I'm always fascinated by how much we, as human beings, have no clue about almost anything in the world.
In “The Island of Knowledge”, Marcelo Gleiser addresses this subject with a beautiful analogy: what we know as humans can be represented by an Island in a big ocean. As we discover new things, our island increases in size. However, discovering a new "piece of land" can sometimes bring more uncharted ocean with it, resetting this cycle/dance between what we know and what we don't know.
I like to think that this not only makes sense at a "species level", but at an individual one as well.
There were things that we as a species didn't even dream as possible that we now recognize as such. I believe that this happens both at a macro and micro scale. Think about it, when was the last time you had one of these experiences, in which you discover something completely new, that is beyond your realm of total comprehension?
When was the last time your personal Island of Knowledge grew, just to find a whole new patch of ocean to explore?
For me it was when I heard about CodeMiko.
“Wanna see me play?”
The video game industry has been steadily growing since 2012.
At this point, its worldwide market value was 70 billion dollars. 8 years later, the market value has more than doubled, reaching 159 billions!
One of the things that helped the industry’s rise was the amount of gameplays and walkthroughs that people posted on YouTube. Ever since I can remember gaming has been part of the YouTube culture. People would post videos playing and commenting on every aspect of the game. It was entertaining and it allowed me (like a lot of other people) to follow the tendencies of the video game industry.
With the advent of such content, a lot of people (like me) didn’t need to actually play most games in order to play a part in video game culture. Instead, we watched someone else play. As gaming youtubers grew in popularity, a question started to formulate in people’s minds: What if, instead of watching the video on YouTube, you could watch it live while your favorite gamer was playing it, accompanying the whole process?
That’s how Twitch was born.
Streaming and Playing
Twitch is a streaming service that allows streaming to a live audience, to whom you can interact with via chat. It started with the rise of popularity in video game streamers and eventually grew into a platform that allows an online connection with content creators such as gamers, musicians, vloggers and models.
Twitch makes its money through ads and subscriptions. As a Streamer you can make money through their Twitch Partnership Program, enabling you to get a cut from the advertisement and subscription revenue, besides receiving donations from people watching while you stream.
Within the first year it attracted 3.2 million users a month and had 2 investment rounds (7M to Justin.tv , the original company, and 15M, already as Twitch, in 2012).
3 years after launching, Google tried to buy the company. However, the deal didn’t come through and, on September 2014, Amazon scooped in, buying it for 970 Million.
Twitch currently gets 140 Million visitors every month and it has an annual revenue of 1.54 billion dollars. Expert Streamers can make on average between 3,000$ and 5,000$ each month, which means there's a lot of people who try to do it professionally with different success rates.
So, why am I giving you all this information about Twitch?
Well, you need it in order to understand why CodeMiko blew my mind. You see, she’s a twitch user, but by no means an ordinary one... She's a V-Tuber.
The rise of V-Tubers
Artificial Intelligence has been developing for years now. Just like with any other technology, people from all around the world try to apply it in different areas. One of those areas was streaming.
People started to design animated 2D virtual avatars, creating a persona that allowed them to create content without being constrained by personal or identity issues.
The term V-Tuber was coined in 2016, when Kizuna AI, considered the first V-Tuber, made her debut on YouTube. There were Q&A videos, vlogging, gaming and, more recently, music videos.
In 2020, there are already 10,000 people making videos as V-Tubers.
I had no idea that this was already a reality. It’s been a while since I’ve followed the streaming and gaming community and I had never realized that we had come to that point in technology. But I was astonished when someone said that there was this one V-Tuber that was taking it to the next level.
CodeMiko
CodeMiko is a character.
A virtual 3D Avatar that interviews people on her Twitch and interacts with the audience.
However, she does it in a 3D world of her own, powered by Unreal Engine, a game engine used by some of the greatest video game companies out there.
She's controlled by its creator, someone called The Technician, who uses advanced technology to give life to Miko. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this video will allow you to understand better than any of my own:
🤯right?
Miko has its own backstory. She’s a failed video game character. Just like a young actress that tries to move into L.A. and take part in show business, Miko has tried to be part of a video game but none would take her, so she started streaming on Twitch. The “virtual world” around her is her “real world” as a character.
But it was The Technician’s story I wanted to understand.
When Covid-19 struck, she got laid off from the animation studio where she worked. On top of it, she was also about to move to Los Angeles. Unemployed, paying a rent of 2000$ a month, she realized something.
Due to the pandemic, the marketplace wouldn’t hire anyone for a long time. And if she wasn’t being hired, she had to hire herself.
In a (now) very smart choice, she decided to invest 20.000$ on a XSens Motion Suit, a computer, an iPhone, a helmet and some software subscriptions in order to create Miko. She used her designer and developer skills to create and animate this persona, as well as the world around her.
Things didn't go that well on her early days. She wasn't making anywhere near enough money to pay all her debt. However, she wasn’t about to go down early in the fight.
She would wake up at 2am to do some game development until 12pm and then stream until 6pm.
Every single day.
Besides being a great developer and someone who wasn’t afraid of hard work, she also actively searched for ways to improve her streams. That’s when she realized one fundamental thing about every human being: We love connection.
Twitch allows you to chat with the streamer but Miko took it to a whole new level when she found a way to actually let viewers change both her aspect and behavior.
In exchange for a couple of Bits, Twitch’s currency, things like making her wear a costume, dance, having a giant head or, one of the most common requests, kill Miko started to be available.
This turned out to be an awesome idea.
My income tripled the day I put in this interaction where the audience could kill me. When I added the nuke and the mute - where the audience could mute me for 30 seconds - I was able to afford my rent and pay off my debt slowly.
She kept growing and growing and, after posting that video of her setup, things went viral.
Since November, Miko has grown from 2000 followers to almost 700,000 making her one of the most popular streamers on Twitch. She even has a team of 5 people working for her to make things easier. All of that in just a couple of months.
That’s awesome and it deserves to be celebrated.
However, I think this is proof of a bigger trend starting to happen online.
Assuming a Pseudonym
Being a content creator is something really hard and puts yourself out in public.
Of course, it comes with its privileges but it’s not burden free.
If you read this newsletter and you liked it, I won some social capital. You’ll look at my emails, remember my name and feel more compelled to open them. Now, since you know who I am and what my projects are, you may extend that social capital to them as well.
However, if you don't like or find it pretty stupid/offensive/etc, you'll also associate that feeling with both myself and my projects, reducing the social capital and jeopardizing my endeavors.
The bigger your audience, the higher the risk and the return of being a public content creator. That’s why people are starting to do what Miko and thousands of others are doing, creating personas for expressing their opinions through content creation,
As Balaji said in his amazing interview with Tim Ferriss, we're moving towards a creator culture that will be full of avatars and pseudonyms. Most people are willing to create a personal brand per se without other projects behind it. They have nothing to lose.
Imagine that I built an audience under a pseudonym. I couldn’t talk about my company because that would reveal who I am. However, if I just wanted to create a personal brand without revealing who I am, a pseudonym is a great idea.
Even though Miko's creator has shown her face, the truth is people don't know her real name and, just like Miko, there are a lot of other creators that you only know by their avatar, not who they really are.
You’ll see a rise on anonymous content creation, for sure.
We're living in a moment in time where people can create 3D characters and interact with others in a fully digital world. I have no idea what the next step will be, but these next couple of years will definitely be fun to watch!
And if this doesn’t excite you, then I don’t know what will.