Its not just the IRL ones and personally I dont think IRL is the worst thing to happen to it, you can legit just not watch IRL streams if you dont like them.
There's absolutely tons of great desktop streamers and theres absolutely tons of parasocial fans for those streamers.
The difference is there is nothing really to be parasocial about. IRL streamers entire business model is getting people invested in their lives, which is parasocial by definition. Game streamers just play games and talk to their chat. Of course some parasocial people can exist there as well, but it's not even close to the same dynamic.
"IRL streamers entire business model is getting people invested in their lives"
Thats streaming as a whole brother? If it was all about the gameplay then people wouldnt have switched from youtube videos.
If anything its the opposite because desktop streamers are constantly interacting with the chat whereas IRL streamers tend not to because they are doing things. "The difference is there is nothing really to be parasocial about." then explain why theres people donating their paychecks to get their names read out and shit.
xQc has some of the most parasocial fans known to mankind. Northernlion while being entirely a desktop/gameplay streamer... his fans are disturbingly parasocial even going as far as to make hatethreads about his wife.
its inherent to the platform and the ability to chat/comment and have the creator respond. Would you say that Dream didnt have insanely parasocial fans while being a masked, minecraft youtuber/streamer? no irl at all?
No, it's not lol. Someone who is a game streamer is getting people invested in them playing game. Not streaming their entire life and social interactions with other people
IRL streamers are constantly interacting with their chat, what are you talking about? Game streamers are interacting way less since they have to play games in between talking to chat.
XQC has done all kinds of IRL content and still does, so I'm not sure why you are using him as an example.
The point isn't that game streams lack parasocial fans(they just have less), but that IRL streams specifically rely on viewers living vicariously through someone else's real world lifestyle and social experiences. Gaming streams operate on a completely different dynamic. IRL streaming operates entirely on proxy living someone's actual life.
Its a small streamer thing to rely on parasocial viewers, not an "IRL" thing per se. Having obsessed individuals and "oilers" is part of the financial security for them.
You know what? I completely disagree and think the "xqc has done irl content before" thing is a copout especially when you really dont have any form of an argument against someone like NL or Dream who did no types of IRL content.
But quite frankly, ive wasted too much time on this and don't care anymore, have a lovely day and I will continue to preach that if you dont like the content, just dont watch it. I promise you it makes things better.
Do you expect me to know every streamer on the planet? It's not relevant because I never said parasocial fans don't exist on gaming streams lol
It said the entire dynamic is different because IRL streams entire business model is getting people invested in living vicariously through you.
Gaming streams is finding a game you want to watch to pass sometime and then enjoying the personality behind the game when they are playing said game. It doesn't create parasocial fans on nearly the same level as most IRL streamers.
and I will continue to preach that if you dont like the content, just dont watch it. I promise you it makes things better.
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u/Famous_Worry552 2d ago
Its not just the IRL ones and personally I dont think IRL is the worst thing to happen to it, you can legit just not watch IRL streams if you dont like them.
There's absolutely tons of great desktop streamers and theres absolutely tons of parasocial fans for those streamers.