Viewpoint What are your thoughts on real person Roleplay?

[Nine.]

This is not a shaming thread, please do not make it one!
​

Long time writer and Roleplayer here.

Been around the internet, including the days where Mibba and Quotev were filled with band fanfiction. I've noticed nowadays there's been a rise in folks Roleplaying as YouTubers, streamers, and other celebrities as well. I hear that hockey fanfiction has really been popping off as well! I personally don't partake in these kinds of Roleplays or fanfictions though I tend to see them as largely unharmless. I've seen more and more discussion around the ethics of it, though, and I'm wondering what thoughts other folks have on this? What about thoughts on the use of real people as faceclaims?

 

[Reign of Terror]

Interesting questions!

I've joined a few threads using real face claims and was cool with it, supposing the intention was to use them as ONLY a visual, yknow? Like, the character, if you take the face claim away, is still uniquely mine and I can just get another similar image elsewhere or not use one at all. For the same reason I am reluctant to use canon characters even in anime-themed threads, that character has an entire history, personality, friendships, rivalries, enemies, fears, and aspirations that I did not write and thus makes it less fun, less sentimental for me. I don't wanna write a story as like Charlie Damelio or Justin Beiber or even opposite them.

I have never had a single individual moment in my life where I've said 'I want to write as/opposite Natalie Portman' and yet I have been propositioned by others for pairings with her for YEARS.

At that point, it isn't just a visual anymore. It's intended that one is writing the full scope of the character out, meaning a character I didn't actually make. Don't get me wrong, if anyone thinks they know the person well enough and they want to use canon characters or BECOME the celebrity, I am fine with that- I just don't feel comfortable using the full background of a prewritten person myself. Just like I wouldn't join a thread where the open roles were all thoroughly prewritten OC's the owner made themselves.

I have heard and understand the ethics, too, as while a lot of these people get modeling gigs and have thousands of pictures out there, they didn't specifically consent to being used as the face of anyone's OC. Personally, and maybe it's slimy of me, I don't think Henry Cavill or Matthew Kim from KARD are ever going to see my Xmen OC's so the ethics of using the imagery doesn't really keep me up at night, lol.

I see so many stories and threads on various platforms about, like you said, all manner of celebrities. I've seen the Marvel actors, BTS members, I even saw a Kai Cenat 1x1 once last year threw me for a LOOP. The internet is wild and I love to see it.

 

[Sagey]

I can deal with a RL face claim, but not people RPing as the actor/person themselves. I don't find it weird if it's an anime/cartoon/game character, but when it comes to just playing a RL person, it's weird. They have enough weirdos after them, don't be one of them. Even if the RP isn't weird it's still weird. Taking inspiration from them is totally different.

However, I don't generally roleplay fandom things (exceptions may apply but it's only ever for setting) but you won't catch me RPing as a real person (or a canon character anyway).

In the end, however, it doesn't have any effect on my life so go off, do what you enjoy. I'm certainly not going to say anything about it.

 

[AaronMk]

Being someone whose (trying) to do a bit of alt-historical fiction one of the things I've had to come to terms with is interpreting historical figures. So it's not unusual to do real-life figures but they do take more prep to do them right. At least, not the way the Hockey FanFic community does, which I actually know the horrors they bring about.

Because what the Hockey horny fanfic does is disrupt the personal relationship of currently living and active people you can go physically see and make problems for by holding signs asking them to the things they are written as doing in their horny online fan fics.

I don't have to worry about this with, I dunno, Chiang Kai-Shek

 

[Chained Echoes]

Well, people can write whatever they want. I personally would never do it. I can understand using a faceclaim of a real life person but roleplaying as them? I mean I get it to some far off degree...

 

[Onmyoji]

May be irrational, but roleplaying people who are currently alive, you can literally observe them in real time, and they can technically stumble upon your roleplay, creeps me out a bit. People can rp what they want, but I would not do it.

However, I don't feel that way about roleplaying historical figures. Technically, they're real people too. But they will not, uh, read your rp. And we don't witness exactly what kind of people they were, especially those from more ancient history. We only know about them from documents which were usually written and interpreted by other people, which, in turn, makes historical figures seem more like 'fictional characters' in that sense.

