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A Survey: are play-bys essential?


featherstone
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So, those who know me in the RP world probably know I have little love for celebrity play-bys, both because I don't like a few associated attitudes and because sadly I understand legalese a bit too well for my own good.

 

However, I also realize that their use is so prominent that a good number of people won't join if they can't use their favorite face or image set.

 

As a result, now that I'm working on a new project, one that I'd hope could reach a decent audience, I find myself wondering if I should follow what I like (that'd be stock photos, original art, or no image), or if it'd kill the project from the start. I don't like compromises for popularity, but it's a shame when you work too hard on something that is doomed from the start.

 

That's why I'm asking for some additional opinion on the point: if you liked the concept, would you join a board that uses no celebs? Do you think that more in general the RP world has some space for such things, or is almost entirely dependant on the celebrity world?

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Follow what you like! I don't care for photos, or sites where I have to make entire graphic sets. I'd rather just have a written description of my character.

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I wouldn't join any site that didn't allow for celebrity use. People don't actually pay that much attention to written description, so I like to have a visual rep as close as possible to what I envision. Plus... I just don't want to have to describe them over and over and over and over again. It gets freaking old fast and it wastes effort I could be putting into actual plot motion.

 

If a stock image actually happens to fit the visual I'm looking for then I'm happy to use it and have in the past; but end of the day, stock models are intentionally chosen for being cookie cutter plain jane-joe-bob people to create a believable sense that a viewer remembers them but could never place from where because it literally could have been anywhere (or making them easy to photo manipulate which not everyone can do). So finding one that really fits is rare. 

 

Celebrities can look like entirely different people between roles. They offer a lot more variety to find that specific look, and that isn't available in stock models. 

 

As for original art... that's a whole other can of worms, and even more inconvenient than trying to find stock that works. 

 

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It depends. Now that I've been exposed to them for so long, going back to sites without them seem weird.

 

I wouldn't be against it, however, as long as anime art and the like wasn't allowed. I just can't get into the weirdly proportioned faces thing.  Bonus points if I can use stock photos of real people, though.

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So, I absolutely don't get the face claim culture that's such a thing in RP, and I have seen sites that are successful without using celebrity photos for characters. My site is small and star trek, so I don't generally have to police character pictures—there's not a lot of overlap in use of particular celebrities and the modifications for alien crew can make it so you can have two different characters using the same celebrity but still look different if one is an alien and both started from a different base image.

 

My biggest recommendation if you chose to avoid the use of celebrity faces though? Make sure there's a resource within your community to help people who want pictures get them. One example I can think of, the admin actually commissions artwork that's then made available as adoptables for the numerous species in their scifi setting. You could also set aside a budget to allow people to earn or win credits to purchase stock art for their characters, so that people who can't afford to commission, purchase stock art, and/or can't create their own stuff still can get artwork for their characters.

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@featherstone I know they're not all boring. I've got a few free stock images floating around out there. It doesn't make much impact, though. There's a general lack of diversity among stock models. Most of the ones there are pretty much cookie cutter hipster images.

 

The vast majority of stock models are one shoot wonders. Hell, most of them are just one picture deals. For players that like to muck about in PS, or make graphic requests, or just having a range of emotions to convey in simplistic avatars.. just doesn't work.

 

 I don't want to be forced to dive through my ass to find an entire graphic set by requirement, but I still like to have diversity. Celebrity claims provide a lot more than any stock model out there. 

 

 

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@Dragon Ok, I understand the need for more varied images. It's something I would not have guessed by myself because I'm not that much into photo sets.

 

A comment I forgot earlier (I was replying in a rush^^) is about the perceived need to describe your char all the time if you don't have a pic. I don't know... I've been on various sites where pics were optional. Those who had no pic didn't describe their chars every scene - if you cared about their appearance, you took a look to their profile, otherwise you did not, but playing with them hadn't been an issue.

 

@Death Kitten that's why I'd like to improve the "gallery" system such as the one in the link.

 

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I can't make graphics and refuse to do animanga or cartoons but if there's no pbs at all I'm down to join. If it was stock images or whatever I'd rather just not have one.

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5 hours ago, featherstone said:

if you cared about their appearance, you took a look to their profile, otherwise you did not, but playing with them hadn't been an issue.

 

In my experience, most people don't actually read this portion of a profile (if they even read profitless at all, the view count on pretty much any forum I've ever been on proves that most people don't); and even when they do, they'll just ignore it for their own wants. But if you can give them an actual visual then they'll pay attention.

 

For example, I have a character - Dagonet - that I made.... pfft 11 years ago now at least. 

 

He was originally created as a child soldier turned lifetime warrior. He was never meant to be an attractive character. I actively described him, for years, as being horrifically maimed in his bio. Literally one person I ever played him with in all that time just naturally acknowledged that factor of his appearance - everyone else I had to manually correct to the point that I just gave the hell up (because they just willingly ignored it and described him as handsome anyway)  and now this character's face claim is Karl Urban because that was the actor people most commonly told me they envisioned the character to look like which even sort of matched what I had in mind for the character before his maiming injury. 

 

Where with other characters that I was able to recreate their physical deformities in PS for visual reference... never had a problem with people acknowledging those deformities... but I've also found those characters damn near impossible to play because most role players have no interest in envisioning the ugly no matter how dark and violent their plots get. 

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I'm somewhat indifferent to them. I prefer them to animanga, but not to realistic art (like D&D portraits). If I had my druthers, I'd probably just opt out of them. I'd prefer to describe the character (or not) to my heart's content, and prefer to imagine them the way you would in a novel. >>

 

Just an idea, I guess, but this might open a whole new can of worms for the "would people join" dilemma. But if you make it only one account per player. >> So then people could use picture-y posts or not picture-y posts to their heart's content.

