Guild Wars expansions: Trend of decreasing face / hair customization...
Lady Lozza
IMHO, I LOVE the NF looks, well most of them. They are a breath of fresh air. The eles and mes have some gorgeous faces, though the monk is a little boring. Paragon, could do with some "different" faces, because a lot of the ones they have atm seem to be very similar. Dervishes, kind of the same as paragons. But I really do like the workup the other classes have received. Yes, my characters will be dark. All the dark skinned options in the previous two games looked as though Anet had spalshed paint on a bunch of white guys. Furthermore, the darker tones fit the game setting. RP FTW!
4thVariety
For an Arabian expansion, the faces do not strike me as being particularly Arabic.
Instead we see the typical mixture of hairstyles you would associate with MTV.
Instead we see the typical mixture of hairstyles you would associate with MTV.
ricocheting
what i find the most disappointing is that guildwars is mainly based around the concept of looks define the value for stuff like all weapons and armor (not stats like most mmorpg). and while they try to base the entire economy on the 'looks makes value' theory, the actual 'looks' part of the character selection is hideously lacking.
and the sad thing is, there is a VERY VERY easy solution to this. if i create a new character, why can't i choose a face/hairstyle/etc from any chapter i own? if I own all three, why can't i create a nightfall character with tyrian face and canthan hair style? there is ZERO reason for not having that option (and don't feed me that "but it's an elonian character, it's born with only "nightfall" traits ... gimme a break. if anything is racist, suggesting only blacks can come from elona..)
and the sad thing is, there is a VERY VERY easy solution to this. if i create a new character, why can't i choose a face/hairstyle/etc from any chapter i own? if I own all three, why can't i create a nightfall character with tyrian face and canthan hair style? there is ZERO reason for not having that option (and don't feed me that "but it's an elonian character, it's born with only "nightfall" traits ... gimme a break. if anything is racist, suggesting only blacks can come from elona..)
arcanemacabre
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Originally Posted by Lady Lozza
Yes, my characters will be dark. All the dark skinned options in the previous two games looked as though Anet had spalshed paint on a bunch of white guys. Furthermore, the darker tones fit the game setting. RP FTW!
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Definately, all about some RP! I mean, c'mon, the true Elonians have lived in a obviously hot, sun-soaked, desert-like land for countless generations. If you count yourself a 'true Elonian', and you care about RP in the slightest, you simply must give your character dark skin. The only reasoning behind a lighter skin should be: magical, foreigner (or descendant from foreigners), or your family has lived underground for centuries.
Safer Saviour
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Originally Posted by arcanemacabre
Definately, all about some RP! I mean, c'mon, the true Elonians have lived in a obviously hot, sun-soaked, desert-like land for countless generations. If you count yourself a 'true Elonian', and you care about RP in the slightest, you simply must give your character dark skin. The only reasoning behind a lighter skin should be: magical, foreigner (or descendant from foreigners), or your family has lived underground for centuries.
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Cottage Pie
Some faces look much better with darker skin, they are not ugly, as so many people think, they just go with the darker skin tones, which so many people don't even think about choosing.
Claudia Starlight
I do appreciate more options for faces and hairstyles.
I remember having to create my warrior from Tyria because i dont really like Canthan warrior faces.
It's a pain to level up.
But it's for the looks.
I remember having to create my warrior from Tyria because i dont really like Canthan warrior faces.
It's a pain to level up.
But it's for the looks.
ia64
they realy should include previous expansion's faces/hairstiles in later ones...
