I personally prefer being able to pick my hair, eye and skin color (mostly the former two), but that depends from person to person. Never mentioning what the character looks like is fine, but having a set appearance can be very off-putting.
The only time I think I can truly appreciate a story changing my character’s appearance without my permission is if it’s relevant to the nature of the game itself. Let’s say, for example, I’m playing a game where the MC is exposed to demonic essences and certain choices could make you take on traits pertaining to different kinds of demons. If that were the case, I’d be perfectly content with the changes.
On that note, though, I do think that options like hair (length?) and color is one thing that should be left to the players. A character’s physique changing on where they were raised makes sense to me. I’d be fine with that. Locking certain features that shouldn’t by any means particularly be affected by where they were raised is a whole 'nother ballpark. Long hair in the wilderness? I’d have my MC cut it off. It’d just get in his eyes.
Having the entirety of my MC’s appearance be set for me is one thing that really grinds me gears. It’s the difference between being able to say “this is my character” and “this is the character that was assigned to me”. I find it hard to get particularly attached to making the choices for a character that… isn’t really mine within the context of the game.
1 Like
I seem to recall using a cheat on Fable so I’d never end up getting fat or old or have any scars. 
The glowy thing was nice, although did we get blonder as we became more good?
I like appearance changes if it has a function and purpose and preferably if it’s chosen.
1 Like
Wait, you don’t chose to get fat, old and have a face full of scars?
2 Likes
@Zolataya In the first Fable game, which is the only one I played, yep. You can get old, fat, have a face full of scars. This did not fit my preferred aesthetic in any way shape or form.
There’s a Magic Door in the game where you have to eat a tonne of food to get through. I cheated to get thin afterwards.
1 Like
I actually quite like the idea that your environment shapes your appearance but at the same time I like to choose my characters appearance as it lets me feel like I’m in their shoes. A good middle ground is that you could choose the characters basic features i.e hair and eye colour but have the environment shape the other things like hair length or scars. sorry if anyone else has said something like this already, I’m too lazy to read the other comments.
3 Likes
To weigh in. I find that having choice about appearance does matter when it’s supposedly in the second person. (Like all the choice of type games.) I don’t read/engage in ones where I’m not given gender choice. I find that it adds a fullness to the story.
Gender, skin tone/color, eye and hair color yes. I also really like the idea that choices lead to physical appearance. Not, the ones by birth, but by life style. (I use life style broadly here.) Also as something that can change.
Your from the wilderness but become a space pilot that wears helmets? Maybe it becomes short and unkempt. (I’m just imagining possible things)
But allowing gender and basic (born) appearance choices enriches the story. One of the best story writers, Dashiell Hammett, had one of his principle characters go unnamed throughout all his stories. But we knew he was short, white, tough, solid and ugly. We had a way to identify him (the Continental Op) and knowing his appearance helped shape the visual narrative.
I’m other words, if a story has physical dimensionality to it, having those options helps deepen our imaginary engagement. Far more than being able to choose the name. (Although I like that too, but I think surnames could be based on where you’re from too)
My WIP-in-progress (there’s so much left that I can’t bring myself to call it a WIP) is intended to be a small game, and so far I only have two appearance-related variables: age and clothing.
Age affects how well you respond to physical challenges (younger MCs do better) and how powerful your magic is (older MCs are stronger), but it also affects how some people react to you. The villain, for instance, is a brash young bandit leader. His inclination is to be flirtatious toward a young MC, respectful toward an old MC, and dismissive toward a middle-aged MC.
Another character is a young boy with important information who will likely be reserved toward a young MC, fearful of an old MC, and open toward a middle-aged MC.
I’ve been trying to think of more clothing options, but basically it comes down to whether the MC is trying to blend in or stand out. A pointy hat, the traditional affectation of conjurers, will provoke a very different reaction than a plain headdress. If our middle-aged MC is wearing a conjurer’s hat, our villain is going to be less dismissive and more wary.
That’s the idea, anyway. I haven’t coded any of this.
Since my game takes place in a setting with extremely little ethnic diversity (a small community at the edge of the world that has been isolated for generations), I’m hesitant to specify things like hair color. So far my appearance choices have been strategic ones.
Naturally, I’m paying close attention to threads like this one.
3 Likes
I like choosing my gender, name, and nickname (if applicable), but I don’t like having too much physical description of the MC. It is often poorly implimented like a series of quiz questions that are not connected by any plot or meaningful text. The choices either result in no change or have to rely on negative elements like racism which most people deal with that enough in the real world. In games or stories that don’t deal with racial issues, I don’t feel that if a character’s race was initially different that the character would be made better or worse.
But, if the player had a chance to opt out of some appearance choices just like some games have with gender choices. That would be acceptable.
@babbleyaggle That’s a good idea implementing age, but the player should also be able to modify their physical stat by how much they workout or how fast their metabolism is despite not working out.
A clothing stat could be good for any game, but it would probably have pretty generic choices because there are a lot of clothing styles.
This reminds me of the Disney Pocahontas movie where she wasn’t wearing as much clothes as an English woman when she and John first met, but John was embarassed when she came to England and was in English underclothes even though it was more clothes than she normally wore. I thought that was silly.
It would be funny to see how a prudish adventurer or PETA reacted to my cheta skin and coconut clad wilderness MC in @phoenixagent003 story.
2 Likes
You’re right as long as there is no physical description of the character. But once you begin to have racial descriptions of non-white characters, but not of white people…race becomes very important. Race becomes prominent then.
Even when doing fantasy races:
Orcs are green
Humans, dwarves are white
Elves are white or Asian.
(Commonly)
3 Likes