Character Generation on Designing Virtual Worlds

Appearance

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The first two questions that need to be answered for any virtual world are still character name and gender, but increasingly character appearance is becoming important.

In graphical virtual worlds, obviously it’s paramount (although even there it’s not mandatory—Lineage succeeds despite having thousands of characters that all look the same). In textual worlds, a character description is usually optional and can be added or changed at any time; a non-default description can often be thought of as a badge of non-newbiehood. Even some graphical virtual worlds allow players to create textual vignettes for their characters, to enhance role-playing.

Character Generation Methods

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

It seems a simple task: Set the initial values for a fixed number of genders, races, classes, attributes, and skills. What is the best way to do it, though, so that it provides enough dilemmas to make players think about what they’re creating, yet can be completed quickly for those who just want to play?

There are many different ways to do it, a surprising number of which can be offered simultaneously. Let’s go through the main ones.

Random

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The easiest method to create a character is at random. The server ¹ rolls digital dice to determine all values.

This is fast, and it may produce interesting character ideas that the player had not considered, but some characters will be measurably better than others (depending on how the dice fell). A modified version uses a balancing scheme, whereby each attribute, skill, or whatever is allocated a points rating. Random values can then be adjusted upwards and downwards so that the sum total of points is the same for all new characters but their distribution won’t be. This modified system has the advantage that it can be done on the client, with the server merely sanity-checking the results.

Pick Points

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Starting from the modified random position, pick points allow players to tinker with the results. This saves players from re-rolling continuously until they get the result they want. They can reduce some values to gain pick points (equivalent to their rating) and spend them on raising other values. Sometimes, not all the pick points initially available will have been spent by the randomizing process, leaving a pool for players to draw from. This is better, because players don’t feel as if they have to harm their character before they improve it; however, it does mean that a “randomly flesh out” option should be available for players who don’t want to waste time messing around.

Kits

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Character kits are predefined pick point spends optimized by the designers for particular playing styles. For many newbies, going through extensive skills lists without having a clue as to what’s useful and what’s not is very daunting. It’s easier to look down a (shorter?) list of character kits and make just one major decision, and then maybe fine-tune the result.

Character kits have a special significance for classless virtual worlds, because they allow players to create a character that is a “sorcerer,” “ranger,” “merchant,” or whatever, but don’t lock them into it. You can start off as a mendicant priest and end up as chief of the assassins’ guild; the character kit you start with points you in a direction of your choosing, but you don’t have to follow it.

Questionnaires

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Questionnaires offer a different approach to character creation. Players answer a series of (usually) multiple-choice questions, from which a piece of software constructs a customized character. Questions may or may not be focused—that is, later questions may or may not depend on your answers to earlier questions. This can be done independently or tied into a kit system; it’s easy to see how a player-written web-based tool could construct characters from forms even if the developers decided against doing it officially.

Tabula Rasa

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This method creates characters by constructing a backstory for them. Starting as a callow youth with no skills, no quirks, and no unusual attributes (that is, an empty slate, or tabula rasa ¹), the player chooses a profession from a list. This adds some skills and perhaps changes a few attributes. The player is then presented with a second list that omits many of the original choices but offers new ones instead (depending on what the character decided). The process iterates, with new opportunities and specializations presenting themselves. When it stops, not only can a character be created, but a short history, too.

Essay

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

High-powered role-playing virtual worlds turn character creation into an art. Players of games such as EverQuest and Anarchy Online who regard themselves as “role-players” would do well to consider whether they could have written an essay on their character and its background before ever playing, to be submitted for approval to the world’s staff members. That’s what’s required of some MUSHers.

Role-playing virtual worlds work consensually. People who do not buy into the fiction or who are disruptive of it have no place. This makes all players simultaneously guardians and perpetuators of the fiction. To gain admittance, newbies must therefore demonstrate that they both honor the fiction and have an aptitude for role-playing. An essay forces a player to create a fully rounded character, in the process satisfying both these goals. As mentioned in Chapter 1, “Introduction to Virtual Worlds,” some virtual worlds will conduct interviews, too.

Physical Differences

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Elves are taller than dwarfs, but not at tall as humans. Dwarfs are stronger than elves, but elves are more dexterous. Elves and dwarfs can see in the dark, but humans can’t. There are physical differences between character races, which are reflected in their default attribute settings.

Okay, so what about character gender?

Ah. In virtual worlds, the differences are usually purely cosmetic. Male and female characters look different, but apart from that gender X is every bit as good as gender Y and vice versa. There are three main reasons for this:

Long-Term Characters

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Should player characters age? There are some characters in text MUDs that have been played for so long that, were they alive in the real world, they’d be entitled to vote.

For virtual worlds with moderately low persistence, it’s perhaps not an issue. If the world periodically resets, it never ages; it’s not inconsistent to suppose that the characters entering such a timeless world shouldn’t change either.

For greatly persistent worlds, it’s not this easy. EverQuest’s night/day cycle is 90 real minutes in length. That means 3 years of real time is nearly 50 years of virtual time. As the virtual world never formally resets, shouldn’t 3-year-old characters be in late middle age by now? Everyone must sup regularly from a fountain of youth.