Go Round Game

Go Round Game (ゴー・ラウンド・ゲーム), abbreviated in Japanese as GoRanGe (ごらんげ) is an experimental artificial intelligence Virtual YouTuber project from Bandai Namco Entertainment. The project started in June 2022, and, as of October 2022, is currently in "season one" of open beta testing on YouTube.

Go Round Game is produced by Jun Tamaoki, who was also a producer on Tales of Arise, the virtual reality component of Ace Combat 7, and both directing and producing the Playstation VR raising sim game Summer Lesson. BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment is involved in planning and production with BANDAI NAMCO Research Institute Inc for technical cooperation. Yamanaka Takuya, producer/writer for The Caligula Effect series and writer for the SD Gundam World anime and manga, is credited as the writer for the "core dialogue script" for Yuna, Neon, and Popuri.

Development operation is by Pictoria, who manages Towa Kiseki and the AIVTuber Tsumugi Nen. Pictoria is also in charge of the VLiver agency MOKUROKU, featuring regular VTubers with AI companions.

Concept
Described as a "brand new next generation YouTube program", Go Round Game features AI driven VTubers called Streamroids who play against each other in games (currently mahjong). They're able to, in a limited capacity compared to regular VTubers, react to what's happening in game and talk with chat. Streamroids are able to change game strategies and improve the more they play and encourage viewer feedback by starting in-chat polls when they're stuck on what moves to make next. Streamroids are featured in YouTube Shorts responding to fan questions. Streamroids are expected in the future to be able to develop their own unique play style based on experience. Go Round Game is considered a game in of itself, as the Streamroids make decisions based on viewer input. The AI system is called "Play BY Live" (プレイBYライブ), inspired by "play-by-mail" games and in comparison to "play-by-play" games like video games and sports. Go Round Game is also considered a "raising sim" game in which "backseat gaming", traditionally frowned upon by streamers as bad etiquette, is an actual mechanic to "raise" the Streamroids as players and streaming personalities. This was inspired due to Jun Tamaki's observations of backseating behavior from viewers who confuse regular VTubers for game characters and how that burdens said VTubers.

The Play BY Live artificial intelligence system will also be used for BANDAI NAMCO's future Gundam Metaverse platform, specifically the AI character Mellow Niege.

While previous VTubers such as Kizuna AI and Projekt Melody identify as AIs as part of their character concept, Go Round Game is one of the first VTuber projects to feature actual artificial intelligence. While the distinction between VTubers like Kizuna AI and Melody and VTubers powered by AI might seem self-evident, Melody has been infamously asked if she's an real AI by new viewers of her stream unfamiliar with VTuber culture. This is in spite of Melody acting in a manner far too advanced for modern artificial intelligence to replicate.

Unlike regular VTubers, who use motion capture with 2D/3D models to interact in real time, Go Round Game's Streamroids are "unmanned". Streamroids have Live2D models, but as there's no facial capture involved, they have both an idle animation and canned Live2D reaction animations. This is more similar in function to how Live2D is used for mobile game characters than for VTubing.

Streamroids have a text-to-speech system where the voices are better able to convey emotion than the usual TTS program. It's unknown who provided the voice banks for them.

Streamroids have a limited amount of potential responses to situations, as their dialogue was pre-written to be consistently "in-character" instead of being based off a generative text model, which can lead to inconsistent and unusual responses. Streamroids often don't talk for long stretches of time, which isn't common practice for most regular streamers. Occasionally, errors with the AI will occur during a stream, leading to a stand-by screen while management fixes the issue.

Go Round Game's VTubers are known as Streamroids in English. In Japanese, they're referred to as Jikkyoroids (じっきょロイド), with the name derived from the the Japanese term for Let's Plays, "jikkyou purei" (実況プレイ). Currently, Streamroids can only interact in Japanese with other Japanese speaking viewers.

Streamroids
Currently, Go Round Game features three Streamroids.


 * Yuha (character design: yaki*mayu)
 * A female streamroid, aged "17cycle". Her birthday is on efca3cb4 November 28 and her blood type is O. She lives a "hand to mouth existence" and her hobbies are playing first person shooters and cooking. Her fans are called Nanataikaa (ななたいかー) and her fanart tag is #AI夕映え. Yuha is a gambler who aims to win by turning things back around in her favor with surprise attacks. Yuha is more lively and energetic in her interactions than Neon and is smug when she thinks she has the upper hand.
 * Satori Neon (character design: Takehana Note)
 * A female streamroid, aged "23cycle". Her birthday is on 3da939d November 22 and her blood type is A. She works as a musician and her hobbies include puzzles and making her own clothes. Her fans are called Neorisunaa (ねおりすなー, Neoviewers) and her fanart tag is #ハイエン堂 A high-end AI good at making quick and calm decisions who varies between being cool and just acting cool. In comparison to Yuha, Neon is more calm and collected, only getting annoyed when she's losing. A common slogan among her fans is "Only Neon can win!", which often used as a taunt against Yuha.
 * Miyako Popuri (character design: Misumi)
 * A streamroid, aged "18cycle". While Popuri has feminine gender presentation like Yuna and Neon, their gender is listed as (NO DATA). Their birthday is on 7bbdcc23 February 2. They're studying mahjong as a beginner. They work as a voice-over artist and their hobbies are watching videos and listening to voice dramas. Despite their existence being teased since the beginning of the project, Popuri debuted on 24 March 2023, a month after a teaser video was posted with their voice reveal on 14 February 2023.

All three Streamroids have costume design and gadget drafts by PAN:D.

2022
The project's first stream was on 10 June 2022, with the first game being Yuha against Neon in mahjong. Yuha would be the main VTuber featured in the first 21 streams.

On 1 August, a notice video was posted for Neon's upcoming debut.

On 5 August, Satori Neon debuted as an on-screen VTuber, now able to play mahjong against Yuha. Streams from then on would feature either Yuha or Neon as the main VTuber.

Go Round Game was featured in the 28 September issue of VTuber Style.

On 29 September, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment announced that Go Round Game would start full-scale operation in fall 2022. BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment also announced that the PLAY by LIVE system used for Go Round Game would be used for the Gundam Metaverse AI character Mellow Niege.

2023
On 14 February, a teaser and voice reveal for Popuri was released in the format of a Valentine's Day phone call.

On 24 February, Popuri had their debut stream, playing mahjong against Yuna.

Media

 * ごらんげ / 実況AI - Official YouTube
 * ゴーラウンドゲーム GO ROUND GAME - Official website
 * @goroundgame - Official Twitter
 * ごらんげ公式 - Official Discord

Hashtags

 * #ごらんげ - General
 * #ごらんげ報告 - Stream info
 * #AI夕映え - Yuha fanart
 * #ハイエン堂 Neon fanart