 

[Mitheral]

Roleplaying a living person? Not got me. At least not usually. I have done it for NPCs a couple times in TTRPGs. One was a superhero RP where the hero saved Air Force One. Terrorist plot long, long before 9-1-1. We nicknamed that scene "Tear Across the Dotted Line." The hero was a dragon that decided to use what was called a Presence attack. He literally tore off the top half of the aircraft. Forget realism. We had fun with it. And the player was a teenager much younger than the rest of the group. So ... my dark theme stuff like the guys setting off vests. (In fact the dragon decided to tear a suicide vest off with a claw ... and succeeded in doing do without it going off. We decided to pay heed to the idiot dice. Like I said, fun.) Anyways, the President wasn't a main character there.

Historical? Absolutely fine. In fact, I had a 1x1 about the colonization of Australia where I did just that - but as NPCs. I did my best to follow their actions historically - until I introduced non historical events to initiate an alternate timeline.

Using an image of an actor? Again, no issues. If that is what you want your character to look like, fine. In fact, I had an NPC that was called Trinity because she was a look alike for Carrie Anne Moss who played Trinity in Matrix. But the NPC was a very different person. It was a post apocalyptic RP. Kids loved her when she gave them the "Trinity look" and would then smile to let the know she wasn't serious.

 

[Daisie]

Hot take, but I feel weird about even trying to depict historical figures. No hate to anyone that does, but it does feel nearly identical to portraying living people, to me.

 

[Jannah]

Huge nope from me. It's fine to use a real person, like an actor, to portray a character (since that's what actors do, after all), but playing as said actor? That's getting a bit into creep territory. Same applies to any celebrity, really, including internet celebrities. In fact, all sites I've been on that require face claims don't even allow internet celebrities. Typically only actors (either from movies or TV), signed models, or signed musicians.

 

[Jannah]

Hot take, but I feel weird about even trying to depict historical figures. No hate to anyone that does, but it does feel nearly identical to portraying living people, to me.

I do a lot of historical RP and due to the nature of it sometimes real historical figures will make a cameo appearance. However, I refrain from actually playing them as a character. If their presence is truly necessary for the scene I'm writing then they're a NPC who will show up in the one scene and then after that not really be present in the story.

 

[frenzied_freak]

i feel like in most (not all, but certainly the majority of the ones i've seen) roleplay requests involving real-life celebrities or other currently-living figures, it's a weird way of the person requesting it dealing with a parasocial relationship they have with the person // the romantic interest (ie. a celebrity crush). which in itself is not weird: i've admittedly stumbled into accidental parasocial relationships and i'm not exempt from having the occasional celebrity crush, but i think that actually roleplaying as the person / with someone who is is creepy. like, if i were a celebrity, the idea of people who have never met me thinking i'm hot or whatever is odd but it's kinda part of what i would've signed up for, you know? but people actually using me and my being as a character to play out that thought process?? hell nah. celebrities already have so many creeps after them; let's not make fictional ones, too. no hate to people who do it: yeah, i find it off-putting but you do you, boo. personally, i'd never be caught dead playing opposite a real person, but that's just me.

 

[AaronMk]

Hot take, but I feel weird about even trying to depict historical figures. No hate to anyone that does, but it does feel nearly identical to portraying living people, to me.

If it helps any fictional depiction of historical persons even as a main or secondary character in a story is done as interpretation of that person. As it would for any use of a currently living person. But where currently living people have the complicating issue of well, being a live and can hide biographical aspects of their personalities to construct their own para social persona, it is often less so with historical characters. Aside from people from poorly sources periods of human history (antiquity, the so-called European Dark Age, even late medieval or the early modern), not a whole lot of major historical figures have been totally occluded*

*Exempting people whose later family, or other people who willingly destroyed any and all records of that person in order to reinforce their interpretational personas of someone else, like George Washington or if these people overlap with espionage and state security functions like Beria

 

[BuggaBoo]

I've seen more and more discussion around the ethics of it, though, and I'm wondering what thoughts other folks have on this? What about thoughts on the use of real people as faceclaims?

Hi!!

