Not to derail this thread any further but to clarify, I thought we are talking about CoG/HG titles in general. The ones both @Mewsly and I were talking about was Samurai of Hyuga which was a Hosted Games title. =)
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Out of curiosity then, what do you think writers should do if a player doesnāt want to fully customize their characters. Should the writer not at all mention the MCās physical description for those players, does that greenlight the author to set some default characteristics or assign random characteristics? How would doing any of those things affect immersion for the player?
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I believe @resuri08 meant that youāre posting 3 consecutive comments, which is unnecessary.
I believe what @MadmanX meant is the double posting until āanothe person posts after your own,ā which can be wildly interpreted asā¦ copyright infringement?
Unless Iām just being batshit crazy today. Whooh, so hot at here.
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On my case some important things in my game, like gender and nationality are required to be selected by the player; other minor things like hair length and color are optional.
The required ones are commonly referenced during the story, the other ones are more rarely referenced so itās alright if some players skipped. If the player did not select a hair length or color you can just reference their face or something else instead of the hair during that scene.
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Do you think there would be any appeal for the randomization of minor details? Sort of like, learning new things about your character as well as figuring out the story as you play through?
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Well, randomization is ok, but learning out that youāre actually have a white hair isnāt learning at all.
Finding out that your character is born with innate STR stat could be interesting, tho.
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Itās like fanfic to canon
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I like some character customisation, I can spend ages in a character creator.
What Iām doing isā¦ If potential differences in the characters appearance are essential to the story or theyāre referenced often then you have to give the player a clear opportunity to change them perhaps with an explanation that the choices are important.
If theyāre just not that important to the story, then I still like to give the player the chance to set things up the way they like them but also an option to just go with the defaults and get on with the story/game.
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I honestly really value the time and patience it requires for an author to actually place appearance customization since it does take alot of coding and writing to do, but it really really helps me shape up and visualize the character im playing as, even if its never mentioned again and would honestly be better if the author did give us a nod here and there about the appearance choices no matter how smallā¦
With that said, for those who seem to find it a bit of a chore to go through especially if your replaying the game due to a simple mistake at the beginning (which i always do lmao) is it alright for someone to put like a default customization option for players who want to go through the story and not worry about the cosmetic appearance of your character?
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Someone else touched on it but having to slog through an intense character creation after Iām replaying a game for the fifth time is boring. I would love it if games with intense character creation (what I mean by āintenseā is that it asks you for every single detail one right after another without pause) had an option to skip it and just continue on with the story.
Itās great if the author notices your appearances in the narrative e.g. your love interest says a different comment based on your eye color, but it would be cooler if your appearance choices had a bigger impact and forced you into a different ārailway trackā, so to speak.
Say if your character has a giant tattoo where everyone can see it, maybe theyāre barred from entering this classy restaurant that they need to enter, so they have to sneak in as the staff and maybe you might even get arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace (or something like that). For the tattoo-less, your job is a lot easier.
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Hi all, I was just wondering why every book includes the character description choices at the beginning e.g. hair length and colour, eye colour, etc.
I feel these are completely useless as they donāt affect any future choices and they just waste time for me. Can anyone explain to me the rationale behind including these?
i think posts 3 and 4 capture this pretty well (as Iām sure the rest of this thread does):
Iām personally partial to character customization happening through the narrative and a little spread out throughout the first one or two chapters as opposed to all at once in the very beginning, though.
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Every player has their preferences: for me, this touches upon one issue I might have with customisation - when it in fact becomes restrictive. When starting to read any IF I never know if several pages later Iām not gonna find out that a particular part of my mc has to be one of four things, which is why Iām just gonna throw it out here that when one does write 9 types of hairstyles to choose fromā¦ thereās a blank spot to fill on the 10th choice 
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Iām definitely on the side of the fence where appearance customisation doesnāt really matter to me that much and Iād prefer it not to be there. I think the haunted victorian gothic house game (what was it called again?) never actually states what your character looks like, but I had a very, very clear picture in my head.
Iāll be honest, in some cases I actually really like the customization as its own part of the game. It provides the video game esthetic of introductory text then select your character info. I canāt really play many traditional games, so I appreciate the retro callback.
However I do think that should be a decision, and not just a default. If you are doing it because youāre unable to conceive a way to make it a part of the narrative, rather than because you feel like doing it separately adds to the feel and esthetic of your game, thatās a different issue.
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Heart of the House? If thatās indeed the one you have in mind, it actually does have customisation options ā you can choose your clothes. 
Sure, it says nothing about hair or eyes or skin or height or weight, but itās still a cosmetic choice that affects nothing except a little flavour text. In my opinion the choice adds to the game, and probably has something to do with having a clearer mental picture of the MC as well.
(Later on, when dressing for the ball, you have a clothing choice that only lets you pick a colour, rather than a style, and then it doesnāt even get mentioned anywhere. I do think that kind of choice is less fun).
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