When You Make a Character, Does It Look Like You?

[Mercedes]

Lots of games have character creation screens and offer some kind of customisation for characters, in RPGs especially. But, when you make your character, do you make it look like you, or do you make it look different?

I've always tended to make myself really, there's very few games when I don't; my characters have long blonde hair and brown eyes and stuff like that, and even similar make-up to what I often wear if I can. I feel I'm a minority though since I can't begin to count how many male friends I know who have female characters too.

 

[Ventus]

White female with brown ponytail, medium bust, 5ft 6in - 8in...not at all like me. xD

 

[Big Octo]

I'd have to say not really. I guess I just like making the character their own person rather than myself. Also, I rarely name a character with my own, I usually just pick a name for them. As for the character's personality, I usually make choices fir the in-game benefits, not for what I personally think. A good example of this is an evil character in Fallout 3. There's no way I'd actually detonate a dormant nuclear bomb and destroy a thriving post-apocolyptic civilization.

 

[Terminus]

Generally a mix of how I think I look, how i look, and Matt Smith.

 

[Wolf Sage]

Not often. Although, I do tend to create "mini-plots" for certain characters that I create, in which I try to make their personality traits a lot like my own. They're often sleepy-looking, listless, and wear drab clothing and such. So yeah, while my created characters do not look like me, they do tend to be made with my personality quirks in mind...

 

[Mercedes]

White female with brown ponytail, medium bust, 5ft 6in - 8in...not at all like me. xD

You've just totally ruined the mental image I had of you.

 

[DeletedUser9]

Aw. I thought this was about writing and creating your own characters. :xd:

When I play games these days I do tend to make them look like me. I figure why not, I can self-insert and immerse myself more. Especially in games with heavy character-customization and/or romance options. Give me the option to deck out my character with my ideal super powers or spells and make him look like me and I'll take it. Conversely if something like, oh, say, Fire Emblem: Awakening literally lets me self-insert into relationships with attractive characters, I am going to take that opportunity. :bleh:

In the past I've designed my character to look like an RP character I used to play. A white-haired shapeshifter. But I've mostly abandoned that and either make the character look like me, or, on rare occasions, make them into something original. Sometimes I'll use character creation tools to depict the characters in my writing. xP

 

[Justac00lguy]

Sometimes I do I guess, that will usually be in sports games though, like Fifa or Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Since I've played those sports all my life I like to get more involved with the game that way. Usually making the character look somewhat like me makes the experience slightly more realistic I guess, but it's not a necessity.

In RPGs I usually don't care, I'll make my character either look completely stupid or that stereotypical heavy set black guy. So in these types of games, I don't tend to emulate my own appearance, for one it can be too fiddly and to be honest I'm not that bothered if it looks like me or not.

 

[blue-eyes]

I usually make them look super ridiculous or super awesome, like on my friends Saints Row 3, he looks very Men In Black, and I love playing around as something different. So, no, they never look like me.

 

[CynicalSquid]

I don't make them look like me at all. I don't really care how my characters look like in games so I either use a default character or I just mess around with a few settings. It's not like I am going to see my characters face that often when I'm playing the game. Unless I'm playing Mass Effect.

I also don't like having any connection to the character. I don't even name the character after myself. I just think it's more interesting and fun that way. I like playing as something I am not. Which is why I probably why I like playing as a female so much. I have a very active imagination too, so whenever I play as someone I am not similar to at all I like to pretend that I am them. It's kind of like stepping in someone else's shoes. I don't know, it's something weird I do.

I also don't like spending hours on the character customization creating thingy screen for hours. I don't see how people do it. You buy a game you are excited to play and you spend too much time creating your character. It just doesn't make sense to me. I like to get right into the game, but that's just me.

 

[Timeless]

Generally, if possible I will. But sometimes I don't, just to mix it up

 

[DarkLink17]

I don't always play games where the character can be customized, but when I do, it usually just looks like me.

 

[Blue Canary]

I never make it look like myself. I'll usually make it look as cool as possible... and maybe add some of my features.

 

[Reaca]

Characters that I make always look nothing like me. I usually just make the most ridiculous looking person I possibly can. Especially on games like Saints Row 3 or Oblivion.

 

[Turo602]

As a creative mind, I tend to create fictitious figures. A character I can take serious throughout the entirety of my game.