Character Personalisation and the Community

[Riardon]

It's quite simple. The character is an avatar of yourself in the digital world. So you want to look unique and represent your ideal self. In the real world you can't change yourself but in a digital have you can.

[kidvideo]

I wish I was better at customizing my character's appearance. Ideally, I'd like to use a real life headshot of myself & just tweek it a little.

I'll customize my gear when I have the free time.

As for NPC's, the appeal to me is less about the surface details & more about the character & how they fit in the story. I like Thancred because he's roguish, like Merlwyb because she's strong, in-charge & will more than likely shoot you. I like Alphinaud because he's young, smart, driven to purpose & also caring. I like Cid, because what's a Final Fantasy game without Cid?

[Blueyes]

Back during the beta phase of 1.0 I actually posted a topic that showed images of about ten different character designs, outlining my thought process as I moved from one to the next, ultimately leading to my final decision for my character for when the game launched. Needless to say I spent quite a lot of hours trying to craft the ideal character design to represent a part of myself. Much of that decision making had some back story behind it. Despite my character undergoing further changes since then I have always felt very satisfied with the appearance I had created for myself. I especially enjoy feeling a sense of uniqueness. It's extremely rare for me to encounter another character who looks even remotely similar, but even if I did run into someone with the same look it still wouldn't bother me because in my eyes my character is still special.

In terms of equipment, while I won't go as far as to spend hundreds of thousands of gil on gear to use for glamour, I'm not at all content with wearing some random mishmash of equipment. Once I have an outfit established I'll immediately glamour any new equipment back to my chosen gear piece. If I find something new that I like I won't use it until I've obtained a full set that will work with it. For lower level classes, while I usually won't bother to glamour equipment (as I'll just get something new a few levels later) I will often at least dye the gear to my preferred color.

As for the class restrictions with glamour, I wouldn't say that I'm strongly for or against it, but what does bother me is that the system prevents different jobs from using different outfits if they share equipment. I would absolutely love it if I could give each job that I use its own unique style without having to wear completely different sets.

And lastly, about any NPC that I like, for me it's Kan-E-Senna. Incredibly wise, calm, and thoughtful. I have nothing bad to say about her.

[Elim]

I'm a customizing fiend.

One thing I normally do with characters is try to make them look similar to myself IRL(thus always male). To put "myself" in the game. Clearly I don't mean their race, since I don't have cat ears. I mean I make their hair, eyes, etc the same. Sometimes I go wild and just do whatever though.

When it comes to clothing my character, I tend to switch around once a month, unless I magically find just the right outfit. I can't really explain what the right outfit is, besides it being a mix of a masculine and feminine style. I'm one of those infamous people who enjoy bishie's. I don't spend much on my outfit because I tend to craft my own stuff, get someone to craft it or earn it. For example, right now, I'm wearing a PvP set because I like the black belts(the PvE version has brown belts) and darker purple secondary color.

Although I love lalafell because they remind me of leprechaun and other mythical beings that look similar. They're plain adorable and hilarious if you RP them as being evil. Also I've played other MMO's with chibi style character so I'm very comfortable with their look. Only reason I'm playing male miqo'te (besides the fact that they're sexy beasts, both in appearance and lore) and not a lala is because I'm tired of male lala hairstyles. I only sorta like one of the hairstyles they have, but it looks 100x better on male miqo'te's. I will probably switch back to lala when they get a new, GOOD hairstyle.

When it comes to NPCs, I tend not to care. At least none so far in this game interests me besides that crazy elezen in the main storyline. I don't even remember his name. All I remember is he made me laugh and that's important.

Not sure if I stayed completely on topic because I rambled. lol

[LTEvil]

I spend stupid amounts of gil and time getting the right stylish set of gear to wear if I don't lost too many stats.
I personally game for two reasons though.
To wreck shit and to accomplish. I always strive to be top dog at everything I do I was raised this way.
As far as making my character, always thought a small chick with a big ass weapon was insanely sexy. I mean lets be serious it's hard to find good quality psycho chicks in real life these days. Anyway i'm a perv so I spend downtime staring at my character trying to figure out how to make her more appealing. I think if I wasn't into gaming in that form I would have dumped FFXIV a long ass time ago. In a way I guess you can call it my RP element. Everyone has one and this is mine. Crafting a appealing chick with a big sword to wreck people for my personal pleasure.

[Maza]

Interesting thread OP +1 My avi is the complete opposite of me female for start and she has much better taste in clothes than myself lol. I am a artist/designer at heart and I like the stuff I have to look good and match, cars, décor and especially mmo chars. No matter what class or what level gear my avi wears I have to make the tones compliment each other. I'm a guy but I'm fond of Coco Chanels' eye for color or lack there of, pastels, black and white or earth tones. Never been a big fan of bright flamboyant colors. I can't wait to get my whm to 50, I love the pointy white and black cloak and the staff with wings

[Eggnook24]

I definitely created a character that would be a bit of an underdog, because everyone wants the good guy to win. I like short races, I'm under 5'6", other games I like dwarves, it's just my preference having the little guy be the bad ass. I spent time refining my character and relate to him as an extension of me.

And yes, I'd love some arm and leg armor for my SCH, who doesn't want a bit of protection from the baddies who go after the soft casters?

[Gramul]

Having a good color pallet, gear that complements the body type are good for physical design.

Character wise, having someone who is bold, clear, and understanding is a good general draw. Least from what I observe.
Also, not taking oneself too seriously.

[SummonerSenah]

My character is mostly the same as when I created her. The biggest change is I changed her hair from its original style to the Lightning hair, and changed it from green with pink highlights to purple with blue highlights. I'm pretty certain I'll stick with that. On glamours, the cost of some of the cooler things (augmented AF for example) is prohibitive so my glamours tend to be more commonly available outfits, which makes me less unique but I don't really care as long as I look good. :P But I wish that glamours could be set to job crystals, since tanks, healers, and casters share armor. I'd love to be able to set up different glamours for all nine jobs.

[Steady]

I pick characters that I think aren't going to look like anyone else, and ones that have a few similar characteristics to the RL version of me.