I was trying to make a nightfalls monk and just couldnt do it because all the faces/hairstyles looked too ugly.
ended up making a paragon, her face / hair style seem to have had much better work done by the artists
I was trying to make a nightfalls monk and just couldnt do it because all the faces/hairstyles looked too ugly.
ended up making a paragon, her face / hair style seem to have had much better work done by the artists
DJJD2006
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Originally Posted by lyra_song
That sounds really racist. Just so you know :P
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As to the matter at hand, I dont agree that the faces are uglier in this chapter, The female Paragon for example hadat least 2 faces that i was torn between, and none were "fugly"
TsunamiZ
nightfall appearances are a bit better than factions, but it's still lacking compared to prophecies
HR-Galaphile
Character design is the most (perhaps the only) dissapointing part of Nightfall for me. I'm fine with not being able to customize EVERYTHING about my character, but atleast give me some options. And by that I mean DIVERSITY. I can pick from 6 strong featured males faces, 6 shades of dark skin, and 6 diffrently braided hairstyles. And I would be fine with that.. If there were an equal amount of white features to choose from.
It would be totally awesome for people who have all games to mix and match features. Combined with a stylist in Lions Arch, Kaineng, and wherever that can change your previously created characters' hair to a local style/colour for a fair price.
It would be totally awesome for people who have all games to mix and match features. Combined with a stylist in Lions Arch, Kaineng, and wherever that can change your previously created characters' hair to a local style/colour for a fair price.
Lawnmower
the selection is not broad enough I think.
what happened to Warrior Mr T and Afro hairstyles? The elementalist afro style is not really doing it for me:P
I would like to see more arabian / spanish / latino faces.
why was the blue glowing eyes removed from the paragons? why does one monk face has does eyes?
also... the male necro face that missses an eye is really cool. please make more deformed necro faces. faces with an eyepatch would be great to... or a big nose ring... or scars all over the face... or different headbands and bandanas.
what happened to Warrior Mr T and Afro hairstyles? The elementalist afro style is not really doing it for me:P
I would like to see more arabian / spanish / latino faces.
why was the blue glowing eyes removed from the paragons? why does one monk face has does eyes?
also... the male necro face that missses an eye is really cool. please make more deformed necro faces. faces with an eyepatch would be great to... or a big nose ring... or scars all over the face... or different headbands and bandanas.
NinjaKai
You do know this is a preview event. Whats to say that more faces and hair aren't being worked on that just haven't been finished yet?
HR-Galaphile
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Originally Posted by NinjaKai
You do know this is a preview event. Whats to say that more faces and hair aren't being worked on that just haven't been finished yet?
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| [ Based on the Factions preview event, the Nightfall preview event will likely indicate the final amount of face / hair customizations players will get in the final Nightfall expansion. ] |
ElinoraNeSangre
I love the idea of cultual identity in a game in terms of what the faces look like in each chapter. I think it makes sense that there are chapter specific faces.
However, I really support the idea of being able to change hair to that of other games'; just like if I left the country and got my hair styled to match what's popular in the region, it would make sense for characters to be able to do that. And I think it would offer just enough variety to strike a happy medium. Seeing too many clones of yourself? Hop on over to a hairstylist in another country and change it!
The tricky part here is the chapter-specific professions; these are the ones that will probably suffer the most from lack of options. A person has the option (or will soon) of creating a core class from one of three different chapters, but a chapter-specific class only gets one. It might not be so bad to give those ones a few more options because they really are a one-time deal (or heck, if we ever get hair stylists, throw a few hairstyles in per chapter for some variety). I don't know - there probably isn't an easy solution.
I wouldn't mind more face options, but I love the ones we do have (on all chapters). In all honestly, when I first got Prophecies I was pretty underwhelmed by the quality of the faces; there were a lot of them, but a good deal of them had eyes too far apart, ugly lips, too angular faces, ect. This last update really prettied a lot of them up, and now I find myself with the horrible urge to start a ranger over there. Overall, I'm cool with the newer "quality over quantity" approach (while realizing that quality is completely subjective based on taste).
-kel/eli
any and all things that make no sense in this post are the result of massive amounts of cold medicine
However, I really support the idea of being able to change hair to that of other games'; just like if I left the country and got my hair styled to match what's popular in the region, it would make sense for characters to be able to do that. And I think it would offer just enough variety to strike a happy medium. Seeing too many clones of yourself? Hop on over to a hairstylist in another country and change it!
