Living In the Same Skin: A Look at Customization in MMOs
By AnomalousSilence

“Omg, you 2 are like little froggie twins! lolz” was something often said to me in EverQuest as I adventured throughout the lands of Norrath with a best friend of mine I had met in the game, who was a Froglok Cleric. I was a Froglok Wizard, and we each had the exact same skin pattern and eye color, making us look like identical twins, aside from our armor and weaponry.

Customization in MMORPGs is certainly not only skin deep, however. Customization can concern body and facial image, unique characteristics of a class, and diversity of armor and weapons. Customization is an extremely crucial element in today’s MMORPGs, and many games have failed, succeeded, or walked the thin middle line in regard to this significant game-play element.

The customization of the body-type and facial characteristics of one’s avatar is the method of manipulation that is most thought of when customization is mentioned within a video game setting. MMORPGs such as EverQuest walked the line in the customization field after the graphical revamp that came with the Shadows of Luclin expansion pack, allowing players to customize a variety of options compared to the old engine. In EverQuest 2, customization was supposedly going to be so highly advanced that one could recognize their friends without their names floating above their heads. EQ2 walked the line in this field as well, failing the promise of easy character distinction, with everyone ending up looking as if they were from the same family tree. World of Warcraft’s customization rated very low in the standards of customization in regard to facial and body aspects. Few options were given, which led to many players looking the same as others. WoW failed severely in this category, with a much older game like EverQuest outshining WoW’s customization in the area of physical appearance.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, though, promises to take facial and body-type customization of characters to an astonishing new height. Bone structure of characters can be altered throughout the body, allowing for a wide variety of heights, arm/finger length, leg/toe length, head shape, facial structure, and a multitude of other options. The girth of a character can also be changed, allowing for more bulky and muscular or more lithe and agile characters. In the facial area alone, Sigil is implementing unparalleled and far too numerous options to list, truly allowing their virtual world, and those living in it, to be distinctive.

Players need to feel unique, not only through physical appearance, but through the way the class that they play works, feels, and varies from the multitude of others. While game producers should allow their players freedom in how they compare to others as a class whole, they should not allow players to stray too far from the original class concept. World of Warcraft is a decent example of this, with players choosing which branches and abilities to spend earned points in. Only in their second expansion pack has SOE followed a similar route in EQ2.

If done poorly, however, the unique characteristics of a class can become devastating to a game. A good representation of this is EverQuest’s AA abilities. These were in no way balanced, which led to certain abilities being required, and others ignored. It also led to AAs becoming a necessity as SOE increased the difficulty of MOBs. Without certain AA abilities, players were left out in the cold.

           
Finally there is the much needed and sought-after armor diversity. Without diverse armor, players quickly become similar in appearance regardless of the level of facial and bodily customization. EverQuest 2’s armor appearances are currently very lacking in diversity, which has become unsettling within the community. Cries of distress and numerous complaints have been voiced, though SOE is trying its best to provide ample appearances in armor and weaponry.

A major factor of armor diversity is the legendary armor dye, introduced by the original EverQuest. This dye would allow the player to pick from a large multitude of hues to color their clothing. Unfortunately, this led to colors such as hot pinks and neon greens. While these colors could be deemed mildly acceptable on the flowing robes of an arcane caster, neon green and baby blue plate armor simply isn’t realistic.

The best solution to armor diversity is to have a multitude of armor and weapon design from launch, as well as armor dye. The dye must have limitations, though, or we will see outrageous colors. For caster robes, the dye should be pretty much limitless. The available color choices for leather would be much more limited than robes, but still offer a variety of choices. Chain-mail and plate armor would severely be restricted as to what choices would be available, with only realistic choices being offered such as silver, tin, copper, brass, etc.

As has been seen in the screenshots released by Sigil, Vanguard is doing well in the armor diversity department. While it is yet to be known if armor dye will be available at release, a large variety of armor and weapon graphics will certainly be in game, including regional armor.

All in all, there are three main categories a MMORPG producer must focus on within the customization aspect of their game: facial and body customization, class uniqueness, and armor diversity. Each can help create unique characters and set apart the players, a required aspect of today’s virtual worlds filled with players from a variety of experiences and backgrounds. Vanguard is definitely taking great leaps to allow players to be distinguished from one another in all three major categories.

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