WRUP: Some rules of the Massively garden edition

While you're in the Massively garden, you will notice flowers. Please do not taunt, cajole, or bargain with the flowers. Do not under ever promise the flowers cookies or other enticements. Do not pick the flowers, and if you see someone picking the flowers, please hide your eyes and walk in the opposite direction. If a stem becomes bent or broken, do not pick up the bud or inhale the vapors. Under absolutely no circumstances are you to provide the flowers with small bits of meat. Eating the flowers on the stem is fine.

In other news, it's time for this week's installment of WRUP. This time around, in addition to talking about our weekend plans, we've decided to discuss whether or not you can have too many options at character creation. So jump on past the cut to see what we're up to, and let us know what you've got planned for the next few days in the comments. There are no flowers in the comments.

@Beau_Hindman: This weekend I will be preparing for GDC Online in Austin. That means I'll be playing a bit of Glitch and some RuneScape and probably looking at my character in Dark Age of Camelot again. No heavy-lifting.

I think that there could be too many customization options if they allow for players to make characters who do not fit into the style or lore of the game — if players could make Popeye while in Vanguard or something similar. That wouldn't work. Of course, most of these games are set in pretty wacky settings, so the more customization, the better! In fact, I would rather look unique than be powerful any day.

@bfelczer: This weekend I will be spending quite a bit of time on the Star Trek Online F2P test server. Now that the KDF faction is going to be unlocked, I am looking forward to making my Klingon and testing out some of the new daily missions that were just added. I also will be running Special Task Force missions as I am one of a few players that has already made it to max-level. The team just added the second of the Borg raids, and I cannot wait to see all of the changes!

As for character customization, I have always been a fan of as much customization as possible. STO has one of the best character creators I have ever seen (in an MMO — The Sims still is by far the best in gaming overall). This has also allowed for some of the most interesting and disgusting toons I have seen — running around social zone is never a disappointment.

@nbrianna: I'd like to think that I'll be playing my old favorites, City of Heroes and Star Wars Galaxies, this weekend, but the truth is I'll probably just keep playing Glitch... and possibly a beta that shall not be named.

I'm of two minds about customization. Really I'm for freedom and anarchy when it comes to making whatever bizarre character I can dream up — the more options, the better. I mean, my Glitch toon is wearing a dead butterfly dress and a cardboard box with a TV drawn on it. Awesome. But some character creation systems seem to require a degree in facial recognition software unless you want your character to look like a misshapen blob. Do I want 500 hairstyles? Yes, yes I do. Do I want independent nostril shadow sliders? Honestly... probably not.

I have so many leve allowances stacked up in Final Fantasy XIV that it's not even funny, and I want to work through some of them, but there's a lot to do in this patch. Not to mention that I want to get some solid City of Heroes action going this weekend for next week's column and to enjoy some of the good stuff Freedom can offer. I don't think I'll have time for much else, so in a bizarre way, I'm glad to not be in any sort of betas, such as that of a certain popular title.

The problem I usually have with customization in a game isn't that I have too much but that all of the details I can play with are less than worthless. I'll have fourteen different options to fine-tune the shape of a character's eyes, but not a single slider for height or weight. That having been said, I'm a huge fan of letting you really define what your character looks like, and the more options I get as a whole, the happier I usually am.

@Jeremy_Stratton: I've been dipping my toes into any different MMOs I can find. I'll most likely continue this trend through the weekend.

Is too much customization possible? No. That is all.

@Sypster: Because my Fallen Earth sub ran out and I'm waiting for the F2P switch, this weekend will be limited pretty much to Lord of the Rings Online — and that's the way I like it. I'm completely loving the Rise of Isengard questing experience and am in no hurry to be done with it.

As for character customization options, I love having tons of options (it's absolutely inexcusable that Blizzard's artists still can't be bothered to come up with new faces and hair options for World of Warcraft after so many years). However, the caveat there is that I hate sliders. With many single-player RPGs, sliders in character creation almost always results in goofy-looking monstrosities. Give me a series of options but not teeny tiny increments and I'll purr like a freshly laundered kitty.

@mackeypb: I really don't know what I'm doing for WRUP. When I say I'm going to play Global Agenda, I end up playing Champions Online, and when I say I am going to play World of Tanks, I end up playing Rise of Immortals. So it's really up in the air! I have some friends' birthdays and some social things going on this weekend, but I'm sure I'll play something.

There's no such thing as too much customization, although because I play Champions Online, I think I'm a little biased. The only thing that can cause "too much customization" is difficult-to-navigate options. Presets and other "good enough" settings help the average player who doesn't have a talent for appearance sliders make an appealing character too. I think more customization is always better. Always.

At the start of every weekend, we catch up with the Massively staff members and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" (Otherwise known as: WRUP!) Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game — and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!