The tricky part here is the chapter-specific professions; these are the ones that will probably suffer the most from lack of options. A person has the option (or will soon) of creating a core class from one of three different chapters, but a chapter-specific class only gets one. It might not be so bad to give those ones a few more options because they really are a one-time deal (or heck, if we ever get hair stylists, throw a few hairstyles in per chapter for some variety). I don't know - there probably isn't an easy solution.
I wouldn't mind more face options, but I love the ones we do have (on all chapters). In all honestly, when I first got Prophecies I was pretty underwhelmed by the quality of the faces; there were a lot of them, but a good deal of them had eyes too far apart, ugly lips, too angular faces, ect. This last update really prettied a lot of them up, and now I find myself with the horrible urge to start a ranger over there. Overall, I'm cool with the newer "quality over quantity" approach (while realizing that quality is completely subjective based on taste).
-kel/eli
any and all things that make no sense in this post are the result of massive amounts of cold medicine
NinjaKai
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Originally Posted by HR-Galaphile
See here:
Meaning that Factions preview event had the same amount of customizations that the Factions retail had |
TsunamiZ
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Originally Posted by NinjaKai
Only thing about that is. Factions was made by a different dev team. Both which work on different chapters to their own agendas.
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MsMassacre
Yeah, I agree it's lame to have so few options. I expected one of the perks of owning multiple capaigns would be the option to use faces and hair from different games together. That would be a pretty easy solution to the problem.
BTW, if I remember rightly, there were a few more options added to Factions between its WPE and release, so it might get a TAD better.
BTW2; what's up with female monks in NF? Mostly african faces, but only various shades of blond for hair color.
BTW, if I remember rightly, there were a few more options added to Factions between its WPE and release, so it might get a TAD better.
BTW2; what's up with female monks in NF? Mostly african faces, but only various shades of blond for hair color.
Bale_Shadowscar
Although I only saw the Dervish and Necro nightfall faces, I think they look pretty decent. There is an especially cool Necro face that is missing an eye with a huge scar down it, I'm definately going for that one.
My only annoyance is that the pale skin tones look pretty rubbish on them, and not natural at all.
My only annoyance is that the pale skin tones look pretty rubbish on them, and not natural at all.
Baby Raiven
yes very disappointing and I would also like to change hair, or color of hair, and get tats after creating char and playing. Like in Fable you can go to barber or tat shop
Silent Coyote
The faces aren't to bad, but some of the hair styles are just terrible, I feel sorry for anyone making a female monk in nightfall I really do. Maybe the lack of choice is a hint that finally the second most requested feature since the release of prophecies might finally be implemented - a hair stylist.
Lady Lozza
TBH, Prophecies did not have "variety" it had "options", which are different. All the faces in Prophecies where typical of anglo-saxon origins and it fit the campaign. Now in Nightfall all the faces a typical (loosely) of Arabic and African origin.
I would love more options, but I would love more NEW options. Not the "options" of previous campaigns.
I would love more options, but I would love more NEW options. Not the "options" of previous campaigns.
Reks
I don't mind playing any race. It's just role-playing, after all. That said, my Elonian characters will be sporting their natural, darker skintones, to fit in with the environment. Looking at all the professions, I was very pleased with most of the faces and hairstyles. I think ANet's aiming for "quality over quantity," and it holds true for some classes, but not so for others.
I loved the female Paragons, for example. But, they screwed up with the male Paragons, IMO. I can recall from the first preview event, one youthful-looking face. Now, they all look old and angry, with bags under their eyes.
Still, one saving grace for me is that one-hairstyle that male Necros also have. That one's really nice.
I loved the female Paragons, for example. But, they screwed up with the male Paragons, IMO. I can recall from the first preview event, one youthful-looking face. Now, they all look old and angry, with bags under their eyes.
