Why do you like, or not like, closed species?

I like them for the sense of community and the designing within guidelines aspect (it's a fun challenge), but there's a lot of unkindness and elitism that's actively turned me off more than one species, and I don't like not having full rights to my character (as someone said earlier in this thread). 

A lot of people in CS communities have been pretty rude to me about my art, too. I don't think anyone's obligated to accept my offers, but I've noticed that I tend to be the only person making offers who doesn't get "your art is lovely, but..." type comments so much as hard no's. Someone for an exchange I participated in for a species insulted my art to my face. Someone else just kind of jerked me around about offers for months, then... insulted my art and my personality to my face. I get ignored constantly. It's very frustrating when you do go in looking for community, and the community is like, "sorry, you're not good enough!".

There's also huge issues with cliques and favoritism, and bringing it up as an issue gets dismissed because the people in those cliques tend to be mods (this isn't a dig at a specific species if you're thinking of one, it's a pattern I've seen across multiple). 

Overall, I do still like them, but it's very easy for species communities to breed jerks.

I dislike the idea of closed species. Like frankly it comes off as being very elitist and gatekeeping which imo are attitudes that are completely antithetical to character design and art. I  also find it kind of dumb to not let someone have the rights to their character, especially if the closed species isn't even especially creative or well made, which at least from what I've seen they're generally rather basic and simple. Which isn't bad for a character design, most of my characters are basic and simple lol its just easier for me that way but to make a fairly uncreative and low effort design a closed species is a bit dumb. like if youre going to be an elitist gatekeeper at least gatekeep something you worked hard on lol

I feel adding rarities is similar to buying more rare animals, like Piebald snakes are super expensive compared to their normal counterparts ^^

malaquill (Hopefully you don't mind the ping?)

Yeaaaaah I agree with the whole elitist part of the CS community. The fact that people always decline my art whenever I offer a CS character is always a big problem to me. It's kinda why I rarely adopt characters in general. However, I rarely do succeed in getting a CS character for art, which has been done two times.

All and all, people also ask for "quality > quantity", which throws me off from trading art for a CS character whose design I really love.

Anyway, this hasn't been brought up yet, but the whole "dream design" thing is not only a problem in the CS community, but also in the whole adoptables (and to an extent, OCs) community in general. Like, if someone faves your character, but they instead added them into their "dreamies" folder, and that character is the one you don't want to get rid of, that'd be pretty uncomfortable (at least to me), since it's kinda like stalking behaviour? But yeah. Two of my characters have ended up being faved as "dreamies" by other people... one of them is a CS character I own too.

(Just take that with a grain of salt, but still.)

I don’t mind the ping!

I don’t mind quality over quantity being asked. I do mind the insinuation that my art is low quality, though... like again, people are super rude? I'd rather not get a reply at all than get a "no".

What bothers me the most about them is that people force you to pay money for what's essentially a fan character. That's sketchy to me and why I avoid ALL closed species, no matter how unique or well made they are. Paying for a premade design is one thing, as it's no different than an adopt and you're buying the legal rights to a design. But dishing out a stupid amount of money just for the privilege of drawing your own character (MYOs)? No. You can argue the morality of making a closed species character without buying a MYO slot all you want, but I think it's even more wrong to force people to give you money they legally don't have to pay at all. You can't copyright a species or traits, so this paywall is incredibly infuriating to me

There's also all of the drama surrounding closed species communities but that's a whole different matter. Adding someone to a public blacklist just because they wanted to make a fan character comes off as kinda scummy to me. Or going after people because they accidentally made a character that looks too much like a closed species. I rather not be a part of any of that tbh

I get why people are drawn to them though. There are some really well made RPGs and communities that would be really fun to join. And honestly if you're ok with buying closed species then all the more power to you. But it's the gatekeeping attitude and forced paywalls that turn me away from them, it all comes off as some elitist money making scheme to me

There are artists (like me) that do make money making adopts for a closed species, as commissions are nearly impossible to sell if you’re not popular. So when someone is exposed to seeing a closed species in a specific style for the first time, that is their impression of the species overall and its great when we can make a little money from something that we created ourselves :> 

I feel that closed species are just a way to support an artist by supplying them with money for something you enjoy ^^ 

Because people can go crazy over a closed species, that allows an artist to get lots of money for something that is special to them. 

