Character creation can take thirty minutes or more, depending on how detailed the avatar creator kit is. I'm one of those weirdo role players, so each character I make (and I usually make at least one of each class/race) will look unique, if possible, to match my vision of them. EQ1 took 5 -10 minutes with how limited the options were and when I realized I would just be another purple-eyed, blue-skinned, white-haired, haughty-looking, dark elf shadowknight running around.
EQ2 options were more robust and I recall my first character created (another amethyst-eyed, white-haired, obsidian-skinned, tall, female, dark elf shadowknight) took nearly 75 minutes as I ran through all the choices I had for hair style/color, skin color, height, eye color, ear size... I was so excited that I had a larger chance of looking unique.
Dragon Age games... haha. Forget it. 60 minutes, minimum.
And we won't even mention naming the avatars.
If it's pen and paper it can take me a whole day. Unless we are in a rush and then i have a few standby's that i may have created before hand. When it comes to online games i just go through it and pick what fancies me at the time. I usually start with a class basis and go from there. Might take me 5-10 minutes and most of that is name picking unless i already know the name i want.
Eh - not very long anymore.
I've had my character names since I was a teenager. Ketilron, Tralyan, Vaynard/Vayguin, and Firos. It began as a kids attempt at a novel where their appearance was pretty well fleshed out. I know how they all look and go straight for that at character creation.
Now, I USED to take forever just to get the details right, until playing all these games and realizing that the details aren't noticeable once you're actually in game.
EQ2 comes to mind. You can change the shape and size and slant of pretty much every little part of your face, and when you're zoomed in at character creation it makes a difference - but in the actual game? Nah.
So I go for the basic look now and move on.
A game should have consequences for any decision. What you roll and how you look is the first decision players make even before they are level 1. People should be stuck with their poor or wise decisions at character creation or reroll it.
I have been a beta participant in most games that I have played in the last 15 years. This allows me to have played with the character creation systems to see what's possible. I know what I want to look like, my class, my race, my height, and even my name length (this is important in some games more than others). It takes about 15 minutes to roll my first character.
Ludek said:If you guys have a "random" button for appearance it will take me about 37 seconds. I will select race, class and name then press the random button exactly 5 times then click Enter World.
My appearance is completely meaningless. It will be covered in gear soon enough anyway.
This.
Doesn't take so long.
Mostly I want to feel like I am unique. Also, to get as far away as possible from the mistake that my character creation was in EQ (mistake only in regards to other players and the impact on my gaming experience - impact was so much that even today I won't go back to creating a pretty character). Back then, it was unique and I was the only one running around - for awhile (and it was also a creation process based on the "problems" that existed in the early days of release; but I won't rehash that tale).
So, I try to pick what I feel is the "ugliest" character that I can create assuming not many others out there will go for "ugly". I play in first-person so it really doesn't bother me. Based on the race reveals looks like I'm going for Skar or Ogre (I'll pick whatever class appeals to me the most in those races - however I have been a thief/rogue ever since the pen and paper days of D&D going way back into the seventies) and will pick the faces that are the ugliest of the batch. But I've never played a healer or a pet class in any MMO so for a change of pace I may go with one of those.
5-15 min usually. But can i ask PANTHEON a question? I normally try to hurry because during the character creation process, if you aren't done in 10 min the game disconnects you and you have to start ALL over, so then you rush a 2 min character make. So QUESTION:
WILL WE HAVE 30 MIN TO MAKE A CHARACTER WITHOUT GETTING DISCONNECTED FROM THE SERVER?
can't take 30 min if you don't GIVE us 30 min.
Hours.
Let's say I am making a character to play seriously with and get to high level - not a throwaway to see how a race or class or combination works.
I will pick a class I think I will want to play more than any other class. Because I will enjoy the class, because it goes well with a craft I want to do, because it is useful and will make me more desirable to groups or guilds, because it can solo well for the times I can't group, because it will get to level cap faster to support a growing family of toonlings, or for any other reason.
I will then pick a race that goes well with it.
All of this before opening the character creation screen.
Then I will go through all the choices and see where I care. Keeping in mind that all I will see is the character's back 99% of the time. So hair style and color is critical.
Some games give a limited number of choices for different aspects of appearance and number them. I will make sure to make a note of the ones I pick.
Hair style 11, hair color 7, skin color 4 and the like. This saves huge amounts of time and effort if disconnected in the middle, or I want the same look for later characters.
It depends.
How much customization is available, not only at the creation screen but also in-game? If I can re-customize everything in game then not long at all, especially in a brand-new server scenario where I care about getting my name more than how my character looks until I change it in-game. If getting the name I want is a non-issue and you can't re-do in game then I'll want to get it absolutely right the first time so it can take quite a while if there are a lot of options available.
To be honest, I start out with great intentions and end up choosing from the pre-made forms available, and choose and change some elements for style or personalization.
However I get bored with all the subtle tweaking that I have seen available in some games, like infinetessimal slider degrees of high forehead to low forhead where the difference between the extremes is slightly noticable but for which the mechanics take a long time to move the slider from one end of the range to another. Yet then I am humbled buy those that can use those tools to make almost perfect, unique and really cool almost lifelike avatars. Perhaps I am not patient enough.
Only tangentially related but...
EQ2 released a character creation tool prior to releasing the game. That gave us all the time in the world to tweak the tons and tons of sliders to get the perfect look, save that as a template, then load that template on release and jump right into playing. I thought that was really cool. My wife thought it was way cooler since she spends 10x the time I do creating characters.
this is a tricky question. My main will take at least 30 minutes. But we have not seen character creation yet so this is a rough estimate. If it has a lot of options I may make an alt first, real quick just to get in game and look around. But I usually take a lot of time in creating my main characters because they will be there for the duration of the game.
Like some have said, I would really like to see an "offline" character creation tool. Something where you can create it and then save it for use when you log in. Especially if there are alot of customization elements, which I am hoping that there are. I have a specific "vision" (TM Brad McQuaid) for what Kalok Sundancer looks like. He looked, essentially, the same in EQ, EQ2, and Vanguard, as much as possible given the visual and character model differences between the games. There was a rather significant change between "old models" EQ and "new models" EQ though.....hehehehe
Hello everyone. About an hour. If it takes longer then an hour, I have to get up and walk around, stretch, make more coffee and tea and look at the monitor/screen from a distance to see what I am wanting to create vs making a pretty toon Some games after creating your character lets you alter it again (in game barber or UI option to alter facial/body modifaction) (thats when i pull my hair out and say what? You mean i didnt have to spend about an hour creating when i could have done it after few levels)? Other then taht, I usually treat character creation as final (can not change it once you enter game/log in). So about an hour (by then the server either has crashed, needs to do hot fix update or wait in line to enter game.
Usually I take forever if your character's face is something you will actually see and have lots of options for.
Of course, if the game has some sort of random drop I want to rush, and remake the character if I don't get it (scummy i know), I'll probably put alot less effort into looks unless I can save a face as a template.