The problem is, people expect investors to take risks they themselves aren't willing to take. Not willing to take a risk and invest in what might turn into a great game? No problem. But don't turn around and whine about all the WoW clones out there. If we're not willing to put a tiny amount of our money up, why should investors part with MILLIONS?
We can't have our cake and eat it too!
Its more that game companies need to stop launching MMOs as their first product. The amount of overheard, development consts and upkeep is no where near that of a single player game, not to mention investors are far less likely to invest in a company that has nothing to show but most likely a demo reel of its employees. These companies need to start small, make games that are fun and addictive and show us that you are a reliable company, not throw yourself into the ocean that is MMOs and hope to survive while charging the same monthly fee as others. You want to charge $14.99 per month then you better give me the same level of polish and content as other games that charge me $14.99 per month, if you cant then lower your price.
The problem is, people expect investors to take risks they themselves aren't willing to take. Not willing to take a risk and invest in what might turn into a great game? No problem. But don't turn around and whine about all the WoW clones out there. If we're not willing to put a tiny amount of our money up, why should investors part with MILLIONS?
We can't have our cake and eat it too!
Its more that game companies need to stop launching MMOs as their first product. The amount of overheard, development consts and upkeep is no where near that of a single player game, not to mention investors are far less likely to invest in a company that has nothing to show but most likely a demo reel of its employees. These companies need to start small, make games that are fun and addictive and show us that you are a reliable company, not throw yourself into the ocean that is MMOs and hope to survive while charging the same monthly fee as others. You want to charge $14.99 per month then you better give me the same level of polish and content as other games that charge me $14.99 per month, if you cant then lower your price.
I cannot disagree. As blizzard has shown (and maybe bioware too) is that an ESTABLISHED company making an MMO is in a much better position. Not only are they sitting on a HUGE pile of money (which is absolutely necessary to have any polish at release), but they have a much easier time raising investment capital.
Here's where it gets tricky, though. Those super polished games that get made, aren't really all that great. Yes, they are polished, stable and always run as they should. But the depth can be lacking. Granted, I am talking about WoW here (mostly). There IS a niche in the MMO scene of people willing to sacrifice some polish for a more in depth experience. Look at Rift. It is as polished as any game could possibly be at that point in developement. But its isn't really that deep. Its a themepark level treadmill with constant interruptions of Rift Events. There's not a whole lot going on there, but it is polished as all hell.
So what it comes down to, it seems, is that we as players have to decide between a content loaded game with depth, or a reliable generic experience. With the introduction of MILLIONS of casuals to the MMO genre, the polished generic experience is going to get WAAAY more players. This makes them a success. But an initially unpolished game that offers something different and unique shouldn't AUTOMATICALLY be considered a failure because it lacks that initial polish.
That being said, a lot of the different and unique offerings have been abysmal failures in the end!
I really hope that *insert game name here* will be the first game to ever live up to all of its pre-release promises, maintain a manageable hype level and have a clean release. Just don't expect me to hold my breath.
I'm gonna buy this game eitherway (unless I get into Beta and it's total shit) but to me this just sounds like another failed MMOTPS.
How can it be so hard!?!
First there were the total duds like Darkfall and MO. Then it was GA, which was great but far too shallow to call itself and MMO - good start though. Next comes a certain space game I Beta'd, which just bored me to death. And now this, which in summary is a shit game with bags of potential.
Sigh - don't these mofo devs learn anything at all!!! Just pick up a couple of hit games, analyse why they're successful and steal/enhance the good ideas. Instead, all these indie dickheads try to reinvent the wheel, like they're in any position financially to try and do that. That's why I'm going to be rolling with RIFT til something better hits - take a classic formula and update it. That'll keep me going for a while methinks even though it's no gaming revolution.
Guess I'm going to have to pin my MMOTPS hopes on TERA long-term; woe betide me.
I just really want a decent MMOTPS - FFS I'd play one set in a shopping mall if it at least functioned well and had some depth. Instead these companies just seem to be missing the mark on either depth or mechanics, or both.
Ooo, and then there's the new Tribes game Hi-Res are working on - God, please let it be good and not more shallow than a playboy bunny after a lobotomy like GA was.
