As far as peronally building your character (no auto stats but doing it yourself) nothing beats Anarchy online, in terms of complexity and strategy.

You had several categories of diffrent stats to though points into (points earned on a level up)  Then there were implants, research types ect.  Stats could be reset a few times, resarch could be unlearned and then relearned (important to allow restats for complex setups)

Much much diffrent than say..Aion...which is auto stat everything, you buy skill books on certain levels, and then a few stigmas, thats it, the only varience is equipment and stigma path.

I makes the game far more interesting to leave it complex, much more enjoyable to try to roll a new character then the oppertunities for that character are a bit less set in stone.

Im pretty much anti fair fight pvp however...the advantage should go to the players who actually level up their own characters, and take the time to experement/read up on the forums for the best route to take on their characters.

Id kill for anarchy onlines complex character building on a modern game....i think wow killed any hopes for that however.

My biggest pet peve with controllable stats, are useless stats....If im a mage, why cant dex effect cast speed or run speed, or str held my def a bit, why must i be pure int or int/wis....

Pretty much the less involvement i have in my leveling up and stat distrabution, the less interesting leveling up is....guess thats the point of a game that wants you to mad dash to the endgame....

I love to choose my stats because I'm a D&D player by heart. If the game seems complex at first I might actually get excited because I love complexity and theorycrafting.

My answer would depend on how much other choice in build there was. If the power trees were quite gameplay altering it would not bother me if stats were allocated. But if all you had were stat changes I would want to allocate my own.

Originally posted by Temego

Yes.

That's one of the things that I absolutely require in a game; I dont  like it at all when there's 50k other players with exactly same stats as I have. A perfect way to be unique (y).

Too bad there aren't many really good games that offer this..

Champions Online.  Pick your own stats, and open skill system (no classes).

But that's about all it has going for it, not much grouping, pvp is nothing but everyone using the same 10 broken skills, and there is no end game.

I have played games from back in the 1st Edition Dungeon & Dragons days, when paper, pencil, and 20-sided dice were all you had.  I have played character generation styles of rolling for stats (i.e., depending upon luck), getting some point allocation system, and then the later MMO fixed stats elevated systematically, and I have to say the latter is the way to go.

Main reason:  this eliminates luck (good or bad) and gimped characters through poor stat allocation.

Now I am all for tailoring characters, and I think this is best done with "talents" (ala. WOW) or Atlernate Advancement (AA) Points (ala. EQ).  And I am a firm believer that such allocations should be allowed to be redone at a price (not trivial, but not set in stone either).

So no to choosing your own stats.

Originally posted by Caleveira

I would go for no too. Already you choose a class at the begining and to worry about specing from the get go can be a bit overwhelming when you want to discover the game as youll be concerned with making competitive choices. Its specially bad in games where earlier decissions are important and respecing is difficult/expensive.

Respecting in VG cost peanuts..

vanguardvault.ign.com/View.php

Originally posted by Quirhid

I love to choose my stats because I'm a D&D player by heart. If the game seems complex at first I might actually get excited because I love complexity and theorycrafting.

Well I played Baldur's Gate 2, last year for first time. Then went to NWN and NWN2 played a little and I love the system I don' get it and I'm always like wtf.. atm I'm playing DDO just because I feel that I love D&D but I don't understand it :D

Asheron's Call ftw, you choose where you want to put points into your characters.  Stats ranging from standard str, stam, etc.. stats to run speed, jump height, various spell casting schools, etc...