Dislikes: BAD THINGS

[Seriphyn]

I should make it a habit to make threads complaining about RP character trends, rather than actually try to contribute anything constructive to the community [/scathingself-deprecation]

 

All in good time. For today's 'Stop not doing good' thread from myself, I wanted to point out how I've noticed that people tend to put a lot of unambiguously bad stuff under their 'Dislikes' on their character profiles. Voidsent, Garlean Empire, Ascians, rapists, murder, dishonor, crime, betrayal, feeling lonely/powerless/other negative emotion, exploitation of others, Nickelback, and so forth. My initial reaction to be blunt is "Yeah, no shit?" (well, unless there's Himself/Herself, in which case I go "Such edge"). Put one of those under "Likes" and THEN we'll have something interesting on our hands (and probably a bit weird...)

 

Even mine for Kale aren't that great. Thaumaturgy. Onoes another magiphobic character. Miqo'te. Onoes another cat-hate band-wagoner. Inconsistency. Onoes you just lambasted people having unambiguously negative things under 'Dislikes'. I should really fix those.

 

Anyway, do you believe you have something a bit different and less cliche under your character's 'Dislikes'? If so, what are they?

[Coatleque]

Likes and dislikes can change often, especially in the course of RP. I don't list either partly because I never know when they might change, and partly because I'm too lazy to think something up.

[Berrod Armstrong]

• People who seem to think that they're better than others without proving so first.
   
   
  
• Weak individuals who would cower helplessly before putting up a fight.
   
   
  
• Reading.
   
  

 

Only three, but I don't think they're too bad.

I should really put Nickelback on there though. Berrod would HATE that stuff.

[Melkire]

Mine are mostly cliché and awful.

 

...a hatred of card sharps is a little out of the way, though, especially considering that Osric doesn't particularly hate any other kind of cheat. Loaded dice? Fine. Rigged roulette? Fine. You're manipulating my cards? SCUMBAG.

[Roen]

I should really put Nickelback on there though. Berrod would HATE that stuff.

 

OH my goodness. I need to add it too.

[C'kayah Polaali]

After looking at the venerable likes/dislikes section of C'kayah's wiki ("Dislikes: Garleans" *wince*), I was motivated to change it all. At the same time, my mind took a musical bent. In the end, it really fits C'kayah well:

 

Likes

• Piña coladas
  
• Getting caught in the rain
  
• People with at least half a brain
  
• Makin love at midnight in the dunes of the cape
  
• Champagne
  
• The feel of the ocean
  

Dislikes

• Yoga
  
• Health food
  
• Red tape
  

[Mithril Specs]

Ohoho, but the often stated hate for all things Garlean is what makes me feel justified in making my deserter be paranoid to the max~

 

 

Ah, seriously though, it's such an easy pitfall to just tumble into, I don't wanna count the times I put something like "rude people" in a dislikes section, as obvious as that should be. Hmm, I think it does make some sense to point it out, if a character has a particularly seething hatred for "bad thing x" and if said dislike defines them, but outside of that, this sure is a good thing to remind myself of as I edit those wiki profiles.

 

PS: Shouldn't Nickelback be kind of a no-brainer, too?

[DreamedReality]

I take no issue with the over generic types of likes/dislikes. I take them as a sign OOCly of where a person's interests lie in the RP they want with that character. It gives ideas for possible hooks and getting an individual involved. And generic gives a lot of wiggle room to do such.

 

 

It also gives some insight as to char background at a very quick 'soundbite' sort of list. If the individual lists slavery as a dislike but not garleans then I can guess that a slaver has in some way had a greater influence in a character's past than the imperials have.

 

Yeah, they might not be poetic but it's certainly useful. And as Coatleque pointed out... very specific likes/dislikes can change over time. Sometimes rapidly. So a broad range generic list needs less maintenance.

 

Dunno if others agree but it gives me a small measure of amusement when someone lists a particular something in both the likes column and dislikes column. And I did it with Jaques's list with 'being drunk'.

[Sounsyy]

One of Sounsyy's listed dislikes is her own body. I don't know whether that's a common "bad thing" or not. But she also hates Ul'dah quite vehemently, which I'm hoping will make interesting roleplay when she becomes more political activist.

 

I don't mind the general, broad dislikes. To me, it gives me a quick feel for the character. If a character hates Ul'dah for example, why do they hate Ul'dah? Did something happen to them there? Etc. Versus, my character likes her chocobo, Clairemont. It's too specific. That's great for Sounsyy that she likes her chocobo... but it doesn't engage anybody reading her wiki. It's just kind of a "that's nice" thing.

