The idea of being able to customize your character's look and feel beyond choosing one of 4 or 5 basic face and hairstyle choices at character creation or upgrading to a new piece of loot is one that's near and dear to me. I'm an RPer, so I like to think of each of my characters as a unique person with unique quirks, ideas, and fashion sense that I can't always express as I'd like to due to the limitations of WoW's mechanics. I've even had some very good friends quit WoW because their characters weren't customizable enough.
The idea came to the front of my mind a few weeks back when I was visiting my brother. We played EverQuest together, but when it came time to move on from that game, he (and most of our EQ guild) chose Everquest 2, and I chose WoW. So, of course, he ribs me about it quite often, and since I was visiting, he decided to load up EQ2 and show me what I was "missing."
Now to be honest, I'm still a bigger fan of WoW, but that's a subject for a different article. One thing I will say for EQ2 is that I was very impressed with the wider range of options to customize your character and show off your character's accomplishments. There's a few ideas related to character customization from EQ2 and other games that I'd really like Blizzard to continue emulating in future patches and in the WoTLK expansion that I believe would deepen the game experience for me and my friends, and for many other players as well.
Now WoW has titles, but it really doesn't have much on EQ2 in that arena. My brother has at least 10 various titles available to him, and he's a relatively casual player. In EQ2, there's titles for having good reputation with various factions. There's titles for killing a massive amount of certain enemy types. There's titles for your rank in an established guild. There's titles for completing certain quest lines or collecting rare items. In WoW we seem to have fallen behind, title-wise. There's at least some effort lately to fit in some a few titles, but non-raiders and non-PvPers deserve some love too. We can wear tabards to show our loyalty to certain factions, but it would be nice if factions got titles too. There is the Shattered Sun Offensive title coming on us quickly, hopefully we start seeing titles like that more as WoTLK comes out. I'd love to have a "Of the Cenarion Expedition" title for my Druid. How about a quest that ends in letting my Warlock be known as "The Enchanter" for his pursuit of the Enchanting profession? Being able to display a title that signifies our interests, achievements, or factional loyalties at all levels of the game would be a way for each person to feel a sense of investment in their character and in the game world in a big way. 2.4 has started the baby steps down the path, but here's hoping the team expands this coming into WoTLK.
The other nice thing about EQ2 (And EQ before it) is that it lets you pick a custom last name at a certain level. Sure, you can do that via addons currently, but only other people with the addon can see it, and the addons in question are generally memory hogs and don't play nice with other tooltip addons. A nice integrated last name that would show up by default to everyone would be a simple and sweet way to make your character stand out. Yes, admittedly, you will get the chuckleheads who will deliberately name their character Phil at creation and make their last name McCracken, but hey, you can always report those same as always. Add a little biography window that can have a tab in the inspect window, and you'd go a long way to making WoW a much more friendly place for RP and general character customization.
Finally, possibly the biggest thing I'd like to see bought from EQ2 (you can also find this in other games such as LoTRO) is the ability to have a second "cosmetic" layer to your gear, an outfit that people who looked at you would see as opposed to what you're wearing for the stats. Yeah, Sometimes you're lucky enough that your battle gear matches up perfectly and looks pretty awesome, but just as often, you're going to look like a bit of a clown, or even some sort of weird TV tower thing. Being able to choose how you look at all times would, for me, be one of the biggest ways I could take charge of my character. My Hunter could always look like she's actually dressed for hunting. My Druid could always be dressed in the traditional garb of the Night Elf Archdruid. A Fury Warrior could make themselves look like a rugged berserker or a Herod type instead of just another dude in full plate armor. The list of possibilities goes on and on. I'd prefer that the look be permanent and always on, but I'd even accept the option to swap to the new look in town or when out of combat without sacrificing bank space. Since you'd have to have the gear to get the look, there's no loss of feeling of achievement -- You aren't going to be seeing level 5 newbies running around with Tier 6 gear in their cosmetic slots. You'd probably have to disable it for PvP in order to stop Arms Warriors from disguising themselves as Mages, which would make it a little less useful on PvP servers, but I think that downside shouldn't stop the implementation for all of us on the carebear servers. If this was announced for WoTLK, I'd have a new favorite expansion feature for sure.
I think it's pretty clear that most MMORPGs learn from previous generations, learning what works and what doesn't. WoW learned a lot from EQ, UO, and other elder statesmen of the genre, and the game is better for it. But now I think it's time WoW learned a bit from its peers. I still believe it's an amazing game, but if it has one weakness, it is certainly lack of character customization. I'd love to see WoW take a page from some other games on the market and give each character an opportunity to feel at least a little bit more like a beautiful and unique snowflake among the millions of characters that inhabit the World of Warcraft. What do you think? Do you agree with these ideas? Do you have others for greater character customization? or is WoW's current level of character customization fine?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
3-31-2008 @ 4:08PM
donoteatmikezila said...
