
When it comes to character customisation in games, there are people who spend absolutely hours trying to create the perfect protagonist (and indeed, side-characters), while others tend to skip through and get to the main game ASAP.
Personally, I tend to fall into the latter category, although there are exceptions. I didn't spend that long building my character in Baldur's Gate 3, for example, but I did spend ages creating my own AEW universe in WWE 2K a few years ago, as well as designing a Space Jam-inspired expansion team (complete with Tune Squad jerseys!) in NBA 2K.
Look at Forza Horizon and Motorsport as well. Some people spend tens of hours every single week designing the perfect liveries for their cars, and the rest of us get to benefit by downloading their hard work. And of course, mods are creation features as well on Xbox these days - Starfield has already spawned so many great examples!
It's not just about character creation, but obviously that's still a big part of it. Ultimately, we're just interested to know how much you engage with these types of features in your Xbox games, and that includes things like photo modes, arena designers, level creators, audio editors... the list goes on. There are so many great ways to get creative on Xbox!
For Characters Specifically, How Much Focus Do You Put Into Creating Them? (310 votes)
- I take AGES trying to get everything just right
- I like to spend a good amount of time creating them, yeah
- I don't rush them, but don't spend much time on them either
- I rush them as much as possible to be honest!
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
Comments 21
I go with the default.
I mean, how much does it really matter what the avatar looks like when it's loaded up with armor and is seen from behind 95% of the time (or is first person and you don't see the character at all)?!
I don't care about in-game cosmetic/design features, either.
I find character creation suites that are necessary to play games to be intimidating and disappointing.
I am not great with them no matter how much time I spend with them, I am just not capable of designing a character. So if I am then lumbered with a terrible looking character for the duration of a game because I've had to build one myself, I will never be happy with that character and, worst of all, be reminded of my own incompetence during cut scenes etc.
Please, just give me a canon character to use with a creation suite option for those who are that way inclined.
Zero interest in customizable characters and cosmetic DLC
I like a little bit of choice but I don't like it as soon as you get options like jaw depth and all that stuff.
I really only need; skin/hair/eye colour and a choice of hair. Anything else isn't necessary. The amount of times games can customize to the nth degree but have rubbish hair options is amazing.
I create a bald dude and a beard 100% of the time, just like in real life. I don't need a gazillion options.
Probably one of my favorite features in games of any genre.
I spend less time than ever in character creators, most don’t even have a male/female option anymore. Sad.
I can go either way. I dislike intensely detailed ones because I have to spend hours perfecting it. Give me a nice simple one like Destiny or Phantasy Star Online any day.
Depends on the game but mostly I don't give it much time prefer to be someone rather than make my own character my daughter in elden ring is a boss it's fun I've used friends relatives Mel Gibson in many a game just has to look somewhat like them!
Lol, I one time spent almost 2 hours making a BA knight in Dark Souls because I couldn't get her nose just right.
I love character creation and I have no problem taking my time to make my character attractive, but I wish developers would take as much time as they do on the creation aspect to also add variety with clothes, accessories, armor, and costumes.
P.S. if there's a character creator I don't understand why some first-person games don't have a 3rd person option. I want to see myself after spending so much time to look great.
I agonize over RPG character creation, but traits and skills and such are what concerns me. I rarely feel the need to play dress-up with my electronic dolls. I was popular in WoW because I enjoyed clearing old content but had no interest in cosmetics.
Depends on the game. If I know I’ll like it and the lore is perfect for getting lost in (i.e. your usual FromSoft game) then yes, I’ll craft that perfect character. If it’s some random game I’m not sure I’ll even like, I won’t waste the time. I’ll just rush to the gameplay to see if it’s even worth playing.
Make something that vaguely looks like me, or "someone cool" via auto gen, and get out before I get annoyed at the 2-3 minute mark.
