I actually had a small discussion with sunflower_mynah, which kind of had to do with the first question, where she said it might depend on how much integrated in the canon storyline it is. I'd personally think it's fairer taking that into consideration.

Another question is about art -- pictures are a lot more recognizable as a game character; there aren't that many variations for character creation. Would fanart be treated differently from fic?

Also wondering if you want to extend the case to Crystal Chronicles characters, in case someone wanted to do those, since those are also a choice of characters? The only difference is they're on a slightly smaller scale. But... practically the same thing. (And technically, the MMOs actually have more details about world info to go off of, even...)