Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: candycanearter07 Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action Subject: Re: Character Creators Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2024 14:30:07 -0000 (UTC) Organization: the-candyden-of-code Lines: 74 Message-ID: References: Injection-Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 16:30:08 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="1aefc06d33cd7ae82fcd525a9bbf8bea"; logging-data="2346538"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18LPbveR0okZu9tAaCE7hCutPAvNZJF72FtdO5iVeMSLw==" User-Agent: slrn/1.0.3 (Linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:PHZJO1YXj9Fav4JcLGojVXy+3gQ= X-Face: b{dPmN&%4|lEo,wUO\"KLEOu5N_br(N2Yuc5/qcR5i>9-!^e\.Tw9?/m0}/~:UOM:Zf]% b+ V4R8q|QiU/R8\|G\WpC`-s?=)\fbtNc&=/a3a)r7xbRI]Vl)r<%PTriJ3pGpl_/B6!8pe\btzx `~R! r3.0#lHRE+^Gro0[cjsban'vZ#j7,?I/tHk{s=TFJ:H?~=]`O*~3ZX`qik`b:.gVIc-[$t/e ZrQsWJ >|l^I_[pbsIqwoz.WGA] wrote at 14:50 this Tuesday (GMT): > On 7/1/2024 4:44 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: >> >> The hype train for the newest "Dragon Age" game is roaring down the >> tracks. The latest is an article on GameInformer on how the game has >> an incredibly robust character creation system, heads and shoulders >> above anything they've done before. But I'm not here to talk about >> "Dragon Age". >> >> Rather, I'm here to question the importance (and wisdom of pouring so >> many resources into developing) these character creation tools. I >> mean, sure they're neat. There's a certain segment of the population >> who likes nothing better than to use these tools to create convincing >> duplicates of real people. ("Look, I created Keanu Reeves in >> Skyrim!"). But creating these character creation tools isn't cheap in >> manpower or time, and I have to wonder: does it really matter? Is that >> segment of player so large as to balance out the expenditure used in >> creating the tool? Because I suspect the vast bulk of players spend >> ten or fifteen minutes tops with it -creating a character that looks >> just vaguely close enough to their vision- before moving on the actual >> meat of the game. >> >> Sure, the character creation tool is usually just a front-end to the >> same editor the developers (or a procedural generation algorithm) use >> to manipulate faces for NPCs. So its not like they're making it from >> scratch. Still, the question remains: is all that effort to create >> such varied face technology really worth it? Do players /really/ care? >> >> It just seems that with actual video-game technology stagnating >> --games of today, tech-wise, are pretty much the same as games from >> five years ago-- publishers are instead trying to differentiate their >> games with the /appearance/ of new sophistication rather than actual >> advances. But this fiddlyness comes with a cost, and with AAA games >> /already/ costing over $100 million to make... maybe trim down on the >> unimportant stuff? Or at least focus those limited resources on the >> stuff that actually matters, like solid gameplay, good writing, and >> clever level design? >> >> Because no matter how good your character creation tool is, it's not >> going to save your game if the rest of it sucks. > > I like them and I've spent hours making a character in the dark souls > games, never to see their face again after getting a helmet that covers > it I like, not to mention camera being stuck behind them so you don't > really see it even if you aren't wearing a face-covering helment. Some > games have options/mods to hide the helmets, which I think they could > really use. Sometimes I make a pretty face, other times I make the > weirdest one I can possibly get with the creator. I vaguely remember there was an rpg I liked where you could set the appearance of armor/weapons/etc separate from stats, and there was an option to have like a basic shirt too which was really funny > I'm not going to hang my buying of a game on them, that's for sure. But > my enjoyment was affected on a couple. I really wish Horizon had one, > instead I have to look at that woman that looks like a neanderthal > throwback, or she has some sort of genetic disorder. She's definitely > got a bit of uncanny valley. I don't particularly like being forced to > be that one guy in Death Stranding either. Just a few options would be > fine by me, so I can pick something I like better. > > I'd certainly miss it in souls games when I want to make something weird > though. > > The only one I think it's really important in is generic superhero > games, If you can't design your suit which is all you'll be seeing, then > it really irks me (City of Heroes.) Honestly, I'm fine with just having a few presets to pick from. Any character creator I've used, I either leave it as default or hit random a couple times. -- user is generated from /dev/urandom