Several people with same canon character

[hinata2000100]

So, I was thinking, and I had a (rather stupid) idea. So, let's say the person controlling... Twilight Sparkle was too busy with RP's, but people wanted her in RP's. What I was thinking was that more than one person could control a pony, so there can be more opportunities for said pony to be in RP's.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Has this topic already been pressed upon?

[WhiteSlash]

It seems like a good idea, but my only concern would be different people struggling to keep up the personality. Whilst one person might play her a certain way, someone else might not

[SkyMunki]

I think it's a cool idea. Lots of us would like to RP with a cast character but they're very busy and generally away.

[RarityDash]

The big problem is keeping up continuity. The Mane RP is titled "The World of Equestria", and one reason is that world building is a big part of it. For that reason, having multiple players for a single pony in the same world runs into a definite problem.

Say one Twilight player interacts with an OC pony, meets them, befriends them and has some fun adventures. Later on, that same OC runs into Twilight again, but it's a different player. This Twilight wouldn't know what the relationship is or how to act, and even if they were told, it still probably wouldn't be the same as RPing with the first Twilight. We already run into this problem to some extent when the cast ponies do have to switch hands. Having just one player for each cast member simplifies the experience and keeps the continuity more solid as well as keeping the character more uniformly defined within the mane RP.

I won't speak for all the cast players, but personally I try my hardest to keep Rarity active and accessible within the mane RP. I know she's in high demand, and usually I'm willing to accommodate those who want to RP with her.

Also, if you really want to RP one of the mane cast ponies, you're completely free to in the Free For All section.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Already discussed. Please see Poking the Hornet's Nest: FiM Casting. Idea has been suggested a couple times, but it's hard to implement unless it's done at the beginning of site planning.

[Rosewind]

As Phil pointed out, the Free for All section is the absolute best place to play a mane cast pony -- or, alternatively, you may wait for a World of Equestria cast to open up and you may apply, but it doesn't happen terribly often!

[Talex]

I think this would be a good "idea" but I'm not too sure about how it would work out in practice. Yes it would solve the problem of the demand for the Mane 6, but also, it just sort of offsets the effect of having a designated mane character. Like Phil the wizard of time said, some characters might not know how to act in a scenario where a past character has already set up a relationship. I feel like this would sort of dampen an experience that could possibly be very enjoybale.

I think the free for all area is an okay place to fall back to anyway.

I hope I've worded my thoughts in a way that somepony can understand. ^w^

[Ashton]

If people want to see my whole views on the issue, look at the thread Tales linked, I spoke extensively on it, on both sides (and now I look back and have to admit a little of what I said, while accurate, was out of bitterness since I'd just lost a very important (to me) cast app...)

In short: It's a great idea in theory but it fails in practice. Though with some characters I could see having a "back up" if the person holding them is going to be gone a while, but not long enough to lose the character, especially if it's during a RP event, but general day-to-day, no...