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Why does so many people play human in fantasy/sci-fi MMOs?
pingo
Member UncommonPosts: 608
With the exception of elves, why does so many people play humans in Fantasy and sci-fi MMOs?
we are humans in real life, is it not more fun being an unrealistic creature?
according to statistics in world of warcraft, human is the most popular race after night elf, and human was the most popular in starwars galaxies aswell!
Why is this? does some people have so much low selfesteme that they are trying to create an online version of themself? or do people just lack imagination? or are developers bad at making up races in general in MMOs?
what do you think?
Comments
im not trying to be the bad guy here.
I myself am guilty of playing as a human(in swg).
but the cool thing about SWG of course was that the character customization was so deep. you actually could make a character that looked sort of like yourself. that system was incredible.
same with oblivion.. for some reason i also played human there. maybe i need to get to a life or something:S
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
only versus animal.
so... elfs... are they just humonoid rabbits?
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Humans are almost always statistically neutral in games. Never the best never the worst at anything, so when people can't choose a race immediately they often default to humans.
And BTW there are entire fantasy and sci-fi universes taht ONLY have humans, Firefly being one of the most well known. As uncreative as a human is in a game or sci/fantasy universe it seems that other races are even more so. I don't know of a single game where an elf makes a hideously bad archer character or where an ogre is smarter than the average population in the game...they may be alternatives to human but still rather boring and stereotypical.
"I know I said this was my last post, but you my friend are a idiotic moron." -Shadow4482
I couldn't say...I usually never play Human.
2) Dwarves, Gnomes, Hobbits, etc.... aren't "ugly" but they aint exactly hot either... Same as above applies, but to a lesser extent.
3) Humans are generally relatively attractive.
4) Elves are sometimes implemented as VERY attractive and sometimes they fall into the same category as would dwarves, etc. So they can be either. In the balance they're typically better looking than Human versions.
Take it 1 step further:
Human Females are generally not nearly as cute as Elven females
So Elves are typically very common, slightly more than Humans, if not equal to them. Dwarves, hobbits, half elves, etc... are typically slightly less common. While the 'ugly' races are the most uncommon, the uglier the rarer except in the cases of novelty races like lizard people, etc, which eventually drop in population once the novelty runs out.
That's just my opinion. But its based on over a decade of playing MMO's/MUDS
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I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
in a fanasty setting, my first choice is usually some type of dwarf healer if all other things are equal- stats skills etc.
in sci-fi, I'll usually go with an alien of some type- in SWG for example I had a trandoshan, mon cal, and a sullestan (sp?)
I've never really played the races that would make the super ugly list, except trando I suppose. But that is usually for other reasons- I tend to play a 'good' faction type if the decision is mine alone (not up to a guild etc) and most of those characters are considered 'evil' so blame the devs on that one. Second, those races tend to make poor healer types if they can even be them at all, once again blame the devs.
so yah, game developers are forcing me to be shallow I guess heh.
I'm one of those freaks that loves the uglies. I love ogres and trolls and orcs. I have played less ugly races too (sometimes I go in for the shorties, and I am a sucker for anything with wings...), but I hardly ever play humans. I dunno... Humans are just so normal, and I am not much for following the herd.
I reserved names for both the EQ progression servers with humans. (I'll most likely be cross-dressing as a male enchanter on The Sleeper, for anyone who wants to avoid me.
...) So why did I go human this time? Well, humans are a little less fragile than some of the other races that can be casters, and while they do have lower INT to start, I know that I can *eventually* make that up in gear, if I can manage to survive and plow through the early stages. Plus, I am really familiar with the starting areas for humans, and know where to go at what levels in those areas. So, it was pretty much gameplay, rather than a desire to be a human specifically. Well, that, and my husband wanted to be a human chick. /shrug.
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This is where I draw the line: __________________.
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Erkennst du mich
Ganz tief in meinem Herz
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doch ich find es nicht
I, myself, have usually gone for the smaller race selection (ie. Bothan in SWG, Dwarfs in DAoC and WoW).
One of the main reasons that people were human's in Star Wars Galaxies was because of the racial penalties given to other races when trying to purchase faction and faction perks. And since SWG only allowed one character per server on each account most went with that. The other reason would be if you were a Role Player and wanted to be part of the Empire (Empire didn't like other races outside of human within their ranks, it was very rare.) I would probably say the next most popular class was Zabrak due to Episode I and everyone wanting to be a Jedi.
As for why people choose human, it's probably most likely because humans have the most basic "balanced" stats. They aren't necessarily the best at anything in game, but they don't really have any weaknesses like other classes do. (At least in complex games. WoW doesn't count.)
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that is the reason... same reason in WoW alliance outnumbers horde.
*cough*night elf females*cough*
I seem to have a thing for blue-skinned characters. That's why I love Ryzom's Zora
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In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on August 13, 2008.
In SWG I was a Rodian.
In WoW I was a Tauren.
In FFXI I was a Galka.
In EQ2 I was an Ogre.
That's just a few of the games that are well-known. I've just always seemingly had a knack for playing the anti-generic human role.
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
*cough*night elf females*cough*
Troll females are the best, their but moves just a little as they run, and their arms don't flail around while doing so. They look like they actually kick ass too instead of fairie dancing while fighting. Trolls are ugly as spellcasters though o.O
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it.
Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro
if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end