In my time roleplaying on both deviantArt _{(*cue Vietnam flashback*)} and on the Guild, I've noticed something popping up sporadically: people wanting to roleplay as (or opposite) real-life people. I'm not talking the whole "2D vs. 3D characters for appearance", but people like YouTubers, pop stars, and other celebrities. Personally this strikes me as odd (and, depending on the context of the RP in question, downright disturbing), but I'm curious about how other RPers feel.

Before the discussion begins proper, please be respectful. All RPG rules apply, and no spamming or flaming, please.

Never done it. Seen it around for as long as I can remember. Don't really have an opinion on it.

I just lop it in the same category of roleplaying canon characters from a series.

I'm not a fan of it, but people should do as they do. If they want to roleplay a youtube celebrity, more power to them.

An interesting notion. If any, I'd try a shot on Pyrocynical. Need to up my sarcasm game.

Not really something I'd personally consider; unless you're able to really 'get in their head' and genuinely do a good job it's akin to an odd fanfic to me.
In the end it's not like I really care, to each their own.

Depending on the setup, it can often speak to a fantasy that I have zero desire to partake in the fulfilment of, but that's also true of a huge number of other RPs that I blow off. Even disregarding that, its still a bit creepy, taking the idea of impressions/impersonations to a rather extreme degree.

Not really something I'm a fan of, I find it kinda odd and a bit invasive. Roleplaying as a person who is real just strikes me as not right for some reason. I've seen it pop up a lot of times but personally, I'm not a fan of it.

I don't really like that at all. I find that most of the time people who try to play other people very often fail to do the person they're trying to play justice. It's really hard to nail someone perfectly, because the only person who can truly play a person is themselves.

I also don't like how sometimes it's used to create pairings that don't really have a chance of happening in real life. Like for example, I know in the k-pop community there are a lot of people pairing up stars with other stars, even though they already have significant others or have expressed zero interest in the other person. It's one thing to do it with characters, but it's an entirely different thing if it's real people.

This gives me an even worse headache than playing a fictional character that's relatively well known with hundreds of theories and quirks I could possibly use to get into their heads. I distinguish playing existing characters into categories, and playing real people goes right alongside playing someone's invested small-scale original character. I cannot and will not do that.

I've only seen this in contexts where literacy and/or plot quality is stunningly lacking. Otherwise, though, to get into a head like that requires a level of intimate knowledge that I simply don't want to have with any particular person. The only people I would know to that extent are such close family that they have no purpose in a roleplay of mine.

To play it at the literacy and knowledge required to simply not care of the many presentation flaws on both sides is to do something I would be highly unwilling to humor. To play at the literacy and knowledge required for accurate representation strikes me as creepy, unnecessary for my reading, and too much time just to get to this point.

As for 'why', I'd imagine it's a self insert fantasy and/or "I want to see this" fantasy with few roots in plot and character most of the time, and simply a relief for one's desire to see that scenario happen in one of the only ways that it possibly could. Most of the times this does end up being smutty, but it doesn't have to be this way either.

Wow, I certainly wouldn't have thought of playing RL peeps either for the one reason that I RP to escape RL, lol

That being said, I'd totes roll a CS of PewDiePie where the games he is currently reviewing come to life like Jumanji, and then characters from those games review him (while simultaneously trying to hunt him down for sport)

Otherwise...I got nuthin'.

Too each their own. Now, I will say the first time I saw someone use an actual person as an Face Claim instead of an art piece it struck me as odd as well. Then again, thinking way back seeing someone use an art piece for a face claim did the same. Now today I will use a person or an art piece as a face claim and not even think twice on it. It's just a visual representation of the characters appearance, not the characters personality or background.

Having said that, I have seen it done full out. Back in the WinMx chat days some nearly twenty years ago I saw people playing celebrity couples they wanted to RP - that struck me as really odd. To this day I still don't get it. Face Claim is one thing to create a character, but to say these days you are Jay Z and Beyonce? Yeah, I just cannot wrap my mind around that. I get cannon characters, I don't get the rest but I guess technically it is the next progression just doubt it would be something I could ever do and feel okay about. Some lines I just prefer not to cross. Who knows in another twenty years though. (Though by then god only knows how virtual reality will be used in RP - oh god the thought just gave me the creeps. Excuse me while I go bleach my brain.)

An interesting notion. If any, I'd try a shot on Pyrocynical. Need to up my sarcasm game.

fat lesbian: the roleplay

Never done it. Seen it around for as long as I can remember. Don't really have an opinion on it.

Can't say I never done it, cause I don't remember. But the rest is spot on for me.

I see absolutely no appeal to playing a role that offers even less flexibility than playing a fictional canon character. We go from you must pertain to these parameters, to you must pertain to these parameters, but you're also extremely mundane.

Perhaps in concept the greatest and most noteworthy issue I take with the idea is that the portrayal is unlikely to be a real, credible tribute to that person. Ignoring all of the potentially strange and even slightly disturbing and depraved things that could come with it, it feels terribly insincere in concept and I would argue, do in fact, it is at least as problematic as attempting canon characters, yet is one shade worse. While of course people are free to do so, I see no reasonable or possible attraction to the idea on that issue alone.

The individual is not really "them", they are a doppelganger, a fake, a dupe, portrayed by someone else attempting to be them. The odds they would behave appropriately are limited, if not almost assuredly inaccurate. Perhaps that is just ignored for the sake of the event and experience, but for myself, if I even had so much as an icon as that? I suspect I would find my suspension of disbelief dashed or my patience tested whenever anything that seems inappropriate to their person is played out. It creates an air of inherent dissonance that would inevitably permeate all of the idea, where things will not simply connect as they "should". It would be an even greater disassociation from the goal, I reason.

It comes with a certain expectation, one I doubt most would ever meet in their portrayal and that is just as an observer looking in, theorizing and hypothesizing. Mayhap that is not the case, that the portrayal might be remarkable and good experiences abound, but the simplest answer suggests that is unlikely, at least for myself. Though I will concede the whole concept is alien to me, especially with the issue of escapism versus mundanity; it is still fantasy of course, but it all appears much too normal.

To each's own, but the proposal is lost on me.

I get cannon characters, I don't get the rest

Still better than me, because I don't get cannon characters either.

Still better than me, because I don't get cannon characters either.

Jokes aside, I can understand wanting to have a partner play a canon character opposite your OC (and, looking back on the days I was one of those, I am quite ashamed, really), and I suppose that fantasy applies to real people. However, I'm simply more comfortable with "Hey, I want a romantic story with a fictional character" versus "I want a romantic story with a celebrity". Maybe that line of thinking comes from watching shows like Criminal Minds, where the latter has been used much more than the former.

. . . I can understand wanting to have a partner play a canon character opposite your OC . . .

I adopt the strict policy of never asking for this because I know full well I could never reciprocate the action. I have a few niche cases where I would love to have it because it would work well, but I would feel bad asking for something of a partner I could never do for them.