Still, one saving grace for me is that one-hairstyle that male Necros also have. That one's really nice. Perth68
you shouldnt be limited to campaign specific options, I dont know why they limited it in the first place? but yes the lack of options makes me sad. Settling for looks feels much worse then being in infinite conundrum over which looks better. ( I think for that reason they should allow one to edit a character after creation so I wouldnt have to reroll when I finally decide I dont like the look of my character). I was making my dervish today and I really didnt like any of the hairstyles, I never had that problem in prophecies. Player customization is really important for online games, and skimping on it makes the game much worse even if it is to add other things elsewhere.
TsunamiZ
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Originally Posted by Silent Coyote
Maybe the lack of choice is a hint that finally the second most requested feature since the release of prophecies might finally be implemented - a hair stylist.
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CrystalM
The hair styles for the female monk and necro look bad. Lots of my friends agree. What is with the female monk with only short braided hair, and necro same old same old hair styles. Where is the variety, long hair styles, medium length hair styles, updos, why does guild wars keep limiting themselves to this short hair monk, wild hair necro restraints. Character customization and variety is of huge importance to many people. I feel sorry for anyone making a nightfall female monk with the nightfall hair styles, just plain ugly. And the necro same old same old. Let a real hair stylist who knows hair is not just short and can be styled in many ways. Wheres the longer hair styles. why the near baldness and short short hair, mix things up give variety in styles, not just one style as a base. Long hair, medium hair, short hair variety. Nightfall female monk hair is just plain ugly.
Lady Lozza
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Originally Posted by Perth68
you shouldnt be limited to campaign specific options, I dont know why they limited it in the first place? but yes the lack of options makes me sad. Settling for looks feels much worse then being in infinite conundrum over which looks better. ( I think for that reason they should allow one to edit a character after creation so I wouldnt have to reroll when I finally decide I dont like the look of my character). I was making my dervish today and I really didnt like any of the hairstyles, I never had that problem in prophecies. Player customization is really important for online games, and skimping on it makes the game much worse even if it is to add other things elsewhere.
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Note that in GW the place you start your character is effectively denoted their "land of birth". Once again I say that it is only sensible to offer predominently African/Arabic "seeming" faces and skin tones.
Re: What someone said somewhere about some arabs having lighter skins tones. I agree, certain regions do have lighter tones, but they are not the peachy tones of anglo-saxons. Yet the sole peachy tone offered is what I see walking around in the preview most often, usually with blonde hair. No I don't think these people are being racist, I think they are merely lacking in imagination for being unable to bring themselves to create a character that actually fits in with the region the devs have drawn their inspiration from. I also find it an interesting social commentary that the "hawtness" factor being reported in the screenshots section, also seems to be limited to anglo tones and faces, often crowned with blonde hair. Or maybe it's just that those of us happy to play along with the setting aren't so in love with our set of pixels that we have to post them every 5 minutes... Either way, it is an interesting look into the social climate of Guru members.
Cherrie
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Originally Posted by Traveller
I have to agree about new face / hair combinations. There's just less and less nice-looking ones and we'll see loads of clones, since there's also less to choose from.
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And about the ammount of fair-skined Elonians - I agree, there won't be many dark-skinned characters (as well as there ain't many atm), becouse they simply look ugly in-game. The paragon picture shows a sexy ebon-skinned guy, but in-game tehy look LAME (apart from Koss, he's cute ^^). of course, thats my personal oppinion
Pevil Lihatuh
I just wish they'd allow ALL the faces to be allowed no matter where you start your character. I generally don't like the Factions faces (nothing against Asians, I just like my chars to look like me, and I'm a blond english female). I found myself torn in Factions; to make my new chars that were of the core professions in Prophecies (where they look how I want them to but have played it through far too much) or in Factions (where I still haven't finished the game but they don't look how I want)
Heck if they really need to give an excuse for it, just make it to be like in real life; Tyrians migrated to Cantha and Elona and had families, and vice versa
Heck if they really need to give an excuse for it, just make it to be like in real life; Tyrians migrated to Cantha and Elona and had families, and vice versa
Electric Sky
wish we could mix and match the character faces/hairstyles from different chapters into one
Matix411
I don't mind the decrease, except that player variety plummets into the Abyss.
