As versatile and deep as the series is, it wasn’t until Skyrim that The Elder Scrolls started generating somewhat attractive player characters. Looks like they’ve nailed attractive character creation for The Elder Scrolls Online.
The Elder Scrolls characters really have come a long way. Here’s character creation from 2002’s The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, released in 2006, was a huge improvement, but the characters in general looked a bit frumpy.
2011’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim generated pretty humanoid classes, but the non-humans weren’t quite right.
And now we’ve come to The Elder Scrolls Online, perfecting the look of both humanoids and non-human races.
Players can adjust height and weight, markings, hairstyles and then go in deep, micro-managing specific traits until you’ve got the perfect avatar.
The result is not just gorgeous characters, but characters in all shapes and sizes, believably rendered in a living and breathing world. How good is The Elder Scrolls Online‘s character creation? As Evan Narcisse pointed out to me…
…so good it can render an afro that’s not only believable, but beautiful.
Character creation in a single-player game is one thing — you can be a little homely, and it doesn’t really matter. In a massively multiplayer online game, where you’ll be mingling with thousands of other players, a focus on creating compelling characters is one of the keys to success. I’d say Bethesda has that aspect in the bag.
Character Creation In Action [The Elder Scrolls Online]
Comments
14 responses to “How We’ll Create The Prettiest Elder Scrolls Characters Ever”
Now modders, take this and dump it into Skyrim.
I kid, but it may be possible. Is this still running on that Gamebryo zombie of Bethesda’s ‘creation’?
I remember reading they went the ‘all new’ route for ESO?
From what I understand Zenimax is using a custom engine based loosely off the Hero Engine (used in Star Wars: The Old Republic). We hopefully wont see the instability of previous Elder Scrolls games.
Edit: Found a source that says they licensed the engine, but is vague as to whether they’re actually using it in the final game. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/05/25/why-the-elder-scrolls-online-isn-39-t-using-heroengine.aspx
Nice to see an MMO that’s offering a robust character creator. It’s something a lot of MMOs don’t seem to focus too much time on.
On reading this article I was reminded this is happening soon. I’ve never really enjoyed an MMO before, but I just went and woke up my fiance to warn her that she should play it with me when it comes out, because I doubt she’ll be seeing much of me once it’s out
They needs Beards massive awesome glorious beards…. How can we have a wizard without a massive beard. I love character creation above pretty much n e thing, the first franchise that gives me beards of dwarven quality will have a fan for life.
‘Skyrim generated pretty humanoid classes, but the non-humans weren’t quite right.’
Um.. what? I can’t be the only one who quite liked how both the Khajiit and Argonians looked, right?
Agreed, look pretty normal to me.
OMG, look at that big, juicy WOW killer on that!
IMO Skyrim looks better. It looks more sort of gritty and realistic and less cartoony than TESO.
Also on another note, why do the Khajiit and Argonians have underwear? One race is lizard, I don’t imagine a Lizard race often having their junk swinging in the breeze or having noticeable nipples. And the other, a beast race covered in fur (to hide the junk). Would this be those Head Honchos going “Um we need a PG13 on this and well you know, lizards and lions need their junk covered, but would love to see some heads come off in combat, can that be done?”
I don’t know if it’s just a poor language choice, but it sounds a lot like Mike is saying that he only wants attractive characters in his games…
I don’t know if it’s poor language choice, but it sounds a lot like you just confused wanting attractive character options with wanting ONLY attractive characters.
About time. I expect my fantasy escapes to allow me to look at least as pretty as I do in real life, or better. Unfortunately, that sets the bar much higher than many games can meet. 😉