Character Creation Questionnaire

Aelthwyn · July 2015

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?

Nichordius · July 2015

I. I stick with a main character. It makes it more real to me.

2. I prefer using lore-abiding names.

3. I make characters that share my qualities. There is nothing wrong with that.

4. Same gender. I like my characters to be similar to myself.

V. Coming up with backstories is all I do. It's just me, the open road, and my notepad.

6. I prefer that my characters be over the age of 16.

7. I usually don't create alternate characters, because I prefer to expand upon a favorite game.

8. Yes, flukes can often be a good thing. That's creativity, my friend.

IX. Half of my gameplay is character creation.

X. I prefer playing in third person. It makes me think more about my character.

Lynx7386 · July 2015

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?

I try to stick to one character, but I'm subscriped to alts anonymous.

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).

Always in-character names. M'asad Lynx, Sebasti, Leonaren Vaelfyre, Kemba Ashclaw, etc.

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?

Variety, though my main character usually ends up sharing some physical features with me. My main in ESO, M'asad Lynx, has a goatee similar to the one I had years ago, wish I could update it now though.

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?

Both genders, depends on the character. Main characters are usually male, like myself, and warrior/rogue style characters are almost always male. I pick female characters for archers and spellcasters/healers.

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?

I always have at least some vague notion of a backstory for my characters, though it's been years since I've actually written anything regarding them.

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?

Typically younger characters, but that's more due to the fact that the "age" option in most RPGs is absolutely terrible and makes your character look like he or she just had a fight with a wood chipper.

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).

Each character I have plays differently; a tank, a healer, a melee damage dealer, a ranged spellcaster, etc.

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?

Definitely. As an example, most of the time I make female characters really lithe and small-framed, "cute"/petite, that kind of thing, and usually as spellcasters. When I created Kemba Ashclaw, my Pact dragonknight, I was fiddling around with the settings a bit on a khajiit female. I had recently seen a lot of Charr artwork from guild wars/gw2, and I guess that body type was stuck in the back of my head. Kemba ended up as a muscular and tall (but still attractive) khajiit, very animalistic looking. I decided to keep her solely because I like how she turned out in the character creator =P

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?

I probably spend more time in the character creator than in the game. Only problem is that, as I fiddle with more and more options, I inevitably end up causing the character to look unnatural or weird, completely unintentionally.

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?

I cant stand playing in first person unless it's a first person shooter. I'll very rarely go into first person in ESO, usually just to get a good screenshot or inspect something in a cluttered mess of interactable objects. Third person the rest of the time.

Atlaz · July 2015

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?

Just one. I typically burn myself out on something new that I like but I know more than enough to make and use multiple characters extensively.

3. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).

Sometimes.

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?

Not really.

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?

Most likely opposite.

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?

Not really.

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?

I'd rather not make in game characters older than myself.

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).

Yes.

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?

Yes.

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?

Sometimes.

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?

Once in awhile.

Aelthwyn · July 2015

To answer my own questions:

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?
I have too many ideas for characters and tend to get attached to all of them, though there are some I play with more than others.

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).
I prefer to stick with relatively lorefriendly names, while the others can be amusing sometimes I prefer not to be reminded of the real world, and I like to think of the characters as separate entities not as representations of me in the game (even if they are)

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?
I enjoy making a variety, though I do sometimes end up playing them all more similarly to myself than I intend to when I forget to make choices based on their personalities rather than mine

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?
I play both, but I tend to get more character ideas for the opposite, not sure why.

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?
I do like them to have some background and personality, though I haven't yet written any fiction about any of the characters I've made, some day I might though.

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?
I like both, though I do go in a little more for the plucky young adventurer than the battle-hardened veteran sort, and as mentioned the age effects often just don't look quite right to me so I end up just making them pretty instead

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).
yes I do like to experiment with all the different possibilities, but I don't try to force a character into a certain style just so I can try it out - I make what I get ideas for but if I have to weed out some characters that won't get to stick around then I'll try to strategize so I at least have one of each type if possible. And of course I do end up playing more with the characters with my preferred combat style than the others.

