What are adoptables?

[Jericho Z. Barrons]

I have seen this for years and thought I kinda got the gist but never asked anyone. And I have a lot of questions. What are adoptables? Like...is it a scam?

If I see an artist advertising adoptables for sale, for real money, I pay them and then....? What? What happens next?

What does it mean to adopt the drawing? What are the parameters of adoption?

Like, is it my design now?

If I am also an artist who would now use this design for an OC or whatever, why not just create my own thing? If I am not an artist and can't create my own OC designs, what do I do with this character I have "adopted"?

Is this worth it? Do you personally feel purchasing adoptables is worth it?

Tell me your thoughts on adoptables.

 

[MatchaMochi]

Adoptables are basically just OCs/design for OC that the artist creates and puts on sale usually in auction-style or in some set price. Winner of the auction or the one who purchases the adoptable design now owns the design of this OC and can do whatever they want with it. Commission art of it, develop it into a character that you use in roleplays or your stories etc.

Basically you buy/adopt a character design/OC, but you skip the whole designing their look process. As to why you would do this I personally don't know. Usually they are cheaper than commissioning an artist to do your own design so that might be one reason, but this really depends on the artist.

One other thing might be that the person falls in love with the design and wants it for themselves, but I guess nothing prevents the said person to do a similar design of their own that's inspired by the adoptable they saw.

I would say that it is not a scam, but if you're an artist with a decent following it might be a nice and quick payday for you, since sometimes these adoptables go for a really high price that you could use to pay someone to create a design that you personally have designed. If you absolutely love the artstyle of this said artist, can't afford to pay for their usual commission price (or if their commission slots sell-out in a blink of an eye) and you absolutely want an OC, but have no idea for one then in that case this sort of adoptable-deal is a perfect one for you, but I find this type of situation be very very unlikely.

Personally I rather just pay the artist to do me a ref-sheet or draw my character than seek for a ready-made design, or do one myself with my less-than-mediocre drawing skills. I would never personally buy an adoptable since it takes one of the most fun aspects of designing an OC away from me, but each their own.