My favourite still has to be that of CoH/CoV. They deserve a pat on the back for their creator being the best around for years and still being better than almost all and very comparable to the best ones of recent times.
APB is definitely the best of the best. It's almost it's own metagame and was certainly the lone, scintillating aspect of an otherwise awful game.
Following that, City of Villains/Heroes. The number of hours I spent in that game creating characters is embarrassing.
EDIT:
Answering the second part of the OP question, SWTOR won't hold a candle to APB. Nothing does. And I doubt it will be as deep as CoV either, but that's a judgment based on knowing nothing of SWTOR's creator, an intimite knowledge of CoV's and a not remembering spending a whole lot of time in any BW character creator.
swtor is going to be standard for an mmo pick your race , then your face now some hair.
and coh was the same they just gave you more options because they did not have gear based cosmetics.
There are supposed to be a lot of settings for accesories and stuff as well. And, best of all: body type choices. At least you can opt to be a fat bounty hunter which is pretty cool. Old screen from more than a year ago but you get my drift:
From the video on the first page, 4 body types, 10+ head types, 10+ hairstyles, 15+ accessories, and a few other tweaks in there. Im gonna say its not gonna be a game braking experience like you see from APB, or even EvE on lines new character models. where you can adjust about every single angle of your body. Looks like cut outs so your gonna have something in between WoW character generator and CoH.
Favourite character creator: City of Heroes. Best character creator in a video game ever.
Will TOR stand up: No, not even close. But that isn't saying much since pretty much NO MMO stands up to CoH's character creator.
In my opinion character creators run from the simple and unoriginal where every character looks the same (WoW) to the complex and varied where no character looks the same (CoH.) From what I understand TOR will be somewhere above WoW (around EQII levels I think,) but still far below CoH.
Best CC's in a game, would have to go with Eve, and APB... but i'd also include SWG too.. CoH was also pretty amazing, i don't see SW;TOR's CC being as good as those, but that doesnt mean its going to be all that bad.. the graphics are stylised after all, which probably means it will be closer to WoW (but hopefully a lot better than.... WoW's CC really does give the impression of 'clone wars' ) again.. CC isnt Biowares Forte so im not expecting them to reinvent the wheel there - and if CC made or broke a game, WoW would be in serious trouble
Now that SW:ToR has been out for awhile and there are new games, anybody care to share some new thoughts?
I'm still going with CoX and Champions Online, and I must say character creation means a lot to me. There's a large "apples to oranges" effect on this question, though. Fantasy games and Sci-Fi games with existing history like Star Wars and Star Trek are going to be somewhat limited. CoX had some drawbacks due to the technology and all. Wildstar has a pretty good character creator, but its backstory of conflict between two main factions with a certain set of races puts a limit on it. DCU online is pretty good, but doesn't have the range of CO. CO has options CoX didn't have, but the overall look has a cartoon, unreal, sort of "fake" aspect to it that sort of loses my interest somehow. It would be fantastic to have a sci-fi game with the open-endedness and persistent changes of No Man's Sky (without everybody being so spread out), the lively, gorgeous character graphics and animation of Wildstar, and the great range of character selection and variation of CoX and Champions.
For me, the best aesthetic character creation thus far has been in the Elder Scrolls Online. Personally, I find it extremely important that developers show that they're acutely aware of the social and gendered power that comes with defining bodies - imaginary in whichever manner. Even though I never agreed with ESO as an MMO, big props and my hat off as well for allowing rough female types and an uncommon body shape variation somewhat regardless of gender - even if within "racial" (the word gives me shivers, I think it ought to be "specist") limitations. To be clear: It's not acceptable to allow chubby males, yet not chubby females, hairy males, yet not hairy females, or to promote badass delinquent male types, and force female diversity on the fairy--mommy--somethingsuch dimension. Hell, even artificially upholding the dichotomy is pretty lame and unnecessary.
When you've already programmed and visualised all the graphic extremes, let people define themselves.
Fantasy character creation dictated by the normative beauty catalogue is often defended as allowing people to be something "more" than what they are in real life. Fair enough, that should be an option. Yet, I pretty firmly believe that fantasy is more than that, and developers have the option of recognising it as that more. They can, if they wish, give people's imaginations of themselves a less incarcerated affirmation - the power to show a deeper beauty in the unlikely.
