Likes, Dislikes, Hobbies



Likes


This would be the first area where players start getting a little sloppy. It's not always a sure thing, but you can often tell an application that's going to need revision just from looking at the basic stats. Warning signs include knee-jerk likes and dislikes (heroes who like peace and dislike seeing people hurt; villains who love blood or evil), the overly prevalent hobbies of reading and writing, and things like the phrase "See Likes" under the hobbies listing. Fortunately, it's also fairly easy to avoid these problems...

Let's look at likes. The "Likes" and "Dislikes" sections should both include mainly nouns, as opposed to verbs, which go under "Hobbies." This area is the first opportunity for reviewers to really get to know your character, so don't list things that EVERYONE likes- that tells the reader nothing except that your character is a more or less normal person. The following things should NEVER appear in the "likes" area of an application:

Her/His Friends, Peace (for heroes), Cute Guys (for girls), Winning, "See Hobbies"

What should you include in the likes section? Interesting, quirky things, and, if she has one, things that are relevant to your character's element. For example, a fire mage might like spicy food and summer days, while a wind-themed character would probably prefer storms. While you're at it, try to throw in some quirks that aren't related to whatever element you're working with- it'll make your character stand out even more if she's more three-dimensional. Also, remember that your character doesn't have to like only physical objects; maybe she likes the sound of a dial tone or the smell of rain.

Dislikes


Before we start, here's a list of things that should never appear in a list of Dislikes:

War (for heroes), Seeing People Hurt (for heroes), Losing, Being Embarrassed

Dislikes can be more difficult than Likes; not only do you have to avoid the obvious, you also have to mention things that are relevant without just listing the opposites of what's listed in the "Likes" section. Don't worry if this isn't as long as the Likes area; generally around 3 to five things listed is okay, although you should probably check out the profiles of accepted characters to make sure.

Favorites


Some games also ask for favorite and least favorite foods or school subjects. For foods, try to think of unique things, rather than something pretty much everyone likes ("Fave Food: instant ramen /Hated Food: old soup" rather than "Fave Food: cake / Hated Food: Brussels Sprouts"). Also, vegetarianism has been popping up a lot lately for trendy characters. Far be it from me to dictate what other people eat, but as a former vegetarian I can pretty safely say that I would NEVER have listed "meat" for my least favorite food. (That position belongs to eggplant.) I just want to stress the point that JUST because your character opposes eating meat for moral/health/whatever reasons does NOT make it her least favorite food. If you want to make her a vegetarian, just list it in the personality or something, and come up with a more original hated food. (Tofu, perhaps?) The people reviewing your app will probably be impressed.
As for school subjects... I've given up ranting about what's put here and its amount of cliche-ness because, let's face it, there's a pretty limited range of choices. I strongly recommend that you avoid putting "Fave Subject: Art / Hated Subject: Math," for the simple reason that it really HAS been done to death, but the important thing is to remain true to your character. With that in mind, you should consider adding a reason WHY your character loves/hates this particular subject. You can get an interesting variety with these as well, since reasons don't have to pertain to the subject at all- one of my characters was fond of Math class because it gave him a good view of the girls' phys ed class.

Hobbies


Good news- there isn't a list of things that should NEVER appear in Hobbies. That doesn't mean that there aren't things to watch out for, though. I'd wager that about 90 percent of characters have "Reading" and "Writing" in their hobbies. Now, there's nothing wrong with creativity. However, the complete lack of any sort of detail, coupled with the sheer volume of these readers and writers, tends to make these VERY iffy hobbies to list.
There IS hope, however! Reading and Writing are easy hobbies to get accepted, IF you're willing to give a little information! What does your character like to read? Science textbooks? Penny dreadfuls? Porn comics? What does she write? Bad Goth poetry? Epic war stories? Advice pages for RPGs? Add a little bit of detail, and your character goes from being just another random application to a really interesting person!
Other hobbies which you'll want to use sparingly: Stargazing (seems like every other character I see these days has that in his/her hobbies. o.O), martial arts (it's becoming less prevalent, but it's normally used as an excuse to keep a character from being totally helpless in combat), listening to/playing music (like reading and writing, this can be improved simply through telling what kind of music the character likes), and drawing (once again, adding details- media, subjects, etc- will mitigate the problem somewhat).

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