MMOs have always let people tweak their characters. Garrett looks at this and where it's been done well.

One of the very unique elements in Diablo was the ability to create and name your own weapon. I remember getting the quest, getting the materials and taking that cube and being very excited about giving a name to my new axe. Just the fact that I could name the weapon was very cool. I did not really care what it did. The axe is mine now; it was personalized, and that alone was cool. MMOs fall short in allowing players to name and customize their own items. If you created a competitive level of gear in any end game, and built a quest chain around getting a piece of gear and customizing it with your own personal name, I cannot imagine a player who would not want to complete that task. MMOs should do more in giving players the chance to name and customize their items, heck at least their weapons.

Read it all here.

 This article shows the importance of proofreading over just spellchecking.

About the title part...

Actually D&D Online. at the character creation, lets you choose your name and create your title... It can be just the surname of you character or an effective title (spaces are allowed)...

Just to let you know...

About all the rest i agree on all the line.

No game comes even close to allowing player uniqueness.You will never stand out when everyone looks the exact same.

Titles?most will have access to the exact same titles.

Models?most games use very few,and 99% of your player ends up being covered up by gear/armour anyhow.Gear selection is very limited,usually ONE best set that EVERY player wants and ends up getting,so they al llook the same.Case in point FFXI RDM AF set.

Guilds?most allow the same goals,furniture/guild banks/ranks and castles,nothing unique to individual guilds,they all end up playing for the same goals same looks,same ranks.

Mounts? there is always 2/3 mounts that everyone wants,because they look COOL,again very little to make each individual unique.I have seen games allow colour dyes,that only goes so far ,the mount still looks the exact same just a different colour.

To truly make players unique to one another means you almost have to make equal unique content equal to the total number of players,or at least cater to 1/4 of the players.That is a huge task in itself,i do not see any developer truly put that much effort into their game.Instead they will just hype up their games with the usual marketing lies,stating how much customization their game has.

Honestly how coudl we expect player customization when there is thousands of players that all want to be unique and yet games cannot even customize their games very well.Look at EVE ,space stations look the same,jump gates look the same,everytime you dock ,the inside looks the exact same,so if they won't put the effort into the game itself,no way they are going to put that much effort into individual customization.

Quick notes:

1) The spill chucker Is Not Your Friend.  Get a human being to proof next time.

2)  Two, play games other than WoW.  Yes, customization is a great thing - the City of Heroes character generator is damn near worth the monthly sub all on its own.  For something closer to the fantasy home, see Guild Wars, where the entire economy revolves around item skins (given two mechanically identical items, one will be vendor trash and the other worth millions based on the look).  See also Lord of the Rings Online, which has had fully dyeable cosmetic outfits (so you don't have to look exactly like everybody else in your l33t raid l3wtz - you get the stats of your good gear and the look you prefer) and (semi)customizable, nameable weapons for almost a year (longer on cosmetics, a bit less on weapons).

also note that lord of the rings online has the feature of legendary items,

which are items that gets xp along with you and you get to use that xp to give the item bonuses,

even bonuses which improves your skills, you're also able to choose it's name yourself.

Although the only legendary items so far are weapons which include a wide array of different weapons for different classes, and there is the class items which are different from class to class,

so i'd say they included the weapon, that is yours and yours only that you were talking about from diablo.

LotRO also Tags crafted items so they all say "created by XXXXXX"

CO lets you rename powers, recolor them, and alter emination points.

This article was far too long. "In WoW this" "In WoW that" Yup biggest game in the world, but not about customization, we already get that we've all at least played the demo. Also, I'm not a WoW fan and am really tired for hearing WoW stuff. If you want to talk about customization write an article on CoX and or the new and extremely customizable Champions Online. The customizations for a toon are endless right out of the gate.

I do however like the idea proposed about being able to name your creations.

Well when it comes to title you can set your own title in Lineage 2.

Just type /nick (insert title here)

Ofcourse you have to be noblesse before you can do this, but can choose whatever you want as a title.

And you can change it whenever you want.

But thats about the only custom thing you can do in lineage 2, everything else looks the same :/

One of the interesting things that he mentions is naming your own weapons.  But I guess he didn't look at LOTRO very closely.

