Anime Pictures For Roleplay...For Or Against?

[Darth Ghranna]

As any of you who have read my guild announcements know in several of the roleplays I have asked that you not use anime pictures. I have had several people drop out of roleplays all together and cancel characters on account of this request. Here I give you a chance to explain to me why you prefer anime images to real pics or other forms of art for example. I am also interested to hear reasons why you do not like anime images for roleplay. Honestly any and all opinions on this subject would be gratefully accepted. I am trying to make this guild fun and enjoyable for everyone so please help me understand your preferences.  

[Sidathi]

Well, real pictures look real. The anime photos are popular because you can set them into absolutely any setting you please. Sci-Fi, past, blahblahblah.
Reality based for those settings are...really difficult to come by, especially if you have a certain idea in mind where Anime pictures would actually be more likely to have them in supply.
As for quitting over picture selection, people be crazy, yo.  

[Darth_Malice_66]

Anime characters are ok for Anime RP's ONLY!
Other than that I would recomend people stick to real life pictures from movies or people they think fit the character they are playing. Art can be ok if it fits the RP and is a real person. I actually used a drawing of Tom Cruise as Lestat for a vampire RP because it fit the time period.

In many cases it's situational. However Anime should stick to Anime based RP's and cartoons.. well they should just stay out of Rp altogether honestly.  

[NATHAN__EXPLOSION]

Honestly it just boils down to preferences on rp rooms. i think if it were all kept separately it would be better.in my opinion its better to use drawings because you can specifically draw what You want not what you have to work with ya know  

[Ignis_Scientia2010]

an anime picture is not bad. I find it easier to find exactly what you're looking for in an anime picture better than you can in a real person. However, that being said, if there are certain characteristics to a particular thread, then the character does need to match that. If you're supposed to be Irish, you don't need to look Asian. Simple fact.  

[ForTheBloodGod98]

I have way more trouble rping with a thread full of anime pics... I feel less connected to those characters. I personally feel if you spend more than a page and a half on Google you can find a real person or realistic drawing for any character. The only anime pic I have used was Dante from devil may cry and it looked more realistic than anime... And I used it cause it was an anime only thread. To be honest I like the fact that you push for more realism, its one of the small things that drew me to the guild.  

[RoseQueen666]

I use images from video games a lot now. With the improvements in graphics the images are very realistic and exquisitely detailed. I find they are a good substitute when an rp asks you not to use an anime (yes I know there are many anime type video games) image and yet not have a photograph of a real person if you are one of those people who for some reason does not like that. I do not think that anime images are bad so long as you took time and found a good image not just the first thing google or whatever else search engine spewed out at you. However for somethings it is much harder to get good anime pics for, rps that are set in an actual historical period are a good example like LokiLaufeyson2010 said, if your supposed to be Irish but your pic is of an Asian person there is a tiny issue there.  

[Da Canuck]

I personally don't mind drawings of close to realistic proportions or real photos. I absolutely DESPISE anime pictures because besides them being disproportionate and unrealistic, they all look the same! Not to mention from what I've seen, they hardly fit the RP! And to add to this, it usually goes beyond the profile picture and infects the character all together! A lot of the RP's that I was in (before being ruined by Mary-Sue, anime, or video game [more later] characters) were of a realistic to semi-realistic setting with some small things tweaked. Then the anime crowd comes in with some 14 year old girl who was related to Queen Elizabeth that dual-wields scythes with blue hair. From space. Who is also made of chocolate. Except her hair, which is blue (did I mention that already?) Or some 17 year old boy who has a katana and can control time in WW1! It goes to far! I understand that some will argue that there are reasonable and realistic anime's, I have yet to see one. Another reason why I say this is yes it may follow the laws of gravity and everything is realistic to the time period it is set in, well everything except the damn ANGST! There's more angst than every 13 year old with a Facebook profile who has just been broken up with stuffed into one theatre with Romeo and Julliet being acted out by those that did the breaking on repeat after being led there by Kenneth Branagh like the angsty pied piper of ANGST! And if you're unsure of why I threw Branagh in there, just watch his version of Hamlet (which is still better than anime I have heard of or seen.)

Video game characters are preferable to anime, but not by much. And to clarify, I mean in personality and interaction more than profile picture. I understand a lot of people play CoD, but then the loadouts lose true imagination. It's always "I have an M4A1 with M203 and ACOG sight, carrying an M9 Beretta with laser and a SPAS12 slung on my back." Hm, yes, do your tactics also include bunny hopping and accusing others of habouring Oedipus complexes while alternating with "U mad bro?" and "noobzors?" Everytime I see something like this, it creates a huge fracture in the immersion and makes my interest dive bomb. These are the seeds from which Mary-Sues grow, and from that, bland, boring, nothingness. Not to say stuff isn't happening, it is, it's just predictable to no end. For example, take the anime Hellsing. Was it not for being mid-day and me with a cup of coffee, I would have fallen asleep through it because Alucard (ooo, Dracula backwards! No one has EVER thought of that before!) CAN'T F@#$ING DIE! How do you think the fight is going to end!? Even if he only had toothpicks an attacked his opponents one at a time only using his arse, through sheer attrition he'd still win! Same with the people with the anime characters! They may not state they are immortal, but their posts seem contrary to the fact. "I dodge this, I dodge that, I block the speeding train with one hand because my parents died horribly angst angst angst" or "it hits me as I start to bleed but I fight through the pain despite missing half my body and being unable to see." And don't even get me started on the "moved like lightning and blah blah blah now I sneer down and laugh." Obviously not understanding sheer biology and what kind of muscles you would need to have while using what looks like a teen just hitting puberty and still lacking muscles for his age as your DAMN CHARACTER PROFILE!

