aka digital twining
VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
21–30 of 114 posts
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#22The latest and greatest method of exploiting and monetizing the male loneliness epidemic.
Are VTubers mostly attractive looking female characters?
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#23The first time I encountered VTubing, I thought the point was just to hide your face, for various reasons. Being sensitive about your looks, not wanting to attract stalkers, whatever. But there's apparently a lot more to it; I was surprised.
That's what many western VTubers don't get, they see it as an "avatar" for themselves which is not what VTubing is. It's supposed to be a completely different persona with no connection to your real identity. It completely dilluted (and I would say even ruined) VTubing in the west.
Maybe they do get it, but are choosing to lean more into the authenticity angle. An art form, a medium, evolves when new cultures and sub-cultures take it up and add their own stuff, both the creator and the audience.
Maybe from their perspective they're correctly doing it their way, instead of, as in your perspective, failing to do it your way.
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#24I think this can be very fun, practical amd enjoyable approach for teaching and sharing online techical contents especially presenting to the younger generations, but focusing on the non-AI generated contents. It can be a very good trade-off between the sloppy AI and the boring lectures. I can see myself doing this in the future, but why they need agents for VTubing, is it because of VTubing platform, marketing/promo…
Marketing and promotion, some level of organization involved (coordinating streams with collaborators etc) and merch deals, I think?
Not all of them need it - plenty of full independents out there. But even some small ones group together to hire a manager and form a little "network" I think.
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#25Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#26The first time I encountered VTubing, I thought the point was just to hide your face, for various reasons. Being sensitive about your looks, not wanting to attract stalkers, whatever. But there's apparently a lot more to it; I was surprised.
That's what many western VTubers don't get, they see it as an "avatar" for themselves which is not what VTubing is. It's supposed to be a completely different persona with no connection to your real identity. It completely dilluted (and I would say even ruined) VTubing in the west.
Supposed by whom?
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#27I think this can be very fun, practical amd enjoyable approach for teaching and sharing online techical contents especially presenting to the younger generations, but focusing on the non-AI generated contents. It can be a very good trade-off between the sloppy AI and the boring lectures. I can see myself doing this in the future, but why they need agents for VTubing, is it because of VTubing platform, marketing/promo…
Agencies are helpful for the tech and business side, sure, but as the article mentions, the indie scene has exploded. Plenty of creators are putting out high-quality stuff entirely on their own [1].
So, nothing is stopping you from giving it a shot. People are already looking into using VTubing for education, too. [2]
Moreover, these days as more people experiment with real-world integration and interactive setups, the traditional constraints of being a VTuber are really starting to disappear.
[1]: https://www.moguravr.com/pq-vtuber-live-review/ (ja) [2]: https://steam-library-gov.note.jp/n/nd0907ba91174 (ja)
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#28The two largest vtuber agencies/companies are publicly traded in Japan. https://finance.yahoo.co.jp/quote/5253.T?term=2y https://finance.yahoo.co.jp/quote/5032.T?term=2y The stock prices are not great all things considered- I think that the vtuber audience needs something new/different to broaden beyond it's current market base AND I think investors would rather put money into AI related stocks than IP/vtuber related…
> The two largest vtuber agencies/companies are publicly traded in Japan.
Which makes their popularity as organic as the explosion of the K-Pop mania.
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#29Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#30The last section should have been titled “Why Do People Watch It?” because I finished the article still wondering.