The Daily Grind: should your gear determine your look?
There's a story from City of Heroes of how a veteran player, who'd chosen bright and shiny medieval-style armor for his character, mercilessly teased a newbie by boasting of how he'd gotten the armor in an epic loot drop. As any CoX player knows, your costume has nothing to do with your powers. Although powers can cause obligatory aura effects, such as a fiery glow, and some powers give you a weapon, the character's physical appearance is almost entirely up to the player.
By contrast, games that involve gear (such as WoW and AoC) give you the chance to show off the uber loot you've gone to the trouble of getting. The plus side is that everyone can see your cool stuff; the downside is that the very coolest stuff tends to be worn by everyone who can get it, resulting in hordes of people who look much the same. The best gear for any given stage of the game isn't guaranteed to be what you'd like to wear, appearance-wise. You either have to compromise your character's looks or their abilities.
Even gear-centric games tend to let you make some concessions, such as making your helmet invisible. Would you like to see more changes along these lines? Would a piece of uber gear still count for as much if people couldn't recognise it? Is it simple common sense to have your gear determine how you look, or is that an outmoded game concept that should be abandoned in favor of optimum customization?
