I spend a LOT of time on the character creation screen - spouse teases me that I spend more time creating a character than playing it.
Depending on the available options I typically go very quickly through most of the options for the front of the character. I never forget that we spend 99% of our time looking at the character's back and arse with typical camera views. With this in mind I spend a lot more time getting the hair color just right and even more picking the "perfect" hairdo. Always long hair its great when there is a nice choice of styles.
I have many names I use - as others have said they do as well I recycle names fairly often. My names reflect race and class - when I see a name I know what class the character is.
I agree with Frogz0r to the extent that I would hate to have someone else grab *my* name while I am working on a hairdo. But otherwise picking a name at the end works for me since I do not pick appearance to match a name.
But it wouldn't hurt me at all to have the name choice reserved (approved by the server as within applicable rules and not taken) before doing anything else and I can see why a player might want appearance to match his or her ideal of how a character with a particular name would look. So I endorse that suggestion.
It's hard to say what takes me the most time in character creation. Sometimes things just "click" and I have the look I want in 10 minutes. Other times I'll be tweaking for an hour trying to get everything just right. There's no rhyme or reason to it, it just is. I like for my characters to look unique, without being wierd, and when I create characters I have an RP persona in mind that I"m probably trying to bring out a little bit in their look too.
Other folks have mentioned names - I hope that with name uniqueness being the combination of first name + last name that we won't have nearly as many problems there as we did in older MMOs. But I absolutely agree, let me lock the name first, or right after race selection (assuming that the game's name generator keys on race) and *then* go work on the look.
My hobby is fantasy writing, so I tend to pattern my toons after my characters. Sometimes I'll invent new ones for the MMO, though. It always takes time because I'm particular about appearances.
Names can also take some time, but the names I come up with are usually not taken.
The most difficult & time consuming part for me has to be the name... but it's also the most memorable part. It's what defines the character, more than anything... even if it's an alt, it's the first impression, it's the start of your reputation in the community, and it can become a strong part of your legacy. I've been Steele Stouthammer as often as possible since the days of Ultima Online - and it's allowed me to rekindle friendships across various games, if someone runs into me who remembers the name; to me, that's invaluable, and secondary to what the character ultimately looks like (when he can't be a Dwarf, that is).
Two of the names I'm most proud of have to be the names I came up with for my dragon and my wife's in the game Horizons/Istaria. I'd made a blue dragon with dark wind-looking crescent accent swirls and a dark gray underside... looked like a damned thunderstorm, and I wanted its name to sound like a wave of rolling thunder - and be hard for bipeds to pronounce (as well it should be!); came up with "Grakkelluroruum". For my wife's dragon character, I made a red, and wanted her name to be more soft, warm, perhaps hinting at passion: "Kesstrysturrix". You know, 'kiss', 'tryst', 'stirrups', oh, er, wait... nevermind. ;)
I'll always be proud of those two names, and have pushed shortened versions of them ("Grakk" and "Kess") into subsequent MMOs on alts.
Celandor said:Choosing the name is by far the most time consuming. When possible I try to be consistent with lore names for my character's race. If there is a random name button, I will sometimes hit that for inspiration, then choose a modified name which I think suits the race/class and whatever back story I've invented.
If there is a randomize button for appearance, I will usually poke that dozen times or more to get a feel for the possibilities. Once I get a handle on the variants, I'll pull randoms until it gives me something close to what I want, then I'll spend a fair amount of time tweaking.
For appearance, I hope there are a lot of variants on the facial sliders and some realistic options to represent older characters (besides just a facial model with wrinkles).
I pretty much do the same thing as Celandor. If I run out of ideas for creating my own name, I will scan the name generator and choose one I can modify to my liking. The randomizer for looks helps with deciding what looks good with what colour hair/eyes, hairstyle and so on. I am not real picky, so I don't agonize over these choices, just something that suits my personality or goes with the lore/story of the race I have chosen. :)
Cana
Nuggie said:Facial hair for me.
