Character Creators

[Based and White Pilled]

Am I in the minority in really liking being able to create my own character? It seems that these days only party based games like Pillars and Divinity are still doing it.

I understand that having a pre-made protagonist is easier for writing a good story and having good voice acting, but it couldn't be that difficult to get two voice actors, one male and one female. I am perfectly happy to sacrifice a little in the way of story cohesion/immersion for character customization.

I love the Witcher series and a few other games with pre-made characters, but I'm disappointed with how few of the big games these days have character creation.

They stated that Witcher 3 is likely the end of Geralt as the main character in the games. Wouldn't it be great to have a game in which you create a character and play as a young new witcher who goes through training at Kaer Morhen and then goes out into some saving the world storyline.

Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of games with pre-made characters and see some benefits to it. I was just looking at upcoming RPGs and popular ones that I haven't played yet and realized that almost none let you make your own character. This made me a little disappointed. Am I alone?

Spoiler

my wife refers to it as me playing "barbie doll dressup"

 

[Thunderflash500]

I think Bethesda actually made a mistake thinking they needed a voiced protaganist. What GTA did was really unique and effective. They created almost a television show with separate story lines. It was fantastically well done. But for only one character having voice acting makes me FAR less immersed. Half the fun of an RPG is creating a ROLE to PLAY. It's easier to do that if you don't hear your character talk imo. And GTA is a completely different Genre than Bethesda. Bethesda is all about your own adventure. Creating a very in depth world. GTA is all about story, driving, and shooting. Other than that there is really nothing to do. So the way they craft the story is very smart for GTA, but kind of defeats the purpose of Bethesda games.

To answer you though, yes, I love character creation. RPG's are a lot like sexual satisfaction. 90% of it is in your mind.

 

[Based and White Pilled]

RPG's are a lot like sexual satisfaction

I thought you were weird as fuck at this moment

90% of it is in your mind.

Then it made sense.

I don't really have a strong opinion on the voice acting. I like how good the dialogue and cinematics are in some games, like the witcher series. I also like how many options games like Fallout 3 and DA:O give you in dialogue, so having a silent protagonist doesn't bother me either.

 

[blaseblah]

Yes and no. I love both Fallout and the Witcher but the Witcher blows Fallout/Elder Scrolls out of the water as far as world building and characters go. It apparently IS that difficult as Bethesda has yet to master making an intriguing main character and story.

 

[fdswer]

not enough transgender donkey association options

 

[Based and White Pilled]

Yes and no. I love both Fallout and the Witcher but the Witcher blows Fallout/Elder Scrolls out of the water as far as world building and characters go. It apparently IS that difficult as Bethesda has yet to master making an intriguing main character and story.

Tons of older RPGs pulled off interesting stories. Imo DA:O had very good character background stories and worlds with character creation. KOTOR undisputedly had a very intriguing main character. It can definitely be done. One studio struggling with it doesn't mean much. I think Bethesda intentionally gives the protagonist no background story in order to leave it all to the player's imagination.

The Witcher is great in that department largely because it is based on a good book series. Having the books makes the writers' job much easier.

 

[SaiWa]

I thought they could have done a better job with witcher 3 with the voice options but then again probably not. Geralt wad an experienced witcher by then so u can't really have too many different options - like a timid or uncertain Geralt for example.. it wouldn't make too much sense after everything he's been thru. There more or less limited with what they could do with Geralt...

They might be able to do more with the next witcher game with a new rookie witcher as u have stated. Having the option to be a guy or girl witcher would be nice but they would have to make sure everything in the game is gender-proof - the storytelling being the most difficult...

I also do prefer a silent main character with my RPGs but it doesn't matter in the end if the game is great. One of my favorite RPG was final fantasy X. Voice acting was good enough but the story IMO opinion was top notch. Great game. One of the few RPGs that I felt compelled to beat several times.

 

[Zer]

It's a big deal for me. I'll spend ages dicking around in character creation. Inquisition was the worst. I couldn't get my shit right and I had to keep going back to fine tune. Probably spent a few hours on that shit

Custom Shep I'd say was a big part of dat attachment to Mass Effect as a series and contributed to GOAT status

 

[MmaGirl10]

You're not alone, i prefer being able to create my own character, it makes it easier for me to relate with their life story and role play. I loved the Witcher but no doubt i would have enjoyed it more if i was able to create my own Geralt, even better if i could pick the gender as well.

But i understand that every game can't be Mass Effect and having a default protagonist is easier to create the story, etc. I just love the idea of making my own character from scratch, any games that allows me to gets big points with me already

 

[tru3f4n]

Yes and no. I love both Fallout and the Witcher but the Witcher blows Fallout/Elder Scrolls out of the water as far as world building and characters go. It apparently IS that difficult as Bethesda has yet to master making an intriguing main character and story.

you have a single pre made guy in Witcher with a storyline across three games plus novels it better have a better storyline then those Bethesda games.

 

[tru3f4n]

You're not alone, i prefer being able to create my own character, it makes it easier for me to relate with their life story and role play. I loved the Witcher but no doubt i would have enjoyed it more if i was able to create my own Geralt, even better if i could pick the gender as well.

