>>25265785The funny thing is that setting aside the theme of the voicepack or whether anyone actually wants to listen to it, sales of this type of product inherently depend entirely on a good parasocial relationship because they are utterly effortless to pirate. Similar to companies which pride themselves on not putting DRM into their product; the idea that because such a good parasocial relationship has been fostered with the company, and the customer trusts that money to be put to good use in the future, they will purchase the product even though they could otherwise obtain it through other avenues.
If everyone shed all but the last drops of attachment required to keep them even wanting to consume a vtuber's content, you'll be looking at member streams getting restreamed right as they are happening, everyone getting your digital goods from torrents instead of buying them, and people, if they even buy any at all, turning to 3rd-party ripoff goods which are definitely cheaper, ship faster, and might even just simply be better or more useful. Certainly most birthday merch isn't anything to write home about.
I think many newer vtubers, indie or otherwise, who rail against the nature of the streamer-viewer relationship just take for granted how much of the 'established' vtubing business model they mindlessly copy rests on illogical fan goodwill and 'parasociality', with no effective enforcement mechanisms to sustain it if that disappears.
