I personally think there's nothing wrong with mixed claims if it's something you really wanna do. Like, I'd join a site with them if it was interesting enough, but I would only be using animanga myself. I might be shy about plotting with RL-faced characters at first. Not sure. It'd be a cool way of bringing what are usually two separate communities together, anyway. Might even open some members up to using the other sort.



For my sites, however, since my friends and I are only interested in using animanga and I know a large number of people prefer one or the other, I go strictly animanga. Seeking out like minded individuals rather than trying to cater to everyone, basically (not that I'm saying this is your strategy - if you like using both, and have friends on both sides of the fence, I think you should go mixed!).



I'm kind of on the fence about mixed FCs, I guess. The Roger Rabbit effect is something I can get past, but it's visually off-putting at first. On the other hand, I remember the old days where aesthetics didn't matter so much and it was all about the writing. In my first RP, most of us just described our characters with words and didn't even have pictures. Eventually we started throwing random anime pics into our profile/apps/whatever we called them back then. Then I got into forums, learned what face claims are, and never went back.



I've thought about getting into RL faces a few times, but I could never find proper representations for my characters (probably me being biased because most of my characters already have an FC and chances are they have white hair or something which is hard to find RL pics for lmao) and I don't like the idea of every single person in the setting being an airbrushed model. Not that most animanga characters aren't unrealistically attractive too - I just find it weird to stare at an actual person's face when I'm reading an app or w/e. Also notable that I'm mostly only into fantasy and it seems like it'd be difficult to find good RL FCs for characters that like...stand out.



On the other hand, I'm really on the fence about original art. I used to allow it, but a while back, an artist actually came around and asked the person using their art to take it down. We complied, of course, but it was stress that could've been avoided if I just had everyone using FCs (of which there are a vast amount to choose from), so now I disallow it. There's also the fact that the few original art users I've had were likely from the deep recesses of DA and completely fetishized their own character and said things like "my character is better because I actually paid money for the design".



I kind of feel bad for those people who actually shell out money for commissions/make their own art. I'd probably make exceptions for people like that (with proof), but idk. Original art just makes me uncomfortable because of many bad past experiences weighing out the good.

I rambled a bit there, but tl;dr mixed FCs are fine. I know of a few that have been around for a while, like Rise of the Believers & Abstract Reality. There was also...Catch-22, I think? You'll attract tons of players with that freedom -likely people that are more concerned about the writing aspect of RP- if you advertise enough.

the first RP site i ever joined was technically mixed FC, albeit in the way old sites used to be where you were allowed to use any image you could find (like a dialga gijinka, or some selfie of an emo kid) and it was fine. i don't think i'd join one nowadays because of the lack of consistency others have mentioned -- regardless of how i feel about it face claims have become a linchpin of the forum RP experience, and mixing jungkook and lucina just feels off? it really isn't my thing. there is definitely a place for them in the RP community though, and a site being mixed FC isn't a death sentence for it by any means.

i've never quite understood the embargo on member-drawn original art but i also haven't been on a site that allowed it in a long time or had any bad experiences concerning said original art so /shrug.


apologies for the tangent i'm about to go off on but this is a really good point and i see this allllll the time in every corner of the community. using an example:


in my experience -- italicized, because i'm just one person and not at all omniscient or objective -- the person on the right will get more plots and will stay on sites longer than the person on the left, despite them having the same faceclaim. there may, of course, be other factors at play besides the images (quality of writing, activity level, the personality/maturity level of the user in question) but i know i'm not the only person who's observed as much. i don't have a solution for this problem.

I just like a sense of consistency. I've only done a handful of RL sites as opposed to animanga, but the idea of mixing them is a bit jarring to me. It would be...awkward to visualize in my head. Doesn't help that my frame of reference is like... Paula Abdul's Opposites Attract and Cool World.

"Noids do not have sex with doodles."