Creating "Careers for virtual hospitality industry workers" - Our statement as a virtual hospitality service provider after 2 Years of Operation

[Translated by Google]

Overview

On July 29, 2022, the VR sex shop X-Oasis, developed and operated by Phantom Communications Inc., celebrated its 2nd anniversary.
This time, as a system developer and operator of virtual hospitality services, which is one of only a few companies in Japan, we are actively participating in "various NPOs promoting the diversity of virtual work" (NPO Virtual Rights, etc.). To go.

The purpose is to deepen discussions on the rights of virtual customer service workers, career development, and how contracts should be for both current laws and future prospects, and to provide feedback on frontline examples. I'm here.

For the future where virtual customer service will become a sustainable way of working, we will actively increase opportunities to speak out.

In this note, "virtual customer service worker" is defined as "a person who engages in work that performs customer service mainly through avatars".

About what we think should be fed back from the current stage

I myself, the president who has been involved from the start-up stage, conducts economic activities using my own avatar as an activist, and currently interacts with customers as a virtual prostitute.

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Tweets by vxtuberkarin

From both sides of the experience as a provider of the virtual hospitality industry and as an activist myself, deepen the discussion on the following two points, face the employment problems that may occur to virtual hospitality industry workers, and work including sharing know-how. I think that we should work to create a flow that realizes the maintenance of the form.

How to work to brand and IP yourself and your avatar

About Employment Forms in Platform Independent Avatar

How to work to brand and IP yourself and your avatar
Presenting yourself and working in a way that is not connected to your real name or career has so far been done only in special worlds such as the entertainment world.
However, due to the spread of the Internet and SNS, and other changes in the times, it has gradually become a reality in our daily lives to use our skills to produce a name or brand that is different from the real thing. is on the rise. The way of working to create a brand by combining character traits and deliverables, such as literary work using pseudonyms and icons, is not extremely new. In this trend, we are living in an era where we can wear 3D avatars ourselves in VR space and share their actions, not just names and icons. Today, a virtual customer service industry has been born, centered on "customer service by yourself, which is different from real life".

One of the strengths of the virtual customer service industry is that customers can be served in a realistic 3D space using situations and avatars that do not exist in reality.
In order to take advantage of that strength, workers in the virtual customer service industry often work by turning themselves into characters or avatars that are different from the real world due to their characteristics.
We believe that this way of working is not only an act of expression, but also functions as a solution to the accessibility of employment and regional disparities while making use of the person's real customer service skills, and has great potential.

On the other hand, as a realistic job, there are still some issues to be solved in order to build a long career without worry.

With the termination of the contract, the company retains the IP of the character you played, and as a result, there is a risk of losing the name and appearance associated with your own work.

In order to maintain character, it may be difficult to announce your own activity results as a career depending on the contract type.

If the contracted platform uses a character makeup service, etc., it will be impossible for the contracted company to control the existence of data and copyrights for appearance etc.

These challenges show that one's own career as a hospitality provider is completely dependent on the contracted company, and it is side by side with the risk of being easily left alone.

Among similar industries, if the business model is one-to-many, such as VTuber, and a large amount of money can be distributed in a short period of time, these contracts have issues, but the risk and return are realistic for both sides. There is a possibility.

However, for virtual hospitality workers who work in a one-to-one customer service industry with an hourly concept of physical customer service time, such a contract form may be a negative factor for long-term contracts.

Therefore, the VR sex shop X-Oasis adopts a mechanism in which the virtual customer service workers themselves own IPs and avatars.

We would like to support the population of employees who support the virtual customer service industry in the future by developing an environment where such business models can spread and discuss.

Handling of platform-independent avatars and IPs

In order to solve the problems of avatars and IPs that we raised concerns about in the previous section, both virtual service providers and platform providers need to be aware of the handling of versatile avatars and IPs from the service design stage. .

Although it is becoming possible for individuals to own 3D avatars, and it is becoming more common for individuals to engage in activities such as VTubers through VRSNS and VTuber activities in the first place, there is a need to utilize 3D avatars for business purposes in the long term. We believe that a certain level of standardization is necessary in order to continue to provide value that does not bore users.

The current situation is that the editing and operating costs for 3D avatars are still high.
Therefore, the avatars of virtual customer service workers are often ``avatars focused on specific uses, including costumes from the beginning.'' Even if you have your own character IP, you can Since avatars are only equipped with functions and clothes that focus on specific activities, it is possible that reusability will be practically lost.

For that reason, we will continue to create value in the industry, such as the “VRM avatar that guarantees customizability using VRoid Studio” adopted by X-Oasis, while ensuring the customizability necessary to continue creating value in the industry. The idea of ​​a standard that allows service workers to maintain their own IPs and avatars over the long term is being discussed, and we would like to be the driving force behind the formulation of the de facto standard for the service industry using avatars. I think.

Summary of proposals and reasons for promotion

Based on the above two points, it is possible for virtual customer service workers to retain their own character / avatar IP so that they can make proposals on how to work using avatars as a long-term and concrete career, making use of the advantages of the virtual customer service industry. In addition to accumulating achievements in the field of methods, we would like to disseminate know-how and be involved in the formulation of de facto standards.

With these means and purposes, we will contribute to society through the dissemination of information and membership of various NPOs that promote virtual work styles, and move forward with a policy of actively obtaining social approval. I decided to go.
In addition, since the service we are currently providing is an R-18 service, we will continue to communicate with member companies as the only front-line party regarding issues related to freedom of expression and restrictions on expression. .

I don't think there will be many updates, but if the stage changes or there is progress towards the purpose of this article, I will report it in a Note article.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in supporting our company with their expectations for the virtual hospitality industry.

Phantom Communications Inc. Karin & Dary