What is your *main* criterion when choosing character race?

vibeborn

Aesthetics

I just go by feeling tbh, so I guess aesthetics is the closest one

Lugaldu

Lore / Culture

I cannot separate the first three options either, they are all crucial together.

Fischblut

Passives / Meta

It's mix of Aesthetics and Passives.

At the beginning, it was all about Aesthetics - I had all khajiit characters and 1 argonian, because I like the look of these races After years, I finally started thinking about Passives. So I made my first non-beast character for passives - redguard stamplar. She was my main dungeon/arena/trial runner during 3 years, and she is my main PvP character even now Nord, Imperial, Orc have nice passives as well, but Redguard's passives are not as bad as people might think

Then I made Dark Elf magdk, nord stam warden, argonian mag warden (this character was perfect mix of passives and aesthetics ), breton mag necro, imperial stam necro. And I changed my old khajiit mag sorc into high elf I wanted to finally change races of my other khajiit characters, but it is very difficult to make such decision (this is basically destruction of old character) - so they remain khajiit so far. Once the decision is made though... My high elf magsorc still has her khajiit name as reminder of her nature, but I would never change her back into khajiit.

notyuu

Aesthetics

I mean if you're gonna be looking at them for the next 6000+ hours you might as well make sure they are plesant on the eyes, no?

Michae

Lore / Culture

I always create the same character ever since I played TESIII back in 2002. That character in ESO is my main.

With others I guess you could say rp, since I made them all with that in mind. Oh, and they always must be lore friendly.

Danikat

Role-Playing

I picked role-playing, but I'd say that encompasses the aesthetics and lore and culture as well, because those are things I'll consider when deciding the best race for the character I have in mind.

Sometimes the race is the starting point; my main character was always going to be a khajiit and everything else was shaped to how I want to play a khajiiti character. Other times I pick the race because I think it's the best choice for how I imagine that character looking, or their personality, or the lore fits the backstory I have in mind. I wanted my sorcerer to have lived and studied in Summerset, but as an 'outsider' who adopted the culture...so I made him a dunmer and gave him a backstory that his father moved the family to Summerset to study with the Psijic order (this was all before the Summerset chapter was released).

It's often not a conscious choice, I just start imagining the character I want to make and sooner or later a certain race (and gender, class, weapon choices etc.) seem right, so that's what I pick.

CaptainVenom

Aesthetics

Khajiit. All the way. Period.

TwinLamps

Lore / Culture

- it must not be woodelf
- if I cannot relate with it I wont play it

KlauthWarthog

Aesthetics

I´m going to spend a lot of my off time looking at and around my character, so it better be something I enjoy looking at.

"Meta" is fickle in this game. I am not going to base a permanent choice (race, class) on something that´s likely to change in 6 months.

Danikat

Role-Playing

GreenHere wrote: »

Maybe I'm just not well-acquainted enough with this stuff as someone who doesn't RP in the way that people who RP mean RP, but wouldn't Lore/Culture just sort of be lumped together with Role-Playing?

I make my characters the race they are because... well, it fits the character idea I'm trying to make. Is that RP, or is that me following lore? What's the difference, especially if I'm "making my own lore"? If my Bosmer is an archer, and my Orc is a warrior, but my Altmer is a sword master, then how would you classify that?

Either way, it's seldom about aligning with the meta or popularity for me; and I think all races/sexes can be made attractive and/or aesthetically interesting. So I guess I'm in one of those two other categories. I'm interested to hear what the difference is now, honestly.

I'd say that's role-playing. It doesn't have to involve other people, it can just be about creating a character with a story and personality and playing them appropriately - for example refusing to ever steal because they're morally opposed to it, even if you as a player do it all the time on other characters.

Conversely role-playing can involve ignoring or re-writing the lore to suit the stories you want to tell even if you know it's not supported by the official lore (although if you're RPing with other players that needs approval from the group, especially if it would affect how other players characters act around you).

Sometimes I think it makes sense to make a character whose choices (class, skills etc.) seem contradictory to their race, because that 'conflict' could drive them. For example maybe an altmer sword master would feel driven to prove himself because he knows it's not what other people expect him to focus on.

Pauwer

Aesthetics

I play beautiful women only

tuxon

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Other: a character pops into my mind fully formed including name, race, and backstory and then I go make that character in the game. The only races that never happen are orcs and argonians.

Pretty much this.

Argonians are property.
Orcs are pigs.

(Laughs in Dunmeri)


P.S. I love scalies, I have 2 of them. Also Orcs stronk.

ectoplasmicninja

Role-Playing

Role-playing for me, in a broad sense. I have character concepts and backstories and likes and dislikes and personalities for all of my characters, and keep them in mind when doing quests. It influences my decisions, gameplay, and even which zones I frequent with some of them. They're not often "typical" with regards to the racial/cultural lore, as I am a bit of an ethnic fish out of water IRL and I guess that influences my approach to my characters. For example, my Altmer is not a sorcerer from Summerset, he is a warden who was raised by a Bosmer/Khajiit couple and who is a werewolf and master thief, and in quests involving choices between nature and civilization, he always sides with nature.

