I think the developers in the west have a pretty good grasp of the fact that the lion's share of players want real familiar character races. Thus human/elf/dwarf, etc. It's not what I'd prefer, but it is what it is. Even when they do some twists to the standard tropes (like DA:O's ghetto elves and their wicca wannabe return to nature bretheren), it generally doesn't get appreciated.
This is somewhat seperate from the the difficulty of making character rigs for anything other than your usual bipedal humanoid shape. Expansion from that requires extra work, so many of the choices end up being humans with different kinds of head ridges, etc.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
I think most people today still favor and prefer humanoid type races.. As Lok said in his post that people want to be able to connect with their avatar and that can be hard to do if you are playing a tree , a rock or even a plant.. I do enjoy the tested and tried fantasy races like the Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Elves, Barbarians, etc etc.. I would even be open to new ones similar to the plant like Sylvari, or maybe a rock like humanoid?
I do think playing a frog, a fae, a snake, a spider, a dragon and other NON humanoid creatures is a waste of development time..
The problem I have in many games is the following: -
You get a human (or several human-like) race(s) which have quite a high degree of customization options.
You get a monstrous race where you get a choice between big muscles and big teeth or bigger muscles and bigger teeth.
You get a cute furry race where you get a choice between big eyes and a tail or bigger eyes and a longer tail.
I like many others will choose the human for the ability to customize it. However, if there really were an interesting alternative option that I could make my own I would definately roll it.
I joined MMORPG.com about 3 years ago and I remember one of my first articles was about how MMORPGs lacked race variation. Well, here we are today and not much has changed. I just don't get it. It's not as if the technology isn't there to create unique races. Do devs really think people enjoy playing elves, humans, and whatever loli-girl race is the current rage? Or even worse, are players actually satisfied with the race options in MMORPGs?
Only one MMORPG lets you play as a dragon, http://www.istaria.com/, and Istaria was originally released in 2003! So since 2003 no other company has had the bright idea to allow players to play as dragons instead of the same old, boring races that are pretty much tried out now.
I always thought it would be super cool if there was an MMORPG that was completely based underwater and you played as mermaids and mermen. How cool would that be? Now people are going to say that the technology is simply not there to achieve that, but I just don't buy it. I mean, the technology exists for millions of players to play in a vast open-ended galaxy, with no loading screens but... Underwater combat is just too hard (that is the most common excuse I hear)?! Again, I don't buy it.
I think developers and MMORPG companies are just lazy in the race aspect. They rehash the same ol' races time and time again because it's the "norm." I just hope that someone breaks the mold soon here because I am pretty sick of seeing the same boring races in practically every MMORPG.
What do you guys/gals think? What race would you love to see in an MMORPG?
EQ2 says you don't know what you are talking about but only having three years sums it up.
It always bugs me in MMOs seeing really cool enemy characters and being stuck playing generic humanoids. They quite clearly CAN give us these races as playable characters, they just can't be bothered to change the items to those extents. I mean, most games can't even be bothered to fix clipping issues on humanoids, so...
(And I'm not talking about all the crazy massive bosses etc etc, I'm just talking those really cool looking mob types, those demons and hellspawns, serpent warriors and elementals... you know the ones)
I completely agree. Always orcs, humans, elves.. I wouldnt mind something else. I enjoy the races in GW2 though, the charr are awesome. It would be pretty cool to see a race that isnt bipedal though. Centaur maybe..?
Comments
You are talking about a genre that has gone from the huge amounts of races like EQ and Vanguard to the pitiful excuse of today.
Hell they can't even make multiple human races right without throwing all of them into the white/European pot.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
I think the developers in the west have a pretty good grasp of the fact that the lion's share of players want real familiar character races. Thus human/elf/dwarf, etc. It's not what I'd prefer, but it is what it is. Even when they do some twists to the standard tropes (like DA:O's ghetto elves and their wicca wannabe return to nature bretheren), it generally doesn't get appreciated.
This is somewhat seperate from the the difficulty of making character rigs for anything other than your usual bipedal humanoid shape. Expansion from that requires extra work, so many of the choices end up being humans with different kinds of head ridges, etc.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
I think most people today still favor and prefer humanoid type races.. As Lok said in his post that people want to be able to connect with their avatar and that can be hard to do if you are playing a tree , a rock or even a plant.. I do enjoy the tested and tried fantasy races like the Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Elves, Barbarians, etc etc.. I would even be open to new ones similar to the plant like Sylvari, or maybe a rock like humanoid?
I do think playing a frog, a fae, a snake, a spider, a dragon and other NON humanoid creatures is a waste of development time..
ROTFL
Dwarves and Elves appear in material over a thousand years old.
You waiting for them to out of fashion ? Good luck with that.
The problem I have in many games is the following: -
EQ2 says you don't know what you are talking about but only having three years sums it up.
Ants , wolfs , giant snake , ghoul , robot , dragon , overlord , zerg ... facehugger.
I want hug someone's face badly ;P
How about these gems from Everquest ?
Remember seeing one of these come at me in Dessert Ro I think I ran the other way.
It always bugs me in MMOs seeing really cool enemy characters and being stuck playing generic humanoids. They quite clearly CAN give us these races as playable characters, they just can't be bothered to change the items to those extents. I mean, most games can't even be bothered to fix clipping issues on humanoids, so...
(And I'm not talking about all the crazy massive bosses etc etc, I'm just talking those really cool looking mob types, those demons and hellspawns, serpent warriors and elementals... you know the ones)
Camelot Unchained has quite a varied and different selection of races. There'll also be giant races.