>>104156972
Yeah, you take care of them with an appearance fee. They get paid to hang out at a con, run an event in person and otherwise interact with fans throughout the weekend. Maybe if you are RDJ at Comic Con, you're getting red carpet treatment, a dressing room and a security detail.
The reality of this kind of low skill fully remote job is you're more or less just a body. You're a tele-factory worker. They don't need YOU, they just need someone who can operate the robot to take people's orders in some Japanese tourist cafe. In this case, that's to fill up some dead air in venue space that's already paid for. If she won't take it, presumably someone else will and even if they don't they didn't lose anything.
If I'm being really critical, streamers already have it really fucking good. They already know from their metrics how much they can expect to make every time they click broadcast, from subs and supas and streamalbs and merch which works out better when your character is already designed to be a mascot. Indies even control their IP. People meme about getting paid for exposure, but that's worth its weight in gold when that's literally your job. That's how you get sponsorships and collab opportunities. This isn't your typical artist alley creator who can only do so many commissions at a time. This is someone who, if they run a good event, adds to their viewership which means more revenue from all their streams of income. Another personal anecdote, I attended Smash Con in 2022 when I was on sabbatical and I remember having enough fun at her panel with Bae I made sure to watch every Sana stream until her graduation at the end of the month. Again, compare that to actors who show up to cons for supplemental income between gigs that they only have so much control over, and who don't have as many opportunities to chat with or receive gifts from fans.
So, sorry I can't exactly sympathize with someone who doesn't even have a fraction of the recognition of a BSG supporting cast member not getting a bag for a virtual conference. Again, maybe if she broke the barrier between her flesh persona and her avatar she might be able to command more from an appearance, but wanting both the cloister of anonymity while demanding the same respect as people who have to actually put themselves out there is a little too greedy and too naive for me.