Face Claims: Yay Or Nay??

[0123456789876543210]

I've never seen "face claims" as animated .gifs, mostly just pictures for the avatar of the character. I personally just use pictures as a reference point, a supplemental material for actual written description. I knew some writers that posted a picture of their character every time they made a post and it was just insane.

[Bosch]

I reckon it should be wide open, if you want to use an actor go for it but I think a written description should always be included as part of that. I won’t have anime though buts that’s just because the style of RP I usually run or am involved with has at least one foot in the land of realism and Japanimation is just too jarring.

[LunaSpirit]

Lexen has said exactly what I was thinking. I myself am a visual learner and do similar things when creating a character.

I hate face claims. So very much.

[Sadies]

I have no problem with face claims as it helps make the role-play more realistic in some ways and it means there is less risk of accidently stealing a copyrighted image. My issues is that people always use 'perfect' celebrities or commonly used images. I think it helps because it means that characters don't always look 'perfect', like with a lot of art, most of the images of the girls are these skinny girls wearing some-times quite provocative clothes and then the males are often emo guys with six packs, not everyone looks like that, thats why I'm not a fan of using these famous celebrities that look perfect.

[Hyperewok]

Totally nay. It's almost offputting to see a series of gifs from a list of the same 50 or so appropriately sexy actors from a dozen or so of the most popular shows and movies. It just seems far too much like pretending to be a pretty famous person rather then actually building a character.

[Lostinwords]

I don't mind the GIF face claim. But it should be my choice to decide what my character's appearance should be. When you read a book the author doesn't include a picture of the protagonist, they give you a description, and in your head you imagine what that character will look like. I'm pretty sure anyone else who reads the same book will imagine their own version of what that character looks like. So, the same applies to a roleplay. Just because the GM thinks Taylor Lautner should be the face claim for a role in their roleplay doesn't mean I have to agree. Maybe I think Mario Lopez is a better choice. The point is it should be my choice to select what my character's appearance should be and not the GM.

[NethanielShade]

Here's my opinion.
NO
Now to elaborate. If I see a roleplay I am interested in, and then find out I am not allowed to make my own character because I am forced to use a picture and the possibility of a picture and a personality, for a character, I will not join the roleplay. There is very little difference between face claims and the site's highly unused adoption feature. How would you like it if you found a roleplay you were very interested in and suddenly the author only gives you 4 pictures to choose from to make your character. And most of the time, they also give a set personality. Do you see the problem here?
The thing is, face claims are not only annoying, but they restrict the creativity of a character. Not only this, but people often times use celebrities to make a face claim. It murders immersion for me, and is also an interest killer. I may be re saying what someone else has pointed out already, but I haven't bothered myself with reading every post in this thread yet. This was my opinion, but I'll say it one last time. I hate the damn things and will not be a part of any roleplay they are in.
Lostinwords pretty much said it. I'd like the option of choosing how my character looks, not being told how it should look.
Face claims 'yay' or 'nay'? Nay.

[Enerlogue]

I may have skimmed over some of this, definitely not all. Saw some very striking criticism. However the case, I am still very well antithetical on face claims. Yes, it can give you stronger, definite, vivid presentation of a character. Whilst you can't get an explicit illustration of a character in text, it's no different than a plot hole that's purposely left within the story to create more ingenious constituent to the book, or roleplay.

"Blue eyes and blonde hair." Just enough to give my imagination the liberty to conjure up my own character icon just from that bit. Not only does disregarding face claims accommodate more freedom for the participant to go all out, but it also leaves more liberation for the spectator to make speculations of how the character would look on their own. In my honest opinion; it makes partaking as well as reading it that much more delectable.

[scribblebarrs]

Hope no one minds me reviving this discussion, but I've seen a lot of arguments against faceclaims (FCs), but not many for, and as someone who very much does like FCs, I would love to vouch for them.

I see where a lot of people are coming from, saying that FCs can be restricting and seeing the same ones over and over can be annoying. I will be the first to admit, seeing Selena Gomez for every single female character can be annoying, I'm more than tired of seeing her face. But, I think FCs or PBs are a very good thing.

First, if you look long and hard enough, it is not hard to find one for your character that you like. If you give me a list of traits you need for your character, I will happily give you a list of characters that would fit the description without being too perfect or overused. So, saying that face claims are always the same is basically just saying no one is willing to put the effort into looking for anyone else. If you tell me simply "I want an FC with blonde hair and blue eyes," I can list countless ones that I doubt have been seen. (Dove Cameron, Britt Robertson, Perrie Edwards (who is a lot more used than other ones), Freya Mavor, Taissa Farmiga…) It's just a matter of being a little more creative.