But i understand that every game can't be Mass Effect and having a default protagonist is easier to create the story, etc. I just love the idea of making my own character from scratch, any games that allows me to gets big points with me already

there's that horzion zero dawn coming out that looks like it might be decent but I'm not going to get it due to the female main character. I don't know why it is I just can't play as a woman in games maybe it's Welcome to the N.H.K. flashbacks.

 

[blaseblah]

Tons of older RPGs pulled off interesting stories. Imo DA:O had very good character background stories and worlds with character creation. KOTOR undisputedly had a very intriguing main character. It can definitely be done. One studio struggling with it doesn't mean much. I think Bethesda intentionally gives the protagonist no background story in order to leave it all to the player's imagination.

The Witcher is great in that department largely because it is based on a good book series. Having the books makes the writers' job much easier.

Dragon Age 1, that it did in the companions, but the Warden had zero personality. There's a tradeoff. Also that's Bioware, which has been making interesting characters since the late 90s. Bethesda has a lot of work to do. I mean even considering NPCs, how many standout characters are there in any of the games? That's their biggest weakness imo. Triss Merigold alone is a more developed character than any character ever in any of the Elder Scrolls or Fallout games.

 

[tru3f4n]

Dragon Age 1, that it did in the companions, but the Warden had zero personality. There's a tradeoff. Also that's Bioware, which has been making interesting characters since the late 90s. Bethesda has a lot of work to do. I mean even considering NPCs, how many standout characters are there in any of the games? That's their biggest weakness imo. Triss Merigold alone is a more developed character than any character ever in any of the Elder Scrolls or Fallout games.

Besides the tree dude in FO3 and the crazy god in the Elder Scrolls games I can't think of anyothers that have been in multiple games.

 

[MmaGirl10]

there's that horzion zero dawn coming out that looks like it might be decent but I'm not going to get it due to the female main character. I don't know why it is I just can't play as a woman in games maybe it's Welcome to the N.H.K. flashbacks.

I understand, i mean, i would much rather play a female in every game but i am so used to playing a male by now because it is the standard for pretty much every game. It would be awesome if we could choose what to play as for every game but it isn't realistic. I don't really mind it tbh, i see it as a treat whenever i can create my own character, play a female etc

That Horizon Zero Dawn game looks interesting, i haven't heard of it until you mentioned

 

[Hyperglide]

Needs moar dopefish ITT aka laddergoat guy.







Character creators can be a lot of fun for games especially when you come up with some abominations and behemoths.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

It's never been a big deal for me because as a "privileged" white male I often feel a lot of the default characters aren't very different than me so usually I'll just stick with them. Like with default Shephard I was pretty much "meh, close enough". Other games like Dark Souls your character's face is something you don't even see at all 99.9% of the time so I don't give it a second thought to be honest.

 

[Based and White Pilled]

Dragon Age 1, that it did in the companions, but the Warden had zero personality. There's a tradeoff. Also that's Bioware, which has been making interesting characters since the late 90s. Bethesda has a lot of work to do. I mean even considering NPCs, how many standout characters are there in any of the games? That's their biggest weakness imo. Triss Merigold alone is a more developed character than any character ever in any of the Elder Scrolls or Fallout games.

I think the Bethesda teams are more interested in making their games huge and open for the player to whatever they want than in having intriguing characters. It's a different type of game. I mean, sure, good NPCs would be a good thing, but I just don't think it's their top priority. The Elder Scrolls games are always massive and have beautiful environmental graphics compared to contemporary games with really fucking weird faces on all of the humans. I expect ES6 to follow this model.

 

[Based and White Pilled]

It's never been a big deal for me because as a "privileged" white male I often feel a lot of the default characters aren't very different than me so usually I'll just stick with them. Like with default Shephard I was pretty much "meh, close enough". Other games like Dark Souls your character's face is something you don't even see at all 99.9% of the time so I don't give it a second thought to be honest.

I understand that. I usually spend about 25% of the time in creation working on character appearance and the other 75% deciding on a class and stat distribution for games that have that. Working on the character build is a lot of fun for me.

I often don't make characters that resemble me. When I was a kid I tried to make my characters look like me and gave most of them my name. Now I just make them 'cool.'

 

[Hyperglide]

I understand, i mean, i would much rather play a female in every game but i am so used to playing a male by now because it is the standard for pretty much every game. It would be awesome if we could choose what to play as for every game but it isn't realistic. I don't really mind it tbh, i see it as a treat whenever i can create my own character, play a female etc

That Horizon Zero Dawn game looks interesting, i haven't heard of it until you mentioned

I haven't done a femshep but I might do a femryder for Andromeda.

I am getting used to playing as chicks in games. My female character in GTA Online is almost rank 300. God I am lonely.

I also made a kickass looking female character in The Division but the character creator in that game was terribly underwhelming and barebones.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

I understand that. I usually spend about 25% of the time in creation working on character appearance and the other 75% deciding on a class and stat distribution for games that have that. Working on the character build is a lot of fun for me.

Oh, are we talking about both? Because I'll spend time on skills and attributes etc. I thought we were just talking about all the stuff like gender, height, build, eyes, hair, tattoos and choice of voices etc that they have in a lot of RPGs.