Aryas
Playing: Ableton Live 8 ~ ragequitcancelsubdeletegamesmashcomputerkillself ~
The customer expectations have moved on significantly and the market is already too crowded to allow such poor games much chance of surviving long enough to get fixed.
i'm afraid krakead is right about this. the problems during close beta in the last weeks were stated and brought before the developers. it was/is obvious that the game is more likely in a alpha phase and normally far away from beeing released next week. well, it seams they will do it anyway.
but what i really can't understand why masthead stick with it. finally allowing press and some more players (with beta key giveaway events) to have a 'first look' on a game. fully aware of what kind of impression the testers will catch. worst case scenario for the marketing and finance division of the company.
so what do they expect with releasing a game that need some more work until it will run smoothly and enjoyable? fast money to cover bank kredits, trying to fish for money to keep the investment lost as low as possible and then sell the game to another company?
it seams that even the settled player base in this forum think that this game is worth a try and has great potential, but will not buy it until improvements are visual. and to loose this player base for a game like earthrise seams to be the beginning of the end.
dear developers, please get this game running as fast as possible or we (the mmorpg fans) will be beaten by more and more wow-clones in the next 5 years, because investors will be scared the hell off to try some new concepts .....
The problem is, people expect investors to take risks they themselves aren't willing to take. Not willing to take a risk and invest in what might turn into a great game? No problem. But don't turn around and whine about all the WoW clones out there. If we're not willing to put a tiny amount of our money up, why should investors part with MILLIONS?
We can't have our cake and eat it too!
Thats all good in theory but these guys are expecting to get a premium price and sub fee for what amounts to alpha state games. If they charged 20-30 dollars with maybe a 10 dollar sub I believe that would go over better. If you cannot play with the big boys then do not charge the same price of admission.
The problem is, people expect investors to take risks they themselves aren't willing to take. Not willing to take a risk and invest in what might turn into a great game? No problem. But don't turn around and whine about all the WoW clones out there. If we're not willing to put a tiny amount of our money up, why should investors part with MILLIONS?
We can't have our cake and eat it too!
your statement sounds a bit idealistic and unrealistic. i guess noone of the 'demanders of a more challenging and deeper mmorpg' refuse their support of a great potential game, but as long a game makes no fun, is enjoyable or even running properly it makes no sense for players to invest money in it.
if - for example and pure hypothetical - masthead would offer me a contract that after i pay 50 € + 12 x 15 € (230 € / 310 $) i will get an additional 1 year free to play because i belived and invested in them ... well, i would do it. but lets face the fact that this will never happen. so a company have to deal with the terms and rules of the market and the buisness. on the other hand in the last 5 years ccp earned my trust and even if i'm taking a break from time to time i keep my accounts running on my creditcard - thats some sort of support for a mmo company, don't you think?
Short first impressions such as the comments about the controls are 100% valid, if somewhat uninformative. The fact that someone has taken the time to try the game and given up because the controls are so poor they consider it not worth their time continuing says quite a lot. Yes, maybe the poster is impatient, but consider this is addition to what others are saying and patterns start emerging.
Comparisons to AO are of dubious validity. The customer expectations have moved on significantly and the market is already too crowded to allow such poor games much chance of surviving long enough to get fixed. Just look at APB...
It seems clear to me that Masthead have run out of money and it's launch or die time. I hope they make it, but it won't be with my help - I've been burned too many times before
The reason short one-sentence first impressions "don't" work is because there is no explanation, no reasoning behind it. The common way to lie is to be as brief as possible, not mentioning any details unless forced to do so. Therefore, no one can really believe "controls are bad" and then say to themselves "hmmm, this game must suck because this total stranger says "controls are bad" about a beta test! See? That doesn't work. If they want anyone to take them serious, they need more detail than that.
Simply put, they refused to review the rest of the game. For all "said reviewer" knew, Masthead had a patch for control issues on the next day. Said reviewer missed out on a game because he hated controls (that he tested maybe 5 minutes?) in a beta test and not only that, he seems to encourage others to miss out.
And how can "comparisons to AO" be dubious? I was saying that a lot of the impressions were similar to what happened with AO. That's not an opinion, that's a fact...and you would know that if you did a history check. Lastly, I don't know why you attempt to compare APB, as that is a completely different class of MMO (100% pvp) and would not affect the "crowded" nature of PVM/PVP-mixed MMOs.
