[Feedback] That idea has been taken!

[Ariavan]

Are there people out there that base their characters on things like anime, books, movies, etc. I have had the urge to create a character similar to A character from an anime, but would hate for ppl to say that I am unoriginal or anything. :(

[Xaraphyne]

It doesn't hurt to use other sources as inspiration, but taking blatant features from another concept is generally not a good idea.

[The_Golden_Wolf]

My main character is a combination of several other ideas. Really there are no original ideas left. But, too many would be... meh. But, then again my other main has the same first and last name from a famous fantasy series. I couldn't help myself. They are however not that character, just the same name.

Mind telling us what your idea is?

[Ariavan]

A character from an anime called Rurouni Kenshin. The name of the character is Sojiro. But the name is not important... its the idea behind Sojiro. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seta_S%C5%8Djir%C5%8D
Look at his background and personality...

[Athin]

I dunno - if you're just taking the personality and background from a character from an anime, scrubbing a few details and making it your own, that's pretty unoriginal.

[Ariavan]

No of course im not gonna do that... when i said background and personality i did not mean i was gonna use them... i guess i should of made it clear that i was gonna draw inspiration from those things... not copy paste and print...

[Villayna]

Chances are, no matter how "original" you make a character, someone can probably find something published somewhere and accuse you of stealing it.

As long as you aren't trying to BE that character and you spruce it up so it fits with your playstyle and at least some attempt has been made to make it sensible in the Warcraft Universe, you are fine in my book.


off-topic: I LOVE your avatar. simple but cool.

[Yatokth]

Side note: Sojiro is awesome

But yeah, play a character, if he's somehow similar to another character, well it happens, but please, don't just take something and give it a new shine and call it good.... That's tacky.

[Ariavan]

It seems that BE suits everything... but your right... nothing is original anymore... sniff.

Oh and thanks for the off topic comment. I wanted something that would fit my character. Looked for a bit then boom... it appeared. Its simplicity is what makes it so awesome.

[Ariavan]

Side note: Sojiro is awesome

But yeah, play a character, if he's somehow similar to another character, well it happens, but please, don't just take something and give it a new shine and call it good.... That's tacky.

hehe of course not. I had no intention of copy paste and change... but I love this character... and I love his personality... but we will see how this turns out.. I still have two other characters that i rp with. This one was just a thought.

side note to the side note... hell yeah he is!:cool:

[Yatokth]

hehe of course not. I had no intention of copy paste and change... but I love this character... and I love his personality... but we will see how this turns out.. I still have two other characters that i rp with. This one was just a thought.

side note to the side note... hell yeah he is!:cool:

Yeah, if you have a similar personality, it's fine, that's a character archetype, it's really impossible to get away from them.

In fact, I've noticed recently that my character bears more than a few resemblances to Captain Picard from Star Trek. o.O

Wasn't really intentional, it just happens.

[Ariavan]

hehe it just ends that way for some ppl. My main character is the same... he is turning out to be like ed from FMA... my friend and i made these two characters who are brothers... There short names are Aeth and Fael (Ed and Al)... keep in mind we probably made them before we watched FMA. But anyways... yeah... i get what you mean. thanks for the help.

[teutelquessir]

Nothing is original? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM)

[Raziel]

Hell, even that character was based on another character: Okita Soji (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okita_S%C5%8Dji).

[Ariavan]

hehehe... that made my day... and the day has bearly started. The more he thought about it the funnier his face got... then the end was glorious! point proven...

[Ariavan]

Hell, even that character was based on another character: Okita Soji (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okita_S%C5%8Dji).

hehe... so he was...goodness gracious...

[Yatokth]

Nothing is original? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM)

That was awesome. XD

[Naheal]

Originality is the fine art of remembering something but forgetting where you remember it from.

[Raziel]

That's the Pachelbel thing? TO think it's been two years since that was released.

Fucking Cellists.

[Rand_Shea]

People accused me of copying Rand from Wheel of Time with my hunter, whereas for the longest time, I thought I had made up the name and it was original.

There's only a limited amount of personality types that exist in the world... that make sense, anyway. As such, since there's an infinite number of characters being made up, some are bound to be the same, or very similar, in regards to that.

Same goes for basic ideologies. D&D player handbooks pretty much cover the entire spectrum of what kind of 'alignments' exist. Everything from Chaotic Evil to Lawful Good pretty much summarizes how a character is based on how they think, mannerisms, and quirks.

So long as you're not saying random Japanese words and claiming to be from Japan, you should be fine.

[Swerto]

Influencial inspiration is one thing.


Taking the character and carbon copying it is another.

Securo is heavily influenced by Kain from the LoK series, but he has MANY differences and is -NOT- Kain.

My WAR character Plisken is based off of the man with no name, but once again... he is -NOT- the man with no name.


It is one thing to base your character off of something... it is another to completely carbon copy it.

[Tillna]

When I first made Shiggy, I tought it was cool..she could manipulate her bonestructure...loosely bassed off Marrow.

Then it turns out I copied that guy from NAruto. WIth bone moves.

I was liek Fuck..didn;t know he exsisted.

[Malebrignon]

Yup, it's already been said, but I'll throw out my own two-cents anyway.

It is practically impossible to have an "original" thought in this age where all things creative can be shared with the push of a button. Chances are good that even if you came up with your entire concept from scratch and even went so far as to create your own language for your character that only you understand, someone will eventually tell you that you stole your idea from one obscure piece of media or another.

