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Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Printable Version

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RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Elysia - 04-24-2015

This is an interesting discussion. As an "Asian", I do find the broad skin colour categories quite reductive when they are implied to be representative of nationalities, ethnicities or cultures. But skin colour is one of the most salient / visible indicators of ethnic difference and I support consciously contributing to diversity in an MMO. 

There were a number of reasons why Avis looks the way she does (and why, all that being said, cosplaying her won't be difficult for me at all. At least in terms of physique and hair color!). Her Ul'dahn heritage was one consideration, as was her similarity with another dark-haired incarnation from a story I used to work on... and there was also the fact that I generally preferred my mains to be... very ordinary people. So nothing out-of-the-world for them, in terms of appearance. However. I'm "yellow", of Chinese descent, while Avis seems fair by Eorzean standards, but I certainly don't see her as either 'white' or 'yellow'. Or even as anything close to the Doman gene pool, even for her dark hair. I gave her a slight olive shade for an Ul'dahn tan... at least, that was my intention during character creation, but she largely shows up as white or Asian in-game in harsh lighting. Still procrastinating on getting that Fantasia to rectify this... 

So I don't think it's bleed, or a bad thing, just because you look like your character. We all have our own reasons - story or otherwise - for why / how we design the people we have to stare at through the days and weeks leading up to 50 and beyond. 

The rest of my (invisible, sadly) alts appear darker or have a more 'alien' skin color. This is both a deliberate choice and an aesthetic preference.

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - TheLastCandle - 04-24-2015

Depends on the character. Yvelont is my main here. This guy is my main in Elder Scrolls Online. I feel equally "connected" to both, but admittedly my knowledge of European concepts of chivalry, heraldry, war and weaponry and so on and so forth (which I use quite often in my RP with Yvelont) is much greater than my grasp of the RL peoples and cultures the Redguards draw from, so I do feel more "at home" for lack of a better word playing Yvelont.

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Nako Vesh - 04-24-2015

I guess I tend to play medium-to-dark skinned characters while I'm pasty as hell. The exceptions to this are characters that don't spend a lot of time in the sun. One character in Guild Wars 2 was a giant nerd, so she was inside reading all day, and the other was a Necromancer so I just wanted to complete the creepy theme and make her super ghostly pale.

I used to make almost exclusively pale, Anglo phenotype characters, but one day I just sort of thought about it, "Why are my characters pale? Why is pale and white default for me?" I felt the answer to that had some bad implications, so I decided to change it up. I feel like the "default" fantasy hero typically tends to be Anglo, so why not do something a little different? I liked it so much that I haven't had a pale character since.

But usually I chose the completely inhuman colors just because I can! Laugh

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Titor - 04-24-2015

I am pretty pale IRL, and Titor is as well, thought Titor is a bit more of the sickly pale verses the 'white' pale. He should be darker for his ethnicity (His RL ethnicity would be Kazakh), but his illness drained most of the colour from him.

In other games, if I can play a race that can be grey/purple/blue/black skinned, I usually do. In WoW, my blood elf death knight (Who was kind of the only main I had with human skin tone choices, the rest were non-human skin choices) used the dark grey 'death knight' skin, and my keepers/duskies in this game are ashen to pure black coloured skin (sans Nerva, who is just a bit tanned, but he is an edge case).

I do have a character that is not represented in games at the moment (though i had her made at one point) who is a /very/ dark skinned highlander lady, with a bit of an African accent. She is cool, but I never really found a good place for her in FFXIV, but I might bring her back sometime as an airship pilot when I want a new alt.

I generally play a wide variety of skintones I think, I do not particularly stay into one tone. I think my favourite skin tones are nonhuman greyscale/ashen tones (like keepers can get). I also really like the pure white colour you can get on hellsguard femroes. If I am playing a non-human race, I really enjoy going for the (generally)non-human colour tones they can be if they have any greys/blues/greens/reds or whatnot in their skin pallet.

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Flickering Ember - 04-24-2015

(04-23-2015, 06:46 PM)Ette Wrote: As someone who follows a pretty strict “write/draw what you wanna see” policy I can’t really complain about that and then play a myriad of pale characters. 

Listen ok, I have a type.

This is my design policy for my characters. My characters will differ over games but there are a couple of features I choose more consistently than others. 
But if I have a certain aesthetic/combination with the eye/hair color in mind I will choose based off of that too.

That said, no, Ember and I do not share skin tones. We are, however, both red heads. Wink

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Maril - 04-24-2015

I am rather pale, being scandinavian and all - Nailah resembles me in the summer when I've had a slight tan.
Thala'to is grey and well. I am not, unless I've been rolling about in something grey like.. sand or so. Which I do not really do :p 
My seeker cat is far more tanned than I could ever hope to be. 

I tend to go with what I think looks best overall but I also think some other things into it, like for example with Nailah, she's a natural redhead and so I felt it wouldn't make sense if she was really really tanned. She also has some of the issues with sun redheads have and actually uses lotions in order to be able to function in Thanalan without turning into a shrimp, but she has done it for so long it's sort of a second nature to her now.

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Seriphyn - 04-24-2015

Seems like from the poll results, we have an even split! Interesting!

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Titor - 04-24-2015

(04-24-2015, 01:15 PM)Seriphyn Wrote: Seems like from the poll results, we have an even split! Interesting!
The poll needs a "I play both characters of my skin type and different to my skin type" option. I am not sure which one to choose myself XD

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Zyrusticae - 04-24-2015

IRL I am a pale yellowish southeast Asian.

This is what my characters look like:

Show Content

Hmmmm. You tell me! Laugh

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - QueenFrejyalen - 04-24-2015

I'm very pale white with black/dark red hair IRL.

Queenie has darker skin with white hair.

Not much of a reason why really, just thought the dark skin + white hair suited her character.  =]

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Titor - 04-24-2015

What games are those last two characters from Zyru?

RE: Your skin colour versus your character's skin colour - Khadan - 04-24-2015

Kayllen in game is about my complexion, maybe a little paler but pretty close. I have an alt that is a more 'middle eastern' complexion. No reason other than geographical, really. I don't place too much importance on skin color irl and that's carried over to in game in probably every game I've RP'd in. I admit that it's probably easier to identify with a character that's your own or close to your own ethnic background, though, #justsociologythings