Let me put it this way. Sooooo like its a 1 in a million shot but someone ended up using my irl Pic for their charrie. I laughed and thought it was kinda flattering and actually reeeeeally funny that they made the charrie a hetero super smart scientist hacker type cuz that is sooooo not me. But yeah funny to think about lol

Now if they actually used my Pic AND decided to rp as me? If I knew and liked the person doing that then maaaaaybe id consent? But if its some unknown rando then like bruh not only super sus but makes my skin crawl. Id defo msg them and.get them to stop. And I'd only report them if I didn't know them irl.

Anyways so like yeah that said as for historical figures, I'd just use them as NPCs not MCs cuz then it don't really give me the ick.

 

[Pokeking]

I don't do face claims and especially not those of real people, but I give my perspective if I did. I would have no problem with a real person's face for the character. I suppose if I wanted to write a storyline about a talent agency director and I think that Robert Downey Jr would be a good casting choice, then I would use him to depict the character. However, if I wanted to roleplay as RDJ, then it's a no go for me.

 

[Idea]

There are three reasons why I don't do real person roleplay and wouldn't want to be involved with one:

• I'm going to be honest and say I find it a little creepy. Nothing against people who like it of course, and as long as it's self-contained I know it's pretty much harmless, but I just couldn't be comfortable with even using IRL pictures as faceclaims.
• I find the reasons to use a real person or even a cannon character to be, most of the time, either unappealing or better done with an original character anyway. For example, while I may want to see a character's story continue, or the character put in certain scenarios I wouldn't want that through roleplay. I'd want to see it in a story of its own, ideally from the original story or its maker(s), or if necessarily in rare occasions I could settle for fanfiction. If love for a character I'd find that insufficient reason to roleplay them and it's wanting to roleplay a character like that then I'd say make an original character that captures the aspects you want to emulate. That being said, at least with a cannon character (as opposed to a real person) I could still find myself using them just because I really find their particular circumstances and nature require something so specific and unique that it couldn't possibly be emulated without a full blown extensive rip-off of their entire story and being, or I could end up using them as NPCs if need be because they are that important in a setting for instance.
• I simply heavily, heavily dislike bringing real world baggage into a roleplay and roleplaying as a real person does that by default and does it in spades.

 

[KAOS]

This is why I don't do fanfiction. Because YES these people will come across your roleplays one day.
Depending on where you are from you can certainly get slammed with slander charges. Even if it's just fantasy. Their face is their money maker. Could you imagine if a fanfiction got rumored as fact and you had to lawyer up next to like MR BEAST?!

Goodbye thousands and thousands of saved money and hello debt debt debt.

It's generally why, for the most part, I do steer away from real face claims or I am a little picky about what's used.
For example, I have a roleplay with KAOS. I encourage people to use original character face claims. Their true to the character. Their not based on a random person. They are catered to a character so you can separate the person from face. So like I'm playing Goldblum as Zeus because he is Zeus in the show.

If I ever come across anyone using my face. You betcha I'd be serving people with slander papers. *cringe*

 

[Daisie]

If I ever come across anyone using my face. You betcha I'd be serving people with slander papers.

You don't have a case for defamation if someone is using your image for a RP... lol

 

[KAOS]

If someone used my face?! An average individual. You betcha I'd call my lawyer lol Its unsettling you are laughing at that, Daisie...

Go ahead and make fun of the Mr. Beast like that was half a joke... but like my face. That comment actually really makes me nervous so I'm going to whole heartedly assume you mean like famous people. Which yeah, like you have a point but my face. . D:

 

[Daisie]

If someone used my face?! An average individual. You betcha I'd call my lawyer lol Its unsettling you are laughing at that, Daisie...

Go ahead and make fun of the Mr. Beast like that was half a joke... but like my face. That comment actually really makes me nervous so I'm going to whole heartedly assume you mean like famous people. Which yeah, like you have a point but my face. . D:

Okay, let's get down to brass tacks, then. The definition of defamation is as follows:
"the act of communicating false statements about a person that injure the reputation of that person : the act of defaming another".
- definition from Webster's Dictionary.

I am not a lawyer, but this alone already poses a couple of problems to your claim.

