Character Customization in Online GamesOctober 14th, 2007 by Monique
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I recently tried out the upcoming MMORPG Tabula Rasa’s beta. For all the game’s flaws, and there were a lot, there was an absolutely stunning system for character customization. Nearly every feature of a character could be molded to your choosing, down to the color of sunglasses. This got me thinking—in this day and age, how much does character customization matter? How much of online video games are about aesthetics and how much is the actual gameplay?
In the past, customization wasn’t really offered to the gamer for various reasons, technology limitations being the biggest factor. Instead, it was all about gameplay and the storyline. In example, I implore you to look at Blizzard’s hit Diablo II. D2 offered no customization whatsoever; the game was about killing monsters, and having fun while doing so. Along the same vein, Counter-strike didn’t even have many options in terms of what your terrorist or counter-terrorist looked like.
Today, however, that’s changed. It’s changed a lot; gamers now expect customization. Gamers now demand customization. In most shooters, a person can now color their character’s armor or choose different suits. In RPGs, the customization is even deeper. 
Would World of Warcraft been a big hit if you could only have one hair color, one face, and one skin tone? Blizzard ended up redesigning the raiding tiers and PvP rewards a few years ago because people had complained that they were merely placeholders and not unique designs that should be deserved of rewards from such efforts. They wanted to stand out, they wanted to be unique. In result, stunning designs like Bloodfang and Judgement emerged—along with the idea that style does matter. Every time a new arena season begins or a new dungeon is introduced, people clamor for screenshots of the items being worn more than their actual stats.
In another online game, Guild Wars, customization was put to the test even more heavily. With WoW, the aesthetics were in tandem with numerical changes; while tier 2 may have looked hot, it also kicked all other armor combination’s asses (until higher tiers were introduced, at least). In GW, gamers were offered an obscenely hard to get armor set that had no difference from a normal raid set aside from the outward appearance. There was no difference in the stats whatsoever. These sets were known 15k armor sets. Surprisingly, people ended up farming for them anyway, even though they didn’t enhance the gameplay at all. They were incredibly hard to get, requiring weeks and even months of grouping for certain drops, but players still felt the need to customize their character and stand out from the crowd.
Character customization even goes beyond armor sets or weapons. It goes to the height of your character, their race, and the earrings they wear. It’s about making the character as unique to you as possible, allowing yourself to identify more with your character.
A few months back, I decided to try out Titan Quest and its expansion pack. When I got to the character select screen, I was somehow angry to see the only choice was gender and the color of the toga s/he wears. The game itself was fun, and I did go on to play it, but in that moment of puzzlement and disdain, I realized something. I’d inherently become used to customization. I demanded it, even. I had almost been ready to dismiss a game because I couldn’t make my character have different hair.
So when did it become custom for customization to be in a game? When did we begin to judge games by their appearance instead of their content?
The answer is I have no idea. I don’t know the first game to offer customization. I remember Everquest and Asheron’s Call—I imagine they were some of the pioneers in terms of in-depth customization—but insofar as the first, I don’t know. It’s beside the point, too. The point is that while I have no idea where it all started or how it became this intricate, it’s not exactly a bad thing. It’s happened and there is no going back. Games now need to look pretty in addition to running smoothly. Once you taste customization, you really can’t go back, because there is something undeniably fun like having a unique hairstyle or riding mount.
I also realized while writing that I didn’t have such nostalgia related to D2, I probably wouldn’t be able to play it so happily. In a way, then, I can’t blame newer and younger gamers for not appreciating the so-called classics. If I were picking it up now for the first time, I would be very likely to cringe at the lack of customization.
And 
in short, this means developers need to get with the times. Hellgate: London is the fan-proclaimed upcoming Diablo 3 (it’s made by the same people as 1 and 2, if you didn’t know), and one of the biggest changes is its customization. Oblivion came out a few years back and shook the gaming world with the extent of its customization. At the end of the day, aesthetics and customization is now a decent chunk of any game, and if you don’t provide it, you may suffer.
But will it save a game? That answer remains undecided, but I don’t think so. As pretty and intricately decorated as the cake is, if it tastes bad, no one’s going to eat it. Yeah, Tabula Rasa, I’m looking at you.
October 14th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
This is one of the reasons I keep coming back to City of Heroes. Even though the gameplay is simple and the geography is limited, I can’t get enough of the seemingly unlimited looks that characters can have.
October 15th, 2007 at 4:41 am
Character customisation and all the little pointless but amusing things are what keep me so hooked on WoW. I’m not lying when I say that the new hairstyles and other character customisation in the upcoming expansion are the thing I’m looking forward to the most.
If there’s one thing GW deserves credit for, though, it’s the lovely armor designs! The game itself seemed a bit hollow to me, but I won’t deny that I was excited when I finished my first gear set and picked the approriate dyes to make my character look like the mysterious mesmer of the night that she was! Hehe… I need to get back into that game some time and make a ranger so I get all the cool hippie clothes.
October 15th, 2007 at 6:18 am
You know why Guild Wars had such fantastic clothing designs? Because they were done by Merekat, that’s why! (merekatcreations.com
October 15th, 2007 at 6:18 am
ooh, it broke my comment o.o
Anyway yeah. Merekat is the best character designer ever. Period.