[Lillith Cale]

I think mine are fairly generic as well, outside of the whole not liking people talking bad about her... differently abled Chocobo.

 

Honestly, when it came to writing them I just kinda brick wall'd

[Kellach Woods]

Eh, since Kell isn't super familiar with Eorzea yet I decided to give him some standard stuff like being put on the spot.

[Warren Castille]

I'm guilty of it, but I think everyone hates bad things. I just figured the list was the bad things that especially stood out. Nobody likes a murderer, for example, but maybe your character's got a strong feeling about bullying? Maybe they dislike voidsent especially because their parents worked as servants at Haukke.

 

It's not necessarily just cliche, sometimes it's the ripple on the surface of a deep pool.

[Verad]

Cactuars. Benign enough, but considering cactuars are a major component of one of Verad's most "popular" services, he winds up in a frustrating love-hate relationship with stupid wriggling green things that mutilate him with 1,000 Needles at random for no clear reason.

[Jancis]

I'm guilty of it, but I think everyone hates bad things. I just figured the list was the bad things that especially stood out. Nobody likes a murderer, for example, but maybe your character's got a strong feeling about bullying? Maybe they dislike voidsent especially because their parents worked as servants at Haukke.

 

It's not necessarily just cliche, sometimes it's the ripple on the surface of a deep pool.

 

That's definitely a great avenue to look at it as far as what kinds of dislikes they are and the impact they have on the character. The intensity of the dislike.

 

Maybe some of them are simple pet-peeves and annoyances.

 

Or maybe some of them send the person into an absolute fury like trigger words.

 

Jancis has a great annoyance with being called Child to the point that is really upsets her, or even if she does something she considers to be a childish mistake she will mule over and fume taking out the frustration in probably a brutal training session.

[TheLastCandle]

I'm guilty of it, but I think everyone hates bad things. I just figured the list was the bad things that especially stood out. Nobody likes a murderer, for example, but maybe your character's got a strong feeling about bullying? Maybe they dislike voidsent especially because their parents worked as servants at Haukke.

 

It's not necessarily just cliche, sometimes it's the ripple on the surface of a deep pool.

 

This is my take, exactly. Anything I bothered to write under any of my characters' "Dislikes" columns can be considered to be among their very least favorite things under the sun.

[Roswyn]

Nickelback

 

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

Lol.

[OttoVann]

The only thing I REALLY dislike is when people know that I roll Syndicate and have a lot of assumed political / economic influence and/or might and fuck with me on purpose to instigate something.

 

Otto never fights or combats. So Im always like...fuck what do I do? I hate being thrust into confrontations and I always wonder if I should sick the hounds (ridley, jaiythe, tsubasa, etc) or just walk away.

 

But thats all because Im still very new to RP and learn as I go. Maybe one day when someone approaches me and goes out of their way to start a confrontation I'll be comfortable enough in my character to just snatch the life out of them.

[Mae]

I'm also in the camp that sometimes the more generic/cliche dislikes can act as an indicator of interests or be a flag/warning/explanation for people who might be walk-ups or have just left a random encounter. I personally and generally don't list dislikes in public profiles UNLESS it's a trigger for particularly intense (see: hostile) response.

 

Kara doesn't have any true triggers... she gets a little funny and defensive when someone pesters her about the collar she wears, but it's not a violent response. 

 

Actual dislikes on the master profile, Kara only has two constants:

 

Rain. Kara HATES rain; it makes her skin itchy, she doesn't like the feel and sound of wet clothes and shoes, she doesn't like the way rain re-animates some smells (wet garbage, wet chocobo), and she hates it when she ends up splashing herself because she had to walk through a puddle. It can make roofs, tents, and caves leaky, and it can flood out/turn normally dry and pleasant places into quagmires.

-- Actually, aside from bathing and the rare swim, Kara doesn't like getting wet. Rain is just 'the worst' form of getting wet because there's no way to avoid it shy of staying indoors until the sky clears up and everything's dried out.

--- On the specifics of bathing... I think she'd be even happier if she could take a dust-bath like a chinchilla does...

 

Perpetually cold climates. Yes, Thanalan can get cold/chilly at night (as deserts normally do), but it's not a constant freezing like Coerthas (now) is.

[Aya]

Like many things on wiki's, these are really mostly for fun and kind of a throw away

 

Effective use, like so many other things, is just to provide a little insight into the character's disposition and personality, and they can be pithy little places to do that (and sometimes to mention a character quirk like Osric and card sharps!)