Firstly: the idea that someone is communicating false statements. It could (and should) easily be argued that a RP is never intended to be making a statement on reality. Given that my writing explicitly takes place inside a fictional roleplay, it should be clear that I'm not making any commentary based in reality. I am, in no way, claiming that Markiplier has magical abilities by roleplaying with his image in a fantasy roleplay.

Secondly: the idea that someone is actively injuring your reputation by using your likeness. This is far more concrete and key to a successful suit. As far as I'm aware, you do NOT actually have a case for defamation unless your reputation is actively being damaged in ways that can harm your life, such as an employer deciding not to hire you based off of the content.

Wikipedia specifies:
"Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury."

Emphasis on the "legally redressable injury". If you have not suffered in any way beyond "I don't like this", I sincerely doubt you have a legal case for defamation.

 

[KAOS]

Okay, let's get down to brass tacks, then. The definition of defamation is as follows:
"the act of communicating false statements about a person that injure the reputation of that person : the act of defaming another".
- definition from Webster's Dictionary.

I am not a lawyer, but this alone already poses a couple of problems to your claim.

Firstly: the idea that someone is communicating false statements. It could (and should) easily be argued that a RP is never intended to be making a statement on reality. Given that my writing explicitly takes place inside a fictional roleplay, it should be clear that I'm not making any commentary based in reality. I am, in no way, claiming that Markiplier has magical abilities by roleplaying with his image in a fantasy roleplay.

Secondly: the idea that someone is actively injuring your reputation by using your likeness. This is far more concrete and key to a successful suit. As far as I'm aware, you do NOT actually have a case for defamation unless your reputation is actively being damaged in ways that can harm your life, such as an employer deciding not to hire you based off of the content.

Wikipedia specifies:
"Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury."

Are hashing out the Webster's dictionary and Wikipedia to argue the ethics and legalities of someone using my face?

youmakemesonervouse

 

[Daisie]

Are hashing out the Webster's dictionary and Wikipedia to argue the ethics and legalities of someone using my face?

youmakemesonervouse

Not the ethics. Just the legalities. You claimed that you would sue for defamation - I'm just informing you that that isn't how the legal system works.

 

[KAOS]

Not the ethics. Just the legalities. You claimed that you would sue for defamation - I'm just informing you that that isn't how the legal system works.

Okay, wikipedia could of schooled me in a few clicks. I much rather just text my lawyer. Their family and I'm certain they will give me a detailed and informed answer. Even if it's one I don't like I'll get an informed one. Especially for my country because you know different countries have different laws.

to add to this: i'm not like mad upset about what i'm seeing and reading i'm more so very confused

 

[Daisie]

Okay, wikipedia could of schooled me in a few clicks. I much rather just text my lawyer. Their family and I'm certain they will give me a detailed and informed answer. Even if it's one I don't like I'll get an informed one. Especially for my country because you know different countries have different laws.

Oh yeah for sure! Definitely contact a lawyer, that's good advice for just about any scenario XD
Sorry about the condescension, I just know that "slander" and "defamation" are VERY frequently thrown around to mean "you're saying stuff I don't like, so I want your money". It bugs the heck outta me.

Speaking of rules, I'm probably violating RpNation's by derailing this thread lol. Continue, y'all!

 

[KAOS]

Oh yeah for sure! Definitely contact a lawyer, that's good advice for just about any scenario XD
Sorry about the condescension, I just know that "slander" and "defamation" are VERY frequently thrown around to mean "you're saying stuff I don't like, so I want your money". It bugs the heck outta me.

Speaking of rules, I'm probably violating RpNation's by derailing this thread lol. Continue, y'all!

Oh gosh don't even think twice on it.
YES I feel you on that. People do throw around defamation and slander around like their yes and no.
UHG I feel you. I feel you. No I'm not one of those.
Just nervous about my face. lol

Oh yes no more derailing. My apologies on that. This is light debating here.

 

[Daisie]

Oh gosh don't even think twice on it.
YES I feel you on that. People do throw around defamation and slander around like their yes and no.
UHG I feel you. I feel you. No I'm not one of those.
Just nervous about my face. lol

Not to get nitpicky but you incorrectly threw out "slander" which is what started this, lol?
It happens to the best of us.