I lean toward semi-realistic with my characters... blue/green/purple fur really isn't my cup of tea except in very small accents, and I like my colour choices to be at least somewhat plausible for a real animal to have (I also enjoy obsessing over harmonious colour schemes much more than is probably normal or healthy). On the other hand, fully realistic really limits your choices with most wild animals. In the end, the choices for a realistic lion are pretty much beige, kinda light beige, and slightly mottled... beige. XD My favourite strategy I've found is to google whatever species I'm making and make slight alterations to its natural colour/patterns until it's a little bit different without being over the top.
On a side note, I'm curious... does anyone have insight on the popularity of striped wolves? Not that there's anything wrong with them, I've just noticed that literally every other wolf in the game has stripes of some kind, even in 'realistic' RPs.