Character creation menus will be the death of me. I love pouring my soul (and my time) into crafting the best-looking cat mage in Skyrim. Or a Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. Or a Jew in South Park: The Stick of Truth. The more complicated the interface and range of options is, the better.
In other words, this new trailer for The Sims 4 that details all the ins and outs of its character creation system is pretty much my dream come true:
Impressive, right? But when it comes to character creators, is it possible to go too far?
I for one couldn’t watch this without thinking about the hours of my life that will soon be spent gradually sliding a nose-length meter back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…
At some point, I’ll have to overcome my obsessive tendencies just so I can actually play the game.
Too much of a good thing? Maybe. But I certainly hope not, because I don’t think I’m going to be able to hold myself back once The Sims 4 finally comes out.
Comments
9 responses to “The Sims 4 Is Going To Be Dangerous For Me”
lol, eventually it’ll just be like zbrush or somthing…
I have this problem. I spent over an hour on the character creator for Skyrim before I played only to change my mind and start over.
I need character creation rehab manz.
I think this is where all character creators need to go. We can put so much detail into created characters that it results in a UI that’s just 500 sliders organised into rough categories with vague labels (ie, nose bridge upper slope). Being able to go hands on Spore style really frees you up to just go and make a nose. Break it into things like bone structure, skin, muscle/fat, hair density/length, etc then let the player sculpt a human out. If you can get that right I think it’s only a small step away from being able to grow/cut a characters hair rather than choosing from just a preset range. When that sort of detail starts working it’s way into most MMOs it’ll be fantastic.
The hair thing is definitely needed. Hair choices always seem very limited. Customizing hair the way you can customize other body parts in this trailer is something that is needed.
It always feels like it undoes all the effort that goes into the rest of the MMO character creation when the most prominent parts are just chosen from a short list of styles and recoloured. Beards drive me nuts too. At best it’s two beards, a goatee, clean shaven and stubble. Maybe they’ll pad it out with some joke styles. Let me grow my character like a chia pet and work backwards from there. =P
Hopefully between Sims 4 and that Korean MMO Black Desert the message starts getting across that as long as you build a good UI around it you can go to insane depths with character detail.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/04/meet-the-worlds-coolest-character-creation-system/
when are they going to announce that you have to be online to play the game and that all features shown in the trailer will be released as DLC 2-5 years down the road?
At this point, EA doesn’t even have to say it, it’s just common knowledge. It is like having a warning at the start of ‘Sex Wars’ that says, ‘contains sexual intercourse’. Except with EA there will be more people getting screwed.
And where can I get this game, Sex Wars?
Actually, I made it up. I was angling for one of those non-interactive forms of media. What were they called again? I hardly remember.