To Stream or Not To Stream

Defining The Different Types of Content Creators

Defining Content Creator Categories

If you’re just getting started in gaming for PR and you’re new to the industry, there’ll be a lot of things to learn. You’ll be spending time with developers and publishers but you’ll also be introduced to the wide world of content creators. Today I’m going to go over who content creators are and what they do for gaming.

The three main types of creators in gaming are gaming press & media (journalists), live streamers, and video content creators.

Press/Media

Press and Media in the games industry can be classified as journalists who report on, discuss, and share gaming news by writing articles as well as talking about and creating serialized content for video games. Members of the press can range from editorial media to blog writers, authors, and even podcasters. Press in video games media get their start building a network of contacts in game development and publishing and spend their time reporting the news that they glean from these networks for public consumption.

Some examples of press media include: IGN, GameSpot, Kotaku, and Games Industry.biz. Press and media may often also produce live streams, video content and act as influencers for gaming in many cases, but what sets them apart is their journalistic nature. Press exist mainly to report on and share gaming news, so if you’re a game developer who's got something special cooking, then this is who you want to reach out to first.

Live Streamers

With the rise of social media and video content hosting sites, a new type of content creator was born. Live streamers are a unique breed of entertainer that creates interactive content for viewers looking to do more than just watch news about games. Primarily based on streaming platforms like Twitch, the unique aspect of this type of creator is the ability for viewers and consumers to become directly involved with the content they produce. Through commentary, contests, interactive challenges and more unique interactions, live streamers' content is directly impacted by the audience and community they create.

There are many subcategories of streamers, they include:

Variety Streamers
- Creators who have diverse interests and who have regular streams where they engage with an audience while playing or participating in a large assortment of different games and gaming-related activities.
E-Sports Professionals
- Competitive e-sport athletes who share their gameplay sessions, highlights and general gaming routines with fans, friends and future rivals. You’ll find that they stream competitive gaming content and often participate in tournaments, streamed live for the masses
Influencers/Entertainers
- The famous players of this streaming game. Every once in a while celebrities and recognizable gaming personalities toss their hat into the streaming game and tons of great times are had. Who doesn’t love seeing T-Pain having the time of his life playing Warzone 2.0?

Video Content Creators

Last but not least we have video content creators. Generally described as anyone who primarily produces more scripted & edited video content related to gaming. If you’re looking for more than just news or commentary about your favorite games, look no further than YouTube where you’ll find the birthplace of so many different kinds of gaming content, it would make your head spin.

Video content creators do more than just involve viewers in their content and share gaming news, they create new content by parodying, analyzing or expanding on existing products.

What began with Let’s Play videos that let viewers experience games they didn’t have time to play or couldn’t afford, expanded into reviews and video essays, critiquing and analyzing content. Machinima was born and creators were able to tell new stories based on their favorite franchises. Video game commentary is a common form of content for video game content creators and they are often also known to dabble in streaming and video journalism, the main difference between them and the other categories of content creation is that their focus is often visual and not written.

That being said, that covers all the main types of content creators in gaming. Share this with your friends and let us know if we miss anything!