Guide for Writing Good Character Profiles

Argent Dawn
65

I heard worgen females love cannons.

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66

This with sugar on top :heart_eyes:

To be honest, I don’t get the hatred towards voice references. My idea of raspy might not fit another person’s view of raspy or hoarse or strained or crooning so a reference is a nice common-ground that everyone can refer to if in need.

67

When you have 5 people with the same voice ref in the same place it tends to break immersion.

2 Likes
68

A very big if. Since in-game we almost exclusively use the chat to communicate, which shows who was the one who talked, we are given the handle we need to differentiate between the characters who are talking.

At this point the character’s mannerisms, vocabulary and a rough description can (and tbh should) be enough to give the idea what they would sound like. 99% of the time I’ve managed to convey that my characters either sound like Christopher Lee or Deckard Cain, ie. old wise men who pass off as menacing or ultimately benevolent/kind solely based on the way I use emotes and how the character throws his weight around.

Ultimately if someone doesn’t get that idea then it won’t affect me. If they believe he sounds like x voice actor or a cute anime kid despite looking like a 8500-year old wizened warlock hiding his true affiliation with a veneer of elderly kindness and occasionally violent outburst, I won’t get into an argument with them.

69

Yes but my point is do the profile’s author desire to make the voice readily imaginable by the reader without it being described in emotes impede your actual experience in any way? Yes it would be lovely if everybody had not only the ability but also the creativity to so accurately describe their character’s voices but not everyone does. It’s like the option to turn on subtitles when watching a show - you don’t have to use it, but the option is there if you feel like it.

And yes I agree, some diversity would be nice. Besides everytime I read a Geralt reference I get annoyed that Mads Mikkelsen isn’t playing him and then my mind wanders off on a tirade rather than focus on RPing.

1 Like
70

I have actually put in “moderate experience” in my ooc section because I don’t find either experienced or new fitting and I don’t want people to expect me being more experienced than I am but neither to be totally new. It also doesn’t hurt imo to give an extra heads up if you’re new or very experienced, since those status icons are very black and white and doesn’t really say very much.

2 Likes
71

In a way we see the results of using such a shortcuts, given the content of this thread. As a new/returning role-player if I see 35 characters in-game starting their OOC Description / TRP first glance entries stating “Voice Actor: Geralt of Rivia :3” then I won’t get the impression its cringeworthy or perpetrating a dumb meme, I’d assume it’s standard.

And we can see how that affects my experience too, with 90% of Stormwind sounding like Geralt, the Void Elves sounding like Jared Leto or Margarot Robbie and some other stereotypes that I’m probably unaware of.

Not to me, given how watching a show on Netflix doesn’t demand my interaction with it, while in the case of Role-Playing in this game it’s interaction between two or more players. We are meant to build the world around us with these descriptions, not go with a dumb copout and making almost everyone sound like the current flavor of the month character with an OOC reference or something I would have to imdb to get a good idea of.

At least if people described the latter there would still be a leeway for anyone reading the description and make up their own minds about it.

2 Likes
72

The chad voice: myself vs the virgin (insert celebrity voice here)

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73

Mads is way too old to play Geralt in the show. Geralt’s meant to look in his 30s.

Mads should, if anything, play Vesemir.

1 Like
74

if it hasn’t been touched on, might I add the usage of color?
I personally don’t care if you think it looks cool
having your name in a dark color makes it impossible to read
you shouldn’t pick the color of anything based on what you think is coolest
instead, consider what background the text is displayed on, and use a lighter color which is easier to read.

11 Likes
75

May add this later. Touched on it a little with the ‘yellow on yellow’.

1 Like
76

… Now I have the urge to make a female Worgen Hunter when their revamp comes online.
You monster, entirely your fault…

2 Likes
77

More serious point, for do nots, brought on by something I saw first hand in passing in Boralus last night.

Titles “something something | Quite racist”

… sorry, how is that a visible trait? Is your character literally walking around with a sandwhich board saying “X race, go home!” ?
This extends to big waffling descriptions about a characters inner workings; unless its VISIBLE, what is the point?

8 Likes
78

Except glances are in fact for glances. There is literally “personality” and “appearance” tabs in About. Forcing it into a glance is not a personal preference, it’s wrong and rude. More often than not it’s done “because nobody reads Abouts and I really want people to read my things uwu!!!”
Like wow, I’m overjoyed to be reading six paragraphs about your character’s personality in tiny letters.

12 Likes
79

For me it’s the opposite, I think color and the icon you choose is a way of giving a feeling to your character, it helps adding to give off a first impression as a righteous/shady/joyful character imo

3 Likes
80

What you consider rude, I consider appropriate given that I use the option in conjunction to the sliders that are provided. :slight_smile: I also don’t use the actual tabs in ‘About’ I use the free-form version as it gives me more of a chance to customize. Thankfully you don’t have to read that tab, you can just move on to the next one as soon as you’ve read ‘personality.’ ^^

Thanks for the opinion though. :blush:

1 Like
81

It doesn’t really help whoever is reading it if it’s illegible though.

Just so people don’t think I’m entirely jaded, I’ll just add here also that I’ve read plenty of profiles that I like. Some of which are literally just a character art reference and some quick details. They pique my curiosity, I go in and I role-play.

9 Likes
82

I agree very dark colors are quite hard to read

3 Likes
83

In some cases (at least in mine for sure) a character reference sort of birthed itself into being through the power of memery. My rogue on more than several occasions was said to visually remind people of a red-haired version of Leon from RE2, which eventually evolved into other friends having artwork of my character drawn in that style, thus I am kind of stuck with it now.

Could be worse I guess.

84

Does your character have an illogical, one sided attraction for an Ada Wong character?