Blog Spotlight: Character Customization

That is probably why I have been playing CoX for so long.  Probably the best character customization of any game out there.  When I got a friend to start playing, she took over an hour to make her girl look "just right".

I think WoW would benefit greatly from something simple as armor dye.  I remember when that was added to EQ1 it really made a positive difference, my SK's armor stopped looking like some kind of trippy xmas ornament.  

Forgot to mention Chronicles of Spellborn, items and gear are purely aesthetic.

I hope and pray that is the direction future MMOs go in, and hope and pray that upcoming major releases like WAR and AoC will at LEAST have the ability to dye armors.

We've heard from WAR that you can adorn various pieces of "flare" like skulls and beards, but all that would still be for naught if every Black Orc had the same style and color armor.

It's an interesting balance to find.

For PVP, in a game like WoW you can easily tell how powerful your opponent is based off of their gear. Problem is that the game is SO gear dependent, you HAVE to know what your opponent is wearing to decide if you have a chance or not. I know personally, I'd look at the other players class and then gear to decide if I'd engage or not.

What's much more "realistic" is uniform armor and such. How many armies do you see where every single person is dressed in something completely different? Sure, add some pieces of flare here and there, but in general every single army in the history of man has had some kind of uniform look.

I actually LIKE the idea of uniform look in PVP, because it means a less lag, and it's easy to distinguish who is on whose side.

In my perfect MMO (see my blog please!) I'd have fully customizable gear and appearance in the PVE world, unique and different FTW, but 2-3 standard "suits" for PVP for each faction. Less lag, more immersion into the army, easier friend vs. foe recognition.

the ability to customizee all of the characters features is paramount.............

I think with games like City of Heroes and SWG setting the standard so high other games would have followed suit however it seems the most popular games like WOW and LOTRO offer very little in the way of customization. This makes no sense to me at all. Part of the allure of this genre is the ability to be someone unique in a virtual world. Somehow seeing thousands of other people who look exactly like me just doesnt feel very immersive.

I probably would have stuck with WOW or LOTRO a lot longer if they had payed more attention to the social aspects like clothing and appearance.

when taking about customization there is a side issue that almost never gets discussed and i think it is quite important: item loss

if everytime someone died on WoW he dropped or lost all his gear, we would end with the issue of "there are 7 different armors, but everybody is wearing #3". after a few deaths, players couldnt afford to use the very best gear, and they would have to downgrade to a more affordable weapon or shield.

that is why on EVE Online there is so much variety. although there is a clear "best" on every category (usually Estamel's or another officer), almost nobody uses them on pvp.

it is a shame that using T1, T2, nammed or deadspace gear doesnt get reflected on the external looks of the ships, though.

I absolutely LOVED the customization options in CoX. Probably what kept me there for three years.

But didn't I just read somewhere that one long-running MMO (I think it was EQII) just introduced a patch that had a system where you could wear your stat gear, but APPEAR to others and yourself as if you were wearing any other gear of your choice?  I think that's a wonderful solution.

Well first off this is the major discerning factor why many of us dislike the asian games, they have very limited character customization.  Silly when you can define a players level just by the clothes they wear.  Even worse some of them pick the sex of your character depending on the class.

One of Wow's weaknesses has always been the reluctance of the developers to be able to dye equipement.  Of course they make liberal use of recoloring sets to represent different sets.  Funny how some of the older games have much more liberal use of dyes and customization.  I think it is because Wow set a really bad trend here.

Blizzard's excuses for not having dye in their game are empty when you look at the old games who suffer no increased lag by providing it. 

Lotro allows dying of it's equipment and suffers no ill effects, I can't see how it would hurt the wow engine.

Hopefully the new games coming out will ignore this horrible precedent set by blizzard and allow more customization of your avatar.

Another informative article from mmorpg.com!

Allowing players to dye their equipment is far from new (UO did it first). Some allow it, some don't.

No mention of EQ2's big patch from like a week ago adding a new equipment tab. (As another poster mentioned above.)

Also no mention of Aion's feature for customization of equipment.