@ the people who say name: you dont use the same name from game to game? How do your friends know who you are?
I don't use the same name, and I tend to make friends anyway, I don't drag bunches of friends to new games I am playing, not all our tastes are the same, plus real life friends that game, in my generation are few hehehe. I might talk to one or two gamer friends, beforehand, let them know that once my game name is chosen, I'll send them a message stating what name and what server. Always a way to connect, if you need to. :)
I usually have a name picked out and a general idea of what I want my toon to look like before I start, so +1 for early name verification (before class selection actually)
What I really don't like is when I make a character with, for example long hair and a long beard, only to find that as soon as they put on a hat in game they get a haircut and when they put on a shirt or a helmet their beard vanishes
I understand these are generally limitations of game engines, but since the game is still underdevelopment, I thought I'd throw that out there
While creating a new character, I tend to spend most of the time on the 'special' customization bound to the race (ie: tattoo if barbarian, perhaps bones jeweleries if ogre?, or special mask if gnome?).
Wizarmy said:My wife doesn't understand my need to play games like this so to get her involved I let her design all my characters looks. It keeps her quiet for 30 minutes or so while she moves all the sliders around a bit until each and every character looks the most rediculous it could possibly be. When I'm playing and she walks by she always has a chuckle...
That is hilarious. I did something similar a few weeks ago. I asked my girlfriend to pick the name, class and appearance of a new alt. She picked Rainbow Queen Warrior ;)
name and then character takes awhile
Just I also spend a lot of time in preparing for strategy for the first steps into the game, and that would also depend on the class/race. Taking the road you know that leads to the preferred destination.
Now I think I already spend a year about class race, but that might change after alpha.
I'd probably not change a name after creation.
As said earlier in the thread; being able to change small aspects of a character's look would be very nice to have, expecially when you found you made a mistake and are half way in the game. (maybe some ingame magician npc that could summon freckles or a wizard npc can shrink a nose) (don't forget hairdressers)
ppl can get very frustrated and not play again. (able to swap and train a new skill, loosing the old, would be nice for mistakes, but may be limited by a progeny system aspect)
Zeem said:Usually the hair but I don;t knwo why because always go with long or a braid type, male toon with white hair lol
Me too! Not sure why, but long hair or braided hair (and white) always seems to be my choice.
The hardest thing for me to get right, if the game allows for it, is the mouth area. EQ2 was a PITA for me on some races. The mouth/lips were horrible! I don't want the lips on my character to be set in some form of rigormortis!
I eventually hate however I make my avatars look at some point. The simple truth is that I'm bad at that. So I always (to their absolute annoyance) ask one of my sons - who are both better at it than I am... or my wife - who hates these games but seems to like making an avatar look good.
So the deal is this... if you see me in game and I look Butt ugly, I did that :)
Wandidar said:I eventually hate however I make my avatars look at some point. The simple truth is that I'm bad at that. So I always (to their absolute annoyance) ask one of my sons - who are both better at it than I am... or my wife - who hates these games but seems to like making an avatar look good.
So the deal is this... if you see me in game and I look Butt ugly, I did that :)
Ha Ha!
Wandidar said:I eventually hate however I make my avatars look at some point. The simple truth is that I'm bad at that. So I always (to their absolute annoyance) ask one of my sons - who are both better at it than I am... or my wife - who hates these games but seems to like making an avatar look good.
So the deal is this... if you see me in game and I look Butt ugly, I did that :)
Hilarious! :)
Names. I have to get my names on every server. Then, if there is a barber or some way to change looks, I will deal with it later. If not, well, that's what armor is about.
Regarding the classes/races, I choose those well before character creation.
Roenyn said:Ill be the first to say it i think?
The name of your character....
Because...
ENTER NAME HERE: Roenyn
*ERROR Sorry that name has been taken*
omgzor
Exactly my experience.. then it's click click click Random Name Generator... click click click... nothing.. /google Fantasy names... nothing... back to Random Name Generator click click click and repeat haha