Half the reason people grind for new gear is because it looks cool. If you could specify "cosmetic" gear, everyone would just wear whatever they had a full set of. You'd have a hundred people fighting for who started wearing the Defias Leather first.
And damn if I wouldn't be one of them. I think it's a great idea, but Blizzard would never do it, because then you could look cool without having to uber-grind or wear gimp gear.
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3-31-2008 @ 4:19PM
Shardistral said...
I think you missed part of the article. He's not saying people should be able to wear whatever they want from the outset and then only get gear for stats.
He's saying to have a separate set of armor slots on your character sheet for cosmetic use; you'd still have to grind the rep/instance/gold/profession/etc to get the fancy-looking armor in order to wear it, you just wouldn't need the extra bag space+outfit switching addon in order to display it wherever you go.
3-31-2008 @ 4:18PM
Everto said...
I agree that we should be able to customize our characters more, but not our gear. It has always been very important to be able to tell what kind of gear a player has at a glance, especially in pvp. If everyone were able to customize their gear you wouldn't be able to tell if you're about to fight a pvp god in full Season 3 or a fresh lv 70 in greens and blues.
3-31-2008 @ 4:32PM
Aticus said...
I just shoved out 1300g for the Blade Of Wizardry for my Paladin just because now I have a sword that's just fire. It looks amazing! But, it was a downgrade from what I was using. Nevertheless, you are right: people grind out gear to look good. And I have to agree with Everto in that when I see someone in T5, S3, etc, run up to me, I know his gear is WAY better than mine.
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
3-31-2008 @ 6:52PM
jrb said...
i believe the separate gear for cosmetics only works outside of PvP gameplay, in at least one other game that features it; LotRO. And that's the way it should stay.
tbh, WOW seriously needs a gear slot for cosmetics.. i'm sick of my alts walking around azeroth dressed like a cheap clown / hobo, because none of the gear matches. I took the option to dress my current alt in black defias gear up until it was way out of use for me, purely because with my black cat pet he simply looks as awesome as you can at such a low level.
come on blizzard. Do it!
3-31-2008 @ 4:13PM
Dan said...
the idea of a cosmetic gear slot appeals me greatly as a scarred survivor of a female night elf in plate 1-70.
mmm. 'sexy' chainmail. my favourite type of sexist bullshit.
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3-31-2008 @ 4:21PM
Ktok said...
Frankly, my wife hated the armor in EQ2 because it *didn't* show any skin. ;)
3-31-2008 @ 5:00PM
p-diddy said...
Playing as a BELF female pally, I completely agree. It's supposed to be plate armor for cripe's sake, not spandex!! My friends post screenshots of my toon to our forum just to make comments about how whorish she always looks.
:-/
3-31-2008 @ 4:14PM
Nemo said...
I think the idea of having a second layer to your gear would be an awesome idea! Role-players would probably enjoy this the most!
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3-31-2008 @ 4:17PM
Blackhorn said...
Quick parse and reply mode:
1) Last names, go!
2) Cosmetic outfits, no!
3) More titles, go!
4) More character customization, go!
4) Apples and Oranges, no!
Elaboration mode, engaged:
Last names will be a great addition. And allow more than one Tom (note: not my name) on a realm. Even shorthand version. Timothy Wilkins could just show up as "Tim" in-game, with their full name in the tooltip. It's up to us to report the fools with ass-names.
Cosmetic outfits defeat most of the reason people play: Showing of ur epicz! Sure, you may look like a clown until you get everything you need, but that's a motivator, and makes the payoff even greater. Also, nobody wants to get their face eaten after being beaten down by an undead rogue in the latest arena gear who just happens to look like they're wearing a pretty pink dress with a flower in his hair. Though I sure would like to see a whole lot less of that PvP red crystal staff. The very first time I saw one I thought "Wow.. cool"... now it's more common than gold spammers at the mailbox.
I've never had more than an old-school PvP honor title.. and even that was no more than bottom tier rank. But anything to make me feel like the time and effort I put into the game is recognized by more than just a faction vendor. Exalted status with any faction should get a title.... and a little more respect from the NPCs at least. Level 70 raiders I'm sure don't appreciate being called "whelp" or what-have-you by some level 40 NPC in some small town.
Character customization is desperately needed. 90% of the troll women have the same face. And they're so simple to do. come on, Blizzard, it's just silly that you haven't done this yet. haircuts don't count. Add anything you can.
EQ2... yuck, much? I couldn't get past the look of it. I'm all for stealing some of their better ideas... but tell your friends not to be patting themselves on the back because they switched to EQ2 instead of WoW. If there was ANY game that had the potential to dethrone WoW, it was EQ2. And EQ2 bounced off of WoW like a superball off of concrete..
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4-01-2008 @ 4:15AM
Tenchan said...
