Membership Term: Playby or Faceclaim

[Morrigan 1,826]

Which term do you personally use and prefer to see on roleplay sites?

 

Personally I'm a playby person. It's just the term I sort of grew up on but I'm curious which you prefer.

[Rune 1,099]

I don't think I've ever actually considered a preference... I'm pretty sure I even alternate between which one I use except when talking about our actual claim listing and then it's faces because "face claim" fits in well with "pack claim" etc.

[jenneral_jennson 154]

I use either at any given time. It also depends on where I'm at or who I'm talking to. I tend to use which ever one the other people used to avoid confusion. And yes, I've seen people get confused by it.

[Death Kitten 200]

I had never heard the term faceclaim until I started hanging on forums like this. I don't know that I specifically picked up playby from my years of rp experience either, but it at least matches the mentality I've encountered in star trek rp communities. We see the faces we use like actors taking on the role of our characters, and by extension, the photomanips we do of alien features like special fx makeup.

 

Faceclaim feels like if you're playing monopoly, and you're picking out your playing piece — you have a limited number of options, you normally can't just randomly pick up a random toy to be your piece on the playing board. So while that's probably not how people use the term, and I understand that language grows from common usage, that's what it feels like to me.

[Icewolf 258]

I never really played much attention to it as I tended to look for pictures that fitted in with my characters' personalities and what the person (whether photograph or art) was doing in image. As long as the appearance of the person loosely fitted my characters' descriptions, personalities and what they were doing in a particular story-line, I wasn't bothered much beyond that. It's only with forums that I've started to take notice of it because a lot are picky about people choosing different face-claims/play-bys. To be honest though, I prefer my original method of just choosing an avatar which I think best fits my character(s) unless it happens to be a canon that's had an actor playing them, then I always choose them. I can't shake the feeling that the face-claim/play-by culture in role-play is more about celebrity following than writing. As such, I'd actually be more comfortable using art if I was good at drawing people instead of face-claims and play-bys, but I'm only really good at drawing animals.

[Morrigan 1,826]

Make sure to vote in the poll as that will give me a better idea of something I'm looking to do.

 

I must say that I don't always claim based on faces. Sometimes I choose them based on boobs.

[jenneral_jennson 154]

Boobs is a worthy reason. I've chosen playbys/face claims because of things like that or a flaw I love like a crooked tooth or big nose or lugnut ears.

[Death Kitten 200]

The model I use for Amelia (my character in my user icon) was selected entirely based upon the first picture of her I saw (which I didn't even end up actually using, oddly enough). I'd originally intended for her to be more of a strawberry blonde than a true redhead, but the personality in the picture I found in the image search was just too perfect... so I backwards searched to find out who it was, and I had Amelia's face.

[Uaithne 543]

I use them interchangeably (and seemingly without rhyme or reason), but for the purpose of the poll, I went with "Playby" because if I have to abbreviate it, I always go with PB rather than FC.  FC just looks so weird to me.

[mystical 8]

Same as the player above, they're interchangeable to me. But, something is more 'right' about playby. IDK. Chose playby for the purpose of the poll. 

[Uaithne 543]

1 minute ago, winterphoenix27 said:

Same as the player above, they're interchangeable to me. But, something is more 'right' about playby. IDK. Chose playby for the purpose of the poll. 

 

If I'm analyzing how it might subconsciously affect someone, I agree.  "Playby" sounds more like you're casing someone.  "Bob Bobberson played by Celebrity McCelebrityface!"

 

As opposed to "Face Claim" which, like it sounds, comes across as a little more possessive.  You're claiming somebody's face--stealing it right off their head.

 

It's a thought.  I don't think using either term is wrong, and I certainly don't think that anybody is weird for using "face claim."

[Vermin 3]

Like most replies so far, I use both terms interchangeably. I chose 'face claim' in the poll since that's what I use on my site, and I feel that if you do have a claims list for faces, is more intuitive than playby. 

 

Weirdly enough though I just realized reading this thread that I'd also rather use the abbreviation 'PB' than 'FC'. Maybe a subconscious connection to PB being used as the German abbreviation for 'avatar' sometimes? Or 'FC' usually having to do with football.... 

[Sage 289]

I think I pretty much exclusively use face claim! Though I do use playby or pb on occasion if someone else uses it in a conversation first, but I almost always prefer saying face of fc. I think that saying playby is weird??? Like I get that it's character played by celebrity, but saying playby in a sentence weirds me out.

 

Also I find that the term face claim is easier to understand for ESL roleplayers. When you have multiple claims to fill out (occupation/position, member group, species, etc.), it makes sense to call it a face claim and then continue to refer to it as a "face" or "fc" throughout. And it can sound kind of possessive, but it makes more sense to me and is easier to explain to the ESL writers I run with.

[Rune 1,099]

If I abbreviate, I go with playby. Because PB flows better than FC for some reason. 

 

Usually I think I just call them faces. I would like to see the trend change towards something along the lines of Casting or Playbill. But that's asking too much.

[Kit the Human 758]

Also in the interchangeably camp but play by does make more sense for reasons already mentioned!