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Playbys aren't important to me, though I think they're nice and useful for quick observations on descriptions since I'm not going to refer to every app when I post with someone, nor will I expect them to visually describe their character every time they write unless we're on a site with no graphics. I'm more put off by rules like original or stock art than anything since when I do use artwork on boards that are art based, it's sourced from something, be it an anime, Marvel comic, and so on, and I grab the closest approximation to what I had in mind. I don't draw anymore, and when I did, it wasn't up to the quality of something I'd want to stare at every time I posted.

 

So, going with stock art, might be fine depending on what it is, since, at least for anime based stock art, there's a wide variety that hits a lot of niches. Stock photography and models, however, are an automatic no-go since if I'm using a RL playby, I'm going to go with someone with a broad variety of stances, poses, and dynamic shots. If I used Bruce Willis, I'm not going to use model photos or runway shots, I'm going to pull something from Die Hard or Red where he has a prop or is doing some sort of action work since I find it boring to not have images of my character doing something other than doing stereotypical model poses. If I play a cop, my person is going to have shots of them with a gun.

 

Same reason why, when on superhero boards, I prefer to use comic art. Because no matter who I play, I can have a shot of them in costume and doing something rather than just having some random model glance slightly off camera or pulling up their shirt or something.

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Would I join a site that didn't use playbys? Yeah, if it interested me and I had the time. I'd actually be more likely to join a site that didn't use playbys than one that did. 

 

Truth is I don't like playbys. I find them to be a touch creepy. And the behaviours that often surround them are pretty nasty. People who only roleplay as certain playbys... it kinda reaches a point where you're not writing a character, you're writing the playby. (So it's not Lucifer Morningstar that's being played but Tom Ellis.) And when paired with sexual content it can get worse. (I mean in the Harry Potter craze I have no doubt there were people writing Draco and Hermione snogging in second year... Yeah, 12 year olds making out. And I'm sure that it went further than that.)

 

People also cause so much drama around them. They won't write with others if the playby isn't good looking enough. Or they'll try forcing a ship because "OMG, <my pb> and <your pb> were in this movie one time and they were totes adorbs." Even though in actuality neither character would like each other. (Or any relationship would be one sided at best.) In other cases they won't even join a site if that playby is taken. Or they might join and try to force the other person to give up their character.

 

Not to mention all the rest of the stupid rules people have about them. The -5/+5 rule is dumb because people who are actors/actresses may have roles through multiple decades. And they may have had multiple different appearances each time. (Johnny Depp anyone? Jack Sparrow look vs Willy Wonka look. Same person, totally different appearance.)

 

I mean all this is is a form of celebrity worship. (Which I also find extremely creepy.)

 

As for people not reading the profiles, true they don't. Because they don't have to. Stick a pretty image up there and that's all they care about, doesn't matter what the actual profile says. Same thing for personality to be blunt. I mean you put Karl Urban there and that's all they see, not the actual character who may very well be a sociopath who likes killing dogs. (Which reinforces my above point... it's not the character that the want it's the actor/actress.)

 

I know people say they can't draw or whatever but the medium is about writing. Not about drawing or taking pictures or photoshopping things. So to spend so much time on playbys, and not writing, seems to me to defeat the point a bit to me.

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1 hour ago, VirusZero said:

Would I join a site that didn't use playbys? Yeah, if it interested me and I had the time. I'd actually be more likely to join a site that didn't use playbys than one that did. 

 

Truth is I don't like playbys. I find them to be a touch creepy. And the behaviours that often surround them are pretty nasty. People who only roleplay as certain playbys... it kinda reaches a point where you're not writing a character, you're writing the playby. (So it's not Lucifer Morningstar that's being played but Tom Ellis.) And when paired with sexual content it can get worse. (I mean in the Harry Potter craze I have no doubt there were people writing Draco and Hermione snogging in second year... Yeah, 12 year olds making out. And I'm sure that it went further than that.)

 

People also cause so much drama around them. They won't write with others if the playby isn't good looking enough. Or they'll try forcing a ship because "OMG, <my pb> and <your pb> were in this movie one time and they were totes adorbs." Even though in actuality neither character would like each other. (Or any relationship would be one sided at best.) In other cases they won't even join a site if that playby is taken. Or they might join and try to force the other person to give up their character.

 

Not to mention all the rest of the stupid rules people have about them. The -5/+5 rule is dumb because people who are actors/actresses may have roles through multiple decades. And they may have had multiple different appearances each time. (Johnny Depp anyone? Jack Sparrow look vs Willy Wonka look. Same person, totally different appearance.)

 

I mean all this is is a form of celebrity worship. (Which I also find extremely creepy.)

 

As for people not reading the profiles, true they don't. Because they don't have to. Stick a pretty image up there and that's all they care about, doesn't matter what the actual profile says. Same thing for personality to be blunt. I mean you put Karl Urban there and that's all they see, not the actual character who may very well be a sociopath who likes killing dogs. (Which reinforces my above point... it's not the character that the want it's the actor/actress.)

 

I know people say they can't draw or whatever but the medium is about writing. Not about drawing or taking pictures or photoshopping things. So to spend so much time on playbys, and not writing, seems to me to defeat the point a bit to me.

How is it any different than illustrated books, comics, and so on? They attach visuals to them for a reason, so writing isn't just about writing 100% of the time, otherwise comic books, manga, and so on wouldn't exist, nor would fancy cover art for novels.

 

Imagery enhancing the writing and reading experience.

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@Thyme I know! But that'd be an even smaller niche, and then personally I prefer APC (even though that is bargainable).

 

@Cypher indeed nothing inherently wrong with mixing medias. Ultimately it's a choice - one can favor just writing, another writing and photoshopping and whatnot. In the end all these discussions are just a matter of taste.

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