About legal rights, think this; You cannot sell a recolored pikachu, because that design is by Pokémon. So I feel the same about a closed species ^^

but then again, Some could argue that we can’t technically “own” anything, because sure we don’t own colors and we don’t own circles, so where are the boundaries really? :0

Honestly I personally dislike having to pay for something that either isn't easy to implement into something of mine or something I'm not allowed to implement into something of my own because of how the species is...and isn't art itself. I often am interested in the lore behind the species, but otherwise avoid them (unless they have a free event and I'm interested enough in them, not that it's happened so far). It's not because I'm cheap, it's literally just that I don't like the idea of paying to create a character that someone else sorta...has more control over than I do? in a way?

Another issue is the closed species that are completely unoriginal, [thing]+food, etc and are still super strict and get angry at people who create something like their CS...while knowing their CS is a chicken with hot dogs as legs or something. Just an example, I don't think I've ever seen sausage chickens as a CS (if it's a real thing...oof). Really in general I just don't like the idea of limitations I guess.

I could be wrong on a few things I think, I know little about the CS community since I rarely participate in anything relating to species, open or closed.

(EDIT: Post above mentions recolored pikachu...recolored inkay icon here, hello it is me althoughitwasforadifferentreason)

Though I am very pro-CS, I agree with many of the above with how “original” people think their CS are, like I am usually very Pro-CS because of designs like Gastrosnaps or Beholdra, because of how Alien-Like they are. They’re very difficult to tell what they were inspired by, this making them very original in my opinion ^^ 

i guess I wish there were more Alien-Like CS because those are the best species in my opinion ^^ 

Just like many above, I am not very fond of simple species that are extremely obvious you can tell the inspiration of, but for those Alien-Like CS, I am defenetly Pro-CS all the way ^^

For me a CS is an easy dreamie for me, like I absolutely love Gastrosnaps and can not wait to buy my own ^^ 

As long as they're not just hybrids of course, I like unique species

I guess Closed Species have their place for people who want to be part of a community, and to have characters that already have some kind of lore/story behind them so you don't have to come up with it yourself. And a few actually do have interesting designs.

But for someone like me, who has their own stories in mind, and isn't interested in being part of a community, CS are a very hard no. Toxicity/drama within CS communities is definitely a big problem for a lot of them, and many have restrictive rules that makes you feel like your only renting the designs, and that just one wrong step can get the character taken away without any kind of compensation (I don't care what anyone says, that's flat out theft).

One of my main problems with CS is when people are obsessed with the money making and/or exclusiveness of it. While I have no problem with people making a lot of money over their designs (Good for them!), I find it annoying how the only reason why designs are so expensive is because of it's CS status, not because of the actual quality of the design and art. And having to actually pay to make your own designs is extortion.

And of course the issue with people getting upset over character designs that are even vaguely similar to a CS. As long as the person isn't copying the lore and/or name of the species, or an already existing design, then leave them alone. Originality is a very subjective thing. Nothing is 100% original, so I don't believe it's right to lay claim to a certain concept and say that no one else in the entire world can make anything else even vaguely similar. If everyone did that, then eventually  the majority of artists wouldn't be able to even draw anymore without getting screamed at and bullied.

Yes, most of these issues exist even outside the CS community, but it's not quite as prevalent as with CS. I do have respect for a very select few species that have very lax rules, and are there for the community over anything else. But I am far more content with my own stories, and with ocs that I can do whatever I like with. I just feel there's far more risk in getting involved with CS, and many are more trouble than they're worth.

I think its dumb but also ingenious marketing strategy so who am I to judge lol