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Arguably we've come far enough that people would be fine with the idea of a completely virtual image projected to them. I see it two-folds: - the image influe

Arguably we've come far enough that people would be fine with the idea of a completely virtual image projected to them. I see it two-folds: - the image influencers are projecting is already detached from most people's reality, they know it's faked but accept it as an ideal to tend towards. Just as we all know movies are full of VFX and 1 in a million charismatic actors that are horrible people IRL, but we still aspire to the projected image. - having no human being directly attached to the persona means no scandal, no medical issues, no miserable life lived in the shadow of the spotlight and it's beneficial to both producers and viewers. You'll never have your idol smeared by tabloids because they kicked homeless people.

TeMPOraL 5y ago
RE your second point, I think there will be scandals. They'll just be 100% scripted[0]. If there's one thing we've learned about the Internet over the past 30 years, it's that people crave drama. Owning a few talking heads on YouTube is good, but having them get into fight is even better - you have an excuse for a nearly infinite stream of reaction videos, reaction-to-reaction videos, apology videos, apology-questioning videos, meta-analysis videos, etc. Viewers binge this, and influencers (and their owners) swim in money. -- [0] - Though I think it's safe to assume the big ones today are also scripted. For example, every now and then my wife stumbles on some video from the cosmetics space on YouTube, and holy shit, the makeup-peddling influencers there have been running an ongoing personal drama for some good 3 years now. It will probably last another 3 - viewers seem glued to their seats, and producers just enjoy the viewership and opportunity to peddle some more name-brand makeup.
- makeitdouble 5y ago
  You might be right, drama is core component to entertainment. Hopefully with virtual representation, we'll have more virtual trash talking and less stalking/doxxing/career destruction. We're having a taste of that with vtubers, where there's a lot happening, in particular as the money amount moving around are already pretty big, but comparatively way less dire than with actual idols.
- PoignardAzur 5y ago
  Heh. Reminds me when League of Legends introduced the character Seraphine as the new member of their virtual kpop group, with a whole twitter account about her "daily life" and stuff. I remember reading one reddit comment that went "Can't wait for the moment Seraphine gets canceled for something she said in an interview and has to put out a tearful apology video. Gotta hit those real-life influence milestones!" (of course Seraphine would never actually get canceled; that would require that her writers give her any amount of personality whatsoever)

TeMPOraL 5y ago

RE your second point, I think there will be scandals. They'll just be 100% scripted[0]. If there's one thing we've learned about the Internet over the past 30 years, it's that people crave drama. Owning a few talking heads on YouTube is good, but having them get into fight is even better - you have an excuse for a nearly infinite stream of reaction videos, reaction-to-reaction videos, apology videos, apology-questioning videos, meta-analysis videos, etc. Viewers binge this, and influencers (and their owners) swim in money. -- [0] - Though I think it's safe to assume the big ones today are also scripted. For example, every now and then my wife stumbles on some video from the cosmetics space on YouTube, and holy shit, the makeup-peddling influencers there have been running an ongoing personal drama for some good 3 years now. It will probably last another 3 - viewers seem glued to their seats, and producers just enjoy the viewership and opportunity to peddle some more name-brand makeup.

makeitdouble 5y ago
You might be right, drama is core component to entertainment. Hopefully with virtual representation, we'll have more virtual trash talking and less stalking/doxxing/career destruction. We're having a taste of that with vtubers, where there's a lot happening, in particular as the money amount moving around are already pretty big, but comparatively way less dire than with actual idols.
PoignardAzur 5y ago
Heh. Reminds me when League of Legends introduced the character Seraphine as the new member of their virtual kpop group, with a whole twitter account about her "daily life" and stuff. I remember reading one reddit comment that went "Can't wait for the moment Seraphine gets canceled for something she said in an interview and has to put out a tearful apology video. Gotta hit those real-life influence milestones!" (of course Seraphine would never actually get canceled; that would require that her writers give her any amount of personality whatsoever)