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Found best character customization in a F2P game!
Yunbei
Member Posts: 898
Now usually I dont play F2P games. I dont belive things are for free, or anything worth is for free. Usually F2P games are just simple fillers inbetween. Not that my opinion was really changed, but this was something I didnt expect.
Out of WAR boredom I had decided to try out several F2P games, when I stumbled over "Perfect World". When I was about to create a character my jaw dropped! I mean, from Vanguard and SWG I was used great diversity, but the way you can change your character here virtually equals that of "Sims 2"! You can make any kind of face, colour, many dozens of haircuts, thick, thin, its really unbelievable! Seriously, I think I was muttering to myself "I don't believe it" for an hour, heh.
Character customization is one of my most important needs. I can never play any MMO for a longer period where I only can select preset faces. Its just a kill criteria for MMOs for me. I want to look like I want, not select some cloned faces and 3 haircuts. The surprising thing is, many AAA titles said it would be too difficult or expensive to make so many settings and haircuts... and boy this F2P MMO proves they all lied! Those game companies just didnt care. It is apparently not so difficult and expensive to offer a really vast character customization. Ok, they have only 3 races, but in most MMOs the humanoid races all look very similar anyway.
For me it made those clone character games like WAR or WOW or what even more glaring limited. I never liked having a clone face and this proved me even more it IS possible if they WANT it. I am really, seriously FED UP with being a clone from 4 preset faces and 3 preset haircuts - and most of them ugly and un-cool. It was one of the reasons I played City of Heroes so long, even tho the game itself was just so-so. I just loved the way you could virtually make ANY character. But Perfect World goes even further, at least in terms of making heads.
As to the game itself, the landscape looks VERY beautiful, not only for a F2P, but surprisingly even compared to many other MMOs the landscapes look above par. It easily suprasses WAR imo and almost reaches up to beauties like VG and LOTRO. Ok almost, but still. The rest is standard kill X of Y fare. Sheesh, if the gameplay were more creative this could be a real killer game, but alas every good thing never meets in one game apparently.
Comments
I dont' understand why people want to have unique faces. When you put on a helm, you cant even see your face. And you charecter has his back to you, so you dont see his face anyway.
I would much rather have unique skills
While the type of aesthetic character customiztion your talking about is great, I was more hoping you'd found a game where not every class ended up with the same stats and abilities as every other, leaving the only real difference in how the character functions to be determined by what equipment your currently using vs that of the opponent or lvl of mob your fighting. Don't get me wrong, I like to look different then the next guy as well but, graphics are, and will always be, secondary to gameplay in my opinion. A more developed stat/ability based custimization would allow for much more immersive gameplay in the end and alot of developers seem to over look this aspect or simply not care.
Some screenies:
Fashion Victim: some casual clothing you can wear (better in higher levels ^^)
see upper right corner: winged elfs can fly
Ok thats a matter of preferrence. I want to play an alter ego, and that depends on how I look and how the gear/clothing makes me appear. For a visual person like me thats important, or the character isnt "me". Like those Bright Wizards. They are NEVER me. Period. And in most MMOs most characters DONT vanish under helmets since 90% of people dont wear/activate them. So essentially I CAN see people and I can recognize them, if the game offers it.
I think unique skills are overrated. I have played some games with customizable skills, but in the VAST majority of games you end of using the one, best skill combination EVERY other player has anyway.
Take SWG: sure the skill based times were good, but if I see how totally uber Teras Kasi was, poor Polearm warriors like me usually lost anyway. I know I am not going to make myself popular here, but I didnt see NGE as such a drama. *shrug* I recall my pre-NGE polearm guy had 20 different attacks, nice. Attack arm or leg or head, but in combat all those many skills you mashed through anyways, so I didnt see it as such a drama when they were reduced for a few. People just end of having 4 entire quick bars of skills/attacks which they mash through in order of 1-40. The *actual* combat can all be broken down to a handfull of things you can do anyway.
