Minor Character Changes

Hey, All,

From now on, any new characters on PA MUST make use of HUMAN PLAYBYS. NO MORE ANIMATED/ANIME playbys will be accepted. That includes avatars and siggys. This is to hold our site a bit closer to canon and a bit more realistic.

For now, we are not asking those who have anime pb's or animated pb's to change their avatars or siggys. However, if you do change them to another "person", please make that "person" a human and not just a different anime/animated face.

Clear? If you have questions, ask.

K.

Why?

I feel really uncomfortable using photographic playbys. I was literally thinking before I got on this morning about how I could render each of my character's playbys myself so I wouldn't be either breaking copyright laws or stealing someone's image.

If you want it to be more canon and more realistic, you could just as easily ban photographs. The Harry Potter books were novels. The art in them and on the covers was illustrative, not photographic. Or you could ban playbys all together and make people use their words.

In case it's relevant, I am an artist. I'd be really pissed if someone ripped off my photos for some role play site.

Because all the admins (besides myself), and several of the members, have a problem with anime play-bys. I personally don't think we need them, but then again I don't think we need photographic play-by's either. I mean, whats the point of the characters appearance description then? But since the majority of the members love play-by's, we're not going to be banning them completely. Also, if a few members do not like this decision, we will reverse it. But currently, the reason for doing this is that the majority of RP sites out there have banned anime play-by's for various reasons, and most of the admins thought we should do the same with PA.

The objection is not about someone who might choose to illustrate their own playby. I also believe that for every rule there is an exception, as well. The new minor character change is most specifically referring to the anime and animation styles themselves and how far they are from canon. I see a well rendered illustration as being something entirely different. I do know that the books used illustrations, and they were used well, in my opinion.

So far as I know, no artist, photographer, etc, has given objection to their work being used as a playby, but that's not the point.

Personally, I wouldn't be unhappy with banning all playbys altogether, but most of our players enjoy them. Therefore, we will continue to have them. This is only to refine our guidelines a bit.

We are not asking anyone who has existing anime/animated playbys to change. If you want to do your own illustrations as your playbys, I would not be beyond giving you an exception to that, but it would be hard for me to just give anyone a go-ahead to do something that I have not seen. I would not do that for anything--written, illustrated, or otherwise. Much like the same concept of not signing anything that I haven't read. If you want to use illustrations, let us see them! Most likely, we will be glad to approve them for you. Fair enough?

K.

You have seen them. Lucy's avatar is a digital painting. I know it looks photorealistic, but that's only because it's shrunk down so small you can't see the strokes.

Lucy's is fine. If the others you do are a similar style, you're fine.

k.