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?
occasionally

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?
I can spend hours in the character creation process, and I have remade a few

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?
I prefer third person partly because I enjoy seeing my character, and partly because I feel like it gives me a better idea of what's going on around me

wskill · February 2016

Aelthwyn wrote: »

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?

I have a main character i play most with, but i do want to equalize the rest but that also depends on support ticket being resolved because one of my characters has a 2 letter mistake in her name

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).

All my characters have their own actual name name, only my main has a codenameish name but its still his original name, he just doesnt have a real one because he is an orphan who never knew his parents, nor are there any accounts of them or him.

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?

They are in no way like myself. I dont believe in identity to begin with, a persona is ever changing and they may at most be facets of myself.

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?

I wanted to have a nice girl to look at somewhat but actually ended up with 9/10 male characters, only one female whos bald and a dunmer, go figure.

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?

My characters are somewhat already with backstory but open enough to add to it, i used to write books. They arent as detailed as the characters from those, wich is a good thing in an mmo, everytime i made characters from my books i ended up getting irritated about little things that didnt befit them.

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?

older.None of my characters are young. The youngest is in his 40's.

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).

Some characters have similar skills but not combat style, its moreof a different combination and path of a 'class' used before. But i do get drawn more to playing specific chars and might delete those anyway since i dont really feel like dragging them through the dull main story line again (already done that twice, well not entirely but doing the first harborage mission alone is already a pain).

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?

Nope, i did have to recreate characters, up till having to wait days to retry.

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?

Yes, this is a big problem and made the whole 1 delete a day thing extremely disruptive and anti-customer.

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?

I dont play 1st person, i play in 3rd person 100% of the time.

Wonder who would even read this, my answers arent thát interesting but ok.

Xerosus · February 2016

Aelthwyn wrote: »

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally? I prefer to be relatively done with a character before moving on. In this game however, you're never done with a character, so i only have 2 so far.

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head). I try to create a name that fits the character's looks while also trying to make up names that are more or less lore friendly.

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?
My characters never look like me, one of them will end up being the fictional equivalent of myself when it comes to personality.
4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?
Armor tends to look better on females and i like the idea of a female character laying waste to everything in her way. That being said, i play both sexes but primarily female.
5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?
Yes, my characters always have backstory, no matter how short.

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?
Young and powerful, which is why i dislike the idea of forced aging in certain games. Unless i can tweak my age later, to signify that my character has a lot of experience.
7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).
I tend to play pretty similar builds with slight variations.

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?
Nope
9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?
I take hours messing with the character's look in every game that has decent customization.
10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?
Third person all the time, unless i'm taking screenshots of the landscape.

Glaiceana · February 2016

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?
Usually I make one main character. The alts I create are usually because I just wanted to make a cool character in a different race.

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).
Yes I try to use names that would fit within the game. I tend not to go as far as to make second names however.

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?
My main character is kind of a version of me. I play that one in a way that the decisions and choices are what I would honestly do myself.

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?
Varies greatly. In terms of ESO, my main is female and that is the one I have played the most, and I am female myself.

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?
Not something I've really done before. But I've been thinking of a backstory half seriously for my Argonian character.

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?
That's kind of a tricky one, I'd tend to make them around my own age.(24) If in doubt I pick the middle of the scale if possible. Since I don't create real backstories, there's no real reason for me to make sure the age matches anything in particular, so it doesn't matter to me in the end.

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).
Mine have similar classes and skills mainly because it is hard for me to learn a style and what works, so once I do find it, its easier to stick with it.

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?
Kind of. Not so much in ESO though. All of my characters were intended to look the way I had pictured beforehand.

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?
I have never had to recreate a character immediately after seeing it in game. I did however redo my Argonian, as I wanted to change his name as well as his face slightly, but this was after having it for a while but not using the old character in a long time. It was much later when I thought of a better one, and deleted the old one, and came up with the improved version with my new ideas.

