MMO's lacking variation in character models

[Achaman]

what you mean like swtor where every race is basically a human with a diff skin color or a couple weird horns or spikes? or any star wars race really..

---------- Post added 2013-05-08 at 12:37 AM ----------

Most of people prefer humans or at least humanoids. That's probably why they focus harder on those models.

ive always prefered an elf or elven looking race with pointy ears as my first mmo was PSU on the xbox360 which had a newman which if i remewmber correct they were genetically enchances humans or something like that

[Valeron]

wish the orc's and the goblins in Wow were more like the orc's and goblins in the game of orcs and men

I wish they were more like warhammer. Those orcs and goblins had character and were hilarious to boot as well.

[worprz]

You sure about that? Because I haven't seen a MMO that has done difference in size, stance, actual limbs being different and colors the way wow does.
Hell I will even challenge you to find an MMO with two races where the feet are something else then human feet

Guild Wars 2, The Charr have cat feet with claws and the Asura have 3 toed feet. I do see your point though. I doubt you could name any other mmos besides wow and GW2.

[Xerra]

Guild Wars 2, The Charr have cat feet with claws and the Asura have 3 toed feet. I do see your point though. I doubt you could name any other mmos besides wow and GW2.

I think Tera has some kind of raccoon race or something; Aoin really doesn't count since its only 2 races, lotro besides monsterplay really wouldnt make any sense since all you have is hobbit, elf and human. It really depends on the world, that super high end fantasy with bestial races isn't super common. About the only one I can think of that could do it easily would be Neverwinter mmo if they had kobald, dragonkin, and some other races like that playable.

[bionics]

Probably because the designers know everyone's going to choose human or elf anyways.

[Deleted]

Probably because the designers know everyone's going to choose human or elf anyways.

I think it is like this because people want to be able to relate to the character.

[NotLuto]

I'd rather see one extra boss per expansion than new character models every 5 years.

[smokii]

tbh, this was one of the biggest dissapointments for me in SWtor, the body types. cos you were essentially fat, thin or muscular.

whereas with wow, i love the differentiation between all the races - they all stand out in their separate ways, they all have individual animations that correspond to their race and further expand their differences. for instance, each race walks differently, when you play different races you can see a real difference in the way they walk, attack, jump etc. (some are similar)

honestly, i think it's one of things that makes WoW stand out above the rest. If swtor had more character variation, like being able to play as yoda, wookies, hell even ewoks or jawa's, it could've been a lot more immersive and alluring. but once i had rolled a couple toons and my character page started looking like recolours of my main, i was sorely dissapointed. from a starwars universe of possibilities, they really didn't give you much choice - and now they are adding cat people, that honestly just look like humans with face paint... no wonder it's F2P. (i gave up shortly after launch)

character creation is one of the most important things IMO in an MMO, you need to be able to make your online persona as individual as you are in real life, not just another clone. it might seem trivial to a designer in that it should be "all in the gameplay" but aesthetics can be hugely important, not just a beautiful gameworld, but in terms of player characters too. (especially when armor that covers your defining features is involved)

it's something blizzard did right, the problem other companies have with it, is that they dont see the value in it, as it does cost a lot of art time for a little aesthetic gain, which is time they'd much rather spend creating mobs, maps or the game world, which in their eyes are inherantly more valuable - with a single player game, they'd be totally right, give everyone the same character model, no problem - but in an mmo, it is a problem.

it's kinda like trying to imagine a tomb raider mmo, where everyone is lara croft. it just makes no sense. ofc you can dress her up however you want, you can paint her different colours of body paint if you like, but that doesn't stop everyone from knowing that they are all playing as lara croft and that every other player they see is also lara croft - it completely spoils the immersion. rpg's are all about immersion and without giving players variety in the characters they play, they piss all over whatever immersion they try to create with story.

i wonder how the edler scrolls online is dealing with this - i need to go look it up.

[Deleted]

i wonder how the edler scrolls online is dealing with this - i need to go look it up.

