Mr Poltroon

Just in case anyone is interested in knowing, the new role I've been given managed to lock my permissions such that I could not see any forums or forum posts; not even the one announcing my change in role. I thought, for moments, that the forum had imploded.

Gura is interesting. There's something to be said about the sheer excitability and "wholesomeness" of mannerisms like repeating random sounds instead of swearing* during panic moments. Furthermore, she frequently plays horror games which always attract people, and adds to that a commentary style that is prone to jinxing and overconfidence. Crafted as it may be, it's the right move to lead to the best situations for both the player and any watchers. Finally she's very good at just chatting. A key element. I think she may have mentioned at some point that she keeps a list of conversation topics to bring up whenever commentary seems to be dying. *As a person, I do not swear in public. Even when reading aloud it is difficult to me. In a strange juxtaposition, I seem to find casual swearing to be hilarious. Even more so with Hololive because of how it contrasts with the image and roleplay that is being put on. There's the reason I end up liking Amelia Watson so much

@Dergonu I seem to recall you might've played that yuri game. Am I misremembering?

The first thing to have in mind is that they're just people, like any streamer you might enjoy watching. If you don't get the appeal of streamers or youtubers at all then that's fine, but you won't get why people like this. The main differences lie in the fact that they're semi-acting (amount depends and varies by person; some do very little besides maintain the pretence of the setting and others go all in into playing a character) and you're looking at anime art rather than people on webcams. Wonderful if one happens to be a misanthropist or or are fond of the models moving about and possibly looking cute. The reason people support them monetarily is likely not much different than why they would do so for other streamers, but it's all played up to emulate a bit of how the idol industry functions with fans supporting the idols, though this varies by vtuber of course. In short, some people enjoy seeing performers or other individuals they admire or simply enjoy achieve success, and their direct support can have a hand in that. The general "nice" feeling of being directly addressed also factors into this when your messages or donations are acknowledged. The voice of the person, uh, varies by person, as one might assume. It's hardly indicative of anything, but some might attempt to emulate voices or speech patterns common in anime, since their fanbase is likely to draw from that pool. I assure you you can easily find many different voices... Naturally... I'd like to know what you mean by the model being janky, and I'd like even more to know which person you saw that gave you this impression. I'm not saying they are not, they may well be and you may consider even the more advanced tech out there right now to be janky. It's subjective, but for the most part the only purpose is obscuring identity and looking cute, which it tends to fulfil. Finally, might I ask what was "sad" about it?

Whoa, happy birthday @Flutterz. Your (now utterly irrelevant!) Gin'iro Haruka playthrough brought me much joy.

First I'll ask why into the trash. Secondly I'll ask why you'd have thought she was Japanese.

*twitches* Wait, this wasn't a very useful reply. My apologies. Feel free to tell me to bugger off and I'll even hide this.

Not to discount your initial premise or the entire post, because I think what I will say won't disprove it or anything, but I'm somewhat willing to bet that the majority of people that read Umineko for the first time do not fit into the pattern you have described. Many, including myself, who are fans of the mystery genre are not actually interested in solving the mysteries. The interest is in having characters be smart and do it all for us so we can be amazed. This particular type of reader is often kicked in the shin by Umineko which does not actually bother to solve its mysteries, and even when it does, it does not do so correctly*. Indeed, the novel itself dedicates many of its scenes to giving the readers clues and trying to get them to actually think and try to solve the mystery. Many of the scenes where meta Battler is alone introspecting or talking with someone else as an aside of the main plot it can often be them encouraging him to try and solve things or explaining why it's not an impossible task. In light of all this, it is very difficult for me to swallow that the novel did not intend to have you read it as a mystery at the start. Thankfully that isn't quite what you said and I ultimately agree that whilst the novel wants you in mystery-solving mode for the tale it wants to tell, that mode isn't the one that'll get you to the truth/meaning/whatever of the scenes. On the topic of my own replay, I leaned heavily into the mystery-solving aspect for my readthrough because I didn't try to solve anything my first way through, and by the end the game does give you the key pieces of info to put things together. Still, most of the more abstract scenes I do "ignore" from a mystery solving perspective even now, choosing to read them purely as character moments. I don't have it in me to try parsing them in any other way. *Which does not matter, because to somebody who isn't solving things, there are a tremendous amount of scenes of "awesome music is playing and this character might be doing something amazing" when they actually are not (Battler's the master nothing-doer while looking awesome). This works to amaze inattentive people anyhow, so Umineko's not so bad even from this perspective.

Hm. Is this the stuff @Dergonu likes?

That is true, I suppose.

Much like yourself, I was interested in Kizuna Ai initially and then quickly fell out of it, not coming back due to the general lack of subs. I found out, however, that there were many nationalities of people doing this sort of thing. Still, too many random ones out there, couldn't really be bothered to venture anywhere. However, last month, during a period of time that I happened to be free, a bunch of people I followed on various social media went up in arms about the "debut" of a bunch of English-speaking V-tubers for Hololive (some sort of mainly Japanese group for V-tubers?). Well, I tuned in, saw some crazy stuff, now I just mostly tune in when it happens to be convenient or I need background noise. It seems I particularly enjoy the contrast between the character they each are attempting to portray and their moments when they slip up or can't be bothered to keep up the character at the time (rage, tired, too casual, too much fun, etc). So my recommendations are, beyond the previously mentioned Gawr Gura, Amelia Watson or any of the other 3 members (which you can easily find if you stumble upon the channels or videos of any of the members, as they link to one another). I'd frankly just watch the content of any that you think you'd be interested in. I believe the "v-tuber hole" everyone speaks of is when you start to become knowledgeable of previous events that get referenced, or memes, or new made up setting details that become inside jokes.

EVN, a term that stands for English Visual Novel, and it refers to Visual Novels that were developed by English-speaking developers. Other similar terms that might be used are OELVN (Originally English Language Visual Novel) or Western VN. Examples consist of Highway Blossoms or Mutiny!!, and, of course, the titles in his Steam Curator page.

Who removed the bloody 'NO' reaction?? Also, hey, Happy Birthday, @babiker, if you're still around and about.

Hm. I'd forgotten by this morning. Thanks.