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(10-18-2016, 11:46 AM)Kilieit Wrote: I've been roleplaying since I was four, and online for over 10 years now.
I know what a ""special snowflake"" is.
I just think the term is completely useless. It doesn't describe a useful problem with an actual solution. It describes something that's easy to stigmatise so other people can feel better about themselves by putting others down.
Have my rant on Mary Sues and Darlings. I understand the problem you're trying to describe. I just don't think ""special snowflake"" is a clever, kind, useful, or in any way good way to talk about it - it's diluted so much so that it's meaningless, over-applied and under-defined to the extent that it's essentially become a bullying tool.
Call it bullying if you want, but I don't think most people see it as that or have anywhere near that intent when using the phrase. I know I don't. I just see it as the same as describing someone's character as Chaotic Neutral or any other alignment. It's a term that, while having a broad range of wiggle room for the type of character it can describe, gives you a general feel for what the character will be like.
It's simply a way of describing a character's archetype without having to go in to too much detail. The only difference between a special snowflake and someone RPing a "typical merc" is that special snowflakes don't advertise themselves as such. If you've interacted with someone whose character is as flat and interesting as an A4 piece of paper, Spongebob shenanigans not accounted for, I think it's perfectly okay to say to a friend, "So and so's character is a special snowflake" in the same way that someone who interacted with my character could say "Koen is a typical 'old soldier' type".