Incorrect. Cosmetic Outfits, as they are brought up in this articel, do not 'defy' anything. Cosmetic outfits are not a requirement or an automatic overlay, they are an option. If you want to show off your PvP/T6 gear, you absolutely can and should. If you had read the article properly, you would also have noticed that the author promotes not making this an option for PvP.
I agree to you assessment about titles. NPCs of a faction I am in will standing with treating me like every other whelp make me raise my eyebrows.
4-01-2008 @ 4:19AM
Tenchan said...
... god, I'll never type while my computer is hiccuping again. Your*, Good* standing.
4-01-2008 @ 10:58AM
Blackhorn said...
So, you're saying that if in EQ2 I wanted to "disguise my true power" by wearing a pretty pink dress, I couldn't do it?
Am I incorrect in thinking that this feature could be used maliciously?
3-31-2008 @ 4:19PM
Blackfayth said...
Yes. I deeply agree. There are ALOTS of options blizzard is overlooking or not taking advanage of and for such "a great game" it is still lacking in.
How many players online, 10 million? to How many races??? It looks wow had like 5 women and one father and never mutliplied from that.
To add to the Insult, we all have the same 5/6 trainers.
I loved EQ for the "Tree" structure; both races and professions.
ex. EQer Blackfayth MoO~
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3-31-2008 @ 4:21PM
Ktok said...
Don't even get me started on EQ2... played that for nearly 3 years before switching to WoW. Aside from the last name thing, I don't want any of what you're talking about in WoW.
Customization? OK, how about ludicrously dis proportionate faces because someone thought it would be funny to make the most horridly grotesque thing they could and name him Mrextremely Frownyface? Aren't the Night Elf faces of perpetual constipation bad enough?
At least EQ2 didn't let you adjust bust size... as anyone who played Vanguard knows, that results in a bevvy of females that look like they're going to tip over with a slight breeze from behind.
Titles? Oh I had scads of them... more than I ever used. You know what? They were mostly meaningless because just about all of them were earned through nothing more than mindless time investment. "Destroyer of" titles only acted as a flag to let people know that you actually had enough spare time to kill 100,000 gnolls or whatever the number was.
And lastly... the cosmetic layer. No thank you. I like being able to spot a class at range based on their gear. It's sort of useful in PvP too, which is probably the biggest reason WoW will never do it. While I'm sure many people would love to hide their Season 3 set under a level 1 robe, that just feels cheap to me.
Oh, and guild levels and player housing was just abysmal as well. Horrible time sinks with ultimately no purpose... and the crafting process. God, I spent all those years trashing WoW, and looking back I wish I had spent them playing it instead.
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3-31-2008 @ 4:21PM
Breck said...
City of Heroes.
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3-31-2008 @ 4:26PM
vildand said...
I'm not sure about this one. I've played quite a few of those MMOs with advanced character creation schemes and I usually end up letting the game randomize the facial features for me, only chosing things like hair style, eye colour and such myself.
I actually prefer Blizzards approach, except for one little thing, even though I ignore all the advanced abilities by randomizing noone will ever look like my character does in eve-online.
So really, the best thing would be a mix in betwen.
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3-31-2008 @ 4:31PM
sam said...
I like this idea just for the fact that i could get a look that I like without sacrificing the good stats, on the horrid looking gear that i have now and have been trying for months to replace.
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3-31-2008 @ 4:34PM
blackwolf675 said...
I've played many MMOs and the character generator is always a big seller for me. I'll spend an hour tinkering until I get the look just right - and if not, I'll reroll until I get the perfect combination.
I played Asheron's Call back in the day and the generator had slides that would let you choose your eyes, your nose/cheeks/, mouth and hair seperately for a unique look. There were color slides that would give you a fantastic array of color shades to choose from.
Though it was simple, the AC generator was great for its time and allowed you to actually recognize other players by their avatars' faces.
I went to DAoC and smacked into the "whole face" phenomenon and was kinda disappointed. The graphics and RvR aspects were enough to get me to stay for a few years, but other than that, I always felt sad when I'd see my face on every 4th 'toon to run past me.
Mythic implemented an upgrade to the character gen a while after I left, but would allow you to tinker with the look of existing characters if you came back.
At 10th level you could get a last name that displayed to everyone, allowing RPlayers to build families or communities beyond their guilds.
SWG had an unbelievable CharGen screen - everything from eye size to body weight. You could even change the visible age of your character to make them anchient and wrinkly. If the game hadn't gone downhill from there, I could have been content.
CoHeroes had some pretty neat customization, but your character never changed its look beyond creation - much like the game world environment.
WoW has great potential to learn from these other games - people love customization.
Tattoos, hairstyles, visible jewelry, scars, war medals -- all of these things could be added in to make us feel different from the other 10mil subscribers.
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3-31-2008 @ 4:37PM
Todd said...
I would love to have a drop down in the Character Sheet which would allow for the selection of whatever titles you may have accumulated through your WoW travels. I don't want to have my title overwritten, I just want to put it away for awhile. I earned that title, dammit!
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