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Stature

Story Friday March 22, 2019 Q&A#8

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2 hours ago, Stature said:

http://egscomics.com/comic/qa8-06

Late 2012 Confusion: Susan vs. Sarah

Late 2010s Confusion: Sarah vs. Diane

Transitive property of those two: Flat-out No :angry: .

Don't forget the first instance of character confusion 2003 Ellen vs Nanase.

 

The Susan vs Sarah one could just be boiled down to people just not getting their names right given they both start with "S",  kinda like how people say "Rhonda" instead of Rhoda, etc.

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4 hours ago, ijuin said:

Dan already did this joke in a Q&A back in http://egscomics.com/comic/2003-08-07, where Nanase and Ellen were allegedly being confused.

I can't speak for anyone reading in 2003, but I know that I confused Nanase and Ellen a few times when reading the comics prior to that in the archives the first time.

I also have mistaken Diane for Sarah a few times since Diane got her hair-cut; even in Wednesday's NP I thought she was Sarah for half a second before correcting myself.

I guess one of the primary things I use to differentiate human characters is hair style, and even then I don't always pay all that close attention to what I'm seeing. I also will take note of outfits, but that's only helpful in the context of a single scene or if the characters always wear the same thing. (And of course, if someone has a feature that really stands out from everyone else I'll probably notice that.)

...For me at least, this actually isn't just restricted to simplified art styles like Dan; I often get people I don't know well mixed up if they have similar hair/skin-tone/body-shape, even in real life. (And also in movies; Hollywood casting practices have made some movies very confusing for me.)

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

The Susan vs Sarah one could just be boiled down to people just not getting their names right given they both start with "S",  kinda like how people say "Rhonda" instead of Rhoda, etc.

This too is an issue I deal with; when reading quickly or when writing, the first letter of a name is the most important, and it's easy to get those whose names start with the same letter mixed up. (Though I've never called Rhoda "Rhonda", perhaps because I've never known anyone by either name, or followed a story with an important character named Rhonda.)

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I honestly never understood how people have trouble telling the characters apart. The characters being confused - Nanase and Ellen, Sarah and Susan, Sarah and Diane - look absolutely nothing like each other.

Is there a disproportionate number of people suffering from face blindness in the EGS fandom? It's the only explanation I can think of.

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5 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

I guess one of the primary things I use to differentiate human characters is hair style, and even then I don't always pay all that close attention to what I'm seeing. I also will take note of outfits, but that's only helpful in the context of a single scene or if the characters always wear the same thing. (And of course, if someone has a feature that really stands out from everyone else I'll probably notice that.)

...For me at least, this actually isn't just restricted to simplified art styles like Dan; I often get people I don't know well mixed up if they have similar hair/skin-tone/body-shape, even in real life. (And also in movies; Hollywood casting practices have made some movies very confusing for me.)

It sounds like you actually might have at least a slight case of face blindness, if not full-on.

Still doesn't explain how this is such a common issue, though.

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36 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

It sounds like you actually might have at least a slight case of face blindness, if not full-on.

Still doesn't explain how this is such a common issue, though.

Undiagnosed, but likely. I'm not sure what you would consider "full-on", but it's not like I can't tell the difference between faces at all, it's just more challenging for me than the average person. (It's apparently genetic, as my sister has the same problem.)

As for why it's so common among EGS fans... Well, it's not a complete answer, but the Wikipedia article mentions that people (or at least children) with face blindness tend to prefer cartoons over live action as it's easier to tell the characters apart; presumably this would also lead towards the webcomic-reading population having a higher percentage of face-blind individuals than the general population.

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6 hours ago, Illjwamh said:

Is there a disproportionate number of people suffering from face blindness in the EGS fandom? It's the only explanation I can think of.

It appears that Amanda might, given that she asks "How else am I supposed to tell people apart?" when Lisa asks about her focus on "junk in the trunk".

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5 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

As for why it's so common among EGS fans... Well, it's not a complete answer, but the Wikipedia article mentions that people (or at least children) with face blindness tend to prefer cartoons over live action as it's easier to tell the characters apart; presumably this would also lead towards the webcomic-reading population having a higher percentage of face-blind individuals than the general population.

Fascinating. And an intriguing hypothesis.

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Sooo ... Sarah is healer and Diane is rogue? Where is Ashley? I would expect SHE will be healer ...

12 hours ago, ChronosCat said:
15 hours ago, Scotty said:

The Susan vs Sarah one could just be boiled down to people just not getting their names right given they both start with "S",  kinda like how people say "Rhonda" instead of Rhoda, etc.

This too is an issue I deal with; when reading quickly or when writing, the first letter of a name is the most important, and it's easy to get those whose names start with the same letter mixed up. (Though I've never called Rhoda "Rhonda", perhaps because I've never known anyone by either name, or followed a story with an important character named Rhonda.)

I'm mixing people whose names starts with same character in real life too. At least the ones I know from internet.

7 hours ago, Illjwamh said:

It sounds like you actually might have at least a slight case of face blindness, if not full-on.

Still doesn't explain how this is such a common issue, though.

Might be the general "people with lower social skills and higher intelligence tend to pay less attention to faces, spend lot of time on internet and read sci-fi and fantasy, while people with higher social skills spend more time in pub working on lowering their intelligence with alcohol and read tabloids".

Did I missed some cliche? I suppose I could expand it if I go political ...

... I mean, it's obviously simplified and exaggerated, but considering the question was "why face blindness seem to be more common between readers of sci-fi/fantasy webcomic than in general population", it might be relevant.

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1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:
1 hour ago, mlooney said:

So far this Q&A has been, well, light weight.

Light has no mass, therefore it has no weight.

Light has no mass AT REST. Did you ever see light resting?

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Unless it is the barbarian still showing in Amanda, "Diane has not shoulder-length hair" just made me go in a tizzy.

22 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Light has no mass AT REST. Did you ever see light resting?

I do not think light can ever be at rest, even at time itself.

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36 minutes ago, Stature said:
23 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Light has no mass AT REST. Did you ever see light resting?

I do not think light can ever be at rest, even at time itself.

Of course it can't, it's physically impossible. Light is ALWAYS moving at speed of light, everything around needs to adapt to it. Time included.

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