 [Credit unknown]]