What is dragging the game down?

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torunefu wrote:

The lack of character customization can be a major turnoff to some.

You mean to everyone who would spend money on a free-to-play online game...just take a look at Vindictus, there is a reason why characters in games are pretty and young.

Who the hell wants their avatars in any game to be old geezers?

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dust7 wrote:

Are you dissin' the templar, bro?

Sweet Templar, bro. Did you paint that?

I prefer old characters for some roles, sometimes (my character in Skyrim) I also customize my character to look old.
As stated this genre doesnt generally support a million characters because of how the game is seen/played/build/style.
This game isnt Scyrim with a complex character generator designed from a previous game from a renown company.

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Ledrif wrote:

As stated this genre doesnt generally support a million characters because of how the game is seen/played/build/style.

Yes, more the reason why character design should have been in the appropriate direction which would garner more appeal.

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metamag wrote:

Who the hell wants their avatars in any game to be old geezers?

*raises hand*

I love the templar model. Kicking some ass with grandpa, whats not to like? The D3 models look generic and boring. Another set of pretty faces - yawn.

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metamag wrote:

Here is what male mage in Diablo 3 looks like.
(click on the male gender icon)

male wizard looks like crap

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dust7 wrote:

"

metamag wrote:

Who the hell wants their avatars in any game to be old geezers?

*raises hand*

I love the templar model. Kicking some ass with grandpa, whats not to like? The D3 models look generic and boring. Another set of pretty faces - yawn.

Sorry, but all evidence tells us that you are a minority, developers should not use you as a barometer.

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metamag wrote:

"

dust7 wrote:

"

metamag wrote:

Who the hell wants their avatars in any game to be old geezers?

*raises hand*

I love the templar model. Kicking some ass with grandpa, whats not to like? The D3 models look generic and boring. Another set of pretty faces - yawn.

Sorry, but all evidence tells us that you are a minority, developers should not use you as a barometer.

Apparently the devs are part of that minority (which you claim it to be) themselves. :)

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metamag wrote:

Yes, more the reason why character design should have been in the appropriate direction which would garner more appeal.

The devs are appealing to the same type of gamers they are. Some people actually appreciate the lore of the game, which a young, fresh-faced apprentice might not fit into well. The templar is maybe 55-60 years old? It fits his story well, as seen in the templar promo video.

This is the type of game where you play a character through a story. You're not playing an avatar of yourself, or a character you create. Character customization isn't that important, especially since the development cost of adding such features is very expensive. Chris estimated $250,000 just to create a new gender model for each character. Imagine how much more would have to be spent to add facial features, body stature, hair designs, etc.

I love the PoE characters. They look and feel real and believable. Just because a bunch of games (like D3) have dumb anime characters doesn't mean PoE does too. By far the community feedback on the character design has been overwhelmingly positive so if you want to talk about minorities then you should probably start with yourself.