The problem is, people expect investors to take risks they themselves aren't willing to take. Not willing to take a risk and invest in what might turn into a great game? No problem. But don't turn around and whine about all the WoW clones out there. If we're not willing to put a tiny amount of our money up, why should investors part with MILLIONS?
We can't have our cake and eat it too!
your statement sounds a bit idealistic and unrealistic. i guess noone of the 'demanders of a more challenging and deeper mmorpg' refuse their support of a great potential game, but as long a game makes no fun, is enjoyable or even running properly it makes no sense for players to invest money in it.
if - for example and pure hypothetical - masthead would offer me a contract that after i pay 50 € + 12 x 15 € (230 € / 310 $) i will get an additional 1 year free to play because i belived and invested in them ... well, i would do it. but lets face the fact that this will never happen. so a company have to deal with the terms and rules of the market and the buisness. on the other hand in the last 5 years ccp earned my trust and even if i'm taking a break from time to time i keep my accounts running on my creditcard - thats some sort of support for a mmo company, don't you think?
i would actually have to agree with this. been reading up on reviews for this game for some time now and yes, in movies it was great but once u get in and start "testing" it... it's like going back 10 years in what regards playability. simply put: it took me over 1h to get all my barings in there (screwy controls+laging like mad+getting DCd every 10 min...) and after that all servers went down. forget about paying for it or investing in it. i wouldn't play it (as it is right now) even if they paid me. maybe if they would just admit that what they have now can barely be called an alpha ('cause it has far too many issues for a beta) and appeal to it's gaming base for the type of contract lanfea wrote of... then maybe i would reconsider... but even then, it's somewhat risky to take a chance with that since this game will most likely go bust and i would just waste money. and let's face it: right now, bust is the only direction this game is headed.
Going with AO, it will be quit a long wait till they hit decent quality, so 6 months to 2 years? And I don't belive there exist miracle patches in this time frame...
I have to agree with those that say this game came out of the oven several months to early. The tutorial area is suppose to be where you show people how well put together the game is and generate a postive opinion. That being said I have to say that I definitely was not impressed with the game. I saw alot of glitches, such as guns firing out of peoples belts while their hands were empty. The first kill 5 armored armadillo mission, I spent nearly 20 minutes trying to get one kill since so many people were competing with me. Several complained they had been their over 2 hours and still weren't done. Then just outside the tutorial mission some vet was picking off new players as they were comming out which probably didn't help with many players first impressions. This is only the beta I have ever uninstalled the first day, which out of nearly a dozen is a distinction that isn't positive. Even FFXIV, as bad as it was, I waited at least 3 days to remove. Perhaps one day it will be a great game but you only get one chance to make a first impression, developers need to realise that. To those of you who are going to continue to play, my hats off to you, it looks like Earthtise might be a good game one day. For those that don't continue to play (such as myself), well you can't really blame us.
Originally posted by Vinterkrig Originally posted by Hashbrick If you like strategic PVP (Not just standing there clicking shit) you are going to very very let down...
you can move and shoot with no problem (as long as lag don't f' ya up) but most of the passive weapon skill bonuses come from being in a stand still
4. Created a toon, was put off a bit by texture loading methods (solid orange screen > gray model > odd colored models > skinned/texture models)
5. Hopped in to a typical quicky tutorial, controls were a bit wonky but I think within an hour it would be usable.
6. Ran into a training room with only a couple of bots spawning to be killed on a long spawn timer with about 5 other people, spent a lot of time waiting.
7. Finished up killing the little bots, went to turn in couldn't leave combat mode to talk to NPC.
8. Relogged to fix it.
9. Can't log back in, zone not available or some such.
Overall a bad first impression, but I'm still curious enough to try again tomorrow.
4. Created a toon, was put off a bit by texture loading methods (solid orange screen > gray model > odd colored models > skinned/texture models)
5. Hopped in to a typical quicky tutorial, controls were a bit wonky but I think within an hour it would be usable.
6. Ran into a training room with only a couple of bots spawning to be killed on a long spawn timer with about 5 other people, spent a lot of time waiting.
7. Finished up killing the little bots, went to turn in couldn't leave combat mode to talk to NPC.
8. Relogged to fix it.
9. Can't log back in, zone not available or some such.
Overall a bad first impression, but I'm still curious enough to try again tomorrow.
The bad part about that is that your character is totally shwacked now and you have to reroll and do it all over again.
No, I'm not joking. It's an issue the devs have been trying to fix for the last two builds and have yet to find a successful solution to.