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
Comments
My favourite still has to be that of CoH/CoV. They deserve a pat on the back for their creator being the best around for years and still being better than almost all and very comparable to the best ones of recent times.
APB is definitely the best of the best. It's almost it's own metagame and was certainly the lone, scintillating aspect of an otherwise awful game.
Following that, City of Villains/Heroes. The number of hours I spent in that game creating characters is embarrassing.
EDIT:
Answering the second part of the OP question, SWTOR won't hold a candle to APB. Nothing does. And I doubt it will be as deep as CoV either, but that's a judgment based on knowing nothing of SWTOR's creator, an intimite knowledge of CoV's and a not remembering spending a whole lot of time in any BW character creator.
There are supposed to be a lot of settings for accesories and stuff as well. And, best of all: body type choices. At least you can opt to be a fat bounty hunter which is pretty cool. Old screen from more than a year ago but you get my drift:
"I'm not fat! I'm just big-boned ..."
My brand new bloggity blog.
From the video on the first page, 4 body types, 10+ head types, 10+ hairstyles, 15+ accessories, and a few other tweaks in there. Im gonna say its not gonna be a game braking experience like you see from APB, or even EvE on lines new character models. where you can adjust about every single angle of your body. Looks like cut outs so your gonna have something in between WoW character generator and CoH.
CO x 1000. That creator is just awesome!
No. I don't think the TOR creator will be anywhere close to it.... but I certainly hope it improves by launch.
Don't forget a link if you can find one folks. Let people see what you are talking about. So far we have:
Star Wars - SW:ToR Character generation
CoH - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx59YD3yJK8
Eve - http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eve+online+character+creator&aq=f
APBAAPB - http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/insane-apb-character-customization/319854
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
CoH
CoV
CO
I think bar none that Cryptic makes the best character creation system.
ToR's system is very similar to a game that has something like 11 million subscribers and has a fantasy theme.
Sic Luceat Lux
Person who puts the video up remarks the CC from swtor is old so the one from swtor is probably not going to be the one we will see at launch.
The closest we got for right now is this from the pax shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afhoIRZf_7U&NR=1
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0pd3I8pUws&feature=related
But those only show the character selection screen, not the creation part. I'm still digging.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Favourite character creator: City of Heroes. Best character creator in a video game ever.
Will TOR stand up: No, not even close. But that isn't saying much since pretty much NO MMO stands up to CoH's character creator.
In my opinion character creators run from the simple and unoriginal where every character looks the same (WoW) to the complex and varied where no character looks the same (CoH.) From what I understand TOR will be somewhere above WoW (around EQII levels I think,) but still far below CoH.
Best CC's in a game, would have to go with Eve, and APB... but i'd also include SWG too.. CoH was also pretty amazing, i don't see SW;TOR's CC being as good as those, but that doesnt mean its going to be all that bad.. the graphics are stylised after all, which probably means it will be closer to WoW (but hopefully a lot better than.... WoW's CC really does give the impression of 'clone wars' ) again.. CC isnt Biowares Forte so im not expecting them to reinvent the wheel there - and if CC made or broke a game, WoW would be in serious trouble
I'm still going with CoX and Champions Online, and I must say character creation means a lot to me. There's a large "apples to oranges" effect on this question, though. Fantasy games and Sci-Fi games with existing history like Star Wars and Star Trek are going to be somewhat limited. CoX had some drawbacks due to the technology and all. Wildstar has a pretty good character creator, but its backstory of conflict between two main factions with a certain set of races puts a limit on it. DCU online is pretty good, but doesn't have the range of CO. CO has options CoX didn't have, but the overall look has a cartoon, unreal, sort of "fake" aspect to it that sort of loses my interest somehow. It would be fantastic to have a sci-fi game with the open-endedness and persistent changes of No Man's Sky (without everybody being so spread out), the lively, gorgeous character graphics and animation of Wildstar, and the great range of character selection and variation of CoX and Champions.
When you've already programmed and visualised all the graphic extremes, let people define themselves.
Fantasy character creation dictated by the normative beauty catalogue is often defended as allowing people to be something "more" than what they are in real life. Fair enough, that should be an option. Yet, I pretty firmly believe that fantasy is more than that, and developers have the option of recognising it as that more. They can, if they wish, give people's imaginations of themselves a less incarcerated affirmation - the power to show a deeper beauty in the unlikely.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"