Nairinhe

Role-Playing

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Other: a character pops into my mind fully formed including name, race, and backstory and then I go make that character in the game. The only races that never happen are orcs and argonians.

^ This, except all races are good.

Ryuvain

Aesthetics

Liked khajiit at first due to looking amazing and unique. This game and skyrim just made me like them even more. Can't even think about changing at all. Argonian is second favorite though, just don't like playing humans or elves. Too many games where I can do that already.

nukk3r

Passives / Meta

Khajiit and dunmer — aesthetics/lore/passives
The rest — passives

ADarklore

Aesthetics

I cannot play an unattractive character. You spend hours staring at this character, whether in menus, crafting, etc... I at least want someone nice to look at. I've tried playing multiple races, and always tend to return to either male Imperials or Bretons.

GreenhaloX

Eye candy?

Misty

Aesthetics

Hair colour is a little to restrictive and there is as yet no option for two tone. I would love for my character to sport purple and yellow hair.

Destai

Lore / Culture

I mostly like elves, and have always identified most with the Altmer. I really appreciate the Dunmer as I've grown older. I have a few alts that are either Breton or Nord, so they at least look like me.

FrancisCrawford

It's all passives and/or appearance. The other two options leave me cold.

But the interplay can get weird. I had a character in mind for a story I was working on, didn't have any DKs, was interested in naming a DK after her, thought Redguard would be a good race (this was years ago) ... and suddenly realized that if the character were Black certain paradoxes would be resolved.

I adapted an old D&D half-elf character to be a Bosmer thief ... oops. He's not a Khajiit named Grumpy Ex Wood Elf.

I made a Dunmer for the passives, not really liking a Dunmer's looks; now I've grown attached to her looks, and don't want to change her race even though I now don't like the newer Dunmer passives.

Etc.

Ermiq

Lore / Culture

All my 5 characters are Dunmers because I find them the most interesting and really well developed race in TES lore, and ESO Dunmers look much more cute than Bethesda's monsters.

Kadraeus

Aesthetics

It's a mix of aesthetics and role-playing, but I don't really roleplay in this game. I'd do it in Skyrim since I have more control. I never choose their race based on what they're good at. All that matters is the character I feel like playing, which is why I chose a Redguard mage in Skyrim. I actually chose a wood elf nightblade (archer) in ESO just because I liked the idea and not because being a wood elf would benefit me in any way (I just like wood elves).

Kadraeus

Aesthetics

Ermiq wrote: »

All my 5 characters are Dunmers because I find them the most interesting and really well developed race in TES lore, and ESO Dunmers look much more cute than Bethesda's monsters.

Tbh I prefer the way a lot of the races in ESO look compared to Skyrim (won't even mention Oblivion or Morrowind's versions of them because they're very far from today's standards).

I prefer ESO's Bosmer and Dunmer 100% over Skyrim's (Skyrim Dunmer look alright), whereas I'm kind of split with the Altmer (most look better in ESO though, especially the females). I also think the orc males in ESO look better, whereas I prefer the female orcs in Skyrim since the faces of the ones in ESO look a little odd to me for some reason.

Khajiit look good in both games, though I do occasionally see some in ESO that look *mwah*. Lord Gharesh-ri (Elsweyr version) and Inalzin look absolutely gorgeous, as well as some other quest npcs.

Argonians look nice in both games, and so do all of the human races.

etchedpixels

Mix of all of the above really. And also whether I have a suitably comical name to hand.

Syldras

Lore / Culture

Dunmer since TES3.

Athan1 wrote: »

I think that the majority of players choosing aesthetics/lore are (un)consciously attracted to characters similar to them... E.g. I main an Imperial bc I am Mediterranean and my char looks the closest to me an ESO character can look... I think this would also explain the tremendous Breton popularity, because most playerbase is North-European somehow.

If I'm not wrong, Dunmer have always been most popular in the forum polls. What does that tell us about the ESO player base (or the forum crowd at least)?

Starlight_Whisper

Passives / Meta

I like to do different things with passives that aren't typical. Still one character is just cause lore l, looks good and I feel like I would hate myself if it wasn't my favorite bosmer character

LalMirchi

I have gravitated to cosmetic and lore-based alternatives for my late-game characters.

However I have realised that in-game we are relegated to seeing our characters from the back.

AcadianPaladin

Aesthetics

What good is being an adventuress if you can't look good doing it?

Bosmer are BiS for cute.

menedhyn

Lore / Culture

By far the most important aspect is the lore and culture. I currently play a Bosmer and Dunmer because they fascinate me. I have played all other races except Imperial, Nord and Altmer. Never been interested in playing 'me' in any games, and in fact the more unusual and unique the culture, the better.

I care far more about the character and their story than their appearance. I don't give a toss about meta.