An Unfortunate Sellout By Niki Nihachu
niki has had a somewhat confusing career progression since the peak of her fame. however, i firmly believe that people can bounce back. she had an unwarranted amount of hate before and had genuinely done nothing to earn it. through the dsmp days, she was what i consider to be a genuine victim of stans.
...and girlll i no longer think that.
quick recap here. she released some merch a little while back that had genuinely jaw dropping ridiculous prices, but now she's one-upping herself. she's taking the captain puffy route.
(a while back, i made a post updating on what captain puffy's up to now. from the looks of it with the suggestive picture on her last paid tier, it's catering to creepy men! here's that post if you need context: https://www.tumblr.com/aereta/791079323613495296?source=share )
i used to be a consistent fan of her after the dsmp era, but she did have a whole lot of hiatuses after the jack thing. that is MORE than understandable. bad breakups suck.
some time passes and sometimes she'd show up on someone's podcast or interview--but she would always regurgitate the same couple stories. while they're meaningful, i didn't really see the point of going onto several podcasts only to repeat things which you talked about in other podcasts.
years have passed. there was a brief period where she would stream to a small audience-- at some points it was more on insta live than anything else-- and it was fine. but then there would be these weird times where she only oriented herself with consistently saying how much she hates some "supporters". that i understand. there's some real weirdos out there.
then she'd make no content, leave, and we would get a "hiiii" months later, a ridiculously expensive merch drop, and then have her go MIA.
not to be that one person that's overly woke, but i think that content creators and viewers should BOTH be respectful, not just the viewers. while it's understandable to see creators leave due to pressure, it takes effort to support. i think it's phony for people to go "oh my goddddd i hateeee my 'fans' ", leave them, and then return for them to fund your lifestyle. the only interactions we would really get aside from far and in between vlog style content would be sponsorships or brand deals which don't exactly contribute anything to the viewers.
i thought that i was being overly critical, so i decided to shelve those feelings for the time being. then i saw THIS
i shouldn't have to be the first one to say this, but if you're aiming to AVOID creeps, parasocial relationships, and market yourself as down to earth, paywalled interaction is BAD. paywalling experiences with fans under the guise of "exclusivity" is handing them a parasocial relationship on a plate. for someone who is very outspoken about bringing up how toxic, artificial, and creepy it is, it's extremely telling to see her turn around and SELL that experience herself. for money. for $5-$75. it's a cash grab!
i can only see this ending as a dumpster fire. her community has improved since the bad days, but there will always be creeps and THOSE will be the people buying that. there may be some people that buy it due to just liking her content in general, but you shouldn't be holding a carrot over your fans like that. my INCREDIBLY COLD TAKE is that i don't think she's ignorant to that-- which means that it was a conscious choice to cater to those overly obsessive people on purpose. for the bag.
respecting the viewers that make an effort to support you seems like the bare minimum to me. to be making exclusive tiers for people to bask in your presence is tacky and egoistical. it's beginning to veer off from "content creator" to "you can't afford me unless you have money" content creator-- oh! but what will be available to you aside from minimal content will be the ability to buy my overpriced merch!
i was THEEE biggest niki supporter but to see her go this low has been incredibly disappointing. if you really wanted to connect with your fans, there's plenty of ways to do that. it's not hard to find a way to make it work out. discords exist. this is a blatant "for profit" interaction bait.
it's difficult to remain down to earth when you're so famous... but come on. this is just getting out of hand. if i see her later complaining about creeps i am just not gonna be able to defend her anymore. wtf r u doing girl 😔
(honestly the beginning of this was a draft from when she first started promoting this. i sorta forgot about it after, but when i saw her promoting her thing AGAIN this week, i just had to finish it)
