Question: why?

[Snake]

Why do seemingly 85% of teh RP requests or groups on E always go with the "real life" pics for chars. What's the hate on the anime/cg version?

[Beguile's Mistress]

Speaking for myself I prefer a more "human" figure if I'm using an image because I relate to them better.  Anime/cg aren't real to me, leaving me feeling as though they are cartoons and the sometimes caricaturistic aspects of drawings don't appeal to me. 

It's not hate.  I just can't relate.

[Silverfyre]

I have very little interest in anime, personally.  I do appreciate artistic portraits of people but I do not enjoy the anime style of art.  I tend to use pictures or photos of real life individuals in my own role plays only as guidelines for what my characters look like and focus more on the description to relay what they look like.  It's rare that I even use a photo or picture actually but I don't think there is a lot of "hate" towards using anime pictures but rather merely a matter of preference.

[Snake]

It's somewhat the same with me. ...just in reverse. I can't relate with realistic imagery that well and I'm personally kind of picky about it. None of the pics I've ever found make me happy using them for my characters.

[Lilias]

I don't use character pictures, myself. Each character develops a visual in my mind, more detailed the longer I spend with them. But I'm quite cinematic in my storytelling approach, and I like pondering who could be cast to play this or that character in a movie... That kinda precludes anything but fully realistic imagery!

[Snake]

I usually have an idea of how a character looks before I every start. To give examples using my two main 1 male, 1 female.

Sanosuke is my main male: generally speaking he keeps a very long, wild styled hair that's Black with green higlights, Straight pine/jungle green or straight black.   Medium brown skintones, straight hair, and a hard-muscled quality. (any points to anyone who can find a pic that fits it.)

Masako: Main Female: Tall, Long blonde hair, blue/teal eyes, Mediterranean taned skintones, very large uh...bust line.

Now I always have problesm finding pics I like to go with either of them. the rest of the chars I have are even further afield.

[Oniya]

I can almost never find a real person that looks like my characters (even those who are fully human!), so I generally just don't bother with image-file pictures.  I'll give someone a fairly good word-picture, though.

[ColdBloodedJellyDoughnut]

Same, I usually stay away pictures, at least at the start. Sometimes, halfway through, I find a picture that fits for me, so I add that in. Or I get inspiration from a picture to start from and take it from there. Trying to find the perfect picture for a character is nigh impossible though.

As for anime... I'm just not big on it. Some people are though. I just find it a bit boring and over done.

[meikle]

Why do seemingly 85% of teh RP requests or groups on E always go with the "real life" pics for chars. What's the hate on the anime/cg version?

I don't like anime style, which basically sums that up.

[Snake]

If it gets it done though it gets it done.  I think it should be a person's own choice in what pic they use if any, I mean if you don't like it, simply don't look at it.

[meikle]

You asked why people don't use anime pictures ... I don't use them because I don't like them, and they suggest a certain tone to the game (if my partner is representing everything with cartoon characters, I can assume that the tone they're after isn't necessarily one I want to play with!)

[undisclosedtoyou]

I can understand people wanting to use Anime pictures, sometimes it's appropriate in certain settings.  But for the most part, when I create games, I'll specify that either all real life pics need to be chosen, or all Anime.  I [almost] never allow a mix, since in my opinion it subtracts from the overall picture in my head. 

As for it being the decision of the perspective player's, and not the GM, who usually makes that choice, I can't really agree with that.  I'm not being argumentative, but the power to make those choices are up to the GM.  If they want character bio's to be formatted a certain way, have one specific style of picture or description, or even what ages each character should be, than it's their right to specify those things.  If perspective players don't like it, than they need not join said game.

[Snake]

That's fine and good though but sometimes it's just really really really hard to find a realistic pic of what you want like the examples above.

[undisclosedtoyou]

That's fine and good though but sometimes it's just really really really hard to find a realistic pic of what you want like the examples above.

Mmm, I agree, it is hard sometimes.  Which explains why some people prefer to have a written description instead of a photo.  The way I see it though, the picture doesn't have to be a perfect embodiment of what you see in your head.  Most of the time, I'll find something close, and than write down the differences in the written description section. 

[ColdBloodedJellyDoughnut]

So don't find one. Just use description instead. It allows you more room for change and your imagination. Don't limit yourself to pictures.

[Snake]

Does that count in using realistic pics though? *laugh* I'm just a perfectionist I guess.  And yes Cold, but a pic IS worth a thousand words.

