Avatar, Community, and lore

An exploratory study of independent VTubers

Pellicone, Anthony ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9774-2953 (2025) Avatar, Community, and lore. In: DiGRA 2025: Games at the Crossroads, June 30th – July 4th, Malta.

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Abstract / Summary

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.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	VTubing, VTubers, Streaming, Live Streaming, Game Culture
Subjects:	Computing & Data Science
Department:	Games Academy
Depositing User:	Tony Pellicone
Date Deposited:	07 Aug 2025 09:03
Last Modified:	07 Aug 2025 09:03
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/6128

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