MU Peeves Thread

[Roz]

@Testament said in MU Peeves Thread:

@GF I think it’s unenviable position. Either you’re really good at describing how someone looks, or you’re a good enough artists to make your own PBs. Or you just pay someone to do the art for you, which is always a viable option too.

I dunno if there’s a better option for people who lack both of those skills.

Some folks have had good luck with Artbreeder!

[Tez]

Chucked AI art generators into their own thread per preemptive request.

[sao]

I don’t really like PBs either. They’re never “right”. It helped me to think of it like, this actor is cast as my character in the show that is our game, but my character is still how they look in my head and in my description, so anything “wrong” about the PB is the natural variance between the “show” and its “casting” and the story I’m playing.

But even when I have great pbs there’s a little part of me that is like, grumble mutters grumblegrumble.

[Artemis]

@shit-piss-love said in MU Peeves Thread:

PBs don’t bother me really except that once they are common, not having them feels like being a second class citizen.

This is my thing with it! I’m never going to include a PB for my character, and I’m confident enough in my descriptive skills that it doesn’t feel like anything is lost, but it’s a matter of principle for me and anyone else who eschews them. This isn’t to say I knock the people who do use them, just it feels sucky to stick out like a sore thumb for a thing I can’t participate in.
Also @junipersky I agree with you, and I think the normalization of basic descs might mitigate the utility of PBs.
And @sao you write awesome descriptions that I consistently love, I can visualize your chars really easily!

[Testament]

There’s a term I forget what it’s called. Where someone has issue being able to actually visualize something in their mind. It’s the difference between people who can just draw something from their mind and those that need something to see in order paint/draw/whatever.

I’m the exact same way with writing. I can’t actually describe anything from my mind that actually exists in reality. I can describe a concept, because it’s something intangible, but something with three dimensions just doesn’t appear in my mind. And there’s a term for this, I remember reading about some time ago and going Holy shit, that’s me.

So for me, this is why needing images is so important. Once I have seen thing inspired by, it’s easier to write. So while I won’t say that PBs are essential, it does, oddly, help me become more familiar with a character, even if it’s not my character and someone else’s.

Which is also why losing my sight is likely my biggest fear on this planet.

ETA: Aphantasia. That was the word I was thinking of.

[icanbeyourmuse]

I’d not complain if PBs were sent away. I’m not really a fan of them. 90% of my PBs are picked by someone else. IF I pick it, it is usually artwork. I just use images online for inspiration on what I want over having any desire for a ‘PB’ or what have you.

[KarmaBum]

@junipersky said in MU Peeves Thread:

He is slightly shorter than an average man. His hair is brown. He has few noticeable muscles. His eyes are brown. He has a scar above his right eyebrow.

O M G HE HAS NO EARS?!??!?

[mietze]

I wish I could worry less and care less but I cannot and honestly it is one of the things I most hate about myself.

[Artemis]

@Testament lol I get you! We’re sort of opposites I guess, in that my own way of absorbing visual information has been through words my entire life. ^^ But yeah, for somebody like you, or anybody who just doesn’t enjoy writing descs, I get why PBs are there and how they’re useful. It’s chill. And ultimately I think it doesn’t detract from our appreciation of well-written imagery in this hobby.

[junipersky]

@KarmaBum

NORMALIZE THAT IF IT ISN’T MENTIONED THEN THERE ISN’T ANYTHING REMARKABLE OR ABNORMAL ABOUT IT.

[Sammich]

@junipersky Does that mean if I make a completely unremarkable person I won’t need to write a desc?

Please?

[junipersky]

@Sammich

I mean, basically. Eye/hair/height seem necessary to ~me~ but yeah. If you want people to just avoid talking about your character’s physical appearance then I don’t see any reason to have a desc.

“This is a basic blob person.”

[Sammich]

@junipersky I was mostly being tongue-in-cheek, but yeah, eye hair and height defs make sense. Though ‘basic blob person’ is embarrassingly sorta how I see literally everyone, including irl <_<

I’ve got some degree of aphantasia (I don’t think it’s complete, but it’s very close to complete? It’s hard to say without really knowing what everyone else actually experiences), but my general take on PBs seems to be the complete opposite of @Testament. PBs don’t really have any value to me except for like giving some kind of impression of personality I guess, but whatever that impression is quickly gets subsumed by whatever impression I’m getting from their RP anyways. Though I definitely understand using pictures to provide inspiration when creating a character, I don’t really see the value in any continued association between picture and character once a character is created.

It was super interesting for me to realise that difference in opinion though, because I guess I just assumed (foolishly) that everyone with aphantasia would feel the same way about this stuff.

[Testament]

@Sammich I have a co worker who also has it and he’s a painter. We have general similarities, but there are differences whe. It comes to visual stimuli.

[RightMeow]

@mietze

Same. So much same.

[Jumpscare]

PBs frustrate me. I write a character description and then I have to go to the internet to find someone famous enough that matches the description I wrote. And then I’m typically not allowed to use pictures of anyone else.

I’m here for the words. They’re delicious and crunchy.

[Pavel]

I hate writing descs out of the ether. I’m good at movement and dialogue, but dull “this is what this person looks like as a huge chunk of text” bores me to tears.

I can easily write a desc with a picture to hand, though. So generally, I find a decent actor (who I like and who doesn’t have massive scandals around them) who has played a role similar to what I want my character to be. And then I use that as inspiration for the desc.

[Arkandel]

@Pavel I don’t like any steps that act more as hoops to jump through, including ‘having a description’ before I can join the grid.

It’s not that I can’t write a generic one; it’s trivial and takes no time. It also serves very little purpose, especially in this day and age where most characters have a wiki page somewhere with some image.

In addition to it, at least my own practice had long been to describe my character as they appear at the time when I enter a scene, as well as (where appropriate) within the RP itself. That’s more useful than a @desc that has him in an Armani suit and combed back hair but in the actual IC situation he’s all bruised up and missing a tooth.

[Pavel]

@Arkandel I frequently used to joke that I’d just take a pb image and convert it to ascii art for my @desc.

ETA: I generally don’t, since I imagine it’d play merry hell with screen readers.

[Testament]

Honestly if someone doesn’t have a desc but everything else is good, I’m not beyond approving that person and just noting “Hey just make sure you get something at some point” in the approval message.

Granted, this may be my own bias with hating writing them myself that I’m giving a gift that was never really afforded to me.