Poll: When a game lets you create your own protagonist...

[Juste Goose]

Lots of games let you customize the main character. When that happens, what do you do?

I usually make myself, more or less. (Except virtual me has flawless skin and huge muscles, but that's the game devs fault, not mine.) Since I have a good, evil, and neutral save file on Fallout 3, I make myself normally for good, with a different haircut for neutral, and with a dastardly mustache for evil. Did something similar to that in NV with one for each faction.

How about you?

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

I've never tried to recreate myself. Kinda defeats the purpose of role playing if you play as yourself. I always go for a character that I found nice looking, or as much as the game allows.

 

[FinalDream]

I always create an original character, one that fits the world, and I will always choose the female gender and have red hair. Not sure how that started but it's just something I do in every game!

 

[SoranMBane]

I usually create an original character with their own personality, motivations, and backstory to roleplay as, though I will occasionally try to recreate an established character from another work. I pretty much never roleplay as myself, although the first character I create in any given RPG will usually have the same morals as me.

 

[Orobas]

For my first playthrough I make an original character who I try to work into what I understand of the game's universe, without any specific recurring features. For a second playthrough I might make a ridiculous joke character but I rarely actually finish those playthroughs.

 

[RJ 17]

I usually make a female character because I find female heroes to be much more appealing character-wise. They're usually red-heads because red is my favorite color of hair on a girl. :3

Beyond that, the details depend on whatever game I'm playing. I don't have a standard template that I try to fit beyond "red-headed female", so the features I tend to just mess around with until I settle on something that I like for the character (and in terms of TES games, race).

 

[MarsProbe]

I always try to make something up that looks nothing like me. It may not be the kind of game you're thinking of (or maybe it is?) but for example, in Rock Band, my band member was a blue-skinned woman with glasses and the daftest hair and clothes combo the game had to offer. It still stands as one of my finest creations to this day, I think .

But yeh, I just tend to go with what I thunk looks the coolest out of whats available. The only time I've made an avatar look somewhat like me is with the 360 avatar, as much as you can given their cartoonish appearance. So basically, we more or less have the same haircut. When making a character, especially if it's a female (eg FemShep) I tend to go with black hair.

 

[jehk]

For my first playthrough I make an original character who I try to work into what I understand of the game's universe, without any specific recurring features. For a second playthrough I might make a ridiculous joke character but I rarely actually finish those playthroughs.

This is pretty much what I do all the time. My goal is to make a character that feels like they would belong in the game's world.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I make new characters all the time for my stories, so coming up with a unique character usually doesn't take me very long. I will often play around with the character editor for perhaps longer than is healthy to make absolutely sure that they look as unique and cohesive as possible, since in many cases there's no going back when you realize that armour and skin colour doesn't mesh the way you want. The only real rule I have is avoiding brown hair on males, since I've had to live with it for 26 years now and find it a bit boring.

My favourite character editor to just dick around with was actually in the late City of Heroes, which introduced new costume features with just about every 'issue' despite already having a more detailed editor than most.

 

[DanielBrown]

In single player games I go with someone who looks as closely to me as possible. Usually works well with body shape(tall with muscular build), but when it comes to hair it's few games that hold my back. Got waist-long, thick hair. Usually the best I can do is just past the neck in length, but those hair styles tend to look really... feminine.

As for MMOs with different races and such I tend to go for dwarves. They're not tall, but at least they got awesome beards!
Anything shorter than dwarf is off limits though. As are female characters and elves.

 

[the December King]

Depends entirely on the type of game.

In a fantasy setting, I make monsters. As inhuman as possible.

But in a game with a modern flair, like Saints Row 2, I make dumpy old me, and bift myself off of roofs and laugh like an idiot.

Wasn't as fun in Saint's Row 3, because it looked like 'body builder hunk' version of me... which is not nearly as funny.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

I make a good looking, original character which fits the game's setting, usually female but as far as gender is concerned I always pick whichever has better voiceover.

 

[evilengine]

Either myself or something original. Often I'll make myself just to see if I can, more often then not it's not very accurate, my hair is too long for Fallout to really capture perfectly for example. I'm not sure why I make characters like me though, when I think of a highly skilled, acrobatic adventurer my first thought isn't myself in the role, I hardly leave the house, only to go for a short walk or to the nearest game/film establishment/

 

[Grayjack]

I usually model the hair and eyes to something akin to mine, and just go from there.


Sometimes I make an eight-foot tall albino woman who lets her fists do the talking, though.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Depends I mean if I find that its a crappy editor aka Skyrim or Mass Effect, Demons Souls etc I dont care I just pick a default character or make the stupidest character I can. If I find that its a pretty good one I either make an original character I am happy with or try and make a replica of a famous character for example in Soul Calibur V I had great fun making fighters from other games in it even though the editor wasnt that amazing it was good enough to make some characters quite successfully.

As for non cosmetic customisation I usually just choose what appeals to me.

 

[DarthSka]

I don't see the point of creating myself, plus it doesn't seem that character creation games can really make one that looks like me. I always go to make an original character, without a real gender preference. For Skyrim I went with a guy while Mass Effect was split down the middle with both Malesheps and Femsheps. Just recently, I made a badass Latina with both a healthy weight and some muscles to lay down the law in Saints Row IV.

 

[Tahaneira]

I rarely try to play myself. Where's the fun and challenge in that?

The only real way I play someone similar to myself is that my main character will always be male. Sure, I'll play a female character without qualm, but if the series has any sort of continuity, male my protagonist will be. Other than that? Usually a good guy, somewhat sarcastic, but relentlessly, offensively, cheerfully optimistic, to the point of irritating my party members if at all possible. After that baseline is set, I develop them based on their history (lack of one) and the universe they reside in.

Maybe it's my actor's training, but to my mind, what's the point of having a role if it's just going to be self-insert?

 

[Voulan]

I've never created myself. Partly because its a somewhat depressing exercise if you're not exactly high in self-esteem, but also because I like role playing as entirely different people.

Always women, though.

 

[Simple Bluff]

It depends. If non-human (or non "human-like" races such as elves or whatever) races are available, I'll always go with that and create an original character. If you can only be a human or human-like, I'll make an approximation of myself. It's not too difficult, I've a pretty generic face that's usually covered in the presets.

...with the exception of DA2. I don't know why, but Hawke has to be female (and a mage), or it'll feel weird to me. For whatever reason, it's the only game where I feel compelled to play a woman.

 

[Generic4me]

I always make a pretty boring, average height/weight 20-year old guy or girl. Anything else feels weird to play as, and I usually hate them by midgame.

In RPGs, my first character must be a human swordfighter/knight/melee person. I'm boring like that.