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?
I do not like the first person view. Prefer to see my character, AND I have the helmets hidden too, it might not be realistic for their battles, but even so, I want to see my characters identity, I spent a long time on each of their faces!

NovaMarx · February 2016

1. I have one main that I tend to focus on, but I have a few others that I play with every once in a while.

2. I prefer lore-friendly names, it just makes my characters fit better into the ES universe IMO.

3. I tend to put quite a bit of myself into each character, so I feel more "attached" to them.

4. I'm a female, and only play female characters. I can better relate to a character of my own gender - which also generally effects what games I play.

5. I also have a little backstory in mind for each character. But my main is also my RP character, so she has the most elaborate one.

6. Younger (youngish) - again, since I base my characters on myself, I feel they should have the same age as me.

7. I have never made a character just to try a class or race.

8. Nope. I am a perfectionist, and have actually found myself several times using the max 3 deletes because I wasn't satisfied with something about my character. (I have all slots filled, so if I can't delete then I can't create.)

9. See above. I am a patient perfectionist, and have actually tried using all 3 deletes and having to wait til the next day to make the character again.

10. I always play in third person. I spend so much time on creating my character and her armour, so I want to see it. Also, I love the Khajiit tail swooshing about ^^

Ilsabet · February 2016

My answers all relate specifically to ESO, as I don't always take the same approach with every game (depending on the type of game and character limitations and such).

For further reference, my ESO characters are listed and pictured with backstories here.

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?

When I started the game I immediately filled all 8 character slots because I knew I'd need the extra storage space. But my plan for playing was to have a main character (my Breton nightblade) and a secondary character that I intended to play with my boyfriend (my Nord templar). I did make all of the other characters viable for playing sometime in the future if I ever want to branch out. I've only been playing for about four months, though, and that time has been almost exclusively taken up by questing with my main character. My answer could be different in a year or two.

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).

I made all of them lore-appropriate, and in some cases chose the name specifically because it sounded like something that would work for the culture. However, Linnea Heavy-Pockets and Lollygags-Where-She-Likes are also out-of-universe references to my fondness for looting things and the lollygagging running joke from Skyrim respectively.

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?

I don't really set out to model characters after myself, although they inevitably share some of my personality traits and values. In some cases they have characteristics that I aspire to, particularly when it comes to being badass. I can't think of any that I intentionally made the "opposite" of me just to be different.

For the most part when I'm playing the game I make decisions with my own mind, rather than thinking too much about "what would the character do?" - except in cases where some specific thing in the backstory or an in-game experience might strongly influence a decision they'd make. We'll see if I take a different approach when I go questing again with a different character. Maybe my no-nonsense Nord will be less compassionate than my Breton or something.

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?

Same gender. In the sense that the character is an avatar of myself, I'd rather it be the gender I identify with.

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?

Yes. See that link I posted.

I wrote those around the same time I made all of the characters when I started playing, so in some cases the character's appearance informed the backstory (like the fat ugly Orc being useless in her stronghold) and in some cases the backstory influenced the appearance (like the Altmer having bright silver eyes and emo goth makeup to represent the conflict between light and dark magic in her tragic history).

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?

They skew younger, probably because I identify with that more and it's easier to picture a strong young woman starting out on an adventure. My Breton is quite young (16) and her adventuring journey essentially corresponds to the stage in life where she's establishing herself as a mature individual. My Nord is older (35, which is closer to my own age) and has more life experience behind her. The Redguard, Altmer, and Dunmer are in their 20s (or the Elf equivalent) because that makes sense for their backstories. The Khajiit is a savvy old granny, the Orc is middle-aged and schlubby, and the Argonian is "old enough to know better but still too young to care." So there's a variety of ages for the sake of mixing it up.

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).

My characters are arrayed for a variety of playstyles. I have two of each class, and if I actively played all of them I'd probably split each class stamina/magicka. I would avoid using the exact same playstyle on two different characters, because that would just be redundant.

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?

