Managing Editor Jon Wood returns this week to write a new Community Spotlight. This time, he's turning the focus onto the idea of the importance of character customization.

It's Wednesday, and I find myself once again compelled to drop in on one of the many conversations that our members are having in our forums. This time around, it was a thread called Character Customization created by Chrysos.

"I wonder how much dev time and money is put into making customer customization possible." He said, "personally, I don't get it. Outside of the time you spend creating your character and the time game reviewers spend waxing lyrical about it. What is the use of having 4 different things you can change to your cheeks (see the 2007 CES Conan preview).

"You recognize people in game from the name above their head not because their nose is slightly wider than the other dwarfs. I want to try to be unique in game as well but it seems to me that that is better achieved by being able to get distictive clothing and gear. Be honest how many times has anybody actually looked closely enough at another characters face to notice the subtle adjustements they made during character creation, those times that the face isn't obscured by some form of headwear anyway."

You can read the whole article here.

just to clarify, People left SWG due to CU and NGE.  in the NGE they removed the profession called image Designer.  one of many factors that made SWG GREAT pre-CU is you could change your appearance.  Majority of the games on the market don't allow you to change your appearance after the character has been created.

Actually I'd say the character customization is one of the chief reasons people play City of Heroes.  People watching is one of the best things to do in that game; just walk around looking at peoples concepts and reading their bios.  I've never seen another game that has costume contests.  Things like that bring the community together. 

Character customization doesn't bring that much to the game, but its the first thing people see when they start playing for the first time, and if its lacking, like in DDO, it gives a bad impression to players.  So its important for that reason.

In pen and paper games, everything pretty much resides in the heads and imaginations of the people playing.  When the first crpgs started coming out much was still left to people's imaginations however, as time has gone on and tech has advanced more and more is taken on by the computer and the graphics engines.  Here we are in 2007.  We know that it is very possible to have extensive character customization options.  Look at SWG.  Sure, you can rely on the names over people's heads but, you could turn off the ui and basically walk into a crowded cantina and recognize a good percentage of the people by sight, this on many levels helps with the suspension of disbelief.

As we are at a point several years from the launch of swg, let alone the start of development for that game, there is little to no reason why we shouldnt expect as much if not more customization for our toons.  Any game that comes down the pike with limited customization automatically loses a couple points from me because it tells me that the developers were lazy (and there are ALOT of lazy devs out there).  it may only be frills and fluff on some levels, but if I start a game and within 30 minutes see 20 other people and npcs that look exactly like me I find it less engaging a gaming experience.

A couple of facial feautres may not matter that much.  In Everquest 2 (that I just recently started) I found that you can hardly see the facial features of the characters in the game (and still see anything else, at least).

But height and weight should be customizable.  Sure, most players pick tall and skinny, but that just means if you pick short, fat, and bald, you'll have the most recognizable avatar in the game!  How mad is he that he is losing his hair?  So mad he can shoot fireballs!  Bwahahaha!

In future releases such as the expected 2007 release of Conan, I believe I read it was 30ish options of customization? While that is a pretty cool thing that, if I play Conan i'll take full advantage of, but I have to agree... who is going to notice my incredibly subtle changes? Well... me of course. I wouldn't so much be doing it for other players; I'd be doing it for myself to get the exact look out of my avatar that I want.

Also in games that are currently out there, there is little emphasis put on custimization. To use WoW as an example, what little unique custimization of your characters facial features you applied at character creation are usually obscured by your choice of displaying your helm graphic. In EVE online customization is much more important. All you have to customize your character are the multitude of options to change your Avatar's image ... which is simply a head graphic consisting of nothing bigger than a forum board avatar.

I suspect that RPGers who come in to MMOs from the paper and pencil hobby understand the more visceral element of being able to visualize/describe your character.....in fact, even though WoW has a fairly decent range of customization options, I find it prety limiting; you can't have exceptionally fat, short, tall or unusual looking models, for example. But hell, even if no one else notices little facial details....I notice them, and it makes a difference to me when I design my character.

Oddly, I really like the range of customization in DDO, which someone else mentioned was limited.....am I missing something here? DDO seems to me to have the best range of options I've seen outside of SWG. I like Guild Wars, too, though it is more limited, it provides some real distinct looks.

While I found CoH to be too limiting to the predominantly solo style of play I like, I loved the customization in that game....I probably played it far longer than normal just to enjoy the range of characters I could create.

Something else: being able to customize stats and templates is very important to me, too. WoW fails in this respect, for example; all I get to customize are talents, later on, and gear. But in DDO, you can build your character just how you like it. And Guild Wars, I love the ultra-flexible design options for characters.