As far as the argument that "it restricts what I can create with words!" doesn't that say something about how willing you are you describe something with a concrete image? I can easily talk a paragraph about high, prominent cheekbones, and large chocolate-colored eyes that are framed delicately with long dark eyelashes and set carefully on an oval-shaped face with hair that mirrors the color of her eyes and still have a Victoria Justice face claim without losing that descriptive quality. Yes, I agree that some people use face claims as an excuse to be lazy, but having a face claim isn't an end-all for physical description, if you're driven enough.

At the same time, if you don't like GIFs, don't use them. There are plenty of still pictures to go around.

I do agree that a moderator deciding on an FC for you can be very very annoying, and that they should allow room for either change or OCs, but it doesn't make face claims any less good drawing points for a character's appearance.

Plus, yes, you know what you wish to convey when describing a character, but a lot of people might not understand your words as well as you write them. Visual aids can be great for solving that issue.

My only problem with face claims as a whole is when people take an over-sexualized 25+ year-old and say "This is my sixteen-year-old!". I'm sorry, Miranda Kerr does not look sixteen, don't try to tell me she can pass. But as for "idealized, perfect" celebrities, there are plenty of celebrities I can list that aren't exactly the human ideal for perfect, as well as face claims that come in all sorts of body types. (Slim boys and less curvy women included.) I should really put together a giant rec list, someday. But, then again, I am coming from Tumblr, which has an RP community that is very faceclaim-heavy.

I also feel like refusing to join an RP simply because they have face claims is a little closed-minded. If you like the plot, who cares if you have to use an FC? Write in the RP because you like the plot, not because it has a system you're unfamiliar or uncomfortable with. I think where you guys are misunderstanding is that you seem to think that there are only so many celebrities to go around for FCs, and there are countless. I could totally draw up reclists with 100+ FCs if I needed to.

Then again, I guess all of it can be chalked up to personal preference.

[Lyrika]

I think where you guys are misunderstanding is that you seem to think that there are only so many celebrities to go around for FCs, and there are countless. I could totally draw up reclists with 100+ FCs if I needed to.

I really don't think "not enough celebrities" is the problem, because face claims aren't celebrity-exclusive. It can be the GM having written up an entire character and wanting someone else to play it, or even a few (extremely major) personality tidbits; it's still a face claim. At least "blonde hair and blue eyes" can possibly be passed off IC as a genetic predisposition based on the lineage related to a character role, and it's open to a whole lot of interpretation, but it's still not good compared to letting the player make the character entirely of their own desire.

I'll reference previous posts that my own complaints echo.

My problem (or at least one) with them is that the GM decided for you. You just have to pick which one you want and make a wrapper for it. It doesn't matter if you ask for a new one, because you still have to deal with the GM wanting it, too.

I completely detest the idea that any facet of my character is going to be predefined by the game master. Sure, listing particular 'roles' is fine, like having a sniper, explosives expert, subterfuge expert and general infantry-type in a military roleplay makes sense and ensures the main cast of characters has some kind of balance. But seeing specified lists of characters with pre-stated names, personalities, appearances and backgrounds is outright ridiculous.

Another problem is that it's a celebrity—meaning people know about them and will relate seeing that picture to the characters they portray. This is just as bad as a popular anime/manga character (I see Haruhi Suzumiya, I'm gonna want to see faith to her personality and demeanor), or even worse, a recolor of an extremely common picture you can find just Googling "anime".

I'd at least like the option of being able to make your own appearance, as it's almost directly related to the personality of my characters when I create them (regardless of the order those two character aspects are created in). I mean, if I see Karate Kid Jaden Smith, I'm going to think they act like Karate Kid Jaden Smith. Jennifer's Body Megan Fox is gonna be a possessed cannibal, and Jumper Hayden Christensen is going to be a bank robber from a broken home. Screw the RP's personal canon; that's what the appearance tells me they are, and the GM very likely isn't gonna let you pick someone else to use (God forbid letting you use your words instead of a big-ass GIF).

[VitaminHeart]

Yeah, I would say the crux of the matter to me is less using a celebrity picture (I've seen people doing good and pretty distinct character types using the faces of actors or models they liked) I might be able to get along with that if a GM was willing to help me out a bit in finding something that suited me, but more the whole 'this is how your character is going to be' thing that seems to come with it, where I end up feeling like you''re making characters more to suit the GM than to suit YOU. Particularly if the pictures are of a very narrow demographic of pretty white kids aged 18-24.

