Nobody in this thread has stepped out of line, no. 

And yes, you can say what you want but at the end of the day - saying what you want also has the chance of you having to deal with whatever happens because of it, just like anything else in life. And while normally that wouldn’t matter as much on the internet - rp is a social thing you can’t really do without partners and i’ve seen bad blood brew over something even dumber than this tbh. People can get real nasty once they start to feel resentful. Or could just quit interacting entirely.

Idk about anyone else but if I constantly saw complaining about vtuber fcs or whatever saturated everywhere, I’d get tired of it too. This may also come from the angle that 85% of the people I know in the community are anxious. From various posts I’ve seen on Pixel - this is pretty common in the community. So while people could have “thicker skin”; they probably won’t. They’ll avoid you like the plague and I’ve seen this happen in real time.

Not liking the aesthetic is fine since that’s literally a personal preference and isn’t what I really have an issue with. And if you got dragged into a fight over them then I understand. But also you shouldn’t tell people to stop using a series fc just because it’s popular and used everywhere, or judge them if they do. 

I said all this back when people got judged for overusing Vocaloids. Which is literally a copy paste issue. The amount of people I’ve seen argue over Kaito and Stardust…

honestly given how people already judge over fcs, I always roll my eyes when someone says that encouraging original art over FCs will foster elitism. As if there aren't people that don't already refuse to RP with characters whose FCs you hate. as if there's not already drama over who's png is prettier. as if your choice in FC isn't already putting down your chances of being RP'd with and being seen as a good RP'er in some circles.

look me in the eye and tell me that you won't get side-eyed for using Justin Bieber or Goku or Zhongli by at least one person on a site. tell me you haven't seen someone on a directory saying they won't RP with someone who uses a face they don't like. tell me you've never felt judged for a png you don't even own.

If FC users can have aesthetic preferences that exclude people, then I don't see how my preference for original art and designs is any more exclusionary.

beyond any self-confidence issues, one of the struggles about making art for characters is that it can take a bit for me to decide on a design and draw anything I wanna use, which is one of the reasons why I can understand that using face claims is easier. I’m fighting my own feelings of inadequacy and the fact that thinking of new designs and making art isn’t easy, no matter how many years of experience I have, which slows me down quite a bit. Oh, and the infinite exhaustion and whatever health issues I’m currently dealing x.x Making art isn't easy, nor is character design, but I still love to see it and will always encourage it, but I know how fcs can be more practical, since we're all mostly exhausted nowadays, ya?

I miss it when not requiring any face images at all was more common, I have a soft spot for appearance descriptions. I hold no strong dislike over fcs at all but I still feel like I live/have lived in a completely different world considering some of the mentalities I observe about them in general.

Most of the time I won’t recognize where fcs are from since I live under a rock, so amusingly these characters become [character name] for me. And it won’t stop me from drawing art of my collaborators’/friends’ characters, whether or not they’re using fcs or not, since I just love giving gifts whenever I have the inspiration and energy for it. + I have fond memories of when I used to edit face claim images for my friends to fit their detailed appearance descriptions better.

yeah Wraith, i understand why FCs are used. my preference for original art doesn't come from a place of hating FCs, but moreso because I'm exhausted of the drama around them. I'm tired of being told whether I'm a good or bad RP'er depending on what FC I use. The reason you'll never see me use a popular FC isn't because I hate them, but because I don't want anyone on the site praying that I leave or miss an AC so they can use the png that neither of us own. I don't want someone randomly hating me because they wanted to use some Genshin boy and they didn't get there first. I don't want to have to hunt for a replacement in the event the site dies because the FC is taken everywhere else. I hate someone going "well you're just hoarding all the good FCs" when they see that I have a lot of characters.

Having original art means that no one's going to try to find a way to kick me off the site to snipe my character's appearance. No one's going to join the discord and publicly and loudly complain that I've taken something from them, and no one's going to the admins to complain that my character isn't active enough to warrant their appearance. I own the design, it's mine, and no one else can use it unless I sell it to them. It's effort, but it's effort that imo is worth it because then everything about the character is 100% mine. I can also have minor characters without worrying someone's going to try to make me drop the characters b/c they want the FC for themselves.

what im getting out of this is i should fc goku

i do agree with a lot of points and tbh I think we should just go to a place where people suck it up and get over it.

there isn’t a real way to win.

either you use common fcs and get fights over them or side-eyed, or you use too niche of a fc, and then nobody wants to rp with the character because “the art is too old” or any other number of complaints.

I’ve done all of the above. I used common fcs. I’ve used niche fcs. I’ve used fcs from old anime and games. I’ve even cropped manga panels and went through painstaking effort to get them colored or color them myself. 

While the issues were different, it tends to be either ignored because it isn’t shiny new art, or judged because everyone and their aunt sally has used a picture of raiden shogun genshin impact.

i get it. I used to frequently actually use fcs with limited art. There’s a struggle to get satisfying graphics sometimes. I used world ends with you, servamp, wolf’s rain, bleach fcs before. 

Thankfully, I’m in a community that cares 0% about what fcs you use or don’t use. That’s rare but also pretty much the only way to win.

rp society if there were no claims and everyone could use whatever face they wanted

I'm also a diehard believer in the "let people use whatever they want" (though with the caveat of as long as they're not stealing someone's artwork) school of thought. But it's such a shame that the hobby is full of people who want to get possessive over pictures they don't even own, or cast judgement over others for their FC choices, or a combination thereof. It's like, I want to let people just use whatever they want, but I know that this policy is likely going to turn away more potential members rather than attract them.

Then again, maybe I should do exactly just that. Because the people who'd cast judgement on others like that probably aren't people I'd want to RP with to begin with.

P.S.: Yeah, I said it. Claiming faces is lame, because it's like I find it hard to wrap my mind around the logic of claiming a bunch of pics they don't even own. Like, did you draw it? Did you commission it? If neither of these points apply, then no, you don't own it.

I must be in different communities because I pretty much never see people fight over faceclaims. At most someone is just disappointed something is taken or waiting for an inactive claim to be freed. And even then, usually just DM'ing the person resolves the issue. Faceclaim sharing has been a cool thing too, just ask if you want to use the same claim.

No, I don't believe that RP society will be peachy if everyone can just use what they want. I don't believe it's about being possessive about pixels you don't own. I do believe that it's about common courtesy in a cooperative space. FCs are just an extension of this concept. Do you really have no problem with it if someone else's character has the same themes, background, personality as yours? If they have the same names? If they look the exact same? And you had no say in this. You don't feel like this is taking each other's thunder, you don't feel miffed when people confuse your characters?

If you're such a saint as to have no problem with this then kudos to you. I am annoyed by it. We are all in a pool, there is no need to belly flop onto each other, just take your floatie one meter away so everyone can fit and continue the ibiza foam party.

nah bc if someone takes my toji from jjk im going to challenge them to duel me to the death like the galliant knight that i am. /j (kind of, maybe, not really)

regardless, i can agree w some of these posts where i ain't ever see anyone argue over an fc. maybe when i was 13 and we all used the same three "anime emo girl/boy" pictures for our vampire demon lords. but even then we just used a different recolor / edit and called it a day. genuinely surprised and did not know it was still an issue or that serious of one.

the only time i've ever seen any toxicity over the issue, it is when someone inactive asf takes an fc that someone else wants. that grinds even my gears but i'm guilty of it moreso as of late. but most of the time it is like... in private dms.