Digital Commercial Spaces

So, two weeks ago we took a look at some of the digital spaces/communities that I invest quite a bit of time in. Today, we’re gonna look at some commercial spaces that I frequent that revolve around some of my favorite pastimes. There may be some instances where I highlight a company/site more than once, but it’s hard to look at the commercial aspect of the gaming sphere without also touching on some of the titans of the industry. So, without further adieu, let’s dive into it!

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Twitch Prime: Gaming Meets a Mega Corp

Amazon and Twitch are two pretty big players as far as gaming goes. Twitch is a platform that I will be talking about more below. Amazon however, is a bit more complex than you would think. It is a huge company that covers streamed content, world wide shipping, and a successful example of a digital marketplace. But how does it relate to the running theme of this blog? Well video games can be bought on Amazon, so it is at least close to being on topic. More so due to Amazon’s partnership with Twitch. Twitch Prime is an amalgamation between these two juggernauts. Think if these two websites had a kid and that kid had the best of both worlds… Well sort of.

Twitch Prime is a web page that incentivizes joining Amazon Prime, since you’ll get free indie games, and free content for bigger titles, through this membership. Essentially this boils down to getting gamers to get Amazon Prime, as well as getting people who aren’t super into video games into either playing the free games on Twitch Prime, or consuming content on Twitch. This of course is a good example of two companies sharing a digital commercial space. The ui for it is pretty good, and while I don’t have an Amazon Prime account, my dad does, and the newest piece of tech that he uses is well over a decade old, so I do utilize his Amazon account. I may not know whether or not it’s worth it, but you can net around 6 or 7 games a month from it, and possibly get some bonus loot for games that you already play.

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Twitch: Where Gaming and Content Creation Meet

Now to move on to Twitch. Here’s a quick TL:DR of Twitch in case you aren’t familiar with it. It is essentially youtube live. Content creators go on this site to stream themselves live to their audience. This takes a very different kind of personality than Youtube content does however. This may have started as a gaming centric site, many people on twitch are more akin to being a personality than they are gamers.

“Where does this turn into a commercial space though?” I hear you, my straw man argument, as I type this article locked in my room like a POW. I was getting there you scumbag, now if you’re done rudely interrupting.

Twitch first and foremost is a place where individuals can monetize themselves and make a decent living from gaining and maintaining a following. They do this by including the option to donate to your favorite creators, as well as subscribing at different tiers to gain a variety of benefits. The site is pretty easy to use and is one of the better sites around for people who want to become active within an online personalities community. They do a great job of this through loud visual graphics, and fun little gifs and animations that play when you sub to a creator, or donate to a creator. This incentivizes continued support and donations for these creators.

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Amazon. There's Nothing Else to This Title. Please Scroll

Now gaming and amazon go hand in hand, but only kinda. Again it is an online marketplace, so we’ll look at it with that lens. Amazon is a pretty solid marketplace, it utilizes graphics and text to draw customers in. It is a pretty good place to get all of the obscure things that you can’t find in actual stores. It fills a couple of niches that other stores simply can’t. You can get groceries, electronics, books, and celebrity autographs, all in one place. It utilizes graphics pretty effectively as well as general visual information that accurately portrays most of their products.

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Origin: AKA Steam Lite

Origin is a bit of a mess. Most gamers see this and immediately cringe. Sure EA is known for being money hungry, but you would think that would motivate them to make a good and hospitable online marketplace. You would be wrong. This page is not so great, they have an extremely limited selection, and have a pretty bad UI. This is definitely one of the worst websites that I have been to. I only use this launcher when a game on Steam requires it. That being said, I have had to buy a game or two on this site, back when Origin was trying to be a competitor to Steam. The purchasing process was clunky, and the only real benefit to using this site is if you use their EA Play Pro membership. It gives you access to all of their games for a small monthly fee. It's alright, but still better to just go through Steam and buy the few that are worth playing.

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