I found the Nightfall faces for the female characters to be quite appealing, for the most part. Some lacked, like the Mesmer faces.
Most of the guy faces I just found very unusual, albeit the new Warrior faces are much more toned and detailed (as are all the faces) but I just find that the faces in Prophecies are much more appealing. Although, half of those faces are also horridly rendered, and the faces in Factions aren't bad at all I found, especially the female faces, but the male choices in Factions are horrid.
They have to have some variety I guess, in Prophecies it was more 'true to life' in that there are the attractive, and the lesser attractive. However, to be more publicly oriented, ALL the faces can be considered 'attractive' and/or visually appealing to ALL people because everyone has different tastes when it comes down to what your character looks like. Albeit ... most people seem to pick the more attractive of the faces, and thus, the variety lessens, and so I think this is why ANet has decreased the choices.
I still think there should be more.
I don't like seeing 20 people in one town with the same face and hair as me.
That's the other thing, the HAIR choices are getting ridiculously ugly.
In all character creation, I think there's at least one, maybe two nice hairstyles for each character. WHY? If I saw that many people with the same hairstyle in my own home town, I'd off myself.
I found the Nightfall faces for the female characters to be quite appealing, for the most part. Some lacked, like the Mesmer faces.
Most of the guy faces I just found very unusual, albeit the new Warrior faces are much more toned and detailed (as are all the faces) but I just find that the faces in Prophecies are much more appealing. Although, half of those faces are also horridly rendered, and the faces in Factions aren't bad at all I found, especially the female faces, but the male choices in Factions are horrid.
They have to have some variety I guess, in Prophecies it was more 'true to life' in that there are the attractive, and the lesser attractive. However, to be more publicly oriented, ALL the faces can be considered 'attractive' and/or visually appealing to ALL people because everyone has different tastes when it comes down to what your character looks like. Albeit ... most people seem to pick the more attractive of the faces, and thus, the variety lessens, and so I think this is why ANet has decreased the choices.
I still think there should be more.
I don't like seeing 20 people in one town with the same face and hair as me.
That's the other thing, the HAIR choices are getting ridiculously ugly.
In all character creation, I think there's at least one, maybe two nice hairstyles for each character. WHY? If I saw that many people with the same hairstyle in my own home town, I'd off myself.
Cunning
I agree that there are too few choices, but there's still a lot of possibilities.
What Guild Wars lacks is the ability to start with a small selection of templates and being able to "tweak" particular features. I can only assume that the designers don't want people to have too much control, in fear of everyone possibly making "unrealistic" looking characters.
There's also the problem of making sure the geography of the faces doesn't interfere with armor.
I'd like to see a choice between several basic templates of faces, with extra options for facial hair (just males), eye colour (blue, green, brown...) and lip shade (dark, medium, light, pink, purple...). Too many options and it will begin to get too complicated for what it's worth.
Remember, the smallest detail can be all that's needed to distinguish between two faces.
What Guild Wars lacks is the ability to start with a small selection of templates and being able to "tweak" particular features. I can only assume that the designers don't want people to have too much control, in fear of everyone possibly making "unrealistic" looking characters.
There's also the problem of making sure the geography of the faces doesn't interfere with armor.
I'd like to see a choice between several basic templates of faces, with extra options for facial hair (just males), eye colour (blue, green, brown...) and lip shade (dark, medium, light, pink, purple...). Too many options and it will begin to get too complicated for what it's worth.
Remember, the smallest detail can be all that's needed to distinguish between two faces.
TsunamiZ
it would be great to at least be able to mix and match appearances between all the chapters you own. you can do this with armor and weapons. why not also with faces and hair? since anet insists on giving so few appearance options in expansions, i think this issue warrants something to be done about mixing the choices.
