Persona Studies (Mar 2021)
Evolution of the YouTube personas related to survival horror games
Abstract
The rise of some of the most famous game streamers on YouTube is strictly related to some indie survival horror games, especially Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games, 2010), Slender: The Eight Pages (Parsec Productions, 2012) and Five Nights at Freddy’s (Scott Cawthon, 2014). Games like these – strongly focused on jumpscares and defenceless protagonists – are suitable for supporting displays of overacted emotional reactions, thus for youtubers, whom they can help to build their online personas in a certain way (for example, by insisting on screaming, swearing and giving nicknames to enemies). This paper retraces the evolution of the relationship between in-game characters and gameplay mechanics on the one hand and YouTube personas on the other, showing how they have influenced the youtubers’ activity over the years. Specifically, the analysis identifies three groups of videos (sometimes from a single YouTube channel): “Let’s play” videos, animated fanvids, and “creepypasta” stories.
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