"There are more elements in the game where the gamer gets spoiled. When you find a nice armour on level 40, you are of course very happy. But as soon as you become level 50, this armour is of course useless. That's why it's possible to customise equipement. You can apply the stats of your level 50 armour on your level 40 armour, so you can always take the appearance you like best. Or you can choose to look like a bum, but have the stats of a great character. "

Way to go!

I feel like " The chronicles of spellbinder " Is written all over this blog.....

Awesome.

A good example of what I consider great customization is 'Perfect World'.

I haven't actually played it, but from what i've read... You have your standard set of armour which has stats to improve the combat capability of your character... And then you have a set of clothes that is entirely optional. If you choose to use this set, they go over your armour but don't unequip it. And these clothes appear to be /very/ customizeable. So you can look great (and probably unique) while still kicking ass!

Go check the game out! An international/english version is getting close to release.

Customizing is so important and so overlooked by developers... it certainly won't make the game good if the concept and gameplay suck, but if it is good, it will make it legend.

I played a wide variety of games and i can't think of one that i didn't make a character that i hadn't wanted to reroll as i spotted someone that looked like my long lost twin.

If the game allows you to choose from pre-designed features there should be at least 30 of each to choose from and you should be able to mix and match hair, brows, eyes, nose, mouth, face shape.

Equipment should be able to be dyed at the least.

I also think that enabling it so that we look unique to ourselves but not to everyone else kinda defeats the point. I would be trying to express myself by making my character unique and what is the point of expressing myself, to myself?

While I think it's cool to have a unique looking character, how big a deal is it really?   If you are standing in Ironforge, or Bree, or wherever, how close do you really look at other people's gear aesthetically?    If you are looking at a crowd in RL, how closely do you look at each person to see how "unique" they look?

I loved the customization in CoX, but it was the game that kept me playing.    Honestly, if the game had the best character customization for looks, but uninteresting gameplay, would looks alone really keep you playing?

I think customization is nice, I think it contributes to a player's sense of connecting to their avatar, but I hardly think it's a deal-breaker for a game.

I don't really think customization is important.  I would rather have no customization and play with 1000 people on screen, then being able to customize my belly button to be an inny or an outty and have 16 people on screen at a time.  I think there is a limit to how much customization there should be.  Also I don't really think all those facial sliders on most character customization is effective anyway since you have a much higher probability of not getting a good look and its not very noticable in-game.

Like what was posted, costumes and clothing really define customization and unlike popular belief its asian mmos leading this front.  With f2p games most of the item shop are buyable clothing that are simply cosmetic.  In only a few months you have more end-game gear then nearly all western mmos out except CoX.  Also the most anticipated Asian Games, Aion and RO2 have a vast array of clothing options end-game.

Lastly with customization, you have to make the models modular.  This leads to textures being undetailed and lacking life, and meshes being clay-like and smooth.  Also you always get that wierd hair division thing.

Character Customization is one of the many features I am looking forward to in POTBS. I watched the video of it and its amazing how much detail in customization the developers are provding to the gamers. The best part of it is that there are no stats on it so everyone can choose how they want to look without having to grind for specific gear. There is enough customization so that nobody will look alike.

I would say Asherons Call I had some of the best customization in the area of equipment. Since most of the great armor / weapons were random drops and eventually tinkered items, everyone had their own look. Quest gear was more a symbol of accomplishment instead of everyday usable gear, so you didn't endup with 100 people running around in "Awesome Chestpiece of Leet Death" type of gear.

Add in the ability to dye your armour, some decent physical customization, and a large data base of available equipment, you get a good selection of charcter distinction.

When it comes to WoW, customization (gear wise) is pathetic. I was waiting on a boat once on my lvl42 lock, when a 44 lock came up and we had all the same gear. It was almost like looking in a mirror.

In my humble opinion, the glory days of SWG were the best for character customization. You had plenty of tailors and plenty of image designers. You didn't need to walk around in your component armor all the time. Ppl even dropped a few pieces of the popular armor to mix 'n match with regular clothing (like hawtpants or camou army pants).
I think its also *the* game to roleplay in, there were a lot of emotes that helped you being unique.