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My impression is that across the board, Japan (and to a similar extent, other East Asian and some Southeast Asian countries) have outsized presence in online creative spaces.

Part of that comes down to sheer numbers, but I feel there’s cultural differences that go into it too. Having lived in Japan I found that relative to the US, the average person is more likely to be decent at drawing/doodling or have interest in other forms of art.

I don’t have any special insight to why that’s true (if my experience is representative of reality — n=1 and all), but my hunch is that it might come down to an overall less self-defeating and more supportive attitude towards self-expression through art… in the US it’s common for people to completely dismiss the possibility that they could ever create anything of value, citing things like lack of talent. There’s also a consistent undercurrent of a disparaging attitude towards artists which also doesn’t help.

With those cultural differences, it’s easy to see why one group could end up with a higher percentage of creators than the other.

On a related note, does anyone have references which would explain VRChat (and the culture around it)? I'm not quite certain if the models are primarily used for comedic effect, role-play, or more of as a 'Ready Player One'-esque alternative identity. I think I know cases for the latter, but I feel like as someone who has never understood VR as a form of self-expression or played VRChat, I feel like I can't have the conversation with them.

Not surprised. 90% of Western VRChat users are furries *and weebs, and 90% of them just want to party. IIRC, a lot of the builders went to NeosVR and Resonite, particularly after the anti-cheat debacle.

V-ket is one of the largest virtual conventions on the platform, hosted out of - wait for it - Japan. (The winter edition is currently on-going, if anyone wants to check it out.)

I'm one of the maintainers of Open Brush (open-source continuation of Google's Tilt Brush) and a huge chunk of our community is in Japan as well as other East Asian countries. The language barrier is really frustrating as I'd love to engage with them more - respond to bug reports, feature requests etc).

(Open Brush can be used to create content for platforms such as VR Chat as well as being a way to create explorable spaces and artworks in it's own right)

what the hell is a 'VRChat creator'? They make VR chats?

Never heard of it. Sounds cool. Is it useful for virtual office setups? With virtual screen sharing, etc.

Unsurprising. They have adopted these personas into the mainstream more than anyone else. Many of these personas also have visual characteristics typical of anime/manga. Anyway, I found it interesting that it's so mainstream that they have a minister in their government who claims to be attracted only to these fictional characters: https://x.com/onoda_kimi/status/1600805415909933056

>「早く結婚を」「子供を産め」 20代の頃から有権者に言われ続けてきたけど40になってもまだこの言葉をぶつけられる事にため息出ますわ。何歳になったら言われずに済むようになるのか。

> 3次元では国と結婚してるし、そもそもプライベートは２次専だって言ってるでしょ！！何度でも言うぞ２次専なの！！

Translated by ChatGPT to be

> “‘Hurry up and get married,’ ‘Have children’— I’ve been told these things by voters ever since my twenties, and even now that I’m 40, I still get these words thrown at me. It just makes me sigh. At what age will people finally stop saying this to me?

> In the 3D world, I’m married to the state, and besides, I’ve said that my private life is strictly 2D-only, right!! I’ll say it as many times as it takes—I’m 2D-only!!”

The Japanese market on Booth also seems to be much more original than the English-speaking market, or at least that's the impression I get from the ten billion English-description avatars out there that are the same "bone white goth girl with a huge chest" templates with different yet basically interchangeable overloads of tattoos and piercings.