Why NPC streamers are trending on TikTok Live

On TikTok, life really is a simulation. Look no further than the NPC trend going viral on TikTok Live.

TikTok creators have been taking to the app's Live feature to mimic NPCs or "non-playable characters": the characters in video games that have been pre-programmed and cannot be controlled by players.

Take PinkyDoll, a TikToker with skyrocketing views, who is now known for her NPC streaming performances on the app. Often using the catchphrases, "Ice cream so good" and "Yes, yes, yes!", there is a meticulously curated, eerily lifeless repetition to PinkyDoll's movements and glitching words, much like NPCs might do awaiting interaction in a game. Often, her character does randomly nonsensical things like using a hair straightener to heat popcorn kernels.

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Needless to say, the internet has become equally mesmerized and confused by these videos. It's almost like cosplay, as the New York Times' Madison Malone Kircher writes in a profile of PinkyDoll. The 27-year-old Montreal resident, whose real name is Fedha Sinon, told the NYTthat she started streaming on TikTok as a way to make money.

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And it turns out PinkyDoll's streams, and those of other NPC performing creators, have paid off, thanks to a TikTok Live feature that allows users to pass on "gifts" that turn into monetary rewards.

TikTok users can send these little virtual coins — which come in various forms including dinosaurs, ice cream cones, and roses – to creators while watching livestreams, and they can be redeemed for payment. One TikTok coin is worth around $0.01. PinkyDoll reportedly makes anything from $2,000 to 3,000 per stream, and counts Timbaland as one of her biggest supporters.

Creator natuecoco, who boasts 1.5 million followers on TikTok, has been credited with starting the NPC performance trend. There are other streamers, like Jay Monique and Regena, each with hundreds and thousands of followers, who have jumped onto the trend since PinkyDoll's recent rise. Both released videos discussing PinkyDoll's virality but have since have decided to give it a try on their own accounts, largely because of the money PinkyDoll reined in.

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While NPC has now been transformed by creators into a trend, the term has gone through a history of its own. In 2018, for example, 4chan and Reddit boards were flooded with the use of "NPC" as a right-wing slur for liberals. On Twitter, too, hundreds of accounts were banned for posing as NPCs and liberal activists, creating fake content.

The TikTok trend has so far escaped any kind of large controversy, but it may illustrate a growing desire for relatively mindless content. The creators cosplaying as NPCs are almost AI-like, and watching the videos feels like a concrete shift from reality. But as PinkyDoll told Vice, she doesn't care what people think. TikTok loves her.