Do yourself a favor and make uglier characters in video games

I tried it out earlier this week Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashedan asymmetrical multiplayer game that technically came out back in 2022, but recently landed in the PlayStation's Plus library and is therefore new to me. The game itself is a) fun for a minute, but is much less deep than comparable titles like the one from developer Illfonic Friday The 13or the evil Dead game, and b) not the point of this article. No, what annoyed me when I was busy destroying ghosts (or rather, being them, because it's always better to be the tyrant in such games) was the number of characters in the first Game cutscenes that were clearly ghosts were designed in the game's fairly robust character creator with the clear purpose of appearance Good.

You know that's not the point of a character creator in a video game, right?

Admittedly, my thoughts on this could easily be influenced by the recent return of Griffin and Justin McElroy's popular YouTube series Monster factorya show that helped shape a lot of my feelings about making beautiful Uggos in games. But every time I see a flawlessly sculpted face in an online video game – or in the screenshots of people playing through games like this Mass effect, Elden Ringor other character creation-intensive games – every feature finely sculpted, every piece of clothing coordinated, every beard and hair highlight chosen for maximum aesthetic impact, I wonder: What are you doing, buddy?

Let's quickly forget the obvious caveats: people gamble for many reasons, and one of those reasons is to play around with idealized body types and appearances. (Or just to recreate their perfect or most representative vision of themselves.) Let's Also Recognize the privilege that comes with the fact that games have traditionally been much better at providing that idealization to people with certain body types and skin tones, and that the onus is on the developers who have taken on the frankly ridiculous task of making them playable People creating creation kits to actually engage with the diversity of what this concept entails in a way that makes a difference all a clean hit on the bat. I don’t want to take that away from anyone; If your goal in entering a character creator is to imagine someone you either want to be or be with (or who just thinks they fit your personal idea of ​​cool), more power to you .

On a personal level, however, once I stopped assigning my own cheeks, pale skin, and sunken eyes to a poor digital meat puppet, I began to have a lot more fun accepting the ugliness in video games – expression in my games. Because they allow you to play with the proportions of the human form to more or less extremes, I think that video game character creators are definitely better tools for creating shitty little guys than traditionally good-looking ones. (Anyone who's ever frantically moved the sliders back and forth to fix their jaw in a game like this will understand exactly what I mean.) On a more philosophical level, by allowing players to transcend conventional beauty standards in terms of symmetry or other signifiers When it comes to “hot” characters, character creators also allow for a much wider net of expression than trying to create something that looks like “Sephiroth, but he's nice.” (To paraphrase Tolstoy: All good-looking noses are the same; every shitty nose is shitty in its own way.) Play through Elden Ring with a horrible nightmare face poking through parts of my helmet, or even just when I intentionally see it Rat Boy Presentation in Ghostbustersfills me with a sense of pride that I could never get from myself: “But my beard is actually trimmed right.” When I was younger, I designed ambitious Commander Shepards Mass effectI never understood how much more character there is in a “bad” face than a “good” one, or how much more I could love the resulting homunculi than a polished Ken doll. Once I let go of “Pretty,” it took a starting task that often felt like an exercise in hollow recovery, turning it into, well, Character creation.

So I ask you, character customizers: the next time you're faced with this wide array of sliders, tangible facial bones, or other character creation tools, resist the urge to be hot. Avoid the middle sliders. Don't be afraid to add an extra wrinkle or scar; Look how far these ears can go Really receive. Embrace the ugly and you will be surprised that you end up with a figure that is better than sexy, handsome or cool: you will end up with a figure that is your.