In the beginning, Twitch was a community of hardcore gamers who liked to watch their friends play. Then Amazon paid $1 billion for it. Soon it started streaming mainstream events, and next week it will end up in the White House, hosting a four-hour gaming marathon to raise awareness about the importance of health insurance.
The White House event, which will take place on Dec. 12 at 4 p.m., marks the first time a US president has hosted a gaming marathon, according to Twitch. It's unclear if President Obama will actually participate, but the Affordable Care Act that he championed is poised to get heaps of praise from hardcore gamers who have extensive Twitch followings.
The idea is simple, according to Twitch Product Marketing Manager Brian Petrocelli: use gaming legends to encourage their legions of fans to sign up for health care.
"We appreciate how the White House has recognized the power and passion of our community," Petrocelli said in a statement. Twitch can offer the President access to the "pulse of the younger generation," he said.
To that end, Twitch has lined up some of its most popular streamers for the upcoming marathon. Their screen names include ActaBunniFooFoo, whose channel has 170,000 followers, and AnneMunition, whose videos have titles like "I don't believe in horses." Never heard of them? Don't worry, Twitch also managed to get Shaquille O'Neal on board.
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Specific events during the streaming marathon will include Rocket League Pro-Am and Street Fighter V matches.
Harnessing Twitch won't be the first time the White House has appealed to the young, geeky Internet technorati. President Obama has appeared on Zach Galifianakis's Between Two Ferns satirical web interview series, and also has a Facebook Messenger bot for people who want to privately message him on the social network.