From the colorful anime-esque characters of many JRPGs, to the big burly men of action titles, to the scantily clad women and muscled men of fighting games, developers spend alot of time creating specific looks for their characters in order to attract their target audience.

But how important are a games' character appearances to you? Do you spend alot of time on character customization screens creating a character that looks just right? Are you put off by games simply because their character models are unappealing? Are you attracted to certain games because of their character models?

We spend nearly all of our time staring at their backs, so you wouldn't think it would matter so much, but many gamers spend a significant amount of time on that character creation screen. The options for height, body type, skin tone, face shape, eye color, hairstyle and so on can seem endless. Details for eye, skin, and hair shades, as well as facial details like scars and piercings number in the hundreds in some games.

But in spite of the options at hand, the avatar is just a tool to get the job done, right? Your Paladin's hairstyle won't give him any sort of tactical advantage in battle, so those players who zoom right past the character creator and accept the randomly-generated avatar can get straight to killing. They're having just as much fun."

With so many options at your disposal, do you spend the required time getting your character's hair the perfect shade of red and experimenting with that facial scar to get it just so? Or do you skip the vanity part and get to the killing already?

Miss Razz via massively.com »