Hello forums!
What age do you imagine your character to be in MMORPG’s? And what do you think of the option of rolling a character who is under the age of 20 or dare I ask around the 12-15 age range?
I drive over 180 miles a day (to and from work) these days and have not been able to keep in touch as much. But I have thought of these questions for a while.
I tend to see a trend where in MMO’s people’s characters they make only have options to make them 21 and older (is there some law about it?) and that kinda sorta maybe tickles my curiosity as to why that is. When we are surrounded by amazing stories, movies, anime’s where a child or teen can go on an adventure and conquer great things, confronting danger and death and living to tell the tale, why do we have to be limited to the age range we have been?
Kili and Fili from the hobbit are young dwarves, and depicted in the recent ‘hobbit’ movie as actually very attractive which breaks a stereotype of dwarves being ugly old men from birth. Will I be able to make my dwarf young and attractive if I want to?
Avatar Korra is a popular American cartoon/anime who’s main character is a 17 year old. And the last avatar before her was Aang who was just 12!
And Naruto is 12-13 years old, is a ninja, and beats the tar outa far older, stronger, and more seasoned opponents. (though we can say the same for every example prior)
I think it’s important to give the option of making a variety of age ranges possible with the character creation tools but it’s also important we make a world where these young adults can go out and exist and it not be a special thing. It should be expected we are in a world where a youngster can cast magic and defeat his or her enemies just as much as it is expected a 32 year old mercinary can defeat their enemies. Keep in mind young people in real life doing heroic acts is not a new thing. People some cultures would call children have done impossible and heroic deeds (Mulan type figures come to mind). Just think about it a minute and I’m sure you can remember a few stories)
A 16 year old who outrode paul revere
http://mentalfloss.com/article/78686/16-year-old-revolutionary-who-outrode-paul-revere
“Sybil Ludington rode twice as far as Revere did, by herself, over bad roads, in the rain, and in an area roamed by outlaws, to raise Patriot troops to fight in the Battle of Danbury and the Battle of Ridgefield in Connecticut. “
Other items on a website listing heroic teens and their incredible acts of bravery
https://theweek.com/articles/468498/9-heroic-teens-incredible-acts-bravery-updated
The high school baseball team that lifted a car to save a life
The 14-year-old who protected an ‘assault’ victim from her assailant
The 14-year-old who saved a young boy from a burning building
The 16-year-old who braved thin ice to save a boy from drowning
The 16-year-old who saved his fellow campers during a bear attack
The 18-year-old who pulled the driver out of a truck hanging off a cliff
The 14-year-old who saved two men from drowning
So again forums.
What age is the character you will create?
What do you think about younger characters (12-19) in the world of Pantheon?
I for one hope there are enough options in character creation to make a veriety of age ranges, including young teens. and that the world might notice it.
IE: when you speak with an NPC they may call you 'young man', 'youngster', 'grandpa', etc since you would appear as such.
If the images are too big I can remove them and just put links. Also, I felt like this was a good topic outside 'character creation' as it has more to do with views of what people find is acceptable in their fantasy world.
I want opinions
and not just opinions, but why.
-Todd
philo said:Ya, without commenting to much, that could get really creepy quickly.
This. I'd prefer to have limitations on character age than deal with creepiness after the fact.
As for the age of my own character... I don't really give it much thought beforehand. I do like making characters, but I wouldn't say I have an RPG/MMO persona, so even if I create a character with the same name, race and/or class in different games, they might turn out very different visually.
I think the characters are generally represented as older so the NPC merchants don't have to check ID when selling alcohol or tobacco products. :-)
So far as really young characters in Pantheon, I would be against it. I don't like games, movies or books which depict violence against children. There is far too much of that IRL. I have no problem watching an adult male or female get eaten by a dragon, but I have zero tolerance for domestic violence as portrayed in some game franchises. I guess we each suspend our disbelief to different levels. There are lines that I don't like to see crossed in gaming.
Age is the last consideration when I'm designing my characters. I think first about what race, then the class, which is probably the inverse of many people's priority. In the character creation screen, I'll then experiment with a look and I generally won't know what I'm after until I see it. Whether I become emotionally attached or committed to a character is as much about whether the available appearances seem credible in the role I'm about to cast them into. Discounting my previous point, I'd be very unlikely to choose a child for any class. I decide on my backstory once I have a look that I like. Sometimes I'll write out some in-depth narrative or introductory encounters for my characters and share them with a few friends.
One thing that I'd like to see improved is the representation of ageing in character models. If my character is an old crone, she shouldn't walk as upright as the 25-year-old athletic ranger. Past games seem to throw a few lines on the face and call it good enough. They need to toss in a slider for stoop. You can represent muscle atrophy by choosing a leaner body type, so that's probably covered off already.
I'm extremely impressed with what I've seen in the way of character models for Pantheon and very happy to see that a lot of the early concept art is being very accurately translated into the game.
So much talent on that VR team.
Im not against it. But a lot of my fav anime characters and video game heroes are young as well. Hell even some of the classic novels like Oliver Twist or Tom Sawyer. Modern stuff too like Harry Potter.
That being said, I think it would be more of a financial burden to make children for each race in the Char creation screen. So I doubt we will see it. I would say if you want a child-like character, probably better off going Halfling?
In every other MMORPG I’ve played an older character. With Pantheon I will be a young adult as the world of Terminus is so much more diverse. I want to play someone who is in awe of all the different races and classes. The varied geography, climate, atmospheres, mana colors, it will take a lot longer to be knowledgeable. I look forward to learning it all.
There is a distinct difference in having youthful heroes in other forms of media, that difference being those stories are guided/planned around those characters. Letting people control youthful/teen characters is a recipe for disaster with the propensity of certain types of people to run around "naked" with their characters or otherwise engage in "adult" behavior/conversation.
I liked the SWG style which I tried for a bit after release
I went for an aged baldly head with a ring beard (i think; been a while) and a huge beer belly; stereo typing a dirty don't-care inn keeper with rolled up sleeves of the low life city quarters
Now visualize that doing jedi moves. I got mistaken for being a NPC a few times (funny at times)
What kind of customizing do we get?
Rydan said:I liked the SWG style which I tried for a bit after release
I went for an aged baldly head with a ring beard (i think; been a while) and a huge beer belly; stereo typing a dirty don't-care inn keeper with rolled up sleeves of the low life city quarters
Now visualize that doing jedi moves. I got mistaken for being a NPC a few times (funny at times)What kind of customizing do we get?
Some info here: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/6995/using-slides-for-character-creation/view/page/1
Iksar said:There is a distinct difference in having youthful heroes in other forms of media, that difference being those stories are guided/planned around those characters. Letting people control youthful/teen characters is a recipe for disaster with the propensity of certain types of people to run around "naked" with their characters or otherwise engage in "adult" behavior/conversation.
That angle huh?
well, i could see people doing that to spiderman, robin, any of the teen titans, so ... Yea i guess thats so.ething to consider.
Well crap. I guess nevermind. People mess stuff up. Literally all my characters are old or middle aged dwarves and humans. I had like one character who was younger and it would have been so cool to see him in pantheon jumping around and casting spells.
No harry potter either. Oh well.
-Mobile
-Todd
Player characters in MMOs are usually shown "youthful" (unless there's an explicit "age" slider in character creation). I agree that it shouldn't be possible to make a true child character. However there should be both age and height sliders which allow you some flexibility.
Personally, I usually try to make my character a projection of myself when it comes to age and size. Unless I deliberately go for something else (for example, being a male and playing a female character).