VTubers

⋅

Project 04: Visual Authorship and Space

VTubers use either 2D or 3D virtual avatars while live streaming. The virtual avatars are voiced by online entertainers. Generally, VTubers will not reveal their real faces to viewers. VTubers with 3D images adopt a 3D model and real-time motion capture software or technology to capture their movements. Compared with VTubers with 3D avatars, VTubers with 2D avatars have fewer facial expressions and actions. The software the streamers use would capture their movements into a two- or three-dimensional model. VTubers generally create and portray a character that would give this character a unique background story to attract the audience. In the context of VTubers’ live streaming, VTubers present both the designed persona and the true personality of the real person behind the avatar. Apart from the appearance and character design of VTubers, VTubers’ live streaming content is similar to real-person streamers, such as gaming and singing.
Generation Z is a group that spends much more time on video media than millennials and Gen X. Gen Z refers to people born between 1996 and 2012. According to the McKinsey survey, Gen Z has grown in a world with the internet, and nearly a third of Gen Z in Asia relies more on social media than millennials and Gen X. Thus, considering the uniqueness and novelty of VTubers, Gen Z is the object of this study. There is a lack of research on the factors that would influence the viewers’ parasocial interactions with VTubers, and communication that occurs between VTubers and viewers. Thus, this paper would like to explore the factors that might influence Gen Z viewers’ experience of parasocial interactions with VTubers and to consider what viewers are attracted to in VTuber live streams.

Realization:

I found out influencers who uses virtual avatar can be more representing of themselves somehow. Especially, in the online world, you can be who you want to be without society’s gaze. You can design different elements on the avatar, such as different colours of hair or eyes, wings, and so on, which are really unique appearance compare to the people you’ve seen on the street in daily life. It’s a way to express yourselves. VTubers can use their avatars to attract audiences that have the same mindset as them, and create their own community. It’s a modern way to build connections with people around the world.

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/omgc-2023-0030/html?lang=en#:~:text=In%20the%20context%20of%20VTubers,such%20as%20gaming%20and%20singing
Liked Liked
No Comments