Character Creation

Character creation is a fundamental step in your journey on any Massively Multiplayer Online game (or MMO for short.) Now if you're just starting an MMO, you may get slightly confused at the process. There are usually around five to seven steps to creating your identity, depending on each game's style. Some games may allow you to create a completely customized character, while others may only give you general adjustments such as eye color, hair color, body type, etc. This will hopefully help you in understanding the process, but actually making your character is entirely up to you.

            The first step is usually picking a "faction." Factions depend greatly on the game you have, and how differently they affect your experiences in-game. For example, Star Wars: The Old Republic Online (or TORO) has only two factions; the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. In some games you may change factions later on in the game, but in TORO and other games this decision is final. Be extremely careful and mindful when choosing your faction as it will affect your experience in the game, and also the next step.

            After picking a faction, you will need to pick a race. Just like the Factions, this will vary greatly from game to game. For fantasy games the usual roster will be there; Elves, Humans, Dwarves, etc. For Sci-Fi games it may be along the lines of Cyborgs, Humans, and whatever Alien species that are from that game's universe and timeline. Sticking with the TORO theme, and say we picked the Sith Empire faction, we will have Sith Pure Bloods, Cyborgs, and an alien species called Rattataki. These three species are only available to the Sith Empire. Humans are nearly always available to any faction regardless of the faction you picked, but not in every game. After picking a race you will need to decide if your character will be female or male. This decision, regardless of your own real-life gender, is usually a difficult one to make. If it is right to change your character's gender from your real-life gender, that is for an entirely different argument.

            After finally getting your basic character, you get to customize it. Like stated in the beginning, the customization options may vary from game to game. Some games may only allow you to change your hair, skin, and eye color along with body type. Others may give you full range of options. With so many different MMOs, it is almost impossible to advise you properly in this part. Many games will have sliders that change the settings, while others will have pictures of what they will look like on your character, like a small preview. This is the most basic advice that is without generalizing too much, so try to experiment with what you have.

            With your character the way you want it to look, you will need to pick its profession, also known as a class. This is arguably the most important part of creating a character; this will be how you level up, and how your experience in the game will be until you can afford to change professions (if it is even allowed.) For most MMOs there will only be combat classes, but a few MMOs will have some that are not combat related. Each profession will have different styles of armor, skills, combat styles, and weapons. Be extremely careful when picking a class; if you are just starting a MMO, do not pick a healing class. These classes are expected to know how to heal well in stressful situations. If you feel you would do well as a healer, create a secondary character as your healer. Focus on learning the game as a tank class, a class that can take loads of damage. When you have a group of friends who know you are starting as a healer, take out your secondary character and play that. Also be weary of picking a damage class; these classes are very weak, and are focused on dealing damage, rather than surviving a fight. If you're easily frustrated, this class may not be for you.

            Once you have decided on a profession, the only step left is naming your character. The only thing I can offer you for advice is this: Do not name it after yourself, your account's username, or anything relating to your password. This name will appear to everyone in the MMO, so be mindful of that. Now go, new adventurer! Conquer your enemies and make a name for yourself. Just remember there are people behind those other characters, too.