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by artfulhippo 1681 days ago
I think there's a big gender and culture gap in the VR/AR debate.

People who place significant value in their physical appearance (eg most young women) are not in a rush to replace their bodies with an avatar. And we know that men go where the young women are....

Now, can Facebook or Microsoft succeed by serving the fantasies of nerds like us who read sci-fi as a kid? Of course. But Apple is still in pole position given that they are targeting the mass consumer market, not a niche.
2 comments
uyt 1681 days ago
There's actually a current trend called "vtubing" where streamers use a virtual avatar, typically in anime style. Afaict, it's entirely dominated by women streamers (which is the opposite of the regular streaming, where the top earning streamers are all men). See https://playboard.co/en/youtube-ranking/most-superchatted-al...
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artfulhippo 1681 days ago
Interesting, and news to me, thanks. Is this a business for these streamers, a way to make money from male fans? Or are girls using an anime avatar just to hang out with their friends?
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kipchak 1681 days ago
It's fairly big business, at least for the larger agencies like hololive. It's somewhere in between streamers and Idols. There's character goods and YouTube ad revenue but I think most of their income is through Twitch subscriptions and the like.
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whywhywhywhy 1681 days ago
>Or are girls using an anime avatar just to hang out with their friends?

VRChat is the place for that.

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itsoktocry 1681 days ago
>People who place significant value in their physical appearance (eg most young women) are not in a rush to replace their bodies with an avatar.

This seems backwards. Wouldn't being image conscious make you more likely to want to replace your real-life self with a perfectly shaped avatar?

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artfulhippo 1681 days ago
A "perfectly shaped avatar" could be used by a young woman, or by an old man. So, in a way it's leveling. But that's also what makes it worse for people who are physically attractive.

And what's more, having a "perfectly shaped avatar" means that the avatar designer made a beautiful design. But what many people want is to feel beautiful.

Personally, I'm a rather fashion conscious male, and I have no interest in buying virtual clothes because I like to wear nice clothes, not just be seen in them.

It's the difference between experiencing something and having a reputation for it.

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