My friend was shocked to hear I spent about 10 seconds in the character creator in BG3 and exactly 0 seconds concerned with dying my armor to match whatever theme.
I just don’t see the appeal, it’s not like I see the character’s face all the time, and I’m constantly swapping armor around for different situations.
I’d rather be playing the game than spending ages on making my character look a certain way just to never actually see them in game for more than a split second on screen during conversations.
A game like Elden Ring I could get, but the player character gets a lot of facetime in Baldur’s Gate 3. Conversations/interactive cutscenes are a main pillar of that game.
Even if you wear a full helmet, of which there are relatively few compared to open face helmets, hats, circlets, etc., a lot of cutscenes still take place at camp or in other situations where your character takes off their armor and switches to casual clothing anyways.
And on top of that the game includes toggles to turn off headwear in cutscenes or always, which gives the character 100% facetime be they wearing a helmet or no. That’s more than what I’d call “split second” at least.
I recall seeing NPC faces a lot more in game than I saw my own PCs face, even with helmets hidden, but it’s very likely that is just confirmation bias on my part, since I invested nothing into the PC appearance, so nothing stuck.
But that doesn’t discount your point, and of all the games I could have named, BG3 is probably the worst example.
It is confirmation bias. Every interaction with a companion includes close ups on the face.
I’d rather be playing the game
You realize that character creation and stuff like armor dying are part of the game, right? Maybe those aspects aren’t important to you, and fair enough, but someone who spends loads of time engaging with that side of the game is still playing the game.
I’d actually argue that someone who engages with those systems fully, as well as the rest of the game, actually plays more of the game than someone who doesn’t.
That’s a fair point, someone took the time to code those aspects of the game, and if it adds to your enjoyment and engagement with the game, more power to you, it’s just not for me.
Thanks for replying, it does give some context to why my friend enjoys those parts of the game.
That’s why mods exist. And some games have a setting to hide helmets.
Video games are a fantasy and I want my character to look a certain way, fuck me right?
They’re being downvoted for being rude to someone just for expressing a desire to hide helmets in games.
The worst one I’ve experienced is EVE Online. They had such an extensive character creation system, and I spent ages posting for the player icon, only to be staring at tables and icons.
The sky box (space box?) is pretty though.
It’s… Eve Online. Even I know what the gameplay entails, and I’ve never played it. What did you think you were getting into!?
I kinda went in to it sorta blind. At the time there was development on features that lets you walk around space stations. Also I just kinda got lost in the process and got way too in to it for some reason lol
Haha, totally fair! Eve Online is just kind of famous for being a “spreadsheet simulator”. I’m sure that’s at least partly unfair but again, never played it!
I heard of it, never dig into it, I have no idea what it does except it had something to do with space and its a MMORPG
It’s a open sandbox where there are a lot of “careers” or playstyles you can pick from. The most popular one would be joining a player corporation (guild) and fight against other corps for territory. There are miners who mine astroids for resources and sell it for money. Others use said raw materials and set up factories to refine it into different products. You can be a space trucker and haul them, or you can even be a space pirate and attack and loot said truckers. Of course there are more traditional dungeon raid esque PvE with your corp.
The (in)famous thing about EVE is that it’s a space spreadsheet simulator. (It’s not completely unfounded as there’s an official EVE Online add on for Excel, but unless you’re doing space business you don’t really need it. I never did). The learning curve is also pretty steep. But it’s pretty fun, and the harshness of space does create some great space friends. As they always say, the best ship in EVE is Friendship.
I’d like to have the random appearance generator still generate reasonably realistic faces haha. Maybe a toggle box that just says, “Send it” if you don’t!
The NPCs won’t know, but I will, and that matters.