I logged in, checked the controls and slow rendering, got error and didn't get back in.
Will check again in few months.
lol "will check again in a few months." nuff said ;-)
I'm not sure if I'm going to buy it anymore... It's not that I expect a supremely polished game on launch (because we all know it's against the law for MMO developers to release finished work, even though consoles have been doing it right for 20 years) I just can't stand the rubberbanding. It truely kills gameplay for me.
When Aion launched it had the same rubberbanding issue and even though I loved other aspects of the game, the travel lag and rubberbanding ultimately cancelled my account.
I hope Earthrise takes care of that part asap.
"(because we all know it's against the law for MMO developers to release finished work, even though consoles have been doing it right for 20 years)"
Until consoles were able to go online...now every single game release with bugs. A lot of the huge bugs. We'll patch it later. Ship it NOW.
The game is absolutely beautiful. Masthead should have released batches of beta tester screenshots, because the official screenies I've seen don't do it justice.
The UI actually makes sense and works well for me. I don't get what people are complaining about. I'm a champion 'did not read the directions' type, and I still figured the essentials out...eventually, anyway. So just read the directions, for crying out loud. They're the first thing you see on your screen after you create your character and enter the game world.
Weapons: I want a shotty and an assault rifle, and a sniper rifle, and some wicked slashy things on my hands, and ooo know what would be cool? A flamethrower! Well, congrats, you can have all of the above. And you can use it all, too. Although admittedly, not all at once. But it's easy enough to swap weapons when you get bored and need a change in the middle of a fight.
The Bad:
A bit laggy, and one strange bug temporarily turned my character's hair from the color I chose to an eye assaulting shade of neon yellow, plus there was a bug that forced me to relog once to see handy structures like teleporters and gear dispensers. But the game is still in Beta, so I'm not really worried about it.
The Ugly:
Character creation leaves much to be desired. Eye color choice seemed to be limited to brown or brown with encroaching cataracts. Hair color choice was limited to brown or something that looks like it came out of a bottle labeled 'Halloween 80s Punk, almost guaranteed to wash out before Christmas'. But can I at least make a character with long flowy hair ala the Earthrise *smirk* 'my butt cheeks are hanging out' poster girl? Erm, no, sorry. You can have a ponytail, or slicked down short hair, or spiky short hair that looks like it could put someone's eye out, or really short cornrows. Pretty much everyone looks like everyone else, even before they go from their underwear to their armor. But hey, everyone is young and fit. Not a wrinkle or a hint of unsightly belly fat anywhere! Seriously, some variety in character appearance would be nice.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
Comments
Its more that game companies need to stop launching MMOs as their first product. The amount of overheard, development consts and upkeep is no where near that of a single player game, not to mention investors are far less likely to invest in a company that has nothing to show but most likely a demo reel of its employees. These companies need to start small, make games that are fun and addictive and show us that you are a reliable company, not throw yourself into the ocean that is MMOs and hope to survive while charging the same monthly fee as others. You want to charge $14.99 per month then you better give me the same level of polish and content as other games that charge me $14.99 per month, if you cant then lower your price.
My Guild Wars 2 Vids
I cannot disagree. As blizzard has shown (and maybe bioware too) is that an ESTABLISHED company making an MMO is in a much better position. Not only are they sitting on a HUGE pile of money (which is absolutely necessary to have any polish at release), but they have a much easier time raising investment capital.
Here's where it gets tricky, though. Those super polished games that get made, aren't really all that great. Yes, they are polished, stable and always run as they should. But the depth can be lacking. Granted, I am talking about WoW here (mostly). There IS a niche in the MMO scene of people willing to sacrifice some polish for a more in depth experience. Look at Rift. It is as polished as any game could possibly be at that point in developement. But its isn't really that deep. Its a themepark level treadmill with constant interruptions of Rift Events. There's not a whole lot going on there, but it is polished as all hell.
So what it comes down to, it seems, is that we as players have to decide between a content loaded game with depth, or a reliable generic experience. With the introduction of MILLIONS of casuals to the MMO genre, the polished generic experience is going to get WAAAY more players. This makes them a success. But an initially unpolished game that offers something different and unique shouldn't AUTOMATICALLY be considered a failure because it lacks that initial polish.
That being said, a lot of the different and unique offerings have been abysmal failures in the end!
