Avatar, Community, and lore:

An exploratory study of independent VTubers

Abstract

The use of digital avatars in live streaming, called VTubing, has seen a steady rise over the past 5 years. The increase in VTubing has had transformational effects on streaming as a practice, and on game culture in a larger sense. Previous work on VTubing indicates that the creation of the digital avatar is a central aspect of the practice. This work also indicates that the presence of the avatar is a major draw to performers and viewers, and changes perceptions of the stream for both. However much present work focuses on larger audience VTubers, or those who are backed by a studio. This work investigates a question and answer forum for VTubers to understand their perception of the practice in terms of day-to-day requests for information and advice. It contributes a framework of VTubing as a practice that can be built upon in future theoretical work within this domain.