In LOTRO, once you develop decent crafting skills and get the recipes, you can make items that you can name.

Funny how no one noticed that.  One would think that someone making such sweeping statements without checking the facts.

 While I agree alot of MMOs lack in customization...lets not forget that companies are having a hell of a time mustering quality gameplay & sufficient content.

When a game comes out with good polish, a fair amount of content, and solid gameplay (functionality) then you can iterate more customization.  At the end of the day, most gamers (depending why they play the game, some RPers are an odd breed), are fine with a unique tabard, their own guild & character name...and everything else is just "added bonus" not necessity.

And really, I'll give the editor the benefit of the doubt - he used a few examples, I don't think he meant them to be "the end all be all".  In general across MMOs, his statements were valid - if not falling a little short in concrete detail :P relax folks.

This reeks of a deadline article.  Poor proof reading, erratic lines of thought, and no real investigation into the issue.  Anyone who has even done casual research into the subject of customizability will know that games other than WoW offer it in spades.

Wow gear looks good ?  It looks like a painted on skin to me !

I can't help but thinking SWG does alot of this.  It's far from a perfect game, and some might argue with the game part entirely, but it does offer tons of customization including named gear (if you're the crafter who made it), scads of clothing and armor options (all of it customizable in terms of color) and it differentiates between Appearance and Utility slots.  Like the way a belt looks but need to wear a portable shield generator for practical reasons?  Put the belt in the appearance tab and wear the shield in regular inventory.  Voila.  And, for the powergamers who don't care for such frivolities, there's the toggleable option to see only what a character is really wearing.

But it goes beyond that.  Pets and Starships have names that are chosen by a player and are visible to other players.  Droids can be scripted by players to say things as barkers (usually merchants use this to advertise goods and services).   Vehicles, droids and even pets can have color customizations.  Starships will even change the model around to reflect different gear that's installed.

Still, beyond the prosaics of tabards or named swords, in SWG you can completely design the interior of your own home or flyable starship using not only knicknacks, paintings, statues and furniture of a multitude of designs but any object in the game you can put into inventory.  And these items can be freely placed, arranged, rotated and (if made by crafters) custom named.  Very often you find players improvising structures or objects out of other things in order to create an effect.  For example entertainer's glowsticks can be renamed (or left with a blank name) and arranged into a very convincing forcefield.   I've seen museums, city halls, prisons, mystical Jedi temples, bars with custom themes (one designed to look like the center of a power reactor, appropriately named The Reactor, complete with tubing and all kinds of weird objects and colored lighting glows), zoos, courthouses, customs houses and a bazillion shops (my favorite is Blastons complete with a cadre of busily working droids and stacks of ship components and mechanical sound effects from the crafting stations) each with a unique theme.

SWG doesn't get everything right but this is the model right here for how customization works best.  I've played CoH, I respect and enjoy aspects of the design, but it doesn't get into spitting distance of what a player can do with a character in terms of overall customization with Star Wars Galaxies.

I can't wait till downloadable pics can be used in MMORPGs so people/players can create themselves, meaning have their own face on their character. Or how about marriages/coupling/jumping the broom...etc ingame, where ones toon can actually hook up with an NPC or PC and have children who can become player characters, named by their parents but later on could have their names changed if desired. Also I would like to see/hear downloaded real voice emotes from the players themselves (recorded voice overs).

Also, someday I imagine one could actually install a smell generator onto a game system when one gets near a factory one can smell the burning oil and metal. Or when playing in a jungle one can smell lush vegetation and different types of flowers in the area.

I guess this will not be in my lifetime,

As you can tell I'm a big fan of customization but I'll admit to being a little wary of what 90% of MMO gamers would want to insert.  There are some smells in the world that can't be unsmelled...

However with a little adult supervision player added customization can work.   The custom flags in Pirates of The Burning Sea, which were player designed, were a great idea but they did have to be approved before they could be used.

Despite the criticisms, I believe this article brings to light many "little"  things that should of been done yesterday especially with a game like WoW to add much value to the MMO experience. In DAoC, I loved how blatant the guild emblems were on my cloaks (not just having an optional tabard) and I wouldn't mind an optional guild standard for PvP in WoW neither. The ability of being able to name your own gear is cool too and sadly I forgot it was even in Diablo. I used to play a DikuMUD where I not only got to name my own personal weapon, but also laid out a 2-3 paragraph description of my weapon and also used colored lettering (hey anything colored back in MUD days was a luxury!)

I think many theme parks are so hell-bent on releasing new content and new gear for the player base to chase that these little touches that they could be adding to the game is overlooked, which can add alot to the experience as little as it may seem to some. I remember saving my "naming privelege" in Diablo for a "good weapon", that's how much I at least valued little knick knacks like that. I would like to see more MMO's do similar things to what CoH is starting to implement lately.

WoW is usually brought up because its the game most commonly played and understood by most readers so I really don't see the flaw in him bringing it up even if it was absolutely the ONLY MMO experience he ever had (which isn't the case). I think many readers should try to take in the content rather than focus on a typo or two, or improper syntax. He got his point across pretty clearly and concisely despite his few mistakes and that's the beauty of communication. Fortunately the ones that do seem to want to pick at the article have only 1 post so I guess their opinions really don't matter all too much.

Why not take the sentiment of Titles, gear names, and visuals even further, and add a character history to make them even more in depth, where your character in game has a past, a present, and a future of possiblities. These are Role Playing Games are they not?

AirFell, from the forest of the south, Sucessfull defender of "Devils Hand Keep" at the bane of the gods, Killer of... ect ect...

That is a great way for your character's info to really be known and have pride for their achievemens, and to throw at noobs for not being that far in the game.

Originally posted by Airphel

Why not take the sentiment of Titles, gear names, and visuals even further, and add a character history to make them even more in depth, where your character in game has a past, a present, and a future of possiblities. These are Role Playing Games are they not?

 

AirFell, from the forest of the south, Sucessfull defender of "Devils Hand Keep" at the bane of the gods, Killer of... ect ect...

 

That is a great way for your character's info to really be known and have pride for their achievemens, and to throw at noobs for not being that far in the game.

  I did that whith my characters in EQII, but haven't started doing it with my LOTRO guys, as of yet.

I think that it is a good idea; particularly with the heavy RPers that want as much depth to their characters as they can get.

Realistically, it doesn't add anything to the actual game, but if they could make it add to the game, then you would find NPC's that will react to the character based on their history (for those that have written a history) combined with their in game adventuring reputations, which would make for a truely unique adventure experience that will be more "realistic" for those that do RP.

Something like that will more likely be something that the next generation or two of computer systems and games will be able to do more easily than anything now can.

Still, it could be interesting.

Originally posted by OddjobXL

I can't help but thinking SWG does alot of this.  It's far from a perfect game, and some might argue with the game part entirely, but it does offer tons of customization including named gear (if you're the crafter who made it), scads of clothing and armor options (all of it customizable in terms of color) and it differentiates between Appearance and Utility slots.  Like the way a belt looks but need to wear a portable shield generator for practical reasons?  Put the belt in the appearance tab and wear the shield in regular inventory.  Voila.  And, for the powergamers who don't care for such frivolities, there's the toggleable option to see only what a character is really wearing.

But it goes beyond that.  Pets and Starships have names that are chosen by a player and are visible to other players.  Droids can be scripted by players to say things as barkers (usually merchants use this to advertise goods and services).   Vehicles, droids and even pets can have color customizations.  Starships will even change the model around to reflect different gear that's installed.

Still, beyond the prosaics of tabards or named swords, in SWG you can completely design the interior of your own home or flyable starship using not only knicknacks, paintings, statues and furniture of a multitude of designs but any object in the game you can put into inventory.  And these items can be freely placed, arranged, rotated and (if made by crafters) custom named.  Very often you find players improvising structures or objects out of other things in order to create an effect.  For example entertainer's glowsticks can be renamed (or left with a blank name) and arranged into a very convincing forcefield.   I've seen museums, city halls, prisons, mystical Jedi temples, bars with custom themes (one designed to look like the center of a power reactor, appropriately named The Reactor, complete with tubing and all kinds of weird objects and colored lighting glows), zoos, courthouses, customs houses and a bazillion shops (my favorite is Blastons complete with a cadre of busily working droids and stacks of ship components and mechanical sound effects from the crafting stations) each with a unique theme.

SWG doesn't get everything right but this is the model right here for how customization works best.  I've played CoH, I respect and enjoy aspects of the design, but it doesn't get into spitting distance of what a player can do with a character in terms of overall customization with Star Wars Galaxies.

Agreed.

Sadly I can't stand playing the game anymore, but no mmo comes close to it's level of customization.  Every crafted item can be named whatever you want, and there are thousands of variations.

On another note, this article really shines a light on MMORPG.com's need for some real authors with a good command of English rather than gamers who think they can write.  Very unprofessional both in terms of the research, style, construction, and the editing (if an editor even looked at this piece).

And all the trolls come out the woodwork, FLAME FLAME FLAME, this is actually the downfall of mmo's, people can't give any constructive comments to what might actually be a interesting topic that developers can use to build on and yes they read these posts as well. Thats the whole point folks to get people talking about an interesting topic. Oh and how many of you actually work for a website or magazine as proofreaders mmmmm, and if you do, put your cock on the block and say so. Who cares about a typo here or there. FLAME FLAME FLAME

Coming back to the subject, I found 2 games that really helped the player stand out was Dungeon Runners and Perfect World. In Dungeon Runners you got some pretty unique items that wern't easy to get and looked awesome and growth rings. The higher lvl you were the bigger you could get and the more awesome you looked setting you apart from other people. Everybody was always trying to get better growth rings to get bigger than the people around them. Nothing compares to standing in town and a player runs past you twice your size.

In PW it was the level of customisation of your character and the fashion items which could be dyed. You hardly ever found 2 players that looked the same so it was easy to identify your friends e.g. my one friend was green with red hair and ran around with shorts and flip flops on and a suit top all dyed white. BRILLIANT. I spent almost 50 million gold just to get the colour dye I needed for my fashion items. Looked something like a punk-metal head rocker.

Another thing, giving yourself a title means nothing as anybody can do that but a title earned, especially a difficult one has it's weight in gold as well as earns the respect of other players as they acknoledge you for going through the trouble of getting it. Naming a weapon does bring a uniqueness to it but what I found is when the crafters name is on a weapon that has more value as people will stop by that person and have a friendly chat all starting with "hey you made my weapon" this has happened to me many times in PW :) and not "hey your weapon has a cool name." 

To conclude, stop flaming and say something constructive, if you don't like the article write your own one and link it so we can read what you have to say, nuff said!

While nothing touches SWG for customization, I have to admit I'm pretty happy with LoTRO now I've reupped there.  They've got not one but two appearance tabs for cosmetic attire (though regular attire can be fitted there as well it just has no stats or game effect).  There are so many possible permutations of clothing, armor and faces/hair that it's easy to stand out if you try and still not look ridiculous.  Some items are hard to find or rewards for events or quests so there's quite a good chance you'll have one or two items you like that nobody else is using much.

Though, man, they really need to do something about those awful two-tone cloaks that are generic for low-mid level found or reward items.  Yes, you can get plain cosmetic cloaks but not everyone knows how to or cares and they do look awful as many folks employ them.  This has bugged me since I first played there shortly after release.

One unique customization angle in LoTRO is, of course, music.  That's always been the case.  Players can compose original music using external programs and perform them together.  SWG has a decent musician system but one can only play certain base melodies, the variations are the flourishes or switching between melodies mid-song or using different instruments for different effects.  LoTRO lets creatives just cut loose and it sounds wonderful.

Like some previous poster had mentioned, a few mmo's do offer fairly good customization... Reading this artcile, the game Perfect World comes to mind. It has very good cutomization when it comes to your characters face,body....and hair (that game has more hair than the sims) . And one can buy decorative clothing that goes on top of your armor from players or the game store. Also, you can dye that armor... So that's pretty good customization right there, and for a free asian game non the less...