I really hope that *insert game name here* will be the first game to ever live up to all of its pre-release promises, maintain a manageable hype level and have a clean release. Just don't expect me to hold my breath.
I'm gonna buy this game eitherway (unless I get into Beta and it's total shit) but to me this just sounds like another failed MMOTPS.
How can it be so hard!?!
First there were the total duds like Darkfall and MO. Then it was GA, which was great but far too shallow to call itself and MMO - good start though. Next comes a certain space game I Beta'd, which just bored me to death. And now this, which in summary is a shit game with bags of potential.
Sigh - don't these mofo devs learn anything at all!!! Just pick up a couple of hit games, analyse why they're successful and steal/enhance the good ideas. Instead, all these indie dickheads try to reinvent the wheel, like they're in any position financially to try and do that. That's why I'm going to be rolling with RIFT til something better hits - take a classic formula and update it. That'll keep me going for a while methinks even though it's no gaming revolution.
Guess I'm going to have to pin my MMOTPS hopes on TERA long-term; woe betide me.
I just really want a decent MMOTPS - FFS I'd play one set in a shopping mall if it at least functioned well and had some depth. Instead these companies just seem to be missing the mark on either depth or mechanics, or both.
Ooo, and then there's the new Tribes game Hi-Res are working on - God, please let it be good and not more shallow than a playboy bunny after a lobotomy like GA was.
Aryas
Playing: Ableton Live 8
~ ragequitcancelsubdeletegamesmashcomputerkillself ~
Is there a PvE server with an optional PvP later ? I might look at it then.
its 50 cents a day : /
your statement sounds a bit idealistic and unrealistic. i guess noone of the 'demanders of a more challenging and deeper mmorpg' refuse their support of a great potential game, but as long a game makes no fun, is enjoyable or even running properly it makes no sense for players to invest money in it.
if - for example and pure hypothetical - masthead would offer me a contract that after i pay 50 € + 12 x 15 € (230 € / 310 $) i will get an additional 1 year free to play because i belived and invested in them ... well, i would do it. but lets face the fact that this will never happen. so a company have to deal with the terms and rules of the market and the buisness. on the other hand in the last 5 years ccp earned my trust and even if i'm taking a break from time to time i keep my accounts running on my creditcard - thats some sort of support for a mmo company, don't you think?
The reason short one-sentence first impressions "don't" work is because there is no explanation, no reasoning behind it. The common way to lie is to be as brief as possible, not mentioning any details unless forced to do so. Therefore, no one can really believe "controls are bad" and then say to themselves "hmmm, this game must suck because this total stranger says "controls are bad" about a beta test! See? That doesn't work. If they want anyone to take them serious, they need more detail than that.
Simply put, they refused to review the rest of the game. For all "said reviewer" knew, Masthead had a patch for control issues on the next day. Said reviewer missed out on a game because he hated controls (that he tested maybe 5 minutes?) in a beta test and not only that, he seems to encourage others to miss out.
And how can "comparisons to AO" be dubious? I was saying that a lot of the impressions were similar to what happened with AO. That's not an opinion, that's a fact...and you would know that if you did a history check. Lastly, I don't know why you attempt to compare APB, as that is a completely different class of MMO (100% pvp) and would not affect the "crowded" nature of PVM/PVP-mixed MMOs.
i would actually have to agree with this. been reading up on reviews for this game for some time now and yes, in movies it was great but once u get in and start "testing" it... it's like going back 10 years in what regards playability. simply put: it took me over 1h to get all my barings in there (screwy controls+laging like mad+getting DCd every 10 min...) and after that all servers went down. forget about paying for it or investing in it. i wouldn't play it (as it is right now) even if they paid me. maybe if they would just admit that what they have now can barely be called an alpha ('cause it has far too many issues for a beta) and appeal to it's gaming base for the type of contract lanfea wrote of... then maybe i would reconsider... but even then, it's somewhat risky to take a chance with that since this game will most likely go bust and i would just waste money. and let's face it: right now, bust is the only direction this game is headed.
Going with AO, it will be quit a long wait till they hit decent quality, so 6 months to 2 years? And I don't belive there exist miracle patches in this time frame...