My first reaction was... character customization...who needs it? Then i recalled that during my current DAOC run I've gone back and changed several of my alts appearance...on more than one occasion.  So I guess I do need it afterall.  Thinking back to games that limit the choices of hair or face.... I don't like them that much...   and I prefer all my characters to be as short as possible... (harder to hit in pvp, you know)

So.... thumbs up to customization....  gotta have it after all...

I belive customization is important to players for several reasons. First of all  some player want their toon to be an extension of themselves in the game. Second a player could want their toon to be a representation of who they woud like to be in the real world or in the pretend world of the game. Third a player could want thier toon to reflect an opposite of themself.  And fouth and player could want their toon to be something simply unique looking in the game. These are some of the resons I have seen why players like a wide range of customizing in MMORPG's. It matters to most everyone in someway.(in my opnion)

Originally posted by PsycoPanda
Actually I'd say the character customization is one of the chief reasons people play City of Heroes.  People watching is one of the best things to do in that game; just walk around looking at peoples concepts and reading their bios.  I've never seen another game that has costume contests.  Things like that bring the community together. 

Character customization doesn't bring that much to the game, but its the first thing people see when they start playing for the first time, and if its lacking, like in DDO, it gives a bad impression to players.  So its important for that reason.

The character customization in CoH is essentially your armor/weapons/colors.  Not how big your nose is, or how saggy your cheeks are.

I think the time spent in developing games like AoC and EQ2 in being able to have slightly fatter lips and slightly squintier eyes could be better spent on giving people far more armor sets and far more armor customization options.

Afterall, as soon as you put on a helmet, that 30 minutes you spent getting your nose just right, went right out the window.

WAR I think is doing it right.  They're giving people a selection of faces and planning on spending the development time that isn't devoted to silly sliders on things that increase play experience like armor customization.

I think CoH had it right when it comes to how things should be handled in customization for armor and weapons, let the players choose how they want to look, not the stats.

Lets face it in a MMORPG you can have 50 different types of armor, but what it boils down to is what one has the best stats. Wouldn't it be nice if a game allowed a player to take a piece of equipement to a crafter, keep all the stats on the item but change its apperence to a different piece of armor.

Originally posted by Guler

I think CoH had it right when it comes to how things should be handled in customization for armor and weapons, let the players choose how they want to look, not the stats.

Lets face it in a MMORPG you can have 50 different types of armor, but what it boils down to is what one has the best stats. Wouldn't it be nice if a game allowed a player to take a piece of equipement to a crafter, keep all the stats on the item but change its apperence to a different piece of armor.

Apparently that's what they're doing with Hero's Journey. You'll be able to wear rags and still get the same defences as full-plate armour :)

And I need character customisation. The first thing I do when I start a new game, is turn off all character and npc names. As someone has already said, you can walk into a crowded cantina in SWG and immediately recognise friends and enemies on sight; names or no names above the heads. I think that's a testament to that game's customisability. Dang I miss SWG :(

Edit: to the person near the top of this thread that posted that the NGE removed image designer. It's not true. ID is still there, it's just bunched in with all the entertainment classes.

[quote]I do it because I want to feel sexy, not because I want to have sex.[/quote]

I never understoond the difference. If I wear a motorcycle jacket, I'm going to ride a motorcycle. If I'm going to put on my uniform, then I'm on my way to work. Why would you get sexy with no intention of having sex? You're just going to confuse everybody.

ANYWAY

You can think of character appearance customization as a form of creative art. In composition of any art, you have to be aware of how someone views your piece.

Say a painting for example:

The artist cannot controll the distance any viewer is going to be from his painting. This means that he has to work at it from (primarily) two levels: The overall composition must work for viewing at great distances. IE: it has to look good from far away, where the eye blurs all the details. [i]Inside[/i] of that composition, details must be provided to engage the eye while close up. IE, when you stand close to a painting, you might looses the effect of the overall composition, so you need elements that still attract the eye and lead it around.

In an MMO these rules still apply with slight modification (WoW used as the primary atmosphere in this example):

Consider that all your enemy is going to see as he moves in for PVP: your gear, telling him your class and possibly difficulty level. That is our most basic composition and should require the most attention.

Then you get what your guild mates see: more detail, your race becomes more important. (But often they just see your name in chat)

Finaly, the details of facial features realy only gets enjoyed by your close friends, an in-game gf, and you.

I'm often dissapointed when facial features are the only customisable feature of a character. That means everyone's gong to look the same, especially in the nooby area. Facial features can be left out of the process, it's so incosiquential. Most people are going to be recognizing me from 50 to 100 yards away; somewhere in the middle of my 3 examples. THIS should be paramount in the minds of game designers when it comes to such elements of a game. CoH did it right.

Originally posted by PsycoPanda
Actually I'd say the character customization is one of the chief reasons people play City of Heroes.  People watching is one of the best things to do in that game; just walk around looking at peoples concepts and reading their bios.  I've never seen another game that has costume contests.  Things like that bring the community together. 

Character customization doesn't bring that much to the game, but its the first thing people see when they start playing for the first time, and if its lacking, like in DDO, it gives a bad impression to players.  So its important for that reason.

QFT

Sure tweaking the size of a cheekbone or nose is rather minor and wouldn't be missed but its the collection of all these things that a player first sees.   If the devs put so much effort into customization, then surely the game must be great right? 

 

I know what I look like even if I do spend a lot of time looking at the back of my head. So when I see other characters I know if they are wearing my face...I hate that. 

As for Conan, keep in mind there are only humans to pick for race, so imo its even more important you have as many options as possible.

That said, I suppose I would rather have 40 different hair styles and 50 different colors for it, than high or low cheek bones.

I like choices. My avatar IS an extension of my personality.  I see it every time I log on.  I FEEL the character when I run through the game.  Customization adds to roleplay. It allows you to immerse yourself that much more into something you've invested both time and money into.  My toons are usually sexy (did I mention my avatar is an extension of my personality??).  I enjoy certain features to my appearance (no I DON'T want Dolly Partons chest size but I DO want long hair and a wicked smile). I am a gratification junkie and a gamer chick.  I'm more likely to flirt with ya if my toon represents me.  So if ya think it doesn't matter, think again.  I gaurantee you'll have a better game experience if you enjoy those special little pixels all of us (both male & female) like to play with.

PS: I heard VG would have an upgrade to certain customizations upon release.  Specifically hair styles.  I'm ALL for it and I hope it doesn't disappoint, because there are alot of things lacking there atm, which is suprising since there are so many variations to other features available. GIVE ME LONG HAIR!! lol.

Cya in Game

~Aazgaroth~

 

*raises hand, looking around, uncertainly* I like to look at 'people's' faces... I loved the diversity in SWG, and I always had the names swimming around on top of people turned off, so could only recognize them by appearance, anyways...

I'm one of the suckers for customization... in my opinion, you can never have too much customization *nods* I cuold spend hours creating chars in SWG, dismissing them and create new ones....

The same in EVE (back when I played it) and CoH/ V. Not so much in WoW... that's pretty... well... boring springs to mind... but I love finding clothes around the place so that almost makes up for the lack of char customization. But only almost.

Buttom line - for me - is that it's my avatar (a representation of the Goddess (read 'lesser demon' :P) that is me) on the plane of existance I am choosing at the time. And I'd like it to represent me well *nods decisively* I don't really care if anybody else notices - though most of the people I play with probably would - but I would notice.

I think the character customizations as far as facial features go are widely unnoticable because they are so small and even if you add intricacies such as nose length or curvature of eyebrows, no one is really gonna notice or care.

CoH stands out for customization because you customize parts that WILL be noticed, short or tall, skinny or voluptuous thighs, clothing, clothing, clothing. SWG was nice because of the clothing customizations... (lol I had 2 houses I used only as wardrobe storage for my master dancer)

EQ and EQ2 have so many costume/armor pieces that just don't show and in the high end game people start looking the same due to each having the "uberest" armor pieces.

Anarchy Online had their functional armor pieces as well as their social costume parts such as bikini's and high heels and sunglasses. Each one of those did have their unique look and showed unless it was covered by another piece. (cloaks, coats etc)

Having a completely customizable costume in CoH has a very high advantage because its easier to pick out team members that need healing or help, or to know immediately what they're doing and where they're at in a scuffle.

In SWG, my master dancer would dance in cantinas and lived off of tips easily because she stood out and looked differently than the other dancers, each trying to attract enough attention of the customers to get the best tips.

In short, I think clothing customizations have a much bigger impact than facial features.

When you brought up SWG in your article I needed to respond.  See one of the main reasons I played SWG for so long was its ability to allow us to make a fairly unique character.   However, once the NGE came I lost all interest in the game and my character because she was no longer "unique".   Character customization to me goes deeper then just the pixels that make her look the way she does, but also the stats and abilities.   Is character customization all that important compared to game play...I think it depends on how you look at it.  There isn't much CC in Planetside yet that is one of my all time favorite games.  Why because it had great game play.   Then again Planetside is a different breed of MMORPG.   Now in a game like SWG or say Vanguard, it is important to me that we be given as many options that can be cramed into this area to allow us as much freedom as possible.   So all in all it depends on the game, the games atmosphere, and a couple of other little factors.   Game play is important, but I also look at how deep character customization is from looks, to clothing, to animations, to character development.  The more I feel attached to my character the longer I will most likely play the game.   I've made many post regarding this very topic on forums and it is a shame that most game developers still miss the mark when it comes to CC.   In fact if you've watched the trend in recent MMORPG's that have been released, SWG was the last MMORPG to have great CC.  Every other game as of late has given you less and less and less.   ::sighs::