One of the most enjoyable parts of playing MMORPG games is character creation. Our avatars impersonate ourselves, our presence and influence in game, so we all dedicate this aspect a lot of effort. I will describe shortly few of the most common ways of character customization.

Conan vs. Gandalf

Popular way of customization that I find to be of frequent occurrence is a look-alike of famous fantasy characters. Countless times we have all seen hordes of Conans, Drizzts or Gandalfs running around on our screens while playing MMORPGs. Of course, with all the small changes made to spelling – Gendalf, Gundalf, Gaendalf – You name it. It does not only influence characters class (respectively melee, rogue and caster), it also has impact on character’s looks, making Conans big and bulky, Drizzts white haired and dark skinned and Gandalfs dressed in plain robe and steeple hat on head.

My Toon is Me

Another common way of customizing one’s character is making it as closely looking to real life presence as possible. So many aspects that can be addressed in this subject – size, colour of skin, eyes, hair, type of haircut, facial hair. In other words – it is all limited by MMORPG we play and its character creation possibilities. I personally find this way quite amusing, giving player a chance to familiarize himself with his newly created character, enjoying its development and rise to power!!!(well at least that’s the plan we all have in mind when we start…)

The Smaller the Better

This type of character creation is mostly made by experienced players, when they got a good grip of game mechanics and vast knowledge of its contents. Using some elements like race or character in order to play some particular class is a good example. Well we all think about creating this imba-cookie-specs, but while funny to play, they tend to get boring pretty quickly, lacking some emotional link between a player and toon. It is wise to have it all well thought thru (i.e. picking smaller race to make yourself harder to target in PVP and RVR), but I personally don’t like to be pushed into doing something, rather have things done my away, even if it’s 5 less dex or int…

Pure Fantasy FTW!

This way is quite funny and nice to try, but in most cases rather for pure pleasure and checking something different than making our main character in MMORPG. Mainly done by experienced, long playing people that want to have some break from playing their main toon and try something new/regain interest in game. Creating something that our imagination gives us ideas for is funny and can result in new approach towards the MMORPG we actually play. So, why not giving your level 200 Knight of Chosen Ten chance to rest in the nearest inn and let the imagination fly? Who knows what are you going to come up with?

Let Fate Decide

This one is pretty popular when we start playing new MMORPG. Sometimes we haven’t done our homework before the start and we have absolutely no idea what is what around here. What to do then? Let the fate decide, that’s what - when there is an option of having a random character made of course. If not, sometimes there is an option of choosing some template pre-made characters. It’s a good and time saving way to start playing, but in most cases we are not that satisfied with our toon to carry on playing them on higher levels and we start again, with everything made to our liking by ourselves.

Cunning Foxes

I know some players that do everything to fool their opponents in PVP or RVR. Sometimes just giving a ‘caster-like’ name to their melee characters makes the trick. Or equipping some caster-looking overclothes. Whatever is done, it might pay up giving us the edge in some close encounters, resulting in ours surviving and opponents release screen.

Those are some of the common ways of MMORPG character customization and creation that people tend to try. All of them have pros and cons, pick one that suits you the most. Whichever you choose, just keep in mind – have good fun with your toon, and try to at least like it a bit. What’s the point of playing imba character but pretty much hated by us at the same time? We play MMORPGs to have some good time, not to think about beginning stats distribution, looks etc. Enjoy!

By Grzegorz Pietruczuk for FreeMMORPGs.com