[scribblebarrs]

I can see the problem with having an issue with mods deciding on your FC/character. I've never minded--I've always liked taking someone's general idea for a character and making it my own. It doesn't limit my creativity, it just shows how adaptable I am when given limits I'm not usually given. I've developed both premades as well as OCs to the point where I know the tiniest details of their lives, and I can take the biography or character traits I'm given, develop my own backstory, flush out their personality, and really make them my own. Similar to picking up a canon character from some show or book.

However, I still don't understand the total negativity towards FCs you guys have. As a writer, shouldn't you be okay to adapt to certain restrictions? And if you pick an FC, it's easy enough to, if you're dedicated enough to your character, to find an FC you really like that suits how you see your character. And it's nice to have pictures to look at and think, "That's my character, that's my baby, this is the person I've poured my time and words and energy into." Plus, it's a way of making sure everyone sees your character the way you want to see them. Your arguments are basically the same as saying writing fanfiction for a show or anime is too restricting because everyone knows what the character looks like--but that shouldn't limit your ability to describe and paint a picture. If anything, it makes it easier to slip into the shoes of the character, for me, knowing that they have a solid appearance rather than some vague mental image. And I don't feel that that limits me as a writer--we are, after all, visual creatures.

[fallbehindme]

Na, I belive it takes the creativity out of the choosing a picture, its the easy way out. Don't get me wrong im not scared to show my face its just not my style.

[LawOfTheLand]

I don't have an issue with FCs on an image-heavy site like Tumblr. That's part of the purpose of the site.

But when you take that philosophy and try to apply it to a more text-focused community like this one, well, that's when you're gonna start a fight.

[VitaminHeart]

A good number of people, me included, don't write fanfiction or participate in fandom RPs, and there is a difference in that sense also in that presumably if you are choosing to play a canon character it tends to be because you have seen the portrayal of that character, and presumably enjoy the character enough to want to write them, as opposed to taking a role that was just made up by the GM, who you don't know or have appreciation for.

As far as the 'you are writers so you should b able to write to restrictions' I will cover this. I am a writer, I have been hired to write for people and to write for stuff such as animation covering characters someone has already conceived and want me to flesh out. I can do it, I have no problem doing it. Still that is work. I don't do it in my time off in the same sense that my other friends with jobs in art subjects don't make apps or design drinks packaging for fun.

When I RP I want to use my characters that I've picked and designed from the ground up.

I would hazard that most people on here who dislike the practice /could/ write to a faceclaim. That doesn't necessarily mean they would enjoy it. RPing is a hobby and people do it for fun, not to put pressure o themselves. While I am of the school that you should try and do your best as RPing, I wouldn't advocate doing something that you didn't find any fun.

[SlightlyIrregular]

Okay so I haven't read all the posts because I'm too lazy, but this is my thoughts on the subject. Face claims are a no-no for me. Sometimes I use pictures just to get a general idea of a character's looks, but I don't think I use a famous person's face. I just google random pictures if I do. And for certain characters I want in an RP, I don't create pictures for that character before people have applied. I like to see what they come up with themselves.

For me, I won't join a face claim roleplay simply because I like to imagine how my characters look and not told how they look. It's kinda the same reason that I can't read a book after I've watched the movie adaptation. It ruins my imagination and creativity :(

[Machines]

I don't have an issue with FCs on an image-heavy site like Tumblr. That's part of the purpose of the site.

I second that.

As for my own personal opinion, I dislike FCs of any sort, but I don't particularly care if others want to use them. Frankly, that's their choice and not mine. However, I would never use them. I either go out of the way to describe my character's appearance or commission art so that I have a visual to use.

I disagree that FCs limit creativity though. I have known people who use FCs who write extraordinarily detailed and complex characters. I do find it really hard to separate appearance from character if I see a face I recognize though, so to FC users... I recommend not going for that popular actor/actress that everyone's seen. That also includes 2D art, with anime and whatnot too.

Also, I have big issues with SOURCING. Especially for 2D face claims. I've had friends who have had art stolen from them for the purpose of RP, and that is REALLY REALLY not cool.

To be perfect honest, I've never joined a face claim RP before. I don't really intend to either. It's not so much about the FC business, but more about... the fact that I like reusing characters and repurposing them for different plots. So they already have a set appearance, and slapping a FC on them would.. not feel right by any means.