i feel like that was the most confusing way i could have worded that

basically, do you prefer other people to have proper character icons, or don't you mind if it's just a bunch of abstract images

an example being all the icons except the first for this journal: Captcha Check

*first three

honest answers! does it bother you to play against a character with no "face" icons

tbh I think it depends on where you're playing (whether it's a game or a psl or bakerstreet) and what style of rp (prose, longer smalltext, or commentspam)

yes, picture is worth a thousand words, especially if i'm deciding whether to tag in for the first time against an unfamiliar OC. it helps me get a sense of the character type. if the icon if abstract i'm probably not going to bother clicking through to find out where the character description is.

if it were a prose/longer tags psl, or an OC I had some familiarity with (whether it was via oc discussion or like, "I'm taking a character from a shared campaign to play in dwrp") then I don't think I'd mind

if it's a PSL or a player/character i already know, then i'm not fussed, but for an unknown? i won't look further at an abstract icon TL

but faster-paced rp is much more like improv which imo does rely on facial expressions, and then yeah i agree that if it's an unknown OC, I will probably want an idea of what kind of faces you're picking for this character

personally i'd rather someone find a PB that matches the vibe even if they (obviously) don't have whatever supernatural elements or the right outfits or whatever

it's nice to have icons with expressions, and it can really help for interpreting the tone of a tag

i remember a thread i had with huaisang where he was trying really hard to be cooperative but i kept choosing this icon where he's really guarded and kind of giving a stinkeye like hmm sus, which was a lot easier than repeating some variant of 'he continued watching them warily' for like four tags

personally i wouldn't mind the abstract icons, but especially like terra said, the shorter the tag, the more you need that expression. i excel in empathy/sympathy and very rarely misinterpret tone in writing at any length, so i am probably an outlier in that i wouldn't mind it!

but just from a psychological standpoint, expression icons help the other player read tone and avoid unintentional miscommunications! especially in an ASD-flooded hobby!

I'm with Terra also, if I'm familiar with the character and it's longer-format RP I don't care. If it's shorter, quick-paced tags then I like a face.

Oooo this is all good to know. Very helpful!!

I will keep taking opinions if people have them. this is both useful and fascinating to me

if i know the person and trust them to communicate what i need to know about the character i could not care less

i come from the days of AIM rp tbf tho

When it's someone I know, especially in PSL, I don't care at all. I've written with people who only have 1 fanart icon for their OC, and who have abstract 'vibe' icons. Vibe is a good way to view icons, I think. An 'unknown' makes me wary in those cases, but if the writing is good I'd still go for it.

That said, I have trouble picturing things in my head, so if there is a choice for icons that show facial expressions, my preference leans towards those. Especially for text/boomerang brackets where mood and expressions aren't described.

see i never would have thought about the difference between prosey and boomerang tags

I have super good mental visualization, combined with my ASD, means I wouldnt have realized these things on my own

My aphantasia can be kind of a trial with writing sometimes but it hasn't hurt my ability to enjoy boomerang and such at least. I just think of things differently than pictures. A fave PSL of mine right now has an OC with pretty abstract icons and it hasn't influenced my enjoyment at all.

yeah, Im trying to judge how many real icons I'll need for my new OC journal. I'd only be PSLing with people on my plurk timeline but still

Imo as an oc player: do what’s right for you and your character. If your character is human it may be easier to find a PB for icons and not everyone can afford to get icons drawn by someone. Some of my ocs are non-human so it makes it challenging for getting icons. If you’re just rping with your timeline in psls I don’t see why you can’t use abstract icons.

I draw my own icons, which is why it takes me so long, haha. and i almost never play human characters, so no pbs for me

and yeah they'd be my timeline people, but I haven't RPed with anyone in like a year and a half and this is a character that no one knows, so i wasn't as confident being like "here's my weirdo!! good luck!"

if it were a total unknown i might be like "huh" but still givethem a shot depending on character setup and if i liked their writing

if you know people i think you already have the trust established that you'd need to do this

...also this has always been something that i'd wondered about! it's really interesting to see what others think about it

i've also realized i am weird because i don't picture things at all when i read unless i like.

make myself.

ooo i didn't know that about you

s having a ref sheet or a few drawn icons or just the words doesn't necessarily make a lot of different lololol

YEAH like

i don't even know how to describe it

just textual brain i guess?

mintSMASH that sounds like aphantasia. there are different levels of it. you can have partial aphantasia, or total.

interesting! i'll read up on that i guess 🤔

it was a bit of a surprise to me when i realized it wasn't like this for everyone lolol

if i work hard to picture things from text i get kind of like a details-blurred watercolor painting effect i guess

but i have to deliberately try to do that

god yeah i picture everything immediately and vividly, and it often slows me down because i'm busy watching it

most people I know can picture things fine

i picture things whether i want to or not

my friends used to torment me with it actually fhdkjhg

saying things just to make me picture them

lolol

or like

maybe its not working hard to picture things

a couple oversimplified examples

i just deliberately have to stop and make myself do it

whaaaaaat... there's a difference between phantasia and prophantasia??

this is fascinating...

this may explain it better but take it with a grain of salt bc it's the internet

whooooooa I didn't know there was a difference???

I have... all of these... really vividly

including that agogia or whatever it's called one

like, there are certain songs that I can't listen to if I have something I need to be doing, because the "movie" that plays completely takes over my senses

I judge most songs by the images that they make happen in my head actually. I have an auditory processing disorder, so even sound is largely visual for me gfhdkjgh

dang. I am learning something today haha

cherto: thanks for the links & material! I am also learning things today wow

happy to share, especially if it helps anyone. I'm no authority though, can only really speak for myself. but a friend suggested (and I agreed) that aphantasia may be part of the reason why our descriptive writing tends to lean more towards the cerebral side of things.

I have to put in extra effort for the visceral and external, especially 'setting a scene', but I've gotten better with active practice. Otherwise I would have my tags get lost in my character's head with inner monologue and motivations and such and not acknowledge anything else they aren't immediately interacting with

I was just wondering about this! that's very interesting

makes sense

yeah, I think it's neat how the human brain will just find ways to work around things if it can. I know that artists can have it, too.I have APHANTASIA (and you may too...without realisi...

I will stop taking over this plurk now

lmfaooo Id forgotten what my own plurk originally was about

when I'm scrolling through bakerstreet or something, one of my first steps in tagging someone new is a vibe check through their icon - basically what kind of character to they give the impression of being, and does that seem like someone who'd play off of mine well, especially as a fellow OC player

I also have a really hard time reading long blocks of text, so it's better for me than a profile bio