Interesting article regarding character creation in gamesFollow

http://www.geekosystem.com/avatar-design-and-perception/





True for you? Personally I don't put a lot of effort in my character's looks beyond a general idea of what I like, I don't toggle and play with all settings possible, or agonize over various options so perhaps I'm the exception to the rule.

I actually do spend a bit of time when creating a new character being it's something I'm going to be using for a long time. No sense creating something I don't want to look at for long periods of time. How much time do I spend you ask? It's not hours but it does take time to get things right.

I kind of figured that, people opinion can vary a lot when it comes to that. Let me ask you this, if you don't care for the looks of your character whats your thoughts on how the game looks? If you are fussy about how the game will look, why not your character?

I spend the vast majority of the time looking at the back of my character, so I don't really get much out of how he looks from the front. The important things to me are that he's a Lalafell, that he has a ponytail/topknot, some earrings, a nice van ****, and the different colored eyes. I did enjoy fiddling with hair color a bit, he's a red head with white streaks not unlike what I'm working on IRL

I think I spent about 5 minutes to get the look I was happy with.

See in that 5 minutes, wouldn't it be easier just to hit the random choosing and go from there. Think about it, in a way yes you look for those things. For me its the hair and facial, and yes I will be looking at its rear end majority of the time, but everyone else will be looking at it from the front view.

To be fair, their character creator made it impossible to make someone who didn't look like plastic... I made my own character in ME1 but changed him to default Sehp in 2 and 3 because they just looked better than what I could create.

I'm actually still really torn on what I want to do for ARR. My old char from 1.0 was a giant, scary looking galka. I really liked him, but at the same time I want to start fresh with ARR. I've thought of rolling a female hume or mithra (sorry, I will always use the ffxi names) for the eye candy, but there's some weird disconnect for me being a dude and playing a female character, at least for my main. I guess I'll have to play around with it a bit in character creation.

I gave both my XI and my XIV characters the hairstyle I prefer in real life, which is the updo with the fluffy upright short ponytail on top. My Tarutaru in XI even has my same hair color - that lovely reddish golden brown - whereas my Lalafell had a more ethereal pinkish/blue thing going on, in keeping with being a Dunesfolk.

While I'm rather attached to my Taru, I no longer self-identify as the spritely little one I did nearly nine years ago when I started playing XI. (Actually, I didn't even want to play a Taru - I was convinced I should if I wanted to be the Ultimate White Mage.) When I made my Lalafell in 1.0 I wasn't terribly attached to it, because I felt like an imitation of my XI self.

I think that's why I'm re-rolling as a Roegadyn. I'm tired of being the shortest kid at the party.

If anything I think it makes me more attached to the character yes, but I don't see it affecting the way I look at the landscape (their example of the backpack).

I have no issues playing a male character in an offline RPG, since I'm trying to find out a story about that character.

MMORPGs do reflect more of a personal self identity for me. Even though it's a "role playing game" it's just different - I don't role play at all in MMOs. I am who I am. Now, my XI character had some quirks and a unique personality that was exaggerated because it was funny (such as my enduring love of Elvaan paladins and my mad drunken pulling skills and drunk bard jokes in macros), but my core identity of my XI Tarutaru is me, even though there's a back story I've built up within the world lore. (Catwho's real name is Taprara. Her mother is Rottata, the outpost warp NPC. Her father is Kenapa-Keppa in the Rhinostery. She has a twin brother named Tapra-Topra who is following their father's footsteps and wants to work in the Rhinostery. He prefers to stay at home and garden and go out into the field and harvest. She, on the other hand, was one of Shantotto's prodigy students just after the war, and it was to Shantotto's great disappointment that she spends more time on white magic and music than black magic.)

I guess I view MMORPGs as more of a character journey of self-discovery, not just story telling.

This is a great point, and I think it applies to me as well.

I'm more along the lines of Catwho, though I don't go as far as making background lore for my character. But I feel like I'm designing my in-game self (adjusted for existing FFXI and FFXIV lore respectively).

And especially in the case of MMOs, creation is a one time thing. I don't know about the Sims, but I imagine they let you change your character frequently, but in FFXI/FFXIV when you create your character, that's it. So I take it seriously, especially if I'm going to likely stick with my decision for the next 5-10 years.

It's also interesting to see the correlation between people who don't care about their character's appearance and willingness to start over in ARR, too. I guess maybe I would be more willing to start fresh if I already wasn't attached to Grover Eyeveen for the past three years!

I don't find this to be a problem for me in console, single-player games. I think the disconnect tends to come to the forefront when playing MMO's though, mainly because you are playing with other people. As a society we typically identify and seperate based on gender. For example, boys play boy sports, girls play girl sports. Co-ed sports, such as basketball or soccer, are split. I have an innate tendency to assume that male characters in the game are male characters behind the screen. Same goes for women, so when I meet a female char in game that is actually male, it throws me off for a second. I guess I just expect people to stick to "their side" of the gender line. I don't think it's bad if they don't, it's just not what I expect.