Some of my later characters might qualify, since after a certain point I was just like "well what haven't I done yet that could still work?" But those aren't really strong examples, since I haven't played with any of them enough to identify anything as a "happy accident."

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?

I don't like taking defaults if I don't have to, so I did quite a bit of fine-tuning on each character. I might only tweak the body settings a little bit, but I took a lot of care with things like hair and face and accessories. I definitely wanted to be happy with how the characters looked before I hit Create.

I haven't had buyer's remorse on anything after seeing how they were rendered in-game, but I did remake my Dunmer when I found out that full-blooded Dunmer always have red eyes, which I had eschewed originally because I wasn't keen on how it looked. But it bothered me enough that her blue-gray eyes weren't appropriate for her backstory so I finally just took a do-over.

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?

I played Skyrim in first-person, but for ESO I prefer the wider view of third-person just to be more aware of what's around me. I don't really feel a disconnect from my character that way, since I'm still imagining her doing the stuff she's doing (to the extent that I factor roleplay/immersion into it vs. being aware that I'm playing a game). I certainly want my characters to look good, so I guess that being able to see them is validation for that, and it makes it more worthwhile to use costumes or design my armor to look a certain way. I suppose I'd still think about my character's appearance for the sake of other people who see her even if I were using first-person, but I wouldn't get the extra enjoyment out of it.

Oh hey, this is an old thread. I wonder if the OP is still interested in our answers.

menedhyn · February 2016

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?
I try to focus on one character, but I find myself distracted occasionally by the thought of other possibilities and builds. Instead of creating another character or accepting that it might not work, I end up tweaking my existing one, often unnecessarily.

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).
Finding a name that is both reasonably lore-appropriate (in my eyes) and yet slightly different tends to be my goal. I often borrow ideas from other cultures, stories or languages, particularly those old local or regional dialects where there is a wealth of fascinating words.

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?
In most of the games I play, the characters I create end up with a few of my traits, beliefs or 'quirks' in the build. I never completely model characters on one individual though, nor do I make decisions within the game based on what I would do.

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?
Both. I find it fascinating to try to play the game from a different perspective and attempting to think and make decisions based on character, race and gender can be quite challenging.

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?
Absolutely. The build, back story and my own restrictions are my reference points throughout the game. I have tried to play without and I end up feeling detached from the character. But rather than create something overly elaborate or complicated, I now tend to lean towards something more simple and fluid which allows the character to develop as the game progresses.

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?
No real preference. It all depends on the build. I'm not a huge fan of fictional stereotypes in terms of appearance, but I do quite like to play the weaker character with physical limitations. That tends to lead me to create characters at opposite ends of the age scale.

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).
I have personal preferences for the race I choose, the class I feel drawn to and the weapons my character might use. That usually means I don't experience all that the game has to offer.

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?
I haven't accidentally created a character in this way, but I have had a few characters that changed during the game. More often than not, the changes were a response to developments in the game either through quests or storylines.

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?
I'm guilty of spending far too much time fine-tuning the character creation settings. Often I have an image in my head of what I want the character to look like, and then get frustrated when I can't quite capture the look using the in-game sliders or features. I've deleted a couple of builds shortly after seeing then on screen, but they were in the early days of my time with the game. I'm pleasantly surprised by some of the options available at the character creation stage.

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?
I use both views, though I confess to a slight over indulgence with emotes at times. Ironically for an MMO, I quite like to find quiet spots away from the bustle and noise of a town and city where I can enjoy a bit of simple roleplay. This inevitably leads me to play in third person more often than not.

Aelthwyn · February 2016

Ilsabet wrote: »

Oh hey, this is an old thread. I wonder if the OP is still interested in our answers.

I am! Thank you to everyone who has shared their answers!

Elara_Northwind · February 2016

1. I have 1 main character, but have 7 others that I play now and again to mix things up a little.

2. A bit of both. Whatever suits them.

3.I probably do make my characters look a little like myself... I never really thought about it before, but looking at them and the time in which I made them and their hair colours etc. Probably, yes.

