Loading... Unique (Like Everyone Else)

Welcome to the 1,101st Edition of Loading...

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What does more to make your character feel unique? Is it the ability to tweak basic appearance right down to the nosehair, the stats and looks that increasingly powerful items give you, or the personality you give your character? While character customizability and novel schemes to split clothing and stats are nothing new in today's MMOs, one game seeks to add personality and depth to your character beyond its appearance and level. We'll explore the ways in which games, past, and future foster character uniqueness, plus what works and what doesn't, today in Loading... Unique (Like Everyone Else).

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The Pulse

You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results for today:

World of Warcraft EverQuest 2 Aion Age of Conan Guild Wars

Biggest Movers in the Top 20 today :

Free Realms (UP 7 to #15) Lineage 2 (UP 4 to #19) EVE Online (UP 3 to #9) Recent MMO Releases 5/19 - Warrior Epic (launch date) 5/19 - Vanguard "Halls of Pantheon" (content patch) 6/12 - Neo Steam (release date) Upcoming Releases 8/25 - CrimeCraft (release date) 8/25 - Aion (release date) 9/1 - Champions Online (release date) Early 2010 - APB

Loading... Daily

MMORPGs allow all kinds of ways to separate your character from the pack, and the most overt methods involve modifying your appearance. Fallen Earth, for example, has dozens of appearance variables on sliders right down to chest hair and bellybutton piercings. The modifications actually show up in decent resolution on your character as you roam around, and everyone here can probably remember a day when any kind of population density or motion reduced your character to the look of a half-painted miniature.

It's worth noting that WoW bucked this trend and has relatively limited character appearance customization. Instead of dozens of finely-tuned settings that allow you to tweak everything right down to the camber of a sometime broken nose, in WoW you can modify size, face and hair among a relatively limited number of pre-fab settings. The core of appearance customization in WoW is of course the items you equip - everything revolves around items -and that being the case, it was smart of Blizzard to reduce the "choice fatigue" at the outset. And if you need further proof of the power of WoW items, look no further than WoW-themed cans of Mountain Dew and the faction-based pets to match currently invading store shelves.

But appearance customization via items has its own problems. I've listened to a number of devs extol the virtues of the EverQuest 2 and LotRO system where a character takes his or her appearance from one outfit and takes the stats from another, thus freeing you from the tyranny of ugly items that improve your game. Personally I think the drawbacks outweigh the advantages - an ugly item has a way of looking plenty pretty to me if it's rare and powerful. I don't play MMOs to play dress-up, and I think it's only right that characters should look more menacing and... top-heavy, if you will, as they become more powerful.

Champions Online wants to take appearance customization to another level by making powers and abilities as ultimately customizable as character appearance. Allowing your character to choose from the complete list of powers regardless of class as well as multiple emination points (making lightning spring from your eyes or your hands, for example), the ability to set the colors of the ability effects, and being able to choose a travel power that suits your theme (fire flight, hover disk, and burrowing were just a few of the options we saw at E3) are just some of the ways CO wants to make your character your own.

Though Champions Online doesn't get the best press or buzz (and has a tough time cracking the Pulse Top 5) I have to applaud Champions Online for dealing more with the individual personality and theme of a character, not just in appearance but in powers and actions as well. The danger is that, as in City of Heroes, the majority of gamers won't be able to discern enough reasons to stick around and level up - that the game will give gamers too much too soon and the novelty will wear off quickly.

Do you agree that Champions Online offers something unique and compelling to character customizability, or do the old formulas for character customization still work best? Have your say in the Loading... forum, or feel free to email me.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our WoW: General Discussion Forum

The Emergence of the Hybrid Monopoly

And we're not talking about a powder blue Prius!

Xerin's editorial on The Emergence of the Hybrid Monopoly
in World of Warcraft has stirred up quite a conversation in our WoW
forum. Hybrid classes may be all the rage since WoW's last major
content update brought the dual spec option into play for level capped
characters, but Xerin wonders about the affect hybrid classes are
having on dedicated DPS classes like the mage.

"While I expect
to get raving reviews and literal flames on this [editorial]," Xerin
says, "I would like to interject the following: post your real
honest-to-god opinions." You've been invited, so go!

==============================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

"One
of the more ridiculous arguments I've heard offered is there is no
reason to take pure DPS if hybrids can do the same damage. That
argument might have some merit if there were 10-man encounters that
required 4 tanks or 5 healers. But every encounter in Ulduar requires
no more than 1-2 tanks and 2-3 healers. That leaves room for 5 DPS,
pure or hybrid. Does it help to have a hybrid for that 2nd tank role
and 3rd healing spot? Sure! But it doesn't rob a pure DPS of a role. If
you need a 2nd tank, you need a 2nd tank. Whether he's a hybrid or not
is a moot point."


- Pus
==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

2 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 77 in June! 714 in 2009!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

Features

Champions Online Power Interview #3 - Fire, Ice and Electricity
In our continuing series of power-focused interviews with Cryptic Studio's Bill Roper, the Ten Ton Hammer staff grilled the Champions Online developer on the Ice, Fire, and Electricity power sets. Keep reading to see his answers, including whether or not "Earth" is ever going to be in the elemental set! Free Realms Card Duelist Guide
Card duelist is a fun job because it combines the fun of collectible cards with the thrill of competition. The fact that a player can level from one to twenty in the job entirely by completing quests and without a subscription makes it one of the most enjoyable in Free Realms. Learn how in this handy guide!

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:

Champions Online Power Interview #3 - Fire, Ice and Electricity E3 2009 Portal Paul Barnett Sums Up E3 2009 (video) Atlantica Online State of the Game - June 2009 Q&A Ten Ton Hammer's Gamer Girl of the Month for June 2009: Vikki Wong Free Realms Card Duelist Guide Free Realms Wizard Guide - Levels 10 to 20 E3 2009: The Agency "Bergerbilder Estate" Preview Video Blizzcon Blitz 2009 Ticket Giveaway Final Fantasy XIV at E3 2009

Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team