Using realistic drawing or a real picture I feel almost forces people to drop these habits and make an actual in-depth character that readers can connect to that is only strengthen when they see that the character could almost be a living, breathing person. Perhaps carrying physical characteristics of people that you know, or having an actual depth to their eyes. If you want to be an "under-nourished teenage [androgyne] who do[es] their hair in the morning by sticking their [head] in buckets of lead-based paint and dress like they've stepped on a landmine in a trendy clothes shop" (0:37 Benjamin "Yahtzee" Croshaw on The World Ends with You) Go right ahead. Just do it in the appropriate RP with all the other boys and girls you knobby-headed spastic. This has happened too much, not only in this guild, but several that I've been in which has caused me to lose massive interest and leave. I do not wish to see it happen to this guild or the Zombie RP, especially due to the intriguing new way of the origin of the virus and it not quite being a virus, but a fungal infection that takes over you purely to perpetuate the survival of said fungus. Very similar to one that already exists here on this planet in real life but luckily only affects a certain species of ants... so far... DUN DUN DAAAAAAHHH!  

[Murd3r3d]

I think some anime is ok, as long as people stay away from the chibi images or the pics that look like they are one step away from participating in a hentai. I do not even necessarily have an issue with neko's provided they can explain it in the story. I use anime images myself sometimes when I roleplay but I can understand some peoples frustrations at the images. I have had to change an image I really liked that was anime style for an rp, and while it was a little frustrating and annoying, I went and found a new image. I do not see the big deal with finding new images a few times I even found better images than my original one. But, sadly I have been in a handful of rps that died because people 'just can't anything else', 'their OCD only lets them get certain images', 'they hate rps with real images' or other such things dramallama . Honestly people this isn't worth the drama. So, you make a sacrifice of your image there are plenty of anime only rps as well. How do you expect to improve your rp abilities unless you step out of your comfort zone and try something new, who knows you might even like it.  

[Byakko Yasutsuki]

I voted "Other" for all of the above. If the picture properly represents the essence of the character you're portraying in a given RP then I think you should be able to use it, regardless of the style. If for example I am playing a character that is both aggressive and playful, I may opt for an anime picture.  

[Kay9214]

Really, it doesn't matter what kind of picture you use, a picture is just a picture. It importance is what the user puts into it, it shouldn't really matter all that much to anyone else.

That said, an anime picture cannot suddenly make you a bad role player. If someone is using an anime picture in anyway that is negatively impacting a role play, it's not the picture, it's the player.

Really, there are a ton of styles of illustration, animation, etc, and I don't see how it makes sense to pick on one specific kind of cartoon graphics. I mean, just look at what we have in the Zombie thread... I think that first one is painted, the second another UFC pic (which I see a bit to often, it kinda irks me), a popular movie rip-off, a blurry abstract of a CGI character (?), an ambiguous sketch, a profile directly stolen from the picture, and whatever that last one is, it kind of scares me... There's all kind of picture, each type has its own pros and cons, just like anime. I just don't see why anime stands out as such a negative fixture.  

[Redemptions of the Damned]

Da Canuck

For one, lmao for some of the things you said Canuck xD. On another note, you do have a lot of goods, so do a lot of the other on this topic.

In all honesty, i use both, But my reasoning is that i have planned out my person and use the same person in the a lot of role plays. William O'har. I only use two pictures, but will change a picture of need..  

[Goatens]

I prefer realistic, in the form of real photos, a realistic drawing or an in-game photo with decent graphics.

Photos that suit the setting can be hard to find for certain roleplays, so I tend to lean towards in-game pictures. Specifically Sims 3, which allows me to make my characters how I imagine them.

No Anime. They all have the same tiny chin, thin little noses and huge eyes.  

[Byakko Yasutsuki]

Something occurred to me.

Now I mean no offense by this, but being against anime pictures for RPs on a website that is an Anime RPing site could be construed as hypocritical.

Just something to consider.  

[Kay9214]

Byakko Yasutsuki

Something occurred to me.

Now I mean no offense by this, but being against anime pictures for RPs on a website that is an Anime RPing site could be construed as hypocritical.

Just something to consider.

Also, 'Depthless Imagination' shouldn't mean 'state-limited imagination'. :l