KiyaKoreena
I agree on the mix and match should be available. As you add in chapter keys you unlock the appropriate options from the hair/face pool. Everyone has the data anyways to be able to see them in the districts so just lock the ability to create a character with a chapters added ones if the person doesnt have the correct key.
Shadow
Definitely need to add that. Not like it'd be hard either, consideirng I had a Tyrian warrior with a Nightfall hairstyle during pvp preview glitch. They probably don't want to make sure all the face/hair combos work, or add different skin tones for all the faces.
Matix411
/signed although this isn't a petition.
Good call.
I didn't even think about that.
And it's true; we're able to mix and match armors from all chapters, so why not just make a large template for the faces/hair etc. while creating characters, rather than having chapter specific features.
And don't anybody say that, "Oh, with new chapters, old chapters are never updated" and all that, this has nothing to do with updating previous chapters, it's simply combining a minor factor of ALL chapters for when we create characters for NEW chapters.
Good call.
I didn't even think about that.
And it's true; we're able to mix and match armors from all chapters, so why not just make a large template for the faces/hair etc. while creating characters, rather than having chapter specific features.
And don't anybody say that, "Oh, with new chapters, old chapters are never updated" and all that, this has nothing to do with updating previous chapters, it's simply combining a minor factor of ALL chapters for when we create characters for NEW chapters.
Solar_Takfar
mmm. I agree with the decision to keep faces limited to birthplace. but I'm also distressed by the dwindling amount of options presented by campaigns. We should get at least 40-50 face selections for each class/race combo imo, not some 12 or so; all those pertaining to the appropriate ethnicity related to the location, with a slight amount of variation (ie my tyrian warrior has oriental features to him, but it's an exception, not the rule). Mod teams have been doing this kind of thing for games for years (vide morrowind and Neverwinter communities) using only spare time and resources.
One thing that I found somewhat strange (has been pointed by other posters, too) is that female NF faces don't look as "african" as male faces; especially the noses are too thin in almost all faces, whereas most males have broad noses. I'd like to see some more authentically negroid female faces, too (which are present in most NPCs, btw), if only to match the male faces available.
One thing that I found somewhat strange (has been pointed by other posters, too) is that female NF faces don't look as "african" as male faces; especially the noses are too thin in almost all faces, whereas most males have broad noses. I'd like to see some more authentically negroid female faces, too (which are present in most NPCs, btw), if only to match the male faces available.
allience
i'm very unhappy about the face/hairstyle choice of nightfall. i understand it's supposed to happen in africa, but giving us ONLY the option to make african looking chars if just plain stupid.
i'm not making a racist comment but i just feel that we should have the liberty to breate a char with ANY features. i remember in Prophecies u have ALL skin tones. i can chose from blinding white to pitch black. and also the face features have a nice variety! the Prophecies monk can look western, asian or black.
i'm very displeased what in Nightfall we are restricted to only 1 thing. i was also annoyed by this in factions but still, there was a bit more choice, more faces. i'm one unhappy customer but i'll still buy nightfall because i like some of the new skills.
i'm not making a racist comment but i just feel that we should have the liberty to breate a char with ANY features. i remember in Prophecies u have ALL skin tones. i can chose from blinding white to pitch black. and also the face features have a nice variety! the Prophecies monk can look western, asian or black.
i'm very displeased what in Nightfall we are restricted to only 1 thing. i was also annoyed by this in factions but still, there was a bit more choice, more faces. i'm one unhappy customer but i'll still buy nightfall because i like some of the new skills.
Mr_T_bot
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Originally Posted by Jetdoc
I am definitely disappointed in this - I like to create a "unique" facial look to my character, so that I don't find 15 copies of her long lost twin in a town.
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My character is the most unique in all of Elona.
Lady Lozza
I completely disagree with being allowed to match faces and hair from previous chapters. If you want a prophecies character, start it in Ascalon.