When a video game opens with so many sliders that you’d think it was a 90s science fiction series starring John Rhys-Davies, do you dive right in and start customizing your character? Do you swell in that thing for hours until you create a face perfect enough to shame God? Or do you just say “good enough” and continue playing the actual game?
How long do you spend in character creators?
Here are our answers, plus some from our forum.
Chris Livingston, feature producer: In the beginning I’m really looking forward to it! I review all hairstyles followed by facial hair when available. Tattoos, scars, piercings, and so on are always fun to choose. I like the eyes I like, make sure the eyebrows look good, play with the nose and lips.
Then I notice that there are options for the width of the cheekbones. And cheekbone depth. And cheekbone spread, size, weight, shade, sharpness and 10 other cheekbone attributes and I just don’t have that many opinions on what my character’s cheekbones should look like. Then I see options for things like ear rotation, eye bag density, neck occlusion, pore diameter, iris clouding, philtrum depth, and at this point I’m like “Look, I’m sorry I ever came here, please let me enter my character’s name and leave and I promise I’ll never come back.”
So about 5-10 minutes I think.
Lauren Morton, Editor-in-Chief: Like, total? Or just the first time? Because initially I will probably spend about 30 minutes in a character creator. “I just want to play the game” I think, trying not to be extra, not to take my face so seriously, just take it easy, even adjusting every single slider just in case.
At minute 31 I have to see my character’s face in the harsh game day light, outside the mood lighting of the creation screen, and oh god, her eyes are too far apart and her hair is brighter than I realized and I also opted for a really boring haircut and I know better. l know I want my character to stand out, but I chose that half pony because it was me to attempt not to be so ridiculous, but I should have gone for the extravagant updo.
I spent a lot of time in Dragon Age Inquisition’s Black Emporium, changing faces afterwards. And also a lot of money at the Red Dead Online barbershop. And real money for consumables for character appearance in MMOs.
I don’t know… two hours?
Tim Clark, Brand Director: I once ruined the first hour of a two hour Dragon Age Inquisition demo while fantasizing about getting the freckles on my character just right, so you can only imagine how much time I’m willing to spend once I’m relaxed. I’m pretty sure I had to reboot Mass Effect multiple times to fix fish lip disasters that were only revealed once in the game. Can we do how much time you spend on MMO character fashion next because it’s… a problem.
Robin Valentine, editor: I’m at a point with character creators where I’m happier that the developers just give me a choice of 10 preset faces. The modern trend towards endless precision sliders is a special kind of trap for my brain – I’m obsessive enough to get my character looking perfect before I can start, but at the same time impatient and uncreative in a way that I’m terrible at achieving good results from that great level of choice. I get into this weird zone pretty quickly where nothing looks right, like the visual equivalent of when you say the same word too many times and it loses all meaning.
It will eventually take me hours to find something I’m happy with, and then inevitably the moment I step into the actual game I’ll realize my character looks awful in the standard lighting, or their clothes are super weird. on their bodies, or some other flaw I can’t possibly live with.
At this point, it’s perfectly normal for me to restart an RPG multiple times to get a result I can live with. I almost had a nervous breakdown when Monster Hunter World asked me to design an adorable feline friend too.
Wes Fenlon, Editor-in-Chief: At least 30 minutes. If a character creator has sliders and color palettes and more than just a few basic presets to scroll through, I’d say I usually spend anywhere from 30 minutes to a full hour getting my character the way I want it. I definitely stress about cheekbones (they should be pointy, but not at pointy) and eye relief and hmm do those eyebrows make them look too angry or just tough? I don’t think I’ve ever rebooted a game after creating my character to change anything, but I’m definitely concerned about the details. At least until I get to the hour: that’s about when I go into “fuck it” mode and impatiently go through the rest of the creation process.
Robin, If You Thought Monster Hunter World Asking You To Make A Palico Was Bad: Monster Hunter Rise Asks You To Make A Cat and a dog and then you can recruit a workforce of about a dozen furry friends. It’s way too much.
