Dress to Impress: A Look at Character Customization

When you think of Mario, you think of the short guy with the blue overalls and the a red shirt. Today however most games give you the option to change many aspects of the character. So maybe your Mario would be orange with green overalls. This gives players a sense that they are involved in creating the game and gives them a chance to alter the game to their preferences. This can be seen more and more in modern games. Most games today allow you to change a character's outfit, hair, and sometimes even race, gender, and facial structure. This allows the player to create a character that they identify with.

Character Customization in Saints Row 2

World of Warcraft

This is also a vastly popular feature in MMORPGs. In these games there isn't one character that everyone can play, but rather everyone becomes an individual character that interacts with one another. This increases the importance of having a unique identity. Many players model their characters after themselves but just as many create characters that are very different than themselves with different hair, height, and even gender. A poll found that half the characters in WoW (World of Warcraft) are female, while the percentage of females playing WoW is far less than half. One article I found tried to explain this phenomenon - Top Reasons that Men Play as Female Characters in MMORPGs . 

There are both benefits and disadvantages of character customization in games today. On one hand it allows a player to put their own spin on who they play. It also works to pad out games, because customization can serve as a huge time sink especially when you have to travel around a city to get clothing items you want (Saints Row 2). But have we lost something, in trying to give players exactly what they want? And are games missing something without the iconic characters of the past?