thoughts on vtubers?

[Amissapanda]

I'm having a GREAT time Vtubing. It's one of the most fun things I've done in years. I get to finally become anime, roleplay a character on the fly (although honestly, I just made her a lot like me, but with a fun background/story to play with), and I can use my art and writing skills in it, as well. I was already a streamer previously too, so it all works together into literally being perfect for me. I'm loving it so much. I've made a lot of friends in the community and it has been a wonderful experience. I'm looking forward to the future.

It was also extremely rewarding to finally make enough money from my own art commissions to get my Live2D model in June. I love it a lot and my model maker and rigger was great to work with.

 

[Tao]

I've seen a few in passing.

On one side, I get some appeal to it, though I imagine not all people are doing it for the reasons that spring to mind. It helps to keep your identity and privacy safe when you're not directly on camera, not to mention for those with anxiety it probably helps a great deal to have that 'barrier' between yourself and the camera.

I'm also not surprised it has blown up as "identity politics" has equally blown up into the mainstream, digital avatars being an easy tool to help people 'be who they are'.

On the other hand, it feels a bit "what's the point?". If I'm watching somebody do a thing, part of the reason is to see their 'in the moment' reaction to it. An avatar, at least as we have now, just can't recreate the small but important nuances that make such a basic thing (reactions) as interesting and entertaining. It just feels more like a step above showing a 'laugh' emoji.

Like, if Cinnamontoastken weasels his way into my automated 'up next' rotation, I don't turn it off because I love Buffpro's joyous laughter and reaction of sheer joy. An avatar would only be able to give an uncanny and sterile recreation of that.

 

[Antonio]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1456022266823774210

Vtuber came out soooo well, can't wait to play new horizons with this!

 

[Lynnatchii]

A big fan of them actually! That's the only thing that's keeping me entertained recently. It's making me want to be a vtuber as well . Of course, the first vtuber that I discovered is Kizuna AI!

 

[ughrora]

I've got opinions about Vtubers. TBH the phenomenon is harmless, but I'm not the biggest fan of how they kind of encourage parasocial relationships with vague facsimiles of actual people. I'm also off-put by the sluggish, almost dazed way most of them are animated and rigged. They look like marionettes being animated on 3/4ths speed. The technology isn't quite there yet to make them feel 'alive'. To me, the typical vtuber animation cycle looks like this:

Mouth flap, mouth flap, bob head. Close eyes, smile. Mouth flap, mouth flap.

That, and the typical goo-goo eyed moeblob style the majority of them are rendered in just doesn't appeal to me. I'm not into cult of personality streamers so it's pretty obvious that this trend isn't for me.

Wow, you put it perfectly; I've been trying to find a way to describe it, and this does it to a T.

I’m gonna be honest I have no idea why anyone would watch them

+ I absolutely despise the ones w forced high pitched voices

Yeaaaaah, the forced high pitched voices, plus the constant screaming and yelling; it's just absolutely irritating.

I'm also just not a huge fan of the waifuism that surrounds it; the community of course encourages it, but it's not healthy at all.

 

[piichinu]

waifuism is a really good word for it^

 

[boring]

I dont necessarily see the appeal but I can't say I have anything against them. A big benefit to it Ive noticed is people want to be on the internet, involved with streaming and such but still want their privacy and this allows for that, which I think is pretty cool.

 

[tomatospooks666]

eh, i don't watch vtubers myself but if it makes people happy then good for them.

 

[Corrie]

Wow, you put it perfectly; I've been trying to find a way to describe it, and this does it to a T.


Yeaaaaah, the forced high pitched voices, plus the constant screaming and yelling; it's just absolutely irritating.

I'm also just not a huge fan of the waifuism that surrounds it; the community of course encourages it, but it's not healthy at all.

The waifu culture overall is not healthy imo. It just comes off as creepy to me. Same goes with the 'best girl' thing.

 

[Envy]

Personally I find them kinda cringe. To each their own, though.

 

[moo_nieu]

i think its neat, but ive never watched any. makes me wonder if ai will stream/entertain in the future (or maybe theres already an ai vtuber?)

was curious so just looked it up and apparently the most popular vtuber is ai. who knew? not me

edit: im confused. now it seems like that headline i saw was misleading and saying the most popular vtuber is ai bc its animation and not a real video of a person but seems to be voiced by a real person so not sure how this is ai unless the persons voice was just recorded saying a ton of words and the ai decides how they form sentences..

edit again: okay super confused now bc apparently she is an ai but it also seems like humans are playing the games and handling other things so not entirely ai??? does anybody know o:

 

[neoratz]

edit again: okay super confused now bc apparently she is an ai but it also seems like humans are playing the games and handling other things so not entirely ai??? does anybody know o:

are you talking about kizuna AI? i'm not very familiar with her, but to my knowledge the whole "artificial intelligence" thing is just apart of the character she's supposed to be! she is still played by a real person. it's like if someone had a dog avatar and claimed to be a dog :P

 

[moo_nieu]

are you talking about kizuna AI? i'm not very familiar with her, but to my knowledge the whole "artificial intelligence" thing is just apart of the character she's supposed to be! she is still played by a real person. it's like if someone had a dog avatar and claimed to be a dog :P

that makes sense, thanks for explaining c:

 

[Zinnia.]

I'm fine with streamers who use animated avatars- it's a cool concept! But how much I like them really depends on the individual streamer and how well put together their content is, so I can't say that I love or hate them as a whole. I've seen a few streamers that can pull it off well like Hackerling, who occasionally uses her model or plays into her character, but she doesn't overdo it and is still being personable. I also like that she mostly uses her model during just singing, piano or chatting segments so that it doesn't distract from the gameplay. I'm not a fan of VTubers that lean really far into anime girl / fantasy roleplay behavior (like Korone or Gura), but I can see why others find it fun.
Anyway- The avatar doesn't make or break the streamer for me, their personality and content does.

 

[Zane]

I didn’t know this was a thing until fairly recently, I try not to be a hater in my daily life so suffice to say it’s not for me. Lol I’ve been shown a few clips of different ones and the weird forced “uwu voice” a lot of them do makes me wanna slamdunk this planet into the trash.

 

[moonbyu]

to be entirely honest, i can't see the appeal. i really don't.

 

[VernalLapin]

I don’t watch any but it’s a great concept. I want a model and rig of my own even if I only use it to rant to myself. I wanna be an anime fairy princess dammit!

 

[rocketspruggs]

I didn't know what this, "VTuber", thing was, so I had to look it up.

It's okay, I guess. The idea of hiding your real face with an avatar is cool.

 

[Kitsuragi]

i don't like them at all and will usually go out of my way to avoid them. there are extremely few streamers i watch that do facecams, jerma is one of the biggest exceptions but i don't like it when a screen is obscured by a camera or anything that isn't relevant to what i'm watching. it's even worse when the v-tuber is crazy bright, intricate design or whatever because it's SO distracting. i also don't like a lot of v-tuber personas so overall it's just a huge no for me.

 

[SkyKnight03]

I had a friend from high school who became a v tuber. Nothing I personally want to watch, but more power to those who enjoy doing it.