4. Usually the same, though I do have a male khajiit. My tom cat

5. Not really, although due to my main being a Breton in AD, a backstory has kind of emerged in its own way, a little by me and a little by others. She was basically raised by elves in the woods haha!

She also has an evil twin sister in dc...

6. My characters are all young.

7. My characters all play differently, thats why I make them, or I would probably go insane with boredom.

8. Yes, I have an argonian that I created for a laugh, she is vet2 now and has been for a very long time. I don't play her anymore, but whenever I go to delete her, I just can't. I am rather attached to my little lizard in a strange way I suppose.

9. Yes, done that lots of times

10. No. I hate first person. I prefer to see my character.

Lariana · February 2016

1. I have one main character that I'm aiming to finish all the achievements with, and all my other twinks are her slaves to do as she commands

2. They're mostly lore-based, but they also reflect some of my characters' personalities. For example, my dunmer has dropped her last name for very specific reasons.

3. None of them look anything like me, although they probably have some specific aspects of my personality in different ways. They're all very different from me IRL and each other.

4. An equal mix of both genders.

5. They all have some backstory, yes. The nord (my main) is a rebellious warrior. My male redguard is a stripper who likes to please everyone. The argonian is a loner who likes to be by himself in the most inaccessible parts of Black Marsh.

6. They're mostly young-ish, although some of them have very old souls.

7. I'm planning to try out different race and class combinations to sample all the different play styles. My eight characters have between them 7 races (two altmer, but the female nightblade is too pretty to be deleted), and 2 of each class. Although most of my effort goes into improving my main, who's currently a magicka DK.

8. About half of my current characters were born because of some in-game dares

The redguard stripper, the loner lizard, and the fat orc in a wedding dress were all consequences of dares, and now I'm in love with them

9. I did spend a lot of time fine tuning the different options. Most of my characters weren't what I was expecting them to be in the first place, but I really liked how they turned out after meddling with all the character creation options.

10. This depends. For combat, it's always third person, no matter which character I'm on. For roleplaying, it could be either, it depends on the situation.

ListerJMC · February 2016

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?
I have one main character, my Altmer sorcerer in the Pact, who is my only VR16 character. I consider him to be the Vestige and not the other two; and I do most trials, dungeons, Maelstrom, etc. with him. I play the other two now and then to mix things up, but I focus on him.

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).
I much prefer lore-friendly names, though I tend to make them have a little uniqueness about them at the same time. Like Altmer don't typically have last names, but my sorcerer's name is Ceremo Highfort because I wanted him to sound a little grander since he's the Vestige and all

.

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?
They're never based on me, though they may share some of my qualities - kind of comes with me controlling them I guess!

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?
I normally make a male and a female in Elder Scrolls games, mostly to see the different customisation options between the two and see how gear looks between them. However, since there are three alliances, I've got two males and one female - which I don't really see as an imbalance, since one is a remake of a character I had in Oblivion. I still technically only made a new male and female!

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?
That's part of the fun for me! I usually make it up as I go along.

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?
I've played young, middle-aged, and elderly characters depending on what kind of backstory I had in mind. I don't always enjoy playing a young, fresh-faced hero. In ESO I've got one very young Altmer and one that's hard to place, he's 153 but Altmer can live for 300-400 or in some cases well beyond that (particularly in the case of mages) so basically I gave him a few wrinkles here and there while still making him look relatively young. My Redguard vampire was 31 when bitten.

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).
All different. A destro/resto (probably soon to be DW unfortunately, but he'll always be a staff-user to me!) sorcerer, a DW/bow nightblade and a sword and board dragonknight.

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?
I've experimented all my characters, none of them ever turn out exactly as I first envisioned them. Which I guess is why I'm so bothered about no appearance change, because my Redguard in particular has become someone very different to what I had in mind and I'd like to make his appearance reflect that better.

