>>102555454i can understand where you're coming from but i disagree. no one is forcing anyone to spend money. look at it from their point of view: you want to start streaming and potentially turn it into a job as content creation is a passion of yours. maybe its the social aspect of streaming because you're shy, a bit of a shut in, and dont really have many irl friends post highschool. maybe you have a lot of health problems and cant really go out often. maybe you really want to get into video or music creation. maybe you just really enjoy vtubers in general and want to be one for yourself. theres a ton of innocent reasons of why someone might want to get into it. vtubing/streaming is something that costs a lot of money and costs an excessive amount of time if you want to be good at it.
from here you have two options:
1) be 100% yourself and open about your life. pro is you're "authentic" con is this will open you up to stalkers and kill any real chance of gaining a following.
2) play a character to an extent and separate your real life from your persona. pro is high growth potential and decent security. con is you will attract some people who are weird and think you owe it to them to be their wife or gf.
theres pretty much zero reason go with option 1 and the industry itself more or less demands it because its roots are in the cancerous jp idol culture. no one is making people spend money. no one is telling the fans the talent will date them. there are plenty of people who buy merch or occasionally drop large donations who arent playing gf simulator or expecting dates or relationship in return. i will agree that a majority of the people who do drop insane amounts of cash are these people, but this is also why most vtubers really dislike vtuber fans.