Depends on the game. Most games I spend a little while. Dragons Dogma 2 I spent AGES on both me and my pawn. A game like Mass Effect, default Shepard is too iconic to not use (not femshep who was so fugly I think they redid her in sequels and then retroactively patched the new one in).
Spend as little time as I can to create a character. Like @GamingFan4Lyf i often go with the stock character. There’s several reasons for this, but the big two are
@themightyant "It feels so wrong, like a bad b-movie clone."
LOL!
I kind of agree with you. The default character kind of feels like the "canon" character the developers wanted you to play.
I am with you on the whole YouTube video weirdness. I'll get Soulsborne videos pop up on my Facebook feed with this crazy purple...something...with weird makeup and funny shape. Drives me nuts!
There is a reason WRC 2023 appealed to me (not bought yet) it's the Sega GT Dreamcast (wasn't in Xbox OG 2002/Online), Pure for PS3/360 the ATV game, or Apex OG Xbox 2023, is the car builder.
That and well if modes suck then at least something going on. Ride 4 (cough split screen of 5 that Forza Motorsport 8 couldn't do) had a region mode from Forza Motorsport 1 & 2 and I thought that was cool, it's restrictive but expanded upon. Hard to play but still a cool feature.
Game mechanics matter to me more than cosmetics but if they are functional stat or upgrades type customisation I don't mind.
I think it offers a lot for events and progression/customisation not liveries I mean parts and chassis customisation.
Project Spark was cool but just didn't go much of anywhere.
Character creators don't matter to me though. Biomutant if it had perks/character trait abilities (Cough like animals in games had better movesets for platformers in the 5th gen then they do more generic adventures nowadays of basic human concept understanding of animals on adventure, seriously goose/stray/little kitty are fine but look boring to me and Biomutant it felt like how peeing/sprinting on all 4 legs and an humanlike acting/anthropomorphic apocalyptic animal, like why can't we have abilities? To dumb the game down for casuals or too much effort to implement?) I'd have liked it more if they added animal abilities so you can swim/flight/digging/climbing/ranged claws /etc. features but it doesn't remove the need for a glider, mech or jet ski the game already had, it had gas immunity to offer progression besides other things and you build it up but otherwise eh.
But cosmetics, how a character looks nah. Pikmin 4 having the character creator was not immersion helpful to me really. It put me off. It was enough for me to go eh this is going to be a casual more annoying entry and besides Ice Pikmin or night missions that needed a bit more depth, I hated the whole game the changed rules of flowers/pikmin acquiring/onions and other things, the character creator, the restrictive motion controls when 1-3 had better motion controls and more. It sucked. That character creator trailer was enough of a sign. I played 98% for 78 hours. 3 was my first and I never had issues with it. Coming off of 1 on Wii's motion yeah 4 was a let down. 2 was fine on Switch as the GameCube version even if a combo of 3 Deluxe controls would have been nice but nope they were lazy to do that.
So I can see reason for it but I prefer functional customisation not cosmetic customisation if that makes sense.
I find games either have 4-5 options or 1000 options. Would be nice if there was something in the middle. With only a few options most are not good and with too many options you really don't want to spend forever just setting yourself up.
Oh I spend forever on them. I’ve spent more time with the magic mirror in Veilguard than is healthy! The first game I can remember with a detailed character creator was Mass Effect. I spent ages making a character that looked just like me. Then I realised I look more like a man who who would run a varren kebab van on Omega than the first human Spectre.
When it's stats and abilities, notably BG3, I can inadvertently spend hours tweaking before ditching everything and starting again. The creation and opening hours are usually the most fun for me. Cosmetic and aesthetic aren't of as much concern - I just roll with default Shep.
I love character creators. The deeper the better. Especially if it's for an RPG where I'm much more invested in the story and see my character as a big part of that. No matter what though, it makes me feel like this is MY character versus 'here's generic stock bald dude #4, now go save the world.' If I'm gonna be staring at this character model for dozens of hours, then let it be someone I find cool/attractive looking.
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