![]() ![]() ![]() Think of it as a clever form of advertising. What these streams offer is “a sense of being able to control a creator, and we see control become a byword for feeling intimate”, Tran says. Pinkydoll and another trending NPC streamer, Cherry Crush – a wig-wearing, elf-eared creator who barks and makes “nom nom nom” sounds – both maintain OnlyFans accounts with explicit content, but there’s nothing overtly sexual about their NPC streams. NPC streams aren’t just provocative because they violate conversational taboos the most popular streams have an erotic undertone. “These are also self-sexualized creators who built their followings by combining the aesthetics of gamer culture with cam girl influencing.” ![]() “I think the NPC streamer can be understood as the media granddaughter of sorts to the ‘e-girls’ influencers that populated Twitch and TikTok in the early 2020s,” she says. If anything, they’re simply carrying forward a kind of online performance that erotic workers have been honing for years, says Christine Tran, a University of Toronto doctoral researcher of internet culture and digital labor. The concept has also become popular among believers in the theory that we’re all living inside a simulation – like Elon Musk, who tweeted last December: “if you don’t think there’s at least a tiny chance you’re an NPC … you’re an NPC.”Įlon Musk: ‘if you don’t think there’s at least a tiny chance you’re an NPC … you’re an NPC.’ Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reutersīut NPC streamers aren’t explicitly promoting a political message or conspiracy theory. During the Trump presidency, far-right internet users began referring to liberals as “NPCs” – subhuman drones who mindlessly repeat talking points, they argued. It’s also not the first time that the idea of NPCs has entered mainstream cultural discourse. They don’t expect you to cooperate in conversation.” NPCs “don’t behave like ordinary people do, they’re not offended if you make them repeat themselves over and over. Anyone who’s played a role-playing game would get the reference: “They’re picking up on all the ‘uncanny valley’ things about how NPCs behave in video games, all the conversational norms that NPCs violate, and then mimicking that,” says Stephanie Rennick, a University of Glasgow philosopher who has studied video game dialogue. But culture researchers and streamers see layers of meaning in NPC streaming, as another example of the convergence between erotic work and gaming in online culture – one which also reflects our current anxieties over technology.Īt its most basic level, the NPC stream is a kind of an in-joke. It’s as entertaining as it is disorienting. She breaks character to explain in a stage whisper: “I need to take my kid to the specialty dentist and it’s really expensive, OK?” Another comedian puts a children’s sticker on her face every time somebody sends her a gift, until her face is almost entirely covered. One young creator sits in the tub fully clothed in a sombrero, greeting viewers in a robotic voice while feebly splashing water in a loop. Open TikTok now and you’ll find plenty of imitators and parodies, each upping the ante of absurdity. In a full day of NPC streaming, Pinkydoll says she’s netted more than $7,000. The gifts are worth anywhere from half a cent to a few dollars – but with a big audience it adds up. Those phrases are actually her real-time reactions to gifts from her thousands of viewers, who send over digital ice-cream cones, roses, doughnuts and hearts, which pop up as cartoon graphics on the screen. Its most recognizable face is Pinkydoll, a Montreal content creator whose “ice cream so good” clips went viral this week. The trend is called “NPC streaming” – named after the non-playable characters in video games that awkwardly repeat pre-programmed phrases and movements. ![]()
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