I've never RPed on Tumblr ever, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Tumblr RP probably has its roots in fanfiction. If that's the case, I can definitely get why it would be frowned upon to drop in your original characters into Tumblr-RP-land.
Fanfiction is (generally) all about people writing stories with and about the characters we all fell in love with when we watched/played/read a certain movie/show/game/book. As a dorky teenager, I read a buttload of Final Fantasy fanfics because I loved the games so much that after I finished them, I wanted to keep enjoying the characters I came to care about. The last thing I wanted was for some guy/gal to drop in their original character that I didn't give a damn about and read about them rubbing elbows or attempting to be some BAMF with my favorite characters.
This might be why some Tumblr RP groups find original characters icky. If a bunch of folks are doing some RP based off of Naruto and some guy has his original character doing stuff that's just as wacky and 'badass' as all of the main characters, it just feels off.
In contrast, MMO RP obviously has it's roots in MMOs where we all start of creating our very own unique characters in the character creator. Unlike with fanfics, we generally don't go into the MMO already knowing the story and having favorite characters -- and even if we do (like with World of Warcraft) we as players can't play as those important characters. No one can roll up Thrall or Medivh for example. (Or you can try, but it shatters a million basic RP rules if you were to attempt to RP them.) MMO RPers take more pride in coming up with a unique character that also fits in the setting. It's typically frowned upon here to take a character from a totally different setting/game/movie/etc, made by someone else, and drop them in.
Plus, it can sometimes be pretty immersion breaking for RPers to have well-known characters from other franchises suddenly appear in Eorzea -- just like it's probably immersion breaking for Tumblr RPers to suddenly have Bob the Original Character being all buddy buddy with their favorite characters from their most beloved franchises.
I know I would avoid the heck out of someone literally RPing they are Son Goku or Kirito in Eorzea.
Fanfiction is (generally) all about people writing stories with and about the characters we all fell in love with when we watched/played/read a certain movie/show/game/book. As a dorky teenager, I read a buttload of Final Fantasy fanfics because I loved the games so much that after I finished them, I wanted to keep enjoying the characters I came to care about. The last thing I wanted was for some guy/gal to drop in their original character that I didn't give a damn about and read about them rubbing elbows or attempting to be some BAMF with my favorite characters.
This might be why some Tumblr RP groups find original characters icky. If a bunch of folks are doing some RP based off of Naruto and some guy has his original character doing stuff that's just as wacky and 'badass' as all of the main characters, it just feels off.
In contrast, MMO RP obviously has it's roots in MMOs where we all start of creating our very own unique characters in the character creator. Unlike with fanfics, we generally don't go into the MMO already knowing the story and having favorite characters -- and even if we do (like with World of Warcraft) we as players can't play as those important characters. No one can roll up Thrall or Medivh for example. (Or you can try, but it shatters a million basic RP rules if you were to attempt to RP them.) MMO RPers take more pride in coming up with a unique character that also fits in the setting. It's typically frowned upon here to take a character from a totally different setting/game/movie/etc, made by someone else, and drop them in.
Plus, it can sometimes be pretty immersion breaking for RPers to have well-known characters from other franchises suddenly appear in Eorzea -- just like it's probably immersion breaking for Tumblr RPers to suddenly have Bob the Original Character being all buddy buddy with their favorite characters from their most beloved franchises.
I know I would avoid the heck out of someone literally RPing they are Son Goku or Kirito in Eorzea.
