The VTuber phenomenon is often framed as escape hatch for streamers who do not prefer to show faces; IMO, it couldn't have worked if audiences found it disappointing - the audiences must prefer the presenter hiding their face than prominently displaying it. I think that's more noteworthy than the person behind it opting to hide their faces.
VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
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Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#32The 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.
You might prefer things to be that way, but it's important to remember that's an absurd expectation. Especially in the west with how frequently vtubers graduate and show up under a different name. Even hololive JP, who push the entire persona thing very hard, have to periodically break immersion and remind fans that there are real people behind the avatar.
The "different persona" stuff is responsible for some of the most serious abuses the industry has surfaced, and the increasing treatment of VTubing as an avatar is a direct consequence of that.
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are VTubers mostly attractive looking female characters?
The extreme majority, yeah. The guys doing it are less popular, although they also have a kind of "anime husband" aesthetic.
> The guys doing it are less popular
I get the impression that a lot of the female characters are dudes.
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#34Strange omission to talk about the general anti-AI sentiment, while not mentioning that the #3 most-watched English VTuber (Neuro-sama) is an LLM – who is actually widely accepted as a "good" use of AI by other VTubers and viewers.
Does anyone actually believe the premise of Neuro-sama that she is an AI? The original premise was that she is a lightweight AI model livecoded on streams, but that is obviously not the case anymore.
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#35I 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…
Some VTubers treat it as a gateway into Japanese idol culture. So being part of an agency helps them with access to resources and opportunities for that sort of thing, e.g. voice acting gigs, appearances at events, planning concerts, recording studios, 3d motion tracking studios and brand sponsorships.
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#36Anyone remember Max Headroom?
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
The extreme majority, yeah. The guys doing it are less popular, although they also have a kind of "anime husband" aesthetic.
> The guys doing it are less popular I get the impression that a lot of the female characters are dudes.
It's quite rare for that to be the case, at least in the English speaking side of the Vtubing world. I can really only think of one example.
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#38Strange omission to talk about the general anti-AI sentiment, while not mentioning that the #3 most-watched English VTuber (Neuro-sama) is an LLM – who is actually widely accepted as a "good" use of AI by other VTubers and viewers.
Does anyone actually believe the premise of Neuro-sama that she is an AI? The original premise was that she is a lightweight AI model livecoded on streams, but that is obviously not the case anymore.
It's certainly possible someone could fake something like that for views, but I'm curious what you consider to be the tells that it's no longer an LLM behind the wheel?
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#39The last section should have been titled “Why Do People Watch It?” because I finished the article still wondering.
I enjoy a handful of streamers for a few reasons:
* I get to experience games I wouldn't normally have time for: I work full time, and as much as I love games and always make time for them, I still have a finite amount of time to make and a solid chunk of that time has to be devoted to multiplayer games, since it's a big part of how I meet my social needs. And even then, some games that are quite fun to watch for me are games I don't necessarily want to play? Like I love watching people play things like Lethal Company, but I don't have a friend-group to play with, so a streamer is great for that. Also horror games usually have really interesting worlds, but uh... I am a chicken shit LOL
* It also broadens the number of games I'm exposed to quite a bit. Many a time I have tuned into a stream, watched it for awhile, and been like "okay this actually looks really good/fun/interesting" and turned off the stream to go buy it on Steam. I've just bought Claire Obscur because I initially thought it was Yet Another Damn JRPG (objective 1: go to class, final objective: kill god) but I was thoroughly incorrect, and corrected by watching some streamers and an essay on it, and I'm really excited to play it now.
* Additionally, a wild third option: sometimes it's nice when working remotely to have a stream on for background noise. It hits your brain in a way that's vaguely similar to hanging out with a friend when you're both doing completely different things and just... existing together. It's completely fake of course, the streamer has no idea who I am, but it doesn't need to make sense to feel nice to my brain.
Re: VTubing: How a Japanese Phenomenon Is Going Worldwide
#40The last section should have been titled “Why Do People Watch It?” because I finished the article still wondering.
That's a bigger question, like why do people watch streamers in the first place. It's not for me personally but it's a huge worldwide multibillion industry so plenty of people enjoy it and / or aspire to be it.