I mean what kind of fantasy world is it when you cant make a rolly polly jolly fat guy?

Even Aion which is well known for its high level of character customization allows ugly toons but not actually fat ones

How sad, my brother always tries to make a character exactly like himself and hes overweight so its usually not possible.

Are game developers biased against the overweight people?
Many actual game players are overweight, why can we not make our digital representation accurate?

Give us the option to roleplay a heavy toon.

Isn’t Syp sort of making the same argument, just reversing it? I think he’s getting annoyed by all the “picture perfect” avatars out there, just as you may be annoyed if you came across a hideous-looking avatar.

Anyways, that wasn’t the comment I was really looking to make, but it might support it. I think both beautiful and hideous avatars are one and the same – they’re both just extreme exaggerations. And that’s what most of us want to play, probably because most of us are very “plain” or “vanilla” looking kind of people (i.e. not fat but not skinny, not hot but not ugly, not scarred but not blemish free, etc.).

That’s what I personally think is missing from a lot of character creation tools in the games (MMOs or not) that I’ve played – the ability to make an avatar that just “blends in” like a normal person. Maybe if they ever make a World of Darkness MMO I’ll have that option…

I have seen some horrors during the last beta weekend and openly guffawed at some of them to the alarm and eventual awkwardness of the missus.

The more you are allowed / empowered to make your toon as hideous as you want, the more you are able to do so solely for the purpose of irritating or disturbing other players. So I guess i’m kind of a fascist on this one, as I am on naming policies. The gameplay experience for all is improved by limiting the options people have to irritate others.

I made a Dwarf priest with the worst facial expression I could find, who was bald on top with a back-length pony tail. He ended becoming known as the “trailer park dwarf” by my group of friends he was so ugly.

I love ugly characters.

In WoW, my main is an older night elf druid. I picture her as very muscular and athletic, with sharp angular features, no “assets” worth mentioning and a haircut of the “if it grows beyong chin-length, saw it off with a knife” style. She’s a predator and nature’s protector, probably has an assortment of non-decorative scars to show for it. She’s no-nonsense and has no time for frills. She would not be remotely attractive by the general human standards, and probably not even handsome by the standards of her own people.

Sadly, most of the actual female night elf faces are what I call “babyfaces” — cute and round and soft and pouty and underage. Totally unsuitable for the race IMO, but it goes hand in hand with Blizzard turning the savage, spiritual, ancient Kaldorei into pinups with inane babyteen groupie animations. A few faces look more stylish for the race, but still too young. There is only one more severe and older face. I’m actually quite satisfied with it, but I wish there were more choices for “average”, “older” or “harsher” looking characters.

When such options exist they tend to look as over-the-top as the super-pretty ones, only in a constipated, perma-angry way.

WoW could really do with more customization, including height and body type, so it’d actually possible to play a physically powerful female and a slim, non-steroid-powered male.

So I think that’s part of it. We are playing heroes in these games (or anti-heroes), not ordinary people. Each of our characters is abnormally powerful in some respect (strength, magical talent, sneaking) and so finely proportioned avatars are the easiest way to visually represent that strength.

Granted, particularly when it comes to strengths beyond physical prowess, this idea isn’t very realistic. In the real world great minds and great bodies are totally disassociated from each other.

And as Brian Green says, the other aspect is financial. In those games were you can make really ugly avatars, not many people do. So does it makes sense for the devs to devote time and money to coding options that only a tiny percentage of players can use?

I do agree that in Warhammer you could very well make a character that suits your definition of ugly (I don’t want to say disfigured) and still doesn’t look “not well done by designers”.

Overall, yes I agree – but especially WoW is a bit “friendly, cheerful elves and no real victims of war with scars” – which is a bit sad

Some people have said that the Horde races in WoW were pretty “ugly” and therefore less popular. Not sure I buy into that exactly, but I will admit I surprised myself how many times I assumed a blood elf was an alliance race just from body shape alone.

Ultimately, it comes down to a business decision. Are people going too be happier, play longer, and refer their friends to the game if they can make “ugly” characters? Probably not. But, there is the chance that an ugly character screenshot might turn someone off a game. So, most developers aren’t going to put ugly characters in the game just to satisfy a minority; it just makes very little business sense.