Rare needs not worry about 1000 Jack Sparrow lookalikes. 8 years of tested proof I have to this.
@Rare-Employee Ahoy Commanders at Rare and fellow Captains of the Sea of Thieves,
I know there has been quite a quandary in the forums about reasons why Rare wants to go with this IPG. One mainly expressed reason has been to avoid 1000+ Jack Sparrows running around. I have played pirate games my whole life, one of which was a Pirate MMO game where you could make your own custom character looks at any time while playing, that’s right! At Any Time. Eyes, Face, Tatoos, etc... any time you wanted at any hour of the day.
And guess what?!? After 8 years of playing the game (and it also was during the peak of popularity with the pirates of the Caribbean movies) I saw maybe one player who made themselves look like Jack Sparrow, and really I think I am stretching that maybe... Seriously no double Jacks or triple Jacks or 1000 Jacks... it just did not exist ever. Players actually had extremely unique looks and clothing and color (could change the color of any clothing item on a large-color-tone selection map)
So any fear or discussion about Sea of Thieves getting 1000+ Jack Sparrows or whatever’s is completely proven to be unfounded.
People made their pirates as unique and standout from others as much as possible... and that was wth extremely limited options compared to the Wonderful Amazing different options the Rare team has comprised up for Sea of Thieves.
People will dig in deeper to your game if you give them the option to customize. They will feel connected and keep returning to your game and DLC items over and over again, not so much the case when forced to play a character that they did not get to design on their own.
I know the Rare team has thought of many options and I am sure they have gameplans in place for if they did decide to implement full character customization. I know I know players being able to change every look and feature of their body at any given moment sounds scary but I have seen it in action in a Pirate MMO game and it brought nothing but happiness to the masses. if Rare has in-game things that will enshrine player’s character images either permanently or temporarily then let it just be what they looked like at the time they did it, no matter if they change their characters looks the next day or not.
With character creation they could just have a letter or number assigned to each feature model Rare has designed for a player to choose from, e.g. Mouth A, Mouth B, Chin A, Chin R, Eyes T, Nose B, etc... That way everyone gets to see all the awesome designs the Rare team has made and will chose the ones they best want to play as.
I agree with something said on the forums that the IPG isn’t going to add lots of diversity to the game because if 90% of players have already decided they want play a skinny/muscular Pirate then no matter how many cool old lady/big large guy pirates Rare’s IPG will make they will ALL be passed by and not given a look whist the players scour for hours upon hours to find and pick their skinny/muscular guy when they could have just spent briefer time making the pirate they are happy with and want to emerge into the game with and play for years.
This will keep so many more players engaged and loyal to coming back to the game over and over again especially for any juicy DLC Rare cooks up down the line, which equals more word of mouth players coming in and buying the game and DLC content. Custom full control character making is Only Win Win Win for Rare and all players.
If by chance there is those “Jack Sparrows”, well not to worry because that type of player will come and go so fast because they never were going to be around long anyways... and if they did decide to be around and if they have the option to customize face/body/height/etc... Then they will change away from their lemming ways and create their own unique looks to fully emerge and commit to this beautiful game of Sea of Thieves. And those who like the IPG, easy to solve, just give them a randomize character button in the corner, whilst the vast majority of us enjoy making a Pirate we can be fully proud and committed behind. We will love you ever the more for this and your game will prosper so much from it.
Thank you all very much for taking the time to read this. Truly appreciate it.
*Tiphat *
Captain Sanguin
Things raised up/ pointed out by other Captains:
-Rare trying to avoid players just doing the default characters and entering game:
A way to avoid the “Default and Go” that Rare seems to have mentioned would be to start every single person’s Character Select screen with one of those random generated pirates or an IPG wheel (but put an option to go to another screen and completely customize your pirate, which would also start with a random generated pirate)
That way people who just care about click and go to game will have a unique pirate Rare gave them and didn’t do any “defaults”, cause they wouldn’t really exist without going out of their way to make.
Been said that there might be some concern from Rare that players will just making “Hollywood Movie/ Magazine” Pirates:
People who have their mind made up on wanting a “Hollywood Movie/Magazine Pirate” will just spend hours and hours of frustration (bad for game and for word-of-mouth purchases) until they find said unique character which they would have made anyways with far less frustration and much more happiness, which spreads to the word-of-mouth love for this game and dedication to Purchasing DLC stuff.
I for one have always made all my characters and avatars look exactly like myself, even Wii Mii, its what I do, it’s who I am as a gamer. All my pirates in all my pirate games look just like me in my RL pictures. The point is, players should get to play immersive games the way they best like to emerge. It really is a win win for Rare to allow fully customizable characters... because the people who don’t want to do that will not care if people get to do it (cause they will have their automatic random generated characters) and the people who do care will be happy, very happy, and all will sing their praises of the game to the masses. The cost/reward for not having customization in hands of player is just too high to negate, imho
-Rare just wants a certain look of uniqueness to their pirates:
I do see what is being said about Rare’s possible desire with more spread of diverse looks... but I am telling you the proof is insurmountably out there that they will have enormous amount of unique characters regardless of letting people customize or randomly select from IPG... what they will find is that those IPG toons that are picked for the most part will end up really looking like only a select few of their mass options... e.g. “Skinny Muscle Pirates”... but with very upset not fully content players behind them, whereas player control customization would yield the same amount of “Skinny Muscle Pirates” but with Waaaaaaaaaay happier players behind them.
and honestly the more control and access to switching at any moment the more you will have people doing different variations of pirates; therefore, bringing Much More uniqueness to the game, because with only “one choice one time” you will find much more same “Type Cast” Pirate then if you let people change their look any time any place so they feel more free to experiment with the jollier non-“Type Cast” pirates.
Because when people only get “one shot” or even a “small handful” (as per being discussed by Rare of locking 4 character look options) they will still more often than not stick to their “Type Cast Pirate” it is only when you completely free it to be anytime any place that you will find more and more people willing to try something outside their comfort zone and “Type Cast Pirate” selection. Cause with only a “one-shot” permanent choice most people will go with the traditional “Type Cast” character because of the looming choice of eternity and not wanting any Buyer’s Remorse from choose a less “Type Cast” character.
Another way to say is with a “one shot” ultimate choice scenario Rare will most often find that all those “temporary lock-ins” are “Type Casted” Pirates whereas “Any Time Any Place” in-game customizing access will have more and more players building very unique characters from the far ranges of the Rare Designer’s creation options. And people tend to do these far reaches out-of-ordinary “Typecast Pirate” comfort zones when they know their choices will not me permanent (even if they choose to keep those out of the ordinary looks forever, they did so with the option of changing being there)
If the goal is to have a lot of “Designer’s Full Range Unique Characters” (old, skinny, fat, tall, short, women and men, etc) running around then I promise that giving “Any Time Anywhere” character customizing freedom is the best way to ensure the seas are full of their full design ranges.... because if players only get a one time choice they will most often choose a “Type Cast” character and then all Rare’s designers will miss out on seeing a lot of their hard worked range of looks being out there on the seas.
The beauty of having Both an IPG and a Full customization “any time any place” option while in-game is... All WIN! The people who don’t care or don’t like lots of options (but maybe will someday), and those that do... All Win with both being implemented. Yaaargh!