October 15th, 2007 at 8:59 am
I really liked Lineage II’s design. Guild Wars also had some great armor like Selphie and Suzie mentioned.
October 15th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Awesome job on this blog
I’ve played like, a million different MMORPGs (really, like every one of them that was out there with the exception of Everquest II). What I’ve noticed about character customization is that if there was too little, I became disinterested in the game quickly. If there was TOO much, I quickly became annoyed and overwhelmed.
Oblivion isn’t an MMO, but I think I spent 20-30 minutes just trying to make a character NOT ugly, and I swear that should have been an xbl achievement. I don’t like to spend that long on a character. Maybe 5 minutes, tops, while enjoying it. Dark Age of Camelot was one of the first games to implement clothing dye. You could dye your hat purple, and your pants blue if you so wished, which players really enjoyed.
World of Warcraft seems to have a happy medium so far with its character customization. I never spend too long picking our a hairstyle, but then I also notice that when I’m done picking out everything, most other people don’t have the same combination that I do. Plus, unusual armor always helps too.
October 15th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Great post, Monique! As far as Oblivion goes, I’ve often wished there were a few more options when it came time to outfit your character - there really weren’t enough armor types. Despite its failures elsewhere, one game that really succeeds in giving you the power to customize is Two Worlds…
October 15th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I really do enjoy customization in games now, but like you said, the game still has to be good. I can live with somewhat limited character customization options, as long as the game is enjoyable. Heck even Halo 3 lets you screw around with the way your Spartan or Elite looks now.
I’m looking forward to Hellgate: London. I spent a lot of time on Diablo 2 (not as much as some). There was always something about finding that cool armor, or item. If we could have made custom characters back then, and had more then a resolution of 800×600, I’d probably still be playing it.
October 16th, 2007 at 6:46 am
I hate when people mention Oblivion in tandem with characters because they failed at the ultimate goal of character customization - looking aesthetically pleasing. Nothing looks good in Oblivion unless you’re looking at trees, or grass and things like that. I haven’t heard anyone say “Hey, my character looks really cool” in regards to that game, and I wouldn’t say it either, even after having won higher level armor with more details.
That’s not saying they didn’t contribute anything, I’m sure they opened a few eyes on what’s marketable in new games, but it was just fraught with extreme ugly. In essence, not what we want.
Customization gets people interested, once they figure out the game play is what they desire, it keeps them interested and excited (yeah, I get all giddy over dying my Warrior’s entire armor set neon pink), and it’s also a nice way to stroke that e-peen if one finds this necessary.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:07 am
I had the exact same feeling when firing up the Titan Quest demo for the first time. Regardless I still purchased - and loved - the full game. Gameplay does > customization (just look at the, amazing, UT3 demo - with just 1 skin) but somewhere along the line I too have gotten overly used to customization.
Of course some games do take customization a bit too far… like Neverwinter Nights 2. It took me 2 hours to create my character for that game - and I already had prior NWN experience so I knew what I was doing too (for the most part).
As for 15k armor in Guild Wars. They’re far from hard to get and don’t require weeks and months of farming or grinding, like WoW armors do. In general you’ll have plenty of money and materials for a full 15k set after completing one of the campaigns with one character.
October 16th, 2007 at 10:01 am
That’s assuming a person just wants one set, and a true 15k, not the prestigious and much more expensive sets like Obsidian, which still (or a few months ago when I last played) cost a million +. In all, a normal 15k set is usually 110k or so (if just buying mats). This isn’t hard at all, but 100k ten times over could certainly take a feasible few weeks or even over a month depending on the individual. Anyway, off topic-ish… And now I don’t have time to get back on topic, so oh well. :O
October 16th, 2007 at 10:23 am
hey
are you in HgL beta?
October 16th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Customization is definitely a key point for social games. It allows people to add their own little touch to characters. I know when I played Final Fantasy XI I had a seperate set of armor that “looked good” while I was in town. I know of many others who did this as well. Games that have no customization tend to lose people’s interest because customization is a way of having a personal connection with your avatar. If you don’t have a personal connection with your avatar, then you are more likely to unsubscribe to a game. This may explain why games without customization tend to fail.
October 17th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
As much as I loved Oblivion, I’ve got to agree with you Elle. After about a half hour of tinkering, my character still looked like a Neanderthal. I eventually gave up, and ended up covering his ridiculously shaped head for the next 100+ hours of play…
October 20th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
My character in Oblvivion is an ugly son of a bitch. That makes her motherfuckin’ awesome.
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
SomaSaint–yes I am :] Heartilly is my forum username.
October 27th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I agree with Shawn about City of Heroes. I have gone back to that game several times because of how much I like the characters I made.
You can’t even change much after you start (like some games with armor and such) but if you start with a good design it’s easy to really like your character. I made a backstory and everything for my guy, and just have a lot of fun in general with that game. Customization made me stick with a game that I might have otherwise left.
October 28th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
You should see Perfect World. It has a cool slider system with an almost Sims-like feel to it. You can copy almost any face, including your own. I blogged about it HERE.
Thanks,
GM T
December 8th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Ok I am not sure how many of you played Ultima Online (UO) but as far as i can remember that is when serious character customization really began. That being the 1st MMO i ever played I am not sure of anything else before that, hell Ever Quest could have been before it I don;t remember the order of things being released but I do know that UO had a hell of alot of customization.