Or in WOW, there is usually one good skill selection and the rest is more or less trash. The vast number of skill specialization didnt really play a part in the actual combat. Nukers nuke, and it doesnt matter a crap if they have fire or poision or ice nuke, they do damage, end of the story. Or tanks. They tank. Whats there to skill? Sure, you find Ironbreaker and Swordmasters in WAR with 2-handers, but thats essentially fancy and I dont invite tanks who dont wear a shield, becaus thats their friggin role! So again, I feel the idea of skill diversity is nice but in the acutal combat overrated. Ok thats leading away, but I felt I had to say that.
Still, each to his, my fancy is appearance variation, yours is skill variation.
Also I should point out you can change your toon after you start the game, just go back into the CC screen and change whatever you want. " Getting tired of that black hair of yours, just go back to CC and change it to green "
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
So you can look cool in yet another item shop grinder?
Hmm, quality game with average customization vs crappy item shop grinder with good customization.
Is this a difficult decision?
I am not entirely sure I understand what you mean. I was just referring to the character customization. It lacks in almost EVERY game with a monthly fee, and while it alone does not make a good game, I cant play a game longer which lacks it. Thats not to say I do and dont recommend the game itself. I was just referring to the fact it has one of the most complex character creation systems.
If a F2P game can make it, why do so many expensive AAA titles fail to add it? I dont talk about any other aspect of this game here, I am sure we agree that item shop grinders are not to both our liking. But the visual aspect of so many game with a monthly fee and who often cost a LOT of money is so badly neglected that I wonder why. Why are there so many horrible looking games even tho they were expensive, like WAR for example, or AoC's characters? Especially in the character creation we get trash in almost EVERY MMO. While I dont want to play item shop grinders more than a little bit here and now, I really wish those AAA titles would take the character creation as a higher priority.
Otherwise you read into what I say more than I actually said. ^^
Samuraisword just hates item shop games for hatings sake. He rarely actually played the game or knows anything about the game. He just checks if the game has an item shop or not and then goes back to ancient stereotypes. You can safely ignore any comment he makes about micro transaction games and not miss out on anything.
Perfect World indeed has a lot of customization. It's, Imo, Still one of the better MMO's around and has quite a lot of features going for it. It's well worth checking out.
Nobody is against having more customization options, but for me it is so far down the list of important game qualities, I find it amazing that gamers would focus on this aspect to be a deciding factor in choosing a game.
You still dont understand. Yes, we ALL have priorities. Its not that I play a game because ONE feature is good, but I DONT play it when one or two features of importance to ME are bad. Like character appearance. Other have other "kill criteria" and thats mine. I dont like to play ugly, cloned characters, but I dont advertise a game ONLY because it has one good feature. I think my posting record shows that.
My point is: if such a customization is doable by a small F2P company, WHY do we have nothing like that in any of the expensive AAA titles? My answer is: its not difficult, as they CLAIM, they just didnt think of it. Thats what I hope will change, that those AAA titles we all love ADD character customization like in Perfect World. Its doable, its easy to implement and this game proofs it. Anything else you read into my post.
As for item shop games or monthly pay, I dont cate tbh. I love complex games like EQ2 or SWG or VG, but I played them long enough. My mission here is to those new games: Add character customization! I just hate those fugly clone chars they all cater.
So, you're saying that people should play this game because of the character customization? Any other points?
Contest deadline extended to 31 October 2008 ! Just take screenshots and be in the run to win free account key !
Like this one maybe. (jump to 1:40) www.youtube.com/watch
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
GAH, NO I AM NOT SAYING THEY SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT. Grr, why cant people just read what I say and not claim why I DONT say.
Sheesh, enough time wasted on people who just WANT to misread me.
@stayontarget: nice vid, thats AION, right? Awww, I look SO forward to play that... love to have wings and fly. ^^
Nice crypto ad lol.
You sound like me friend, keep your eye out for Fallen Earth. That is the next MMO im looking forward to playing.
PS. I will never play a f2p, I cannot sink to your level.
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...I'm in your panties
I normally don't like F2P games.
But I tried Perfect World and was truly amazed at the character customization. I also have to say that the quests are well done, and the graphics are the best I have seen for a F2P game.
