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

Sure I’m really looking forward to exploring the possibilities of a new class combination, but first I need to fix my mind. I have done this many, many times in the past. Do I want to do it all again?

It’s not that much of an issue though. I’m soon happy with the idea of the new possibilities the character will bring.

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

For me the humans are worse (perhaps it’s familiarity). They seem a weird looking bunch. They lack real definition. Apart from the hair and piercing there seems little to choose between one character and the next. The looks are also getting very old , both in terms of the number of times I’ve seen them, and the graphical detail that now seems so “2005″.

Back in 2005 though, most people’s internet connections was a fraction of the speed they have now. So having a preset number of faces and characters may well have been necessary given the bandwidth people had back then.

Another counter argument is that once people get to the level cap it’s all about the armour. I agree with that – but even that’s a shame. There is only one tier 10 BiS for each class/talent combination so you still end up with very similar looking characters at the end of the game.

Now there are any number of games, many by publishers with a fraction of the resources available to Blizzard, who let you customize everything right down to the shade of pink on your new characters nail polish.

So how about it then Blizzard, what about letting us design the style and look of characters we actually would like to play?

I’ve scanned the pre-release notes for Cataclysm hoping for some mention of it. Sadly nothing as yet. I live in hope.

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