Does "Ice Cream, So Good" Mean Anything to You? Inside the Weird and Controversial World of NPC TikT

TikTok LIVE is an unhinged dystopia, one that's house to the NPC streaming sub-genre. So, what is it? Here's why your Twitter timelines are all at once cluttered with robotic, doll-like ladies.

If you imagine the dying hellscape this is Twitter to be your social media platform of selection (aka your most well-liked virtual jail mobile), you most likely do not know a lot about the immersive oddities of TikTok LIVE streaming. Perhaps you Twitter heathens have noticed hilarious LIVE snippets of @_itzpsyiconic_ — identified for enjoying kooky characters like “Devout Christian, Caucasian, heterosexual girl” Terri Joe and her polar opposite cousin, Jeorgia Peach — speaking to A-list celebrities like Doja Cat and Madonna (who might or would possibly not have performed poppers on digital camera).

Or perhaps you noticed pictures of Selena Gomez announcing her February 2023 destroy from social media by the use of TikTok LIVE in the midst of the Hailey Bieber drama that lit up the internet. Said Twitter-viral LIVEs slightly scratch the floor of clock app streaming. In reality, the TikTok LIVE underbelly is a lot more interesting.

A niche corner of TikTok LIVE streaming has finally made its way to Twitter, and other people have questions. If you by no means concept you'd see the day internet customers would pay to watch a phenomenal lady pop single popcorn kernels the use of a hair straightener and repeat nonsensical words like "ice cream, so good" and "pop, amazing," boy do we have information for you!

Let's talk about the rapid ascension of TikTok's @pinkydollreal and the strange, controversial, and unusually profitable world of NPC streaming.

What is NPC streaming on TikTok?

Let's start by way of breaking down TikTok LIVE. Straight from the social media giant's website, TikTok LIVE "allows users and creators to interact in real time. You must be 18 years or older to go LIVE and send and receive Gifts during a LIVE video." TikTok — owned via Chinese tech firm ByteDance Ltd. — additionally stated that "LIVE and Gift functions are currently not available everywhere." The Gift serve as plays a vital function in NPC streaming.

In the gaming group, NPC stands for "non-player character" or "non-playable character." Essentially, NPCs aren't operated by human players and simply exist to provide preset dialogue and catchphrases, give out tasks, and/or fill the game world. Animal Crossing's Blathers, Halo's Cortana, and the infamous Grand Theft Auto sex employees are all thought to be NPCs.

NPCs also are phase of philosopher Nick Bostrom's simulation theory, but we won't open that may of worms.

NPC streamers model their conduct after video game NPCs, ceaselessly performing repetitive, virtually robotic gestures and phrases. Some — like "your very own AI Tamagotchi," @cherrycrush_tv — pull aesthetics, voices, and movements from anime.

As they circulate, those influencers (usually younger women) are apparently devoid of any authentic personality or thought. This is by way of design. NPC streaming is absolutely rooted in efficiency, requiring each improv and performing talents. Unlike Selena Gomez's LIVE audience, NPC circulate audience are not tuning in for a glimpse at humanity or realism.

Québec-based Pinkydoll, who exploded the Twittersphere in July 2023, is understood for her soothing Siri-like voice and hair straightener-popcorn schtick. In exchange for monetary tokens, Pinkydoll repeats odd catchphrases like "got me feeling like a cowgirl," "yes, yes, yes," and "mm, coconut so good," as if she have been programmed to do so. The Daily Dot's Gavia Baker-Whitelaw likened Pinkydoll's behaviors to "Uncanny Valley, but vaguely horny." (More on that later.)

Concerning the "meaning" at the back of Pinkydoll's sayings (which now live rent-free in our heads), Twitter user @alisonjbb tried to ease the confusion.

"She’s doing the sounds of the stickers that are being sent to her live, like that 'ice cream, so good!' because someone sent her an ice cream sticker," she wrote. "They earn money from each sticker sent by viewers."

TikTok LIVE and NPC streaming are riddled with controversy.

This type of monetization has been criticized for its gambling-adjacent nature; BBC News even released a 2019 article titled "TikTok's Young Fans 'Exploited' For Digital Gifts." But this is just one controversy connected to NPC streaming.

Many believe NPC streaming permits viewers/donors to fulfill their regulate kinks, some comparing the influencer style to BestFans and web intercourse paintings. Comedian and journalist Meredith Dietz touched in this in a TikTok video, explaining that "enough people out there have something of a 'control fetish,' and that drives them to donate in exchange for feeling like they're controlling this real human like their own personal video game character."

"So, is that potentially dehumanizing for the creator? Sure, but isn't it dehumanizing to work, like, any corporate job?" she wondered. "There's simply a market for everything. You know people are selling their farts in jars, right?"

That is a cast level. And if you catch us buying mason jars in bulk, mind your corporation.

While the web is brimming with opposing evaluations on/analyses of NPC streaming — some arguing the sub-genre caters to pedophiles and encourages destructive parasocial relationships — many are applauding creators like Pinkydoll for his or her financial genius.

"Oh, y’all turned her UP. Her LIVEs are hitting like 20k to 50k now," Twitter user @kemimarie wrote. "That’s hella money bro. Congratulations to her!! We love to see it!!!! Get yo bag, sis." It seems ice cream is so good.

See, the more in style a streamer's LIVEs are, the more TikTok will reward them. According to the site, "TikTok awards Diamonds to creators based on the popularity of their content. As a creator, one way you can collect Diamonds is to receive Gifts from viewers on your LIVE videos." Creators then cash in their Diamonds for cash or "virtual items."

Though the TikTok LIVE monetization model is actually contributing to our virtual dystopia (and George Orwell is definitely handing over his grave), we are just happy Pinkydoll and her NPC sisters are pop, pop, popping all the approach to the financial institution. Yes, sure, sure!

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