Do We Need Better Character Customization In Warcraft?

I don't know about you, but rolling a new character in Warcraft is always something I do with mixed emotions.

Firstly, of course, there is the anticipation of the adventures ahead, mixed in with some little concern that I have done it so many times before that I might well lose interest.

Well, of course I want to. I could wait for all the changes that will come with Cataclysm of course, this will refresh the early levelling process no end.

Then something else strikes me. As I'm rolling the character I remember just how limited the choices are for the appearance.

Is it just me? Are the preset faces for characters getting really old

Rolling a human really brings it home to me. There seems very little choice, and what choice there is - is between characterizations that really do not appeal to me at all. I mean, this is a face and character I'll be playing for hour after hour. It would be nice if it was an enjoyable spectacle.

Back in 2005, the limitations were excusable. Both the ability of computers to draw and render good facial expressions was more limited, then there was the issue of broadband speed being generally several factors slower than it is now, making the caching and uploading of many different facial designs an issue.

I've also heard people say that it's all about the armour you have at level 80. I'll counter that by saying that that's all starting to seem a bit "samey" to me. Tier 9, Tier 10. Once you've seen two human Warlocks with BiS raiding gear, you've seen the lot.

The last couple of years have seen a lot of MMORPG's that include a good amount of character customization. It seems that many have jumped on the idea that it is a real selling point of the game; I'm inclined to agree...Champions Online might have its faults, but the level of detail you can apply to making your avatar truly unique is astounding. This from a company with a fraction of the resources that Blizzard can bring to the table.

It would be nice if Blizzard gave us similar options for the world's biggest online game wouldn't it?

Sadly, having seen the trailers so far for Cataclysm, it isn't something they are considering any time soon.