Shave and a haircut, two bits!...er...gold?
by Dan Crislip 
May 5th 2007 at 3:00PM
While I know that this subject has been touched on before, one can only hope that someday Blizzard implements a feature to change the appearance of your character. Many players have already voiced their opinions over the years, but it seems the cause has been reinforced yet again.
Cyn from the Lethon realm has caused a resurgence in this movement. His efforts include digging up more than 40 previous petition posts, many of which already have hundreds of signatures as well. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg for the outstanding demand of this feature, as his post already has 300 signatures as well.
The idea stands that people want to be able to change their facial expression, hair style, hair color, facial hair, and skin tone without having to reroll their character. Essentially, players want to have a tool in-game that performs like the character creation tool, but that doesn't require you to start over at level one, as it stands now.
There seems to be a real demand for this, and its a shame that Blizzard hasn't implemented or at least given a "coming in future patches" notice to all the fans requesting it. I for one wouldn't mind forking over the equivalent cost of a respec to fix my level 70's ugly mugs into something a tad more appealing, or more complimenting to the current gearset that I have equipped. I mean, hey, the neon pink and green gnome-fro's just don't always go with the orange-red Spellstrike Garb.
Does anyone else have a bad-haircut story to share? What do you think about this potential feature or lack thereof?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ariel May 5th 2007 3:05PM
If they did this, they'd have to change that one female BE joke that goes something like, "You mean I'm STUCK with this haircolor?" ;) But I agree, I would love to see this feature.
Lynxplus May 5th 2007 3:32PM
This is rtard, what game is this City of Heroes? I strongly disagree with being able to change you physical apperance after reroll. It takes something out of the game...
John May 5th 2007 3:34PM
again i'll say, i'd rather they focus on new exciting content to keep the game fresh, rather than spend their time and our money so i can make my orc darker green or have a longer beard.
Hellspawn May 5th 2007 4:24PM
I think you should be able to change the hair, not the rest of the features, you cant change your physical body (well you can but to an extent) but hair color, and style for sure, they should have a barber in each of the major cities to implment this VERY easily into the game.
Thallid May 5th 2007 4:25PM
@2. I'd assumed that you never changed your hair or facial hair in your entire lifetime, right?
@3. I would assume people think that getting at least their hair done would be a way to keep the game fresh.
Anyways, not only would implementing such features would become a neat addition, it would also help the economy as a possible gold sink. (Perhaps you would be charged 20-40 gold per hair change, for example.)
Lynxplus May 5th 2007 4:38PM
@#5 Ya like we need more stuff to spend gold on... I do change my appearance but this is WoW not RL. I don't like the idea for 2 reasons - 1 as i said it reminded me of CoH, 2 - I get use to how certain people appear and think it would be r tard to have everyone be able to change how they look when thwey want. Also the gear makes this even more silly if you really want to look different get some new gear...
rufwork May 5th 2007 5:04PM
@5: "Anyways, not only would implementing such features would become a neat addition, it would also help the economy as a possible gold sink. (Perhaps you would be charged 20-40 gold per hair change, for example.)"
This is what happened in Ultima Online -- hair dyes became both rewards (iirc; were there new colors that you could get only through dyes as well?) and good gold sinks.
WoW doesn't even try to simulate an economy as UO at least initially tried to do (too many newbie items flooded the market; duh). Not sure, what with everything else having a price on its head, they either need or would be against (yes, those are at crosspurposes!) another. Sounds like an idea whose time has come to me.
But though I can see a barber shop in IF or SW, where would it go in Darn? Guess it's be a salon there, eh?
Savok May 5th 2007 7:44PM
I can't see why Blizz aren't loving this idea, I mean, it's another gold sink. Blizzard love gold sinks.
Daveti May 5th 2007 8:33PM
I think the hair color would be interesting but I've heard the idea of tattoos proposed as well, and franky I like the idea of a little visual customization. Oh and one more thing...
@2 No, this isn't CoH... That's why everyone looks the same. WoW has won award after award for their gameplay, graphics, etc. CoH has won awards for their character creation engine. So if Blizz wanted to put a little more into that aspect of the game, why wouldn't they turn to those who are already successful and noted in that aspect for inspiration? This is the one thing I hate about WoW and its subscribers. Alliance vs. Horde, WoW vs. EQ/CoH/Everyone else... Everyone has to fight everyone... It's a game, jeez.
Lynxplus May 6th 2007 12:54AM
@9 because loot is what makes you look different not you're smile or hair color. The CoH I'm comparing it to is the old one the one that first came out, not CoV etc... In that game there was no need for loot becasue you could at almost anytime edit you character and special effects thus disregarding the need for loot for visual effect. On the other side you have WoW where the loot is a visial aspect of the game. If you don;t want someone seeing that stupid hair color you picked go grind a green or blue that you like visually if thats what ur after. If you want to customize your character go play Sims, or second life. As what i want Blizz to focus on its creating some new content and fixing the old.
cheesebanana May 6th 2007 1:57AM
Oh come on.
Surnames and haircuts.
We need em.
They're two small things that definitely dont hurt the roleplaying/fantasy integrity of the game and add a little bit of extra fun to it.
But they would have to bump up the price each time for haircuts, respec style, to stop people using them over and over if they had the money.
And yes i do get used to how people look sometimes but those are the very few people that dont turn on helm graphics. Those people are recognisable by the fact the don't turn on the graphics though...not the fact that they have the long green hair with the ponytail.
Its a small thing that could brighten up a lot of people...I know for one that my current helm (Cobrascale Hood) is the ugliest thing i've ever seen and its that or the even uglier hair i picked for my character. I'd love a little haircut.
Oh and on the subject of second names like i mentioned....Come on. Just add a guild charter style vendor guy who lets you add your second name then you can turn it on/off like a title. I'd have a complete field day trying to decide what to use as my surname.
Hybrys May 6th 2007 3:59AM
The sad fact is, these things are so very easy to implement. You make an NPC with an easy database changing script. You change a number to a different number.
Surnames are a bit harder, as the entire database would need an overhaul. Adding even one space to 100 million entries is a long, tedious task.
max.korovesis May 6th 2007 11:24AM
I'd gladly pay equivalent money to a respec in order to change my character's appearance. I think changing skin color might be stretching it a bit though, perhaps just the hair style?
daniel May 7th 2007 3:36AM
as a former human mage i wanted to treat him to an extreme makeover all the time since he was just too ugly to look at, but now with my belf female paris hilton-lookalike, i wouldn't wanna change her for all the gold in azeroth!
John May 7th 2007 3:29PM
I do like the idea of tattoos/body art though...esp as rewards.
Melk May 30th 2007 4:38PM
I agree with adding an npc to change your hair color/style, but not with the ability to change other features. I play an undead mage, and it'd be really weird if they could somehow conjure up my missing jaw or turn me into a paler shade of gray.
I really would like another hair cut though, this stuff just doesn't fly :P.
Also, they had tattoos on other games like lineage 2 that added some minor stats, that could be nice, I mean, I'd love to see some nice tats on characters, maybe even import your own designs, to make stuff more unique.