After a long time of teasing a face reveal, Dream finally showed his real face to fans for the first time, but the mixed reaction he received is indicative of the strange, parasocial relationship players and content creators have. While Dream might be among the largestTwitchcreators to have been anonymous before removing the smiling mask, he’s not alone as many other creators face a similar predicament. From other faceless content creators like Corpse Husband or SwaggerSouls to the emergent Vtuber trend popular onTwitch, the gaming community is immersed in anonymity.
The borderline obsession with these anonymous creators' identities has led to an unusual situation whereby fans can draw close to the point ofharassing or stalking their favorite Twitch creatorswhile the creators themselves are forced to decide whether to reveal themselves or not and what impact that might have on their lives or content. Each content creator has a different approach to why they choose to remain anonymous or faceless, with attitudes ranging from retaining everyday anonymity to those who court fans' obsessions to generate engagement, but ultimately it establishes an odd relationship between faceless creators and audiences.
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Exploring Faceless Creators and Their Audiences
Though it’s not unusual for people to want to remain anonymous online, a hyper-fixation emerges within an audience when it comes to the real-life identities of their favorite content creators. In the instance of Dream, his real identity had become so highly anticipated thatDream’s face reveal attracted 1.5 million viewers. But the desire to see the face of a content creator isn’t what initially drives people to congregate around these figures, as first they are drawn in by the content they produce, and only then do they become obsessed with their face reveals.
There are many content creators who start out producing content without revealing their face, usually informed by a desire to remain anonymous while others would rather their personal appearance not be the focus of their content.Pokimane has expressed wanting to be faceless, for example, after citing concerns about audiences' intrusion into her personal life, and in fact, this outlines the core contention around content creators trying to separate their personal lives from their online persona. Much like with celebrity culture, these creators face the same issues of being exposed to audiences but on a more direct level.
Ultimately, many faceless content creators eventually give in to fan demand and reveal their faces, with some even making a spectacle out of the reveal such as Dream or SwaggerSouls. But others still resist, likely because they want to retain anonymity, so the challenge then becomes managing fans' expectations as the face reveal becomes increasingly hyped. For instance,Corpse Husband has spoken on his own anonymitypointing out that fans are only likely to be disappointed should he reveal his face, citing the obsessive comments he’s seen regarding it. Much like the unkind comments Dream received regarding his own face, Corpse Husband and others like him are probably right.
However, given the nature of how fans behave not just with online creators but with real-life individuals as well, there will always be a fraction of audiences who take things too far or get too involved. With the parasocial nature of online content though, these issues are likely only to intensify, which creates a lose-lose situation. Either these creators remain anonymous riskingaccidental face reveals like Anomaly’sor TheOneManny’s or fans sleuthing their identities and getting exposed without their consent, or they reveal themselves but face the disappointment of theirTwitchaudiences.
