I have shown the players in character back when it was a photocomic, but not often. One time I got my brother to do the drawings for a special strip that went in the back of the second volume of the print collections.
Drawing has opened up some interesting possibilities to me, and I hope to do more in character location shots as the series continues.
Fun fact: The Orijen Brothers and Komi Station both appear in my new novel Lost Souls, which went on sale this week! Go check it out!
www.noahchinnbooks.com/my-books/lost-souls-copy/
The species the characters play are all from that universe as well. Of course, it's still them but AS the different species. I was tempted to draw them as the actual species but with little affectations to make them recognizable as the players, but going the other way around was much more fun... and easier.