Who Owns the Worm? Authorship Collapse in Viral Digital Models

Virtual reality (VR) characters are increasingly popular, yet they are often treated as singular personas despite being produced through the labor of multiple creators. While prior research has examined how virtual characters engage audiences, less attention has been paid to how creative labor is distributed and obscured between those who design virtual models and those who perform through them. To address this gap, we present a case study of Marcus the Worm, a VR character whose popularity highlights tensions between technical creators and on-screen performers. Drawing on community analysis, we examine how audiences attribute authorship and authenticity primarily to the actors who animate Marcus, while the modeler who constructed the character is pushed to the periphery. Our findings reveal “authorship collapse,” where multiple creative roles are flattened into a single visible identity. This dynamic shapes audience perceptions of creativity, ownership, and value, reinforcing unequal recognition within VR production ecosystems.