It often happens unintentionally. When I decided to adapt my long-running D&D character (Brig) to WoW, I was smugly impressed with myself. I'd found a truly "original" backstory in my Spelljammer (obscure D&D campaign setting) adventures and managed to shoehorn it into the WoW lore and play it out in a fairly believable manner. After a few months, I reviewed my stories with a more critical eye only to realize that I'd created a character with a very strong resemblance to Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance novels.

Just operate with the assumption that humble artists recognize imitation as the greatest form of flattery and role with whatever feels right. It's the internet; there will always be haters. As long as you find good people who'll comfortably role along with you, the sky is the limit. Steal away!

[Ariavan]

People accused me of copying Rand from Wheel of Time with my hunter, whereas for the longest time, I thought I had made up the name and it was original.

There's only a limited amount of personality types that exist in the world... that make sense, anyway. As such, since there's an infinite number of characters being made up, some are bound to be the same, or very similar, in regards to that.

Same goes for basic ideologies. D&D player handbooks pretty much cover the entire spectrum of what kind of 'alignments' exist. Everything from Chaotic Evil to Lawful Good pretty much summarizes how a character is based on how they think, mannerisms, and quirks.

So long as you're not saying random Japanese words and claiming to be from Japan, you should be fine.

hehe i think ill stay away from Japanese words and such... not that i know how to speak it to begin with...:D

[Ariavan]

Influencial inspiration is one thing.


Taking the character and carbon copying it is another.

Securo is heavily influenced by Kain from the LoK series, but he has MANY differences and is -NOT- Kain.

My WAR character Plisken is based off of the man with no name, but once again... he is -NOT- the man with no name.


It is one thing to base your character off of something... it is another to completely carbon copy it.

KAIN...thats kinda cool! :cool:

[Taknar]

Okay, if Malebrignon is Raist in-WoW terms, I need to see this.

[Nadea]

Nadea's last name is from a character from Kanon- but I felt it would work well and sound Royal-ish. Also, I used the last name with her original character in a Vampire the Masquerade campaign I took part in, and Undead Nadea was based off of HER, soooo...

But either way, its pretty hard to come up with something new and different these days. Basing your character off of another character isn't a BAD thing. Just be careful with HOW MUCH you base off of that character XD

[NotMaithanet]

Celethorn ended up being a cross between Kain from LoK and Mal from Firefly. Which I didnt know because at the time I'd never seen Firefly. Many people thought I'd taken heavily from Whedon.

[Raziel]

Nadea's last name is from a character from Kanon- but I felt it would work well and sound Royal-ish. Also, I used the last name with her original character in a Vampire the Masquerade campaign I took part in, and Undead Nadea was based off of HER, soooo...

Which was always an issue to me because there's no Asia OR Asian culture to foster Japanese-style names or a civilization resembling it at all

..outside the Burning Blade Clan and Pandaria, that is.

[NotMaithanet]

Which was always an issue to me because there's no Asia OR Asian culture to foster Japanese-style names or a civilization resembling it at all

..outside the Burning Blade Clan and Pandaria, that is.

I'm trying to work out if you're upset at the use of Japanese names, or the lack of Asian cultures in WoW... And well, I can't. But that's okay, because my brain is not working today.

[LorFedorovic]

I've said it before, Rehdd's based off a character named Red from a web comic. She was originally just a character I was going to use as some extra profession or gathering source, but I ended up having so much fun spontaneously RPing her that I stuck with her. She's grown her own personality, still retains a couple words and phrases from the original character, but mostly she's just a nod in the character's direction now.

While they have lots in common, like their hate for things with fur, my Rehdd is quite a bit more insane, more open-minded (she's since decided not all Tauren need to be killed brutally, and she won't charge up to a hunters pet and start gnawing its ear off... except that one time), and a bit more hyper-active/talkative. Basically, that Red and my Rehdd are from different worlds, so it would be silly to force one character to fit into another world, but if it works it works.

Though that character is just "Little Red Riding Hood" so I suppose I'm borrowing a borrowed idea anyways.

As for Asian names I've said my peace on that as well. Blizz incorporates many things from RL, and makes all kinds of references to people IRL. It's obviously not supposed to be 100% separated from all things RL or we wouldn't even be speaking English Horde-side (and Belf names would be in Thelasian, not "DawnStar" or other words in "common"). As long as it doesn't fall under the "Leik OMG! I KAN MAIK MY BELF LOOK LEIK SEFAROTHH!!!" category or the "Let's pick a random word from Inu Yasha out of our butts" category, you should be fine.

Plus if we all decided to make lore-perfect names we'd be sitting at that character-creation screen for quite a long time.

[Raziel]

As for Asian names I've said my peace on that as well. Blizz incorporates many things from RL, and makes all kinds of references to people IRL. It's obviously not supposed to be 100% separated from all things RL or we wouldn't even be speaking English Horde-side (and Belf names would be in Thelasian, not "DawnStar" or other words in "common").

Orcish names and Pandarian names could be Asiatic due to the Burning Blade Clan actually having a fairly east asiatic culture. Hell, they're led by Blademasters, and one of the best ones is Samuro (who is in ETC). While the Burning Blade Clan fosters a highly Japanese Society, Pandarians are intristicly Chinese in their culture.

However, those cultures are unique only to them, as would be such things linked to them, such as nomenclature.


Plus if we all decided to make lore-perfect names we'd be sitting at that character-creation screen for quite a long time.

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