So When You Make Your Protag ...

I've been running a brand new character through Mass Effect for nostalgia's sake, and I got to thinking about the characters I create when I play RPGs.

When you are creating your character, do you have a pattern? Do you always make something that resembles you? Do you try to recreate celebs? Do you have preferred hair/eye/skin colors? Do you slap something together, play the default, or spend hours on your characters?

It occurred to me as I thought back through my characters that I am not overly fussy about appearance although I will restart if I can't stand what I made. I wouldn't even know how to begin to make something that looks like me in most games. I do avoid blondes mostly. I think I've only ever made three. I seem to favor red heads actually with brunettes coming in second.

Anyhow, how do you hit the character creator?

Default female in 3rd person games, brown/black/red hair, red eyes, tanned skin, sometimes fat, usually athletic other times I go for the classy smurf look, all blue.

In darksouls 2 I tried to do a bald green dude with the turtle armor and dual wielding katanas named Leonardo but I got invaded by a much better looking Leonardo that kicked my ass so I went for the regular female

Since the early 80s throughout every game (including FO4 , WL2 and a modded Witcher 3) I have always went through character creation with the same stereo-typical males and/or females . the Scandinavian Gambit...have no clue why.
Thanks for bringing this up. Now I am in deep retrospect over my inner self throughout my entire life.

Only two games was I able to get my character to look like me: Mass Effect and Uru.

Other games, just don't get close enough. Besides: Skyrim....hard to make a Khajit look like me, heh.

a reply to: ketsuko

Hah, fun question, ketsuko,

I do have a pattern to making characters. I usually try to make them look like me and I give them my own name. I even tweak the "body proportion" controls, if they are available.

I can't play bad guys. I have no heart for it. I did once, once!, go whole-hog on a bad guy in both Knights of The Old republic and Fable. But that's it. Really.

I did kinda when I was the bad guy in Fable lead patrons out of the local bar in droves and feed them to the evil temple right around-the-bend. But that was all. Honest.



P.S. I also do what I suppose could be called "celebrity characters". Like, I did a "Conan" character in Oblivion and made him a double-wielding axe-warrior-Nord.

Now that I think about it, the majority of the characters I make could be twins, triplets! with each other.

I like to go for brown or red hair, usually the longest I can. Green or daaaark brown eyes. If there are freckles available, they're smacked on the face too. If I'm making a male character he usually has short light brown hair and dark brown eyes, chiselled jawline

I tend to appreciate the game more if I can actually design my own character, I dislike getting forced into playing a character. The main reason I've never really gotten into the Witcher series (I know that sounds terrible, but I just can't identify with a weirdy beardy man.)

It's interesting because when I stopped to think about it. I realized that there were some things that jumped out - like the lack of blondes.

a reply to: kaelci

For me, when it comes to male/female, it depends on the voiceover. If there isn't one or a weak story, I can play as either equally.

But for a game with a strong story and voice work, I tend to stay with whatever gender I play first because at that point the story is just set to have that gender of protagonist in my head. It's disorienting to hear another voice in place of the one I expect to be playing that part.

I never waste my time with that, I go right to the game unless gender or whatever has an effect on the game. For example in resident evil you can choose either Leon or Claire etc, in games like that I generally play through them all. Lol does having no preference make me lazy or racist or both hahaha I'm having an Anita Sarkeesian nightmare right now cause of this topic AHHHHHH!
Have you ever played Phantasy Star 3 Generations of Doom? In that RPG it had an interesting mechanic. You play through 3 generations of players where the end of each generation you have to choose one of your female party members to marry so you two can have a baby and that child becomes the main character in the next generation? I always pic the blue haired lady Maia lol.

a reply to: Brotherman

No, I don't think it makes you anything. It's just interesting the way people play. My husband started his own Shep, had the game crash and got mad and went box Shep.

I'd say my lack of blondes might be because I am blonde or because of the popular idea that blondes are more fun or something.

But if the option is there for me to take a SS romance, I won't if I am personally into the character because it's not me, but if I am playing something where I am not so invested, say like The Sims, I've run SS households from time to time as the mood (or Sim) strikes me. In that game, the Sims are themselves and not a reflection of me. It's telling a different story on a different level.

a reply to: ketsuko
I'm afraid to play the Sims, id be very very cruel.

originally posted by: Brotherman
a reply to: ketsuko
I'm afraid to play the Sims, id be very very cruel.

I have done one or two mean things, but in general I can't bring myself to do it. No walling people in a letting them starve for example. I do risk electrocution by telling them to fix things that have shorted out over and over.

a reply to: ketsuko
Lol I've contemplated ways to make them like zombie hordes. My imagination is a very dark place

I go for the warped by Chaos look.

a reply to: ketsuko

That's very true. I usually play Female Shepard for example, Jennifer Hale does an -amazing- job at voice acting! Made a male Shepard and I was almost surprised when I heard another voice in her place. Though I think I would've been incredibly amused if it -had- been her voice coming from my male character!

In all honesty though, I can spend hours upon hours in character creators. I love the things! Was quite pleased with Fallout 4's too. (had far too much fun with the male face, haha)



And speaking of the Sims, I remember in the Sims 2, making the most hideous characters I could and making them have babies and infecting the whole suburb with their terrible DNA. Good times.

a reply to: kaelci

I made a dynastic neighborhood game in Sims 2. I had my best friend sit for a Sim making, and her Sim went on to successfully infect my entire neighborhood. Very prolific! I had 30+ houses in that 'hood and I would play by turn for 3 game days at a time each to keep them all in sink.

I might have to see if I can dig up all my old Sims 2 stuff and resurrect La Jolla Vista.