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?
I take a lot of time making my characters until they're just right. Unfortunately, I'm only happy with the appearance of one of them right now. I was on a low graphics setting when I made them and the colours were different, so when I turned that setting up one of them has a different colour scheme to what I thought I'd given him (his eyes in particular, I thought they were brown but apparently they're yellow!). And I already explained my Redguard's situation, but also he's bright purple due to vampirism and I'd like to try and fix that!

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?
Third-person, all the way.

Jaeysa · February 2016

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally? - I have one main character and then many alts stuck between 11 and V5.

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head). - The first usually.

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself? - I primarily play Breton Females, but their appearances differ wildly.

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself? - same.

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation? - I do, though my ESO lore knowledge is paltry, so I leave many things open-ended.

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters? - Both, usually for more athletic characters I'll go with younger. Magickers either/or.

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play). - Races not so much, the rest yes.

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life? - Nope.

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like? - Third person; first person gives me a headache for some reason.

Duiwel · February 2016

Some very interesting questions so I am glad I found this thread as it appeals to me

Turelus · February 2016

Aelthwyn wrote: »

1. Do you usually stick to a single Main Character, or do you tend to make a lot of characters that you play with equally?

I normally stick with a single character, I have alts but don't favour them as much.

Aelthwyn wrote: »

2. Do you prefer using names that fit with the culture of your character's race, or do you tend to use names that are more like a screen-name or references to external culture rather than something someone would have named their child? (for example "Jorgan Stone-fist" vs. "Mr. Clean" for a Nord warrior with a shaved head).

I normally go with names which match the lore/setting of a game. I do have a few names which I are based on old D&D characters (Turelus, Taja Rominsco) which I tend to use even if they don't fit the lore/setting.

Aelthwyn wrote: »

3. Do you tend to make characters that are sort of like versions of yourself, or do you have a wide variety of character ideas and enjoy playing someone very different from yourself?

I tend to make characters separate from myself. I do favour green eyes however due to my own eye colour.

Aelthwyn wrote: »

4. Do you usually play the same gender or different gender from yourself?

Mostly I play the same gender as myself (male), however I have a few female characters.

Aelthwyn wrote: »

5. Do you enjoy coming up with back stories and other details about your characters beyond the in game character creation?

That depends, I try to give my characters some story as I often roleplay or do light roleplay in MMO games. My EVE Online and SWTOR characters have back stories and stories from actions taken within the game. ESO (and most TES games) I haven't really done that however as I wanted to be a completionist and it never makes sense working for every organisation, helping all the NPC's with their quests and never turning something down based on the characters views.

Aelthwyn wrote: »

6. Do you have a preference for older or younger characters?

Normally about my age (late twenties) or a little younger as I feel I can get into that mindset a little more when roleplaying and understand the character more.

Aelthwyn wrote: »

7. Do you create alternate characters so as to try out all the different classes/races/weapons/builds, or do you tend to end up with many characters that have similar skills and combat style (once you find a favorite way to play).

I try to play any new characters in a different way. My main is a Magicka Nightblade and my current alts are a Magicka Sorcerer and Stamina DK.

Aelthwyn wrote: »

8. Have you ever sort of accidentally created a character that wasn't what you'd set out to make, but while you were experimenting with different options they just sort of came to life?

Not for ESO. During roleplay games yes.

Aelthwyn wrote: »

9. When creating a character, can you find yourself spending forever fine tuning all the options, and maybe going back and re-creating a character after seeing them in the game and not being completely satisfied, or do you not like wasting time messing with all that and feel satisfied with just a few quick changes to one of the randomized settings?

I spend forever doing this. I spent most of my final ESO beta access weekend making my character and screenshotting the settings used to make this faster during launch day. Normally a name is the hardest part for me, I can spend hours looking through websites, lore, typing and deleting etc. just to get the name that fits the character.

Aelthwyn wrote: »

10. Do you prefer playing in first person and rarely even see the character you've made? If so, do you feel more connected to the character like they are really representing You in the game, or do you have less concern for whatever they look like?

For ESO I play third person, the game was originally designed for that and I feel first person is too chaotic and clunky. I do use it when looking tables etc though for better control.