[undisclosedtoyou]

Does that count in using realistic pics though? *laugh* I'm just a perfectionist I guess.  And yes Cold, but a pic IS worth a thousand words.

As the description section of most character bio's allow for both a written and photographic portrayal, you are allowed to write down things that are not shown in the picture put up.  An example would be piercings, or distinguishing marks.  If you say your character has their nipples as well as their private area pierced, a space ship tattooed on their ass, and a birthmark in the shape of a crescent moon on their right breast, than it's very unlikely that you'll find a picture with all of those things explicitly shown.  But hey, if you're the kind of person that needs to have pictures that are 100% perfect to the image you have in your mind, more power to you. 

To be honest, I'm not trying to persuade you to give up the idea of using nothing but anime pictures for your characters.  I'm just giving you my opinion, and letting you know that not everyone will accept anime pics into their games, and they really don't have to.

[Oniya]

A little photoshopping can sometimes fix things like hair and eye color...

[Inkidu]

I prefer physical descriptions myself. It's hard to find stuff that fits my characters (unless I draw them and I'm not too good at that). So give me a thousand words. It's worth it. Sometimes you want your hundred dollar bill in ones. :)

[Snake]

Indeed they don't.

[Craz]

To put my two cents in, I prefer "real life" pictures. Anime isn't an art style I enjoy most of the time. I didn't enjoy it when I was younger, and the art style just really doesn't catch me. However, the simple amount of photographs and pictures that exist today are astounding. I can find pretty much what I want, and often browsing various albums, it can spark ideas. I don't get the same feeling from animation of any sort, often, and so I prefer to use photographs. Of course, sometimes I just don't find something I like, so a word description suits me just fine.

[Torch]

Speaking for myself I prefer a more "human" figure if I'm using an image because I relate to them better.  Anime/cg aren't real to me, leaving me feeling as though they are cartoons and the sometimes caricaturistic aspects of drawings don't appeal to me. 

It's not hate.  I just can't relate.

This. I don't want to write about cartoons, I want to write about people.

[Shjade]

Same, I usually stay away pictures, at least at the start. Sometimes, halfway through, I find a picture that fits for me, so I add that in. Or I get inspiration from a picture to start from and take it from there. Trying to find the perfect picture for a character is nigh impossible though.

I imagine this is the crux of it for a majority on both sides of the anime/photography issue: of those who prefer to use pictures at all, there are those who have the concept for a character first and then go hunting for an image to support that concept, and those who hunt for an image that appeals to them and build the character around that picture.

For the first type, drawn artwork is often the more useful option. Why? Because once you've got the idea of a character in your head, it can be very, very difficult to find a picture of an existing person who matches closely enough with the image in your head to satisfy the requirements of representing that character. Obviously some people are more lenient with themselves than others in this aspect, but it's more or less been the case with folks I've talked to about the problem before.

For the second type, photographs are often the preferred option because they're trying to create a person from scratch and, well, a realistic image serves better for getting the proper feel for that character being a person rather than a placeholder for a person than does a drawing. A drawing is a rendition of a person; a photo is a person. This creates a more solid anchor - a sense of "reality" - that a drawing does not convey. (This last bit is the sort of feeling mentioned in the post above by Torch and Beguile's.)

Obviously this difference in character origination isn't the only deciding factor in whether a person prefers to use photos or drawings, but it seems like a pretty big one.

[TheGlyphstone]

Answer: Why not?

[Oniya]

For the second type, photographs are often the preferred option because they're trying to create a person from scratch and, well, a realistic image serves better for getting the proper feel for that character being a person rather than a placeholder for a person than does a drawing. A drawing is a rendition of a person; a photo is a person. This creates a more solid anchor - a sense of "reality" - that a drawing does not convey. (This last bit is the sort of feeling mentioned in the post above by Torch and Beguile's.)

You know, I heard something like this mentioned in an Agatha Christie mystery recently.  In 'The Pale Horse', Miss Marple observes that a person that an eyewitness described matched a real person - but one that couldn't have been at the scene.  At any rate, it basically boils down to personal preferences.  For some people, an obviously 'unreal' rendition jars their sense of the scene (and I suspect that it's more prevalent with RPs in a more 'real life' setting).  In situations like that, stick to the written descriptions and just tell them that you can't find a photograph that matches the character in your head.  (Lady knows, I've done that enough times myself.)