PCG Article Is your character hideous?


(Note: I almost put this in the May 2023 PCG Article thread, but I thought this one was RPG-specific, so here's where it landed)

I loved this article by Lauren Morten. We've had a few posts about character creation, but nothing about creating a character that just ended up being ugly once you got into the game. Some RPGs don't really give you many options in how your character looks, outside of armor or equipment (but you just get a standard face). Both Bethesda & Bioware have created games that have progressively given us more control over how our character looks. I love it, even if the game is in first person perspective and you rarely see your character.

I've spent hours in those types of character creation screens and have created some really ugly characters (though I didn't take any screen shots), and I've often just defaulted to the base character in some of the Dragon Age & Mass Effect games. Bethesda's Elder Scrolls & Fallout games have some of the best options, but you could really create some ugly individuals.

Not so much ugly, but an old screenshot from Skyrim (might even be the old 32 bit version). I kept this shot because it reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger, illustrating (I guess) what you can sometimes do in character creation (note the clipping of the cloak with the left pauldron).
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Sarafan

Community Contributor
In the past I could spend hours in creating a perfect looking character just to notice after the start of the game that something is wrong. :D Hair color, badly shaped nose or something... Now I think that it's not worth the hassle. I usually take one of the default presets and I'm happy with it. No point in spending time for such a thing. I even miss the times where character look options were very limited. Baldur's Gate for example, where the only problem was an appropriate portrait and clothes colors.
 
I don't have any screenshots of him as it was 2008 but my rogue in WOW wasn't a looker.

It wasn't intentional, I just didn't care that much. Once you have a helmet on, no one can tell. Back then the graphics weren't great anyway - Amazed I still have any shots of the game
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I think i killed my GPU playing wow at too high settings. Once I got a better PC I wanted to try other games.
 
I can't believe i played wow at 310ms latency... I mean, I believe it as I lagged across an entire valley once and I died in one fight where I think I hit them about twice... but I am amazed I put up with it. Lag spikes are bad when your normal latency is so high.
I think we had VDSL 1 back then, on VDSL 2 now and my speed went from 1.87Megabits per second to over 110 now. I supposedly had lower latency on VDSL1 but I don't think it matters when connection is so slow.
 
@DXCHASE & @Colif - The Rogue & the Necromancer are awesome looking! The Rogue's hair is almost like a mohawk, maybe a mohawk in need of a trim. I really miss the gameplay of Diablo, and I tried hard to convince myself to give D4 a shot, but I know that the online-only, no single player campaign, and having other people in my game would most likely cause me to abandon it. It's cool you guys, and millions of other enjoy it, but the above-mentioned game elements just aren't for me.
 
She doesn't look that much better with helm off
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Barb got new helm
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Shame character models aren't as detailed as the login screen pictures. At same time, characters would be too big on screen... need certain scale to have hordes attack and be able to see them all.

but I know that the online-only, no single player campaign, and having other people in my game would most likely cause me to abandon it. It's cool you guys, and millions of other enjoy it, but the above-mentioned game elements just aren't for me.

other people aren't that bad. It doesn't help that some guards (NPC) are out in fields being attacked, I thought it was a character helping at 1st. No health bar should have been clue.
It might change tomorrow when it goes live for everyone but I rarely see anyone in zones, its just in town you might... and if you treat them as just other adventurers its not so bad.
There isn't any major things you need multple people for although strongholds might be where that starts. They lvl 33 quests anyway.
There isn't any world chat, wonder how you arrange groups. I see no LFG system.

One guy is a lvl 72 Solo Hard Core. I assume that means he never did groups. The truly insane are trying to race to 100 before game releases in 5 hours.
 
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(Note: I almost put this in the May 2023 PCG Article thread, but I thought this one was RPG-specific, so here's where it landed)

I loved this article by Lauren Morten. We've had a few posts about character creation, but nothing about creating a character that just ended up being ugly once you got into the game. Some RPGs don't really give you many options in how your character looks, outside of armor or equipment (but you just get a standard face). Both Bethesda & Bioware have created games that have progressively given us more control over how our character looks. I love it, even if the game is in first person perspective and you rarely see your character.

I've spent hours in those types of character creation screens and have created some really ugly characters (though I didn't take any screen shots), and I've often just defaulted to the base character in some of the Dragon Age & Mass Effect games. Bethesda's Elder Scrolls & Fallout games have some of the best options, but you could really create some ugly individuals.

Not so much ugly, but an old screenshot from Skyrim (might even be the old 32 bit version). I kept this shot because it reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger, illustrating (I guess) what you can sometimes do in character creation (note the clipping of the cloak with the left pauldron).
ly9N8qb.jpg
Dragon Age games are positively the worst for having your character look one way in the character creator and another way in the actual game or in cutscenes.

I never played with the character creator in any of the first 3 Mass Effect games and barely touched it in Fallout 4. If I like what the character looks like, I don't bother. The main male character in Andromeda just seemed like a dork to me, but I can't remember if I changed him. I can't even remember if it was possible to change him.

I usually just make my characters look generically handsome and reasonably tough looking. Handsome with a little bit of caveman thrown in.
 
I never played with the character creator in any of the first 3 Mass Effect games
I tried the character creator a couple of times back when ME1 originally released, but I could never get a Commander Shepard that looked better than the originals (male or female), and I've stuck with the standard appearance ever since.

and barely touched it in Fallout 4.
Fallout 4 on the other hand, I've usually spend at least an hour or two messing around with my characters appearance. There are quite a few mods available that add to the available options, especially for hair & eyes.

The main male character in Andromeda just seemed like a dork to me, but I can't remember if I changed him. I can't even remember if it was possible to change him.
Ha! I think that was my main problem with Andromeda, that my character, either Scott or Sarah, just couldn't hold a candle to Commander Shepard in terms of appearance, and it was difficult for me to assume the persona of either one of them. And the character creator didn't help, as it just felt too restrictive. So I just played as a dork with puffy lips and eventually just ignored what I looked like.

 

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