The new trend on TikTok? Internet users imitating NPCs, or video game characters with scripted behaviours. — AP
Internet users acting like robots during TikTok livestreams is the social network's latest craze. Repeating words, gestures and noises, these creators are making what's known as NPC content, taking its name from video game characters that aren’t controlled by players. The result is fascinating for its hypnotic quality as well as for its absurdity. What's even weirder is that it enables influencers to make money.
They moan, hop or repeat gestures or scripted words and phrases like "bang bang" or "ice cream, so good" during TikTok livestreams. But these are not robots. They're women imitating video game characters known as NPCs or non-playable characters.
These computer-controlled video game characters have inspired a wacky phenomenon that's gaining momentum on the web. On TikTok, the hashtag #NPC now has over nine billion views. And by behaving like programmed characters, these influencers – mainly women – can earn money, lots of money.
And it's all thanks to Internet users who buy virtual currency in the form of stickers, which they then send directly to influencers. This TikTok feature, called "tipping," allows users to receive payment in the form of ice cream, rose or heart icons. Each icon corresponds to a different amount, ranging from a few cents to several dollars. Virtual tips are then collected by the content creator and deposited into their personal bank account. Each item that users can send corresponds to a specific phrase or action that the NPC creator then executes on the spot, like a cartoon character. For example, when she receives an ice cream sticker, she says "ice cream so good."
One of the best-known NPC content creators is Pinkydoll, whose real name is Fedha Sinon. She is followed by almost 800,000 users on TikTok. Originally from Montreal, the young woman tells Vice that she earns up to US$7,000 (RM31,654) a day from her live broadcasts. She became famous thanks to a viral tweet posted by an Internet user.
Other content creators were quick to pick up on the Pinkydoll concept, including Cherry Crush, Nerdywinter, Ohio Queen and, more recently, Trisha Paytas.
But even if the NPC business is flourishing, the trend isn't to everyone's taste. On social networks, reactions are mixed. On Twitter, some users share their confusion. "Feeling my brain reconfigure after I watch this for the 30th time," tweeted one user in response to a video posted by the famous NPC streamer, Cherry Crush.
Another user comments: "It's hard to watch.” Others, meanwhile, have started making jokes and memes about the trend.
"Me after finding out Pinkydoll makes $2-4k a live," says josephhamir in a TikTok video with 1.4 million likes, in which he imitates typically NPC behaviours. But for some, livestreams like those proposed by Pinkydoll hide a darker reality.
Although NPC livestreams do not contain any sexual content, many people wonder whether this type of content might have a fetishist dimension.
"NPC streaming is literally camming without being explicitly sexual or having to interact with viewers," says one web user on Twitter. Likened to "control fetishism," NPC content is in some ways reminiscent of the "cam girls," who produce sexual content on demand via a webcam, in exchange for money.
However, some of the creators, like Cherry Crush, refute the fetishist nature of their videos. "I don't make my show sexually suggestive at all," she says. "I always thought it was just funny & entertaining," she told the New York Times.
As for Pinkydoll, she says that she doesn't care what people think about her source of income. "I don’t really care what people say about me. If they want to think I am this or that, it’s fine with me. At the end of the day, I’m winning," she told the US newspaper. – AFP Relaxnews