 

Its hard to imagine them being worthy of much real analysis

[Kellach Woods]

In my opinion, it's a good place to put stuff that really affects your character that wouldn't normally come up in History/Personality.

 

More stuff about the character is almost always good.

[Dat Oni]

Edgar despises makeup. Even though he is in desperate need of some enhanced complexion. He claims that it makes his skin unbearably itchy, and he'll just end up wiping it all off in a fit of frustration before he gets a chance at a compliment on his looks.

 

Koporo hates people who say anything about him in regards to him being a Lalafell, be it negative OR positive. He insists that people judge him on a personal basis, and ignore the fact that he's a short-statured species that may or may not be known for agility and being really friggen hard to catch.

[Leanne]

Morbols. Leanne has a horrible trauma with morbols.

 

She's okay with almost everything!

 

Morbols, though?

 

She would rather avoid anything morbol related if possible.

[Faye]

My boyfriend and I like to peruse RP profiles (not here, mind you, but among the frightening depths of Facebook RP pages) and giggle when we find things like "dislikes being sad" or "hates it when bad things happen to him." But as for things like Garleans, Voidsent, criminals, other things that are often considered "bad" by the majority but still more subjective than the generally unpleasant "feeling sad"--I think a lot of us include these in our characters' dislikes if/when they have a particular reason to be there.

 

For example, Voidsent. I venture most of my character's aren't fond of them. However, you'll only find them actually listed only among Faye's dislikes, due to the fact she had a particularly nasty encounter with one and has a vendetta now. On the other side of things, I have a Voidtouched character--thus I imagine that character is quite content with Voidsent.  It's sometimes intentional and not necessarily a faux pas to include "notoriously bad" things in your character's dislikes. There's still a degree of subjectivity among different character's POV's, and there might be a special reason it's there.

[Dravus]

When it comes to creating a character I prefer to focus on the why rather than the what. It's easy to claim that a character loathes X, Y or Z but it's pretty dull if there isn't an in-depth explanation behind a character's thoughts, feeling and motives.

 

It's pretty common for a character to claim to hate the Garlean Empire but that doesn't mean it can't make for an interesting tale in itself. I enjoy finding out the reasoning behind such a loathing instead of being faced with the rather dull 'I just do' type answers that are encountered from time to time.

 

Even the more mundane dislikes out there can make a character feel realistic and flawed if they're baked into a character well enough and there's the wonderful element of consistency. Claiming that one's character dislikes confrontation only to spend the better part of an evening having them pick fights in the Quicksand isn't consistent. A character having a fear and intense dislike of water and having to deal with that each time there's a lake, pond, ocean or river nearby can make a scene much more interesting.

 

As for J'rakh? He dislikes a fair few things though that is partly due to being quite the outsider to Eorzean society and based on events that have happened in the past. He loathes the Garlean Empire but that is because he's had members of his tribe killed and kidnapped over the years that he's tried to keep them safe. He dislikes alcohol because it dulls the senses and he believes it to be a poison that encourages loose morals and obscene behaviour.

 

So, yeah...I don't really have an issue with people listing stuff that their character dislikes provided they've put some thought into it.

[Pumpkinweed]

There are three things I generally dislike in role play:

 

1) Metagaming

2) Inability to separate OOC from IC

3) Mary Sues

 

When it comes to metagaming, I refer to players who just happen to know your character's name having never met them simply because they see the tag over one's head. Then there are the worst kinds of metagamers... the ones that have read your wiki or something based on the history of your character and they somehow now know these things in character as well. That's just bad form altogether.

 

To those that can't separate OOC from IC, they tend to take role play and set it back quite a bit for the sake of drama and bickering. What's to gain from it, really? If there is a character you dislike, don't hate the player over their character being a certain way. Negative or arrogant characters can help to develop anyone's character in a story arc just the same as anyone. The worst kind are players who role play simply to ERP and feel threatened each time you talk to a guy or girl that they have mentally set their sights on. Why hate a character for simply interacting? It's nuts.

 

Finally: Mary Sues.

 

All you need to do is think of Kirito in Sword Art Online. He's the perfect Mary Sue that can pull a deus ex anytime something is going against him. Characters that have weaknesses are easily the most charming in my opinion. Who wants to be perfect after all? Where is the fun in that?

 

Also, Creed sucks. The lead singer sounds like he has a stick up his ass.

 

As for what I like?

 

Pumpkins. :thumbsup: