What is it these days with the lack of creativity when it comes to race selection in a majority of these new games?  They either have no, or almost no, selection at all or they have the same basic ones that people have been using to play D&D for decades.  I for one am tired of not having choices.

   I understand that developers try to stay to a basic humanoid shape, movement, etc for performance reasons but that doesn't mean we all should have to chose between a human a darker skinned human an elf or a dwarf.  Am I right?  I may be over simplifying a little to prove my point but I for one liked playing a ratonga...   ;p

Stop tempting my sarcasm.

Originally posted by mrziggz

  

    What is it these days with the lack of creativity when it comes to race selection in a majority of these new games?  They either have no, or almost no, selection at all or they have the same basic ones that people have been using to play D&D for decades.  I for one am tired of not having choices.

   I understand that developers try to stay to a basic humanoid shape, movement, etc for performance reasons but that doesn't mean we all should have to chose between a human a darker skinned human an elf or a dwarf.  Am I right?  I may be over simplifying a little to prove my point but I for one liked playing a ratonga...   ;p

That's because you're a furry.

Nothing wrong with that, just sayin'...

Even when given the choice, most players prefer to be humanoid. I doubt many would choose "Blob" or  "Tree"

Surprisingly, that in all these fantastic worlds we venture into, of all the different characters and races we can play. We choose to play our own species the most. See the Charts

Originally posted by mrziggz

  

    What is it these days with the lack of creativity when it comes to race selection in a majority of these new games?  They either have no, or almost no, selection at all or they have the same basic ones that people have been using to play D&D for decades.  I for one am tired of not having choices.

   I understand that developers try to stay to a basic humanoid shape, movement, etc for performance reasons but that doesn't mean we all should have to chose between a human a darker skinned human an elf or a dwarf.  Am I right?  I may be over simplifying a little to prove my point but I for one liked playing a ratonga...   ;p

Maybe they don't know how to design game mechanics for non-humanoids.  The talent pool for people who know how to make an MMO isn't huge.  I'm convinced that the sameness of the fantasy MMOs is due to the same people moving from company to company.  You should go yell at some computer science students, tell them we don't need any more Tolkienesqe MMOs.

I woud play a tree in a heartbeat.

hmm...I personally like to play a humanoid...I guess Im just boring like that lol...not that I have anything against choices though...maybe one day I will break out of my shell and try tree or blob

I personally like playing Humans aswell but i do prefer to see other people playing different races because it gives alot more variety and its kinda fun to see small dwarfs with the name of "BigPappa" or "who stepped on me!".

You're right, racial diversity seems to have fallen by the wayside in this generation of MMO's. And nobody is making too much of a fuss about it.

I personally prefer to play a human. As these are "role-palying" games, I find it easier to relate to a human than a troll or orc. That's not to say I never play other races. It just doesn't seem to be a crucial demand compared to so many other things I need in a game for me to play it.

I see the exact opposite problem actually.

I would be happy with a fantasy game that accurately reproduces the old fashioned D&D races. But it seems like every MMO has to add some gay twist to the classic races to make them stand out or something. I would like to see LESS creativity in this dept please.  Elves are not humans with pointed ears. Elves are not sparkly punk rockers either. Even the official D&D MMO (DDO) pulled this shit with that gay-ass Eberron campaign setting.

I dont want new, I want the old done well. This is the main reason I have abandoned fantasy-based MMOs. Everyone is too busy trying to re-invent the wheel.

Well first off, as others have stated, most MMOs right now are built around tolkien/D&D race types. Probably because though are popular. Think I'm lying? Go look at the racial statistics for, say, Night or Blood Elves in WoW. Compare them to less-standard races like the Trolls or Tauren. Yeah. Thought so.

Now here's the part when MMORPGamers on this thread tell me that the 'real" MMO-playing public (i.e. themselves) don't want that. Sorry kids, majority rules.

Also, you're unlikely to see non-humanoid races (And yes, anthro cows and rats count and humanoid.). You won't see blobs, or lizards, or whatever. Closests I've seen in recent memory was Horizon/Istaria's dragons, and they didn't go over well. The reason is people want something they can relate to. Four-(or no) legged movement and combat feel weird. We can't associate with the character well and thus, find outrselves disliking it. Sadly, this probably won't change in the near future unless human nature changes.

 I thought the term 'humanoid' encompassed anything that spoke and was bipedal?

Guess I was wrong.

i think i get what you're saying, and it seems like no one else does.  they all seem to think you want to be a tree... but you mean instead of being human, dwarf, troll, elf, orc etc. then maybe you could be a cat person like in morrowind or maybe a drudge from asheron's call (you can't play them, but they're an original humanoid monster made for the game) etc. and that way the game would be less generic.  I would love that.  hell, personaly i wouldnt mind being able to pick from a much more diverse line like a person with spider legs or something else more original than an elf.

personaly i hate how if you are a certain race you basically have to be a certain class. i.e. a high elf alwayshas to be a mage. i would like to maybe have the looks of one race but be just as good as another at what they do. that way you can look the way you want and do what you want.

Originally posted by Brain-dead

I see the exact opposite problem actually.

I would be happy with a fantasy game that accurately reproduces the old fashioned D&D races. But it seems like every MMO has to add some gay twist to the classic races to make them stand out or something. I would like to see LESS creativity in this dept please.  Elves are not humans with pointed ears. Elves are not sparkly punk rockers either. Even the official D&D MMO (DDO) pulled this shit with that gay-ass Eberron campaign setting.

I dont want new, I want the old done well. This is the main reason I have abandoned fantasy-based MMOs. Everyone is too busy trying to re-invent the wheel.

Hate to break it to ya but D&D Elves were gay :p Simply put. Rip an elf in half, half elf good joke ha ha. And the wheel should be re-invented.

The problem I see is there isn't enough diversity, not only with race selection but what about sub race? Play any MMO and you can tint the color of a human brown white pale green or any other of a number of colors. Big deal. What happened to Woodelves and High Elves? Drow? Druegar, Gully Dwarves, Hill and Mountain Dwarves? Among humans (to avoid lame racism claims) throw in Vampiric and Lycan (werebeasties, not just werewolves). Hell throw half-golems into the mix for any number of races.

The other major issues that crop up is a complete and total lack of culture, and a complete lack of difference. Most races in games get a small itsy bitsy boost to one unimportant thing or another.

I'd like to see racial choices that make a MAJOR difference in over all gameplay. As in the choice a player makes between a human warrior and an elven one. Or a dwarven priest differing from a Satyr priest.

But then again my perfect MMO would have so much complexity that it would take a college education to play the game without asking a question.

Originally posted by sanders01

 I thought the term 'humanoid' encompassed anything that spoke and was bipedal?

Guess I was wrong.

Apes are humanoid. Humanoid is basically used to describe any bipedal creature with four limbs and a head. Ants and other insects growing to human size and standing upright would be termed "insectoid" and so on.

Originally posted by blackwolf82

Originally posted by sanders01

 I thought the term 'humanoid' encompassed anything that spoke and was bipedal?

Guess I was wrong.

Apes are humanoid. Humanoid is basically used to describe any bipedal creature with four limbs and a head. Ants and other insects growing to human size and standing upright would be termed "insectoid" and so on.

Thanks for clearing it up, was confusing me since my definition would nearly fit anything that stoop upright.

I agree with the OP.

Trolls, giants, elementals, faeries, avians, minotaurs, drow, dragon, Duergar, Hobgoblin, Gargoyle, Ghost, Halfling, Gnoll, Goblin Troglodyte, Satyr, Slyth and many many more.

And don't forget - Illithid (I used to play one in a mud). 

In Guild Wars 2 you will be able to play a Charr. 

Wooo.... A little creature that is roughly the equivalent of a zergling? How exciting...

No I don't play Guild Wars.

Hate to break it to ya but D&D Elves were gay

And Wow elves arent? EQ Elves arent?

Elves are supposed to look gay. But the D&D version was the best one so far.

I'd like to see racial choices that make a MAJOR difference in over all gameplay.

With weaknesses as well as strengths. Not every race needs to be able to see in the dark, for example. Or see equally well in the dark.

I actually don't like races, usually they are just one dimesional, like big and brutish or slender and posh.  Or they are just created for the look, ie girls with cat ears, lizard people.

I think there is more than enough diversity in appearence and personality in humans, and you could really run with it if you wanted, so I would rather see one race with large ammounts of customization.

Originally posted by Brain-dead

Hate to break it to ya but D&D Elves were gay

And Wow elves arent? EQ Elves arent?

Elves are supposed to look gay. But the D&D version was the best one so far.

 

I'd like to see racial choices that make a MAJOR difference in over all gameplay.

With weaknesses as well as strengths. Not every race needs to be able to see in the dark, for example. Or see equally well in the dark.

This.

One of the cool things about EQ was the DEs ad HEs and such having different vision types. And they weren't OP in any way, since most players had light sources that made the differences unecessary. just a bit of cool fluff to set a race apart from others.

Originally posted by Brain-dead

I dont want new, I want the old done well. [...]

100% ACK

I am deeply annoyed about people who want to do something different just to be different. If you want to be creative, be creative about the believable concept behind your world. Making a consistent game world is much more important to me than if you found another possible random variation of how elves could possibly be. For that I could as well ask a random generator, I dont need a game for that.

For does anyone ever ask to fight with wheels instead of sword and axes ? Nope, such threads never appear. So whats different about races ? Elves and dwarves are well established fantasy races which already come with a lot of background. Do them right or, if you absolutely want to make them different, then come up with a damn good context and reason.

People use swords and axes in battle because they are good ways to craft a weapon. Dwarves are short humanoids, Elves are beautiful humanoids. They are simply the swords and axes of fantasy races, well tested, and they make sense. Everyone has an idea about them already, everyone assigns a lot of background to them.

Besides, if there is one single thing that really annoys the heck out of me than it is this stupid concept of adding elves or dwarves but giving them a different name than elves or dwarves for no reason but to be "different". Imagine someone doing a Star Trek game and not calling Vulcans, Romulans and Klingons just that. Would you call that creative ? I would call that extremely stupid.