Discord vs Twitch
Gaming industry has skyrocketed because of the pandemic. Advancements that improved in the gaming industry have given them millions of users. The online gaming industry is growing leaps and bounds which is not only benefiting the global giants who are taking advantage of a plethora of opportunities in the sector but also, the startup gaming developers. The booming online gaming industry is a mutually beneficial ecosystem for entrepreneurs, players and gaming developers, providing them opportunities to satiate their lucrative appetite for online gaming. Further, the proliferation of smartphones is a significant contributor to the swift growth of the industry. Now more than ever, gamers have turned their obsession into a profession because of the lockdown. Before I discuss the future of online gaming, I want to touch base on 3 online gaming trends of 2021.
The trends are online gaming turning regular gamers into professional gamers, A rise of e-sports, and inclusion of interactive games. While most people play video games for fun, some people have adopted this as a profession. It is not only one of the fastest growing markets in India, but also a popular career option for talented young minds. From game art professionals to game animation, game testing and professional gamers, there are huge career opportunities that are set to influence the online gaming industry in 2021 (Entrepreneur). Another opportunity that the pandemic allows the gaming industry to showcase is the basis of more interactive games. AI generates behaviour, whether it is for NPCs (non-playable characters) or agents in a game. Even the characters learn from the actions of the player and modify their behaviour accordingly. This has triggered the evolvement of gamers who now want a realistic gaming experience and not just excellent graphics. Therefore, we will see game developers develop and create more visually appealing and at the same time more interactive games. In fact, game developers are moving towards designing robust systems within games that can understand speech, noise and other sounds and tweak the game scenario accordingly all with the help of modern techniques such as pattern recognition and reinforcement learning, where the characters within the games self-learn from their actions and evolve accordingly (Entrepreneur). The trends in online gaming reflect what audiences want. In addition to an increased usage of mobile phones for gaming, the rise of e-sports will also influence the kinds of games that developers will create in 2021 and further. E-sports tournaments are already popularizing and gaining the attention of sports enthusiasts. Key performers have developed huge followings on social media and are paid large sums of money. Therefore, we will see more stuff being added to an online sportsbook (Entrepreneur). 
Gaming industry has made some remarkable changes to gaming. Most notably is add live streaming while gaming. Users from all over the world use online gaming and also connect with viewers or other gamers to communicate and participate in gaming. This allows not only viewers and other gamers to hear gamers but also to see as well. Two very popular websites have emerged from the gaming industry to bring you the best of both worlds: gaming and live-streaming. The two websites I will be showcasing are Discord and Twitch. Discord and Twitch do share some similarities but I will also tell you how different they measure. You can decide for yourself which is the better fit for the gaming industry. Before I tell the similarities and differences, I will tell the origin of each and how they work for the benefit of a gamer. First I will discuss Twitch. Twitch is an American video live streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions. In addition, it offers music broadcasts, creative content, and more recently, "in real life" streams. It is operated by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. It was introduced in June 2011 as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform Justin.tv. Content on the site can be viewed either live or via video on demand (Twitch Wiki). Twitch's target audience on Twitch's website shows that 82% of Twitch users are male. Overall, 55% of audience members belong to the age group 18-34. Twitch requires users to be at least 13 years old to create an account. 21.3% users on Twitch watch eSports (Twitch Marketing). The way Twitch is set is a display of the gamer, a webcam, a chat box, and all you need to know about the gamer such as their name which they may or may not use their real name. Mostly an username, who watches live and how many views the video is at. Although the central part of Twitch is video games it also takes part in other live streams that don't involve video games. Now I have given a little background on what Twitch is, progressing forward to Discord.
Discord is a VoIP, instant messaging and digital distribution platform designed for creating communities. Users communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers". Servers are a collection of persistent chat rooms and voice chat channels. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, iPadOS, Linux, and in web browsers. As of December 2020, the service has over 140 million monthly active users (Discord Wiki).Discord mostly broadcast users that use PC games. Discord lets friends chat with each other either one-to-one or as a group via a server. You can use it to send direct messages to friends, have video calls with them, voice chat and even screen share. Once you're on a server, you can join a voice chat channel to get talking to other gamers playing specific games. I have described both platforms and how they contribute to the gaming industry.
Let's take a look at how they match and who comes out on top as a pillar for the gaming industry. Starting with the display of Twitch and Discord and how its design fits the pattern of users. Discord is more focused on keeping you updated with your friends and what they are doing on different servers and channels. It acts as a hub making it easy to begin chatting with friends who are part of different channels, servers, and even platforms. Discord is built for something more than a chat client for gamers. You can create a server and then create channels for different niche topics with members participating in the discussions. On the other hand, gamers use Twitch to live stream their gameplay, interact with the audience, and then some more. If talking the design, consistent, and easy to navigate, then it goes to Twitch. 
When showcasing profit, Discord doesn't offer any money when including your live streams just to enjoy the company of others. Twitch on the other hand allows users to make money by their live streams when a person subscribes to their channel. Also advertising plays a part in the money-making process. Users associate themselves with ads and earn money. The big difference comes from the features that each platform possesses. Discord has channels that house themselves neatly under servers. Think of each server as a massive building and channels as the rooms in that building. That makes it extremely easy for users to get the lay of the land. Taking a leaf out of Discord's design, Twitch recently launched Rooms (channels) that you can set to either private or public. You can discuss anything with fans and users here. In Discord, you can create a private channel inside a server by changing its Permission settings and assigning roles to users. Both Twitch and Discord support voice and video calls. However, Twitch mobile apps don’t support that feature at the moment. It's only available on web and desktop apps.
Considering how most people would rather use mobile apps for making calls, Twitch should take care of it (Guiding tech). When taking a look at the features Discord has it's mildly leading with that segment alone. Online gaming platforms need to own just about the latest feature for gaming to satisfy the customer. Discord is taking initiative on that. Overall just giving a general rating and which I would have to choose based on my opinion would be Twitch. Discord is more of a community of people with levels of servers. Discord only focus is not just gaming but other topics of channels such as entertainment, popular culture, food and more. Twitch has other streams too, put gaming streams at the source of its brand. Also like the fact that you can earn money just by playing games and people watch you and subscribe. Discord is suitable for most with the features and channels it offers. Twitch takes the cake for me in the online gaming industry.
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