However, I still love my Monster Hunter World fighter. That’s a good character maker.
Jody Macgregor, Weekend/AU Editor: I said in my review of Saints Row that I spent a decent amount of time in the character creator, and after the tutorial I finally switched to the first standard. After reading the other answers I’m glad to know I’m not the only person who isn’t happy with their custom face, although sometimes it’s because I’m making up a character that doesn’t fit the story, rather than because my cheekbones can cut glass.
In Dragon Age Origins, I made a human villain with a Michael Caine vibe, a tough middle-aged dude, and in the prologue I became the youngest son of a nobleman who looked the same age as me and kept calling me “Pup.” . feh.
Lost Ark is probably the game I spent the most time in the character creator. I have a small army of alts themed around characters from other games. My paladin is Dragon Age’s Alistair and my sorceress is Warcraft’s Tyrande Whisperwind. I made Geralt and Harley Quinn and Jeanette Voerman from Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Normally it would be impossible to recreate a character like Jeanette thanks to her heterochromia, but Lost Ark allows you to create characters with eyes of two different colors. The fangs were harder to remove, but the facial tattoo options included a sort of crescent moon that I mirrored to make two, then angled and moved to her lips. After all that effort, she finally wore a hooded harness that completely changed her hairstyle. I don’t know why I’m bothered.
Brian Boru: 15-20 minutes max in the few games I’ve had character creation options in. But there have never been any ‘tweaking’ options, such as the size of eyebrows or mouth. I would cumulatively spend a lot more time in photo mode making adjustments for each shot.
Zlot: Normally I don’t spend a lot of time adjusting the look of my characters. Maybe 5 minutes. However, there are some exceptions when there are LOTS of options for appearance. City of Heroes/Villains takes a good half hour per costume slot.
Zed Clamp: My process is to take a look at the standard male character. and decide if it is acceptable. If so, I’ll just skip it altogether. That’s how it goes most of the time. Every now and then I’m not a big fan of Mr. Default, so I might cycle through some faces and hairstyles, but it won’t take more than a minute. If it’s one like in Fallout 4 where you can change even the smallest detail, I could tinker with it for a few minutes.
But look, none of these characters can compare to me IRL. I’m so hot that the air around me gives off a faint hissing sound. I see what bacon tastes like.
coli: I normally play games where after an hour or so my character has a helmet on and I never see their faces again, so character creation doesn’t take very long.
Pifanjr: Let’s just say I think I spent at least an hour creating my Skyrim character, which I never saw again after that because I play the whole game in first person and he 100% of the time from head to toe is in a harness.
Sarafan: I spend a lot of time creating characters, but not the character appearance editors. Usually, selecting the right set of skills and abilities is the most time consuming. This can take a ridiculously long time, especially if there are some random variables involved. My personal best is 8 hours spent creating a whole party in the first Icewind Dale. It’s something fascinating to roll the dice of all those stats again until you get a satisfying result.
main dish: Being an RPG fanatic, I like a deep, detailed character creation system. I will literally spend hours creating characters depending on the complexity and number of characters I am creating. If I’m just creating one character, like in the Elder Scrolls games, it might only take me an hour or two, and I’m not too fanatical about a “looks-type” creation (although appearance and body type can be important for a 3rd person view and/or a photo mode).
But what really consumes my time are games where you create a group of 2-6 characters and your gaming experience and survival will depend on the choices you make and there is no “re-spec” option later in the game. Make your choices wisely and live or die according to them.
D&D games are a prime example, where your choices of race, class, profession, alignment, stats, abilities, and skills determine your success or failure in the game world. Roll those dice, over and over again, to get that perfect build you’re looking for. I’m jealous of Sarafan’s 8 hours he spent at his Icewind Dale party. Solasta Crown of the Magister is a more recent D&D game (group of 4) that I spent hours creating characters, rolling dice over and over, and spending points on skills, abilities, and achievements. A very old-fashioned and detailed system.
JarlBSoD: Tracks! Anyone remember Spore? The game where character creation was more fun and took more time than you spent on the rest of the game?
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