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Character Customization Defined
Vhayne
Member UncommonPosts: 632
We, as a community need to decide what character customization really is, exactly.
Companies are always promoting their products by saying "We have tons of customization options", etc. But I think the actual meaning of the phrase is skewed. What exactly is "character customization"?
1. Is it the ability to DESIGN your charcter with different APPEARANCE features at character CREATION?
2. Is it the many different outfits, armor, and clothing you aquire while playing that gives your character a unique look?
3. And finally....Is it the many different skills, talents, attributes, or class branches that make your character an individual?
Personally I think each one needs a different term/word to explain and define them. As each one is vastly different than the next. For example, if I were promoting a game like Anarchy Online, and I said it had incredible depth in it's chracter customization, what would you think I meant (if you never played the game before)?
AO has a TON of number 3, a tiny bit of number 2, and a nearly absent number 1.
But take a game like EQ2, or Vanguard, and the developers promote it with in-depth chracter customization also. Although, when you get down to it, what they are talking about is 98% number 1.
So, I hope by reading this, you can see how myself and, I'm sure, many others are confused by this, and mislead by the statements.
What do you guys think?
Comments
CoH is the master of number one but lacking on in number two
WoW/EQ2 has the equipment for number two but CoH lacks equipment
number 3 is covered by many.
Those are the only examples I can think of
your arguement is so persuasive, so filled with knowledge and insight. You back up your argument very articulately, with suggestions of improvements and raising examples to glorify your position....oh wait, you didn't
Yeah, there are definately different types of customization. IMHO, all three kinds are important. The first two are easiest, if you have enough of an art team, but the third gets tricky, and difficult to balance- yet, the third is what's really most important to me, personally.
Another thing I want to comment on, I think of customization as the ability to make my character feel unique in one way or another. Lot of games offer customization options that don't feel like customization at all, because the player still doesn't have that much control. They just pick from a variety of cookie-cutters. Customization needs to be more about mixing and matching, to get the really custom feel, not picking presets.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I beg to differ. As much as people love to hate it, and as much as the game is a mere shadow of what it used to be, SWG is stil the master at #'s 1 & 2, and used to be best at #3. CoH may rival SWG for costuming, but not for actual variety of appearances of the toons themselves. Combine that with the ability to completely change nearly every aspect your appearance short of race and sex at any time, and the color and variety of the clothes and armors you can buy or find, makes SWG best at customization.
Now if only the rest of the game were even a tiny bit as good.
- How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
- I don't know, but some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?
People can argue that other players rarely notice what anyone's face looks like, but I honestly don't care what people see; I care what I see. The first time I played City of Heroes, right after playing SWG, I remember being very disappointed with CoH's customization because there were only about 8 faces to choose from, regardless of the number of costume options there were available. For me, clothing is something you can change on a whim, while bone structure is something you're born with. Sure, in a lot of games, you can change your face as easily as you can change your armor, and sure, you can change some of your bone structure in the real world with plastic surgery, but something about faces just intrinsically seems more important to me (especially with regard to one's identity) than the texture of blouses and the color of stockings.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
Almost all MMOs offer character devlopment. Not so many make it customizable.
Like skill trees, where people pick one of two or three paths? That hardly feels "customized" to me. Compare to a skill based game like Asheron's Call, where every character was potentially different. Many used templates, but you always had the option to try something different. Slightly different, or a lot different, there was quite a bit of room for experimentation and personalization. My characters really felt like my own creations, more than any other MMO.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.