In this week's Guild Wars 2 column, resident cartoonist David North takes a look at the process of character creation and personalization in ArenaNet's upcoming blockbuster.  See what he has to say and leave a comment or two if you agree or not.

The health bar now showed zero HP; we knew we had defeated the boss.  We went to tell the tale of our great battle so that we might receive gifts of powerful items and praise.  I received a great set of armor.  It was both great in power, and had the look that would strike fear into my enemies.  After putting the armor on, I began to strut around the capital city to show off my prize.  But my spirits dropped, as everyone around me also had the same armor that I was wearing.  I suddenly lost a huge connection with my character.

Read the rest of David North's Guild Wars 2: The Quest for Looking Good.

Its simple really.

You can never have "enough" character customization.  The closest game to even nearly reach a "enough" place is All Points Bulletin.  But even it, needs more.

There will never be enough.

I think this is why a lot of games don't even bothering trying. (World of Warcraft)

Originally posted by CujoSWAoA

Its simple really.

You can never have "enough" character customization.  The closest game to even nearly reach a "enough" place is All Points Bulletin.  But even it, needs more.

There will never be enough.

I think this is why a lot of games don't even bothering trying. (World of Warcraft)

Still i would have 'those trying' over 'those do not try at all'. 

^^Don't you think that Aion possibly offered too much customization?

Originally posted by Alot

^^Don't you think that Aion possibly offered too much customization?

 

The main reason why I stopped playing Aion. So many differences in shapes, sizes that it turned me off from the game. People no longer looked like poeple, rather deformed monsters.

can never have enough, people should be able to make their characters any way you want.  ive been a long time player of city of heroes and that game has the best customization ive ever seen in a game and they still dont have enough.  so the more the better and they need to keep adding to it over time.  my only problem with the transmute stones is those are gonna be real money transactions at least that was the last i heard on the plan for these stones, charge you real money.  which in and of itself isnt so much a bad thing for a game that does not have a sub fee, what i dont want is for them to make all their armor sets that drop from monsters look crappy just so people will buy these stones.  I dont mind cash shops, i just hate it when the game design forces you to spend money in the cash shop just to enjoy the game.

Originally posted by marzatplay

Originally posted by Alot

 

The main reason why I stopped playing Aion. So many differences in shapes, sizes that it turned me off from the game. People no longer looked like poeple, rather deformed monsters.

Well, apparantly the technology used to customize your character's appearance in GW2 is borrowed from Aion, although with restrictions this time.

Edit: To the poster above me: It has now been confirmed that you can acquire Transmutation Stones with ingame currency.

Originally posted by hardicon

 my only problem with the transmute stones is those are gonna be real money transactions at least that was the last i heard on the plan for these stones, charge you real money.  .

"A Transmutation Stone is a single use^[1] item which allows players to combine two weapons or pieces of armor, gaining a desired aesthetic look from one piece, and a desired set of statistical modifiers from the other. They will be available for purchase through the in-game store and through gameplay through the use of karma."

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Transmutation_Stone

Originally posted by Alot

^^Don't you think that Aion possibly offered too much customization?

I wouldn't say "too much", just that some of the choices were pretty bad.

It helps if the character you still makes looks like one of his race. Just look on humans, we differ a lot so there are loads of possibilities without making the character look like a joke.

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by Alot

^^Don't you think that Aion possibly offered too much customization?

I wouldn't say "too much", just that some of the choices were pretty bad.

It helps if the character you still makes looks like one of his race. Just look on humans, we differ a lot so there are loads of possibilities without making the character look like a joke.

But unfortunately, many humans still look like a joke.

Oh, how wonderful it is to be an Alot. : )

Originally posted by Alot

Edit: To the poster above me: It has now been confirmed that you can acquire Transmutation Stones with ingame currency.

That is indeed great news. :)

This looks pretty good to me but we'll have to wait for the exact details we'll get from gamescom.

^We won't know what it's really like until somebody clicks the "Build" and "Face options" tabs.

I personally would just like to be able to make a fat person with a big belly. Not too big but big enough so everyone knows he's fat not just "big". The reason I'd like this? Just for fun really, role-playing a fat person and telling everyone how I'm going to run them down with my belly and then actually doing it would be hilarious.

Originally posted by Alot

^^Don't you think that Aion possibly offered too much customization?

Nawp.  The sliders are great, but it's been obvious since the "boob slider" way back in CoH that some people will always push the extreme ranges of those sliders.  DDD's everywhere!

Fortunately, it's a relatively short-lived phenomenon.  After the first few months, players begin to see than you're not being a rugged individualist by pushing the sliders to min or max, when 69949940 other players also had the same idea.

The boobs in CoH returned (mostly) to more normal sizes within a couple of months.

Close this post and put it up again after gamescon, because by then we should know more about the character customisation (The character itselfves and not the armor)

I like a lot of customization within certain parameters, e.g., humans should look like humans, else you'll end up with a game filled with immersion-breaking monstrosities. I hated Aion for that reason (and other reasons). It was like visiting a carnival freak show.

Personally, I also think naming conventions should have players choose both a standard, lore-correct name (from a large predetermined list) and also a personal, customized name, and then allow players the option to display the name type they prefer (or both, I suppose). That way, when you enter a town or join a group, the names of the other players display as either "lore-correct" or "personalized"; one reason I avoid towns in MMOs now is because of the stupid immersion-breaking names people sometimes give their characters.

As for character customization, I think Cryptic did well in STO: you could create a character from a given race and modify it a great deal, but it would still look human, klingon, vulcan, or whatever. I imagine GW2 will do something similar.

Originally posted by Zeroxin

I personally would just like to be able to make a fat person with a big belly. Not too big but big enough so everyone knows he's fat not just "big". The reason I'd like this? Just for fun really, role-playing a fat person and telling everyone how I'm going to run them down with my belly and then actually doing it would be hilarious.

I too am into the light RP thing and would like to make a fatter female character.  It would just be more fun to play than the bone creatures we're usually given.  I mean....they make me feel like....well....how do you roleplay an anorexic or bulemic character?  It's just in poor taste (no pun intended).  I'd rather roleplay a chubby girl.  "Regular size" is boring and too thin is just....too thin.

Let's here it for pleasantly plump! lol  w00t

Originally posted by wolfneo
the only thing i would like in GW2 now is power color customization i want to burn foes with blue flames! XD

I fear it's not going to happen, but: