Under The Hood: Character Customization
One of the biggest complaints about Tabula Rasa (as well as one of my personal issues with the game) was the lack of impact character customization had on your actual character. More and more players are putting stock into a large amount of customization options, wishing to look, move, and sound different from their herd of fellow players. When a game, such as Tabula Rasa, ignores this vital aspect of the social experience of MMOs, they garner a lot of criticism. Especially from very vocal British expatriates.
Character customization has always been a part of the MMO experience, even down to its tabletop gaming roots. Players of D&D would take delight in giving their characters odd names, interesting designs, and quirky personalities and backgrounds. So naturally, this translated over to the MMO realm. But in a different fashion.
The first, and most common, type of character customization is that of obtaining items to make your character look cooler or more interesting. This is the kind of customization used in games like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online. It encourages players to look for loot when they might have given up on the whole process out of boredom. The downside is, for quite a while, that amazing Tauren or Hobbit you are playing will look like pretty much every other Tauren or Hobbit.
The other type of character customization, most obviously pushed by City of Heroes (and one of its stronger points), is full customization at character creation. This allows the most in-depth look for the character. In the case of CoX, there are millions of different combinations for the player to conceive, so no two players will ever look alike. The downside to this is that it severely restricts player usage of items to customize their characters.
Each has their upsides and downsides. Some games, like EVE Online, manage to incorporate both. In the case of EVE, you customize your in-game avatar, and his items are reflected by the ship he uses. It's a fairly effective system, but with limited use. However, if CCP pushes out Ambulation soon, the avatars will get even more use than they do now, and only expand the options even more.
Others, like Tabula Rasa, manage to offer neither, allowing for a fairly decent initial customization, but not many unique items to make the characters stand out and having the items replace or cover up the unique-looking character. Or Darkspace, which has no visual customization whatsoever. Some push the boundaries, like Second Life with the consistent "player creates everything" feel.
Overall, it comes down to personal preference. Would you rather put countless hours getting that next piece of awesome loot to make your character look like a complete badass, or get it at the beginning and focus purely on getting your character more powerful? Would you rather the experience of working with a team to get your character to be a cooler looking guy, or would you rather fly it solo and just make him initially look that way?
Either way, the more options the players have, the better.
Each week James Murff writes Under The Hood, a deeper look at MMO game mechanics and how they affect players, games, and the industry