I have to agree with those that say this game came out of the oven several months to early. The tutorial area is suppose to be where you show people how well put together the game is and generate a postive opinion. That being said I have to say that I definitely was not impressed with the game. I saw alot of glitches, such as guns firing out of peoples belts while their hands were empty. The first kill 5 armored armadillo mission, I spent nearly 20 minutes trying to get one kill since so many people were competing with me. Several complained they had been their over 2 hours and still weren't done. Then just outside the tutorial mission some vet was picking off new players as they were comming out which probably didn't help with many players first impressions. This is only the beta I have ever uninstalled the first day, which out of nearly a dozen is a distinction that isn't positive. Even FFXIV, as bad as it was, I waited at least 3 days to remove. Perhaps one day it will be a great game but you only get one chance to make a first impression, developers need to realise that. To those of you who are going to continue to play, my hats off to you, it looks like Earthtise might be a good game one day. For those that don't continue to play (such as myself), well you can't really blame us.
Awesome testing. Are you a professional beta tester?
Sounds like this:
"TO MICHAEL!"
Come on,you can't even rebind keys!
Are they proffessional devs,you should ask yourself.
I lol'd
you will be able to later i believe or oyu can edit the luas
First login tonight went like this:
1. Quick download of client
2. Installed
3. No patches, fired right up
4. Created a toon, was put off a bit by texture loading methods (solid orange screen > gray model > odd colored models > skinned/texture models)
5. Hopped in to a typical quicky tutorial, controls were a bit wonky but I think within an hour it would be usable.
6. Ran into a training room with only a couple of bots spawning to be killed on a long spawn timer with about 5 other people, spent a lot of time waiting.
7. Finished up killing the little bots, went to turn in couldn't leave combat mode to talk to NPC.
8. Relogged to fix it.
9. Can't log back in, zone not available or some such.
Overall a bad first impression, but I'm still curious enough to try again tomorrow.
The bad part about that is that your character is totally shwacked now and you have to reroll and do it all over again.
No, I'm not joking. It's an issue the devs have been trying to fix for the last two builds and have yet to find a successful solution to.
Good thing you don't need to. Also, you can switch to normal WASD movment thorugh a / command.
If you've played DFO, MO, or FE, you'll have no problem adapting to these controls. Its the type of control setting thats required for FPS MMORPGs.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
"(because we all know it's against the law for MMO developers to release finished work, even though consoles have been doing it right for 20 years)"
Until consoles were able to go online...now every single game release with bugs. A lot of the huge bugs. We'll patch it later. Ship it NOW.
Where the heck do I use my beta key? Created an account, logged in but cannot find where to use it...
Better to be crazy, provided you know what sane is...
you could just give it to me...
or go here:
http://beta.play-earthrise.com/
First Impressions-
The Good:
The game is absolutely beautiful. Masthead should have released batches of beta tester screenshots, because the official screenies I've seen don't do it justice.
The UI actually makes sense and works well for me. I don't get what people are complaining about. I'm a champion 'did not read the directions' type, and I still figured the essentials out...eventually, anyway. So just read the directions, for crying out loud. They're the first thing you see on your screen after you create your character and enter the game world.
Weapons: I want a shotty and an assault rifle, and a sniper rifle, and some wicked slashy things on my hands, and ooo know what would be cool? A flamethrower! Well, congrats, you can have all of the above. And you can use it all, too. Although admittedly, not all at once. But it's easy enough to swap weapons when you get bored and need a change in the middle of a fight.
The Bad:
A bit laggy, and one strange bug temporarily turned my character's hair from the color I chose to an eye assaulting shade of neon yellow, plus there was a bug that forced me to relog once to see handy structures like teleporters and gear dispensers. But the game is still in Beta, so I'm not really worried about it.
The Ugly:
Character creation leaves much to be desired. Eye color choice seemed to be limited to brown or brown with encroaching cataracts. Hair color choice was limited to brown or something that looks like it came out of a bottle labeled 'Halloween 80s Punk, almost guaranteed to wash out before Christmas'. But can I at least make a character with long flowy hair ala the Earthrise *smirk* 'my butt cheeks are hanging out' poster girl? Erm, no, sorry. You can have a ponytail, or slicked down short hair, or spiky short hair that looks like it could put someone's eye out, or really short cornrows. Pretty much everyone looks like everyone else, even before they go from their underwear to their armor. But hey, everyone is young and fit. Not a wrinkle or a hint of unsightly belly fat anywhere! Seriously, some variety in character appearance would be nice.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein