Is it okay to use another player's character 'fantasia' as your own without asking?

You don't know if they created their own look. They might have copied it from someone else just as you are thinking about copying it from them.

Go ahead and pick the look that makes you happy. Don't worry about what others are thinking.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I definitely feel it comes down to intent - we had the same idea? No problem, we still equally created independent characters that happened to look alike. You took my design so you could look like me? That's a bit creepy.

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There's nothing wrong with people copying your look because they like the look. There is a problem if they're copying your look so they can pretend they are you. Small but important difference.

I think it really depends on intent. Character creation in this game is very limited, so there’s not much you can do to stand out. And most characters that I have seen that look similar to mine still haven’t been exact and have used different glamours as well. I’ve never had anyone purposely copy my character that I know of, though I have seen it done to others and am a bit confused and creeped out by it so I can’t say I would be comfortable if it did happen to me. I have come up with an idea once before that I thought was fairly original only to look on tumblr later and find that i was by far not the only person to think of and use it, but I am fine with that. If it’s not aimed specifically at me or my character and there’s no harmful intent, then great minds think alike, etc.

On the other hand, someone dramatizing over two or three minor similarities would annoy me. I feel like if someone were really being harassing or stalkerish towards you, you’d know it based on how that person acts toward you or about the character appearance.

As others have mentioned I feel intent is the key. For example, someone in our FC was getting flak from another player because they relocated to a plot that they wanted, when we found out said player happened to be an RP'er and had a event going on we had some fun at their expense. We used our free fantasias to copy the image of said player to best of our ability and went to the event running around calling one another an impostor.

What we did was clearly harassment and fully expect to get a warning of some kind for our actions. I do agree it really does come down to intent.

For the record, I don't think that character creation is that limited in this game. It's only lacking slide bars to further customize the face shape, but even in games that have them I feel that every character ends up looking the same. It's because I don't think the features that will make your character recognizable are the likes of shape of their nose (unless they have a huge, special nose), but the overal colour palette and hairstyle shape. In that sense, FFXIV is not exactly lacking: skin tone, hairstyle, hairstyle colour, highlights, eye colour, heterochromia, makeup, facial features, tattoos. Unless you have a very average character (for example, blonde female miqo'te with the most popular hairstyle), I don't think it's that easy to run into a clone.

Also, some of us can spend a long time designing a character. We also make our characters recognizable (and therefore associated to our persona) in social media like tumblr. In such cases, being cloned doesn't feel nice, and I for one have never run into a clone that was an actual and innocent coincidence. I've even seen characters in the Lodestone using the appearance AND even the name of mine.

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Originally Posted by Vivi_Bushido

So my question is simple, what are your opinions on players wanting to use someone else's fantasia without asking?

https://www.strawpoll.me/15490981

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Well it is kinda hard to exactly copy someone elses look unless you ask them for the settings.

Despite that, I have found at least one close doppleganger, though they're a moonkeeper. It just so happened that we were both in the Rogues Guild at the same time wearing the same type of (ugly) gear.

https://i.imgur.com/jembsQn.png

In general though, it would be considered harassment if you try to copy someone's look AND their name. Copying their look has a moderate chance of being a coincidence (see above, I assume.) Also keep in mind that certain looks (like the derplander male) are defaults and some people barely change anything from default.

Well you are always going to come across people with similar faces and hairstyles, just standing in Limsa you are going to come across this. I've only seen one person that looked exactly like my character but with grey hair, and I'm pretty sure it was done by accident. I'm sure many of us have seen people that look almost exactly the same as us and I blame that on the limited options on the character creation screen.

As far as glamour is concerned, if someone did have the exact same glamour as me (which I know was copied) it wouldn't bother me, in fact I would take it as a compliment, might even crack a joke or two with the person. If someone did ask to use 'my' glamour I would find that a bit weird as they free to do what they want to their character. Its not like I'm going to message them demanding them to take off that glamour and then tell all my friends to message them. That would be harassment xD

The fact is none of us own glamour, we don't own the rights to the outfits xD. If you post pictures of your characters on sites like Instagram then I guess its only natural that people might pick up ideas from you. But to say people need to ask permission to use 'your' glamours is going a bit far.

No you shouldn't copy the appearance of anyone in this game. It's an insult. Not when you have virtually infinite options to choose from for your character like 3-4 faces and 5-6 eye shapes, 1-2 beards and no body options at all.
And with so many sliders you can make a truly unique character like nobody else has.

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Originally Posted by Clover_Blake

For the record, I don't think that character creation is that limited in this game.

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I do agree with this to an extent. CC is very limited but there are still a lot of variations with the smaller details that people don’t often notice unless they get a close-up view of your character. I think when most mention “twins” they’re just referring to random characters with the same hairstyle and base hair color, same face shape and similar skin tone. I remember seeing one of your characters cloned before, and it was to a degree with tiny details that would be a lot harder to leave to chance, so I can see where you’re coming from.

Basically it still boils down to intent, which is much more apparent when you get into cloning fine details, glamours, and character names, and even though imitation can be seen as a form of flattery, i think that if anyone goes to this kind of trouble for such an innocent reason as they “like the character’s design and aren’t that confident at designing characters themselves,” they don’t realize that it can make others feel very uncomfortable and therefore be taken as a rude gesture. Then again there’s the ones that aren’t so innocent, but they’re the reason why it makes people uncomfortable.

Come on, Its not hard look like someone else. This game doesn't have much option for customization xDDD
I find doppelgangers all the time.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Can't copy perfection.

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Won't copy trash.

Sweet glasses, btw.

Edit: And yes, you can use someone's look. It's not our intellectual property, lol.