First of all, bare with me, this is a hard thing Im trying to describe, so dont jump at me if you feel I said something in the wrong way.
When starting to play a new IF, am I the only one that - if given appearance customisation - must research and find out the NPCs’ appearances for that game, and then use this info when picking my own choices for my MC?
If the game has common traits for NPCs, I avoid these for my own MC so that the game’s team of characters are a balanced line up in my head in terms of demographics and character design.
E.g.
If theres too many dark haired caucasians, go with a MC thats a POC, or caucasian with lighter hair tones.
If the game already has a certain NPC with a rarer genetic trait, e.g. ginger hair, early onset grey hair etc, I dont pick that for my MC.
(Btw, if the Game’s setting has a distinct certain demographic thats a non-white majority, thats a whole different kettle of fish…)
Its the Anti Wonder Woman/Superman/Batman principle (really DC, all 3 of your world’s biggest heroes have practically the exact same colouring?). Personally I find the idea of all the characters being caucasian with dark brown/black hair over represented in western media and uninspired.
I know at least one game that goes out of its way to do essentially the inverse of that, in that it takes the appearance that the player inputs and then re-orients the appearance of the rest of the main cast around it.
I try to make my NPCs not all look same, but I do have this starship that’s manned mostly by very pale people with blonde, light brown, and red hair… because the crew is mostly Scandinavian-Finnic. In space.
To be fair, dark hair is by far the most common hair type for white people. Truly black hair is less common, but brown of any shade is pretty realistically represented. Blonde and red hair are both uncommon, especially in adults, as blonde hair tends to darken over time.
As for what I do, I always base my MCs after myself. My MCs are always the idealistic version of myself that will thrive in the story. And this includes my physical appearance
SO, if I am coding a game that is happening in 1983’s Japan, I could put special dialogue options for when the MC isn’t asian… Isn’t that a good idea, bruh.
I get where you’re coming from, but you’ll find that most places in the real world are not very visually diverse. The US is a rare example of a VERY diverse country, where you can find people of basically any origin living together in one state.
Other countries are “diverse” in the sense people from neighboring countries often cross over.
for example, although culturally radically different, it’s near impossible to tell apart Chinese/Korean/Japanese people just from their appearance, even for a native.
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure around 70% of the world population has black hair and brown eyes. So I don’t think it’s really strange to have overlaps.
I do this often. Which means my MCs are never blondes with light skin and blue eyes, because basically every IF I’ve played so far has had at least one character (usually RO) with that look.
Btw. I love unnatural colors and I’m always annoyed when a cast member has violet or golden eyes. What, two people with the unique trait, no way
Youre right. Its not reflective of reality and writers might wish to prioritise realism.
Edit: I still think considering how diverse America is, that DC comics have no excuse…too long has Wonder Woman been whitewashed to be in some comics practically the same skintone as Superman…
Oh, yeah. old comics are definitely guilty.
I haven’t even realized how rare asian guys were in superhero comics until I’ve watched amazon’s Invincible.
from DC, I think… maybe Damian Wayne? He’s like half… whatever Talia is.
Marvel definitely fares better in the representation department.
I’d think part of it with the old comics is that they had a very limited color palette for printing technology reasons (and that the artists weren’t all very good in drawing different face shapes).
I am not white. But most of the characrers I draw are. Caucasians got a lot of reference to untrained artists like me. Also. As much as I love ethnic people, I do have a hard time drawing them properly.
Also, we all miss the time Wonder Woman was latina right? Greece is in Latin America right?
(P.S. For normal people that are not into comics. I tried to make a lame joke switching Yara Flor with Princess Diana (the og wonder woman, not the Princess of Wales, though both are dreamgirls on my dreamteam))
I do this same thing, at least for my first play through of any IF. For any subsequent play throughs I tailor the MC to the RO for that run. Like, what would be a good match for them or the type of character I think would make for a cute pairing.
I do that sometimes too ! Not always, but whenever an RO seems to fit a certain type of MC. But I don’t create a brand new MC, I just adjust the one I used for my first play through
! Not always, but whenever an RO seems to fit a certain type of MC. But I don’t create a brand new MC, I just adjust the one I used for my first play through