I've been roleplaying long enough that at times, we used to use 6 sided dice to represent our characters - or small lead (not pewter - ah, those were the days) figures.
When I'm doing forum RP, I use just a generic base picture as the avatar for each of my characters. That's part of role-play, after all - you take the base picture and you inject the life into that character through your actions and words. Thus, we can have Abby:
doing something as simple as making a dry comment; "Mission succesful, enemies eliminated" - and you can use your own imagination as the reader to visualize her saying that. Or when I have her say, "You filthy Order scum, I'm going to castrate you slowly over an open fire for that!" - you can use your own imagination again to visualize THAT! The base picture is a placeholder - that's all you need.
This little girl here was a Corsair pilot that I had for a while - she looks the part of a space ship pilot that you don't want to mess with:
No need to make anything else to represent her in every conceivable situation. We're not making a movie here, after all, we're ROLE-PLAYING! That means you use your imagination!
I mean, come on - look at these guys:
I mean, come on - you already know what they sound like voice wise in the real world, since I used actors as their avatars. If I have Doug make a comment, "We can deliver those goods" - tell me you can't hear Han Solo making that comment. Or if Digger says, "You better make sure nothing interferes with that shipment or there'll be hell to pay" - come on, Sam Elliot just screams in your head. At the same time, if Doug then told Abby in game, "I know" ... I don't need a transbar for that. Just a quick picture so that you can visualize who's making the comment.
That you have issues with deciding what a role is does not give you the right to tell the rest of us how to play our roles - it simply points out that you personally appear to have a limited imagination. I suggest that you go read two Robert Heinlein space novels - or perhaps even better, two Piers Anthony Xanth novels. Role playing presumes that you know how to read and can use your imagination to fill in the gaps - you're simply proposing that, effectively, we all just make little movies. There's a world of difference between reading Harry Potter and watching the movie - it's the imagination factor, and that imagination factor is what makes all the difference between quality and effective role play - and, quite frankly, the garbage that your propose.
(On a personal note - I also am comsuming some Evan Walker Honey Whiskey at this particular moment, because I need the stress relief because my wife had two major surgeries today, with a total of almost 4 hours under the knife. If I am ranting and not making any particular sense - I don't really apologize.)
(11-21-2013, 12:53 PM)Jihadjoe Wrote: Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.
Even if this is the uninhibited future, are you really surprised that some people might take offense to you using pornstars for your character images? Or, at the very least, that they'll ever take you seriously?
When I create transmission bars or signatures for my characters, I use a character image that portrays what I think my character would look like as closely as possible. For example, Kaylee Staite, my Order Commander, uses the image of Jewel Staite - an actress. I have dozens of images of that actress, and I've used many of them over the years to reflect slight changes in her appearance or personality, but they're all still the same person. When we had a formal 'ball' for the order/zoners, I used an image of her in a dress. Most of the time I use images of her from stargate episodes, where she appears in a uniform that is believable as a member of the Order.
Your character image portrays what people view your character as. If you use half naked women all the time, people are going to act towards your character(s) accordingly.
Even Porn Stars have plenty of images of them wearing normal clothes - or even proper uniforms (hell, even spacesuits!).
Sex sells, if you are trying to sell something.
If you are trying for serious bargaining or diplomacy - sex displays merely leads one to form the impression you are either not being serious, or are deliberately trying to distract/deceive people as part of their RP.
EDIT: It's why people generally don't dress like that when they are conducting serious bargaining or diplomacy...
' Wrote:EDIT: It's why people generally don't dress like that when they are <strike>conducting</strike> serious <strike>bargaining or diplomacy</strike>...
First of all, that PM was from me, and it was part of several mistakes I pointed to skullz in his thread, related to french spelling and translations.
What I've been trying to explain to Skullz is that he is sending a transmission, to the gallic ROYALTY, in a house ruled by a monarchy, where there is high standards and manners to have when you adress the royalty, just like you adress any government.
I do not think this kind of picture is appropriate, and I will quote these two posts that pretty much sums up what I've been trying to explain.
' Wrote:Is GS a whorehouse?
' Wrote:Skullz, a picture used in a trans-bar, its assumed that THAT is what the person is seeing, so they will react accordingly.
Media in a sig is a different matter.
Not to mention you gave your character the title of Comtesse, which includes nobility, and nobility means standards. A real comtesse would never allow herself to go to such low standards.
I'm taking eoJhahiJ's side here.
The idea here is that you are sending a formal message to a higher authority. You should practice some level of decency in dressing and speech. There is a very clear distinction between formal and informal. Your character's representation falls squarely onto the latter.
Seriously, if somebody were invited to a grand event such as a marriage between two nobles, NOBODY would go in wearing clothes like that. Its common sense! There is a dress code to adhere to when it comes to anything formal. You don't wear shorts and sandals into a classy restaurant. So naturally, when speaking to somebody in charge of the country in a formal video feed, you are expected to dress formally.