The one thing I didn't like was that I saw only 4 stats that you can add points to every level (Strength, Stamina, Agility, Magic), but otherwise it was a fairly entertaing game
It might not be for everyone, but it has several different flavors of crafting, flying elves, pets, some players can transform into animals. If you get bored with your current MMO, give Perfect World a try...
I would rate every other F2P game I have played as UGH, YUCK, BLECH, Perfect World is the only exception I have seen.
I took a look at this game and agree about the customization. The graphics are very well done, but after playing it for a while, it became obvious that it is a grinder with a major downside. To lessen the grind it is probably the most expensive F2P MMO out there, by a large margin. So, unless you have deep pockets, I would not recommend this game.
Yeah nice game..But steep in the money pocket.Wish the game was faster in speed it is such a big world.Even buying mounts dont seem fast enough.And agree on the grinding..It could use some tweaking in other areas as well..But for the most part it is not a bad game..
Some people rob you at gun point..Others will rob you at "Ball Point Pen"
I agree that the character custimization in City of Heroes made the game truly unique. I value character custimization as well so I'm really waiting on APB. In the meanwhile perhaps Spellborn, Champions, or DC Online might deliver something to hold me over
EQ2 and Vanguard were pretty decent but not as well as City of Heroes. I'm sure CoX would crush Perfect World as well. Because you'll never ever see your twin in CoX.And you are not forced to loot whore in CoX either like in most other mmo
Meaning: There is no helm that will ever cover your face or costume. In CoX we had costume contests all the time and you saw supergroups with matching outfits. Was pretty tight -edit
Just wondering about the game itself - I value character customization both pre and post character creation but how's the game? Is it a grindfest? Boring/repetative quests? Is it solo friendly enough to allow for a fun time without needing to group up to finish something? Just kind of wondering - thanks.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Mentioned about customization. I found Pirates of Caribbean Online also offered similar function to fine tune skin color, nose bridge, eye brow, eye color, hair style ....etc. It looks like many choice to get your favor look. Unfortunately, the prototype don't look good which means no matter how you customized, there is no style on the face.
I think a good character customization should have several prototypes to choose from, for example, Western face, Asian face, African face, Orc face ....etc then from there to fine tune the facial details.
Currently, I am playing a game with Console design on PC platform, it is so terrible but I may get interest if it was a P2P rather than a F2P.
The reason is very simple, if a F2P was so good then they should learned how to take responsibility for their customers because selling various items is not the way to show responsibility but only how good about their selling skills.
Sounds like you should look into <game from Games in Development>.
Its got all the things you are looking for, its been in development for 20 years and doesn't have a client or open beta yet.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Grindfest = yes
repetative = mostly
solo friendly = only up to lvl 40 then best to party
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
*Sigh*
Ok so I've read the prerequisite F2P bashing. Now who can name an above average MMO other than CoX that offers excellent customization.
So let's see the vast majority of the vaunted top selling MMO's have...
No challenge / themepark =Yes
Laughable / dated Graphics =Yes
Solo Friendly =Yes to the point most can't function in a group context understand aggro, parking mobs etc.
Dutchess Zarraa Voltayre
Reborn/Zero Sum/Ancient Legacy/Jagged Legion/Feared/Nuke & Pave.
The whole point of F2P games is that you can be totally different from other people. Yes the basic core of the game is free, but you'[ll have to pay up if you ever want to get anywhere, i think most people with a decent IQ understands this. In monthly fee games you are paying mostly for the service, for the game mechanics rather than unique items. Everyone is the same, everything is fair. Like communism tbh. Not that that's a bad thing of course. In F2P games you have more options, you can choose to play for free or really cheap and level slowly, or pay more and be unique and choose every aspect of your char and its development.
Perfect World isn't perfect by any means, but as mentioned before it's quite decent. And I support F2P games because they offer diversity in the online gaming world. Perhaps a combination of monthly fee + item shops could be the future of online gaming, you get the best of both worlds. Paying a monthly lump sum guarantees your leveling speed, while item shops give you unique customization options and perhaps special items, equipment, or even skills. But I'm really not a fan of xp-boosters or double-xp time items.