Unfortunally I think it is gonna be like all the other Elder Scrolls games; once you put a helmet on, every single character will look excitably the same (tails will probably be the only outstanding thing). Even the Argonians and Khajits are so similar to the basic human model that it hurts, the tail really isn't a saving factor at that point :s

[Deleted]

Unfortunally I think it is gonna be like all the other Elder Scrolls games; once you put a helmet on, every single character will look excitably the same (tails will probably be the only outstanding thing). Even the Argonians and Khajits are so similar to the basic human model that it hurts, the tail really isn't a saving factor at that point :s

Probably this.

[Berethos08]

I think Tera has some kind of raccoon race or something.

Interesting quirk about Tera is that though several of the races are similar in that human-like way, they all have their own models. A Human, High Elf, and Castanic all move in different ways across pretty much all animations, from idle to attacking. At first glance, people might think they share models, but the difference is more like that between Humans, Night Elves, and Blood Elves in WoW - not as different as a Human next to an Orc or Tauren, but they each have their own unique models. Even the Elin, who look like small elves or humans at first glance, have their own models and animation sets.

Then throw in the Baraka, Aman, Popori (raccoon-ish type race)? Tera has more character model variety than people give it credit for, with apparently only WoW outclassing it how many it has to offer.

[Window]

at least with tor you get the option for body types even though the customisation beyong that is kinda slack
Wow itself is blandest of the bland
about the best game i can think off offhand is Apb for character customization

[Lazy Gecko]

The simple fact that Blizzard takes the time to create completely separate and unique models and animations for every race and their respective genders gives them a huge visual advantage over the competition, no matter how much more advanced they are graphically or how many tiny little facial detail options they provide (which you won't even notice from a distance anyway).

[Xerra]

The simple fact that Blizzard takes the time to create completely separate and unique models and animations for every race and their respective genders gives them a huge visual advantage over the competition, no matter how much more advanced they are graphically or how many tiny little facial detail options they provide (which you won't even notice from a distance anyway).

Poor female dwarves, waste of model making time. What are they like 3% of the population?

[Deleted]

Poor female dwarves, waste of model making time. What are they like 3% of the population?

Of current 8.3 million players, that would be 249,000 people... I would say that isn't exacly waste of time.

[Xerra]

Of current 8.3 million players, that would be 249,000 people... I would say that isn't exacly waste of time.

I remember a certain holiday that made it feel like female dwarves were more scarce then rare spawns. I think it was in Wrath some charitable soul on my server made a fem dwarf either rogue or hunter I forget and they were ported to Dal at level 12 so hordies could get the holiday achievement.


None the less I think the model issues isn't fair to compare to all mmos since some are just built in a setting that doesn't have many nonhumans. Though I think some more customizations would be nice overall; I don't know how it would work out but say missing an arm or eye or something to really add to the uniqueness would be interesting.

[Window]

The simple fact that Blizzard takes the time to create completely separate and unique models and animations for every race and their respective genders gives them a huge visual advantage over the competition, no matter how much more advanced they are graphically or how many tiny little facial detail options they provide (which you won't even notice from a distance anyway).

Does that include the human males with a hair lip on every face ?

[Valeron]

Does that include the human males with a hair lip on every face ?

Heh. WoW's human male is probably the worst human model I've seen in the past 8 years of playing video games.

[Remilia]

The simple fact that Blizzard takes the time to create completely separate and unique models and animations for every race and their respective genders gives them a huge visual advantage over the competition, no matter how much more advanced they are graphically or how many tiny little facial detail options they provide (which you won't even notice from a distance anyway).

Mmm... Tera has every race being different skeleton, models and animation. For every race and every armor set for each race there are different models for armors.
Male human medium armor will look different than an Aman, Castanic, Elin, whatever despite being the same armor. The model between race also differs between genders.

Blade and Souls' model seems to be different, though I haven't really been able to poke at it to say much accurately.

FFXIV from the videos seem to be different.

Eastern games tend to pay attention to these things, whether you like em or not, and Blizzard isn't anything special.

Only one I can truly say that has basically no variation is SWTOR.

[Ashnazg]

Ultimately, though, we are unlikely to see any real non-humanoid models in games for a while yet.

Sad, because I would love to play a non-humanoid creature (nerubians, gargoyles, dragons. There is no shortage of mythological non-humanoids to pick from), but for now I have to sate my craving with moba games (dota, smite, lol) or Alien vs Predator or lotr monster play.