Character Creation Options!

[Abriael]

Its also running Unreal which can't really take that many people on screen at once.

Technically the engine can, but not with that level of detail. When there were big fights in APB the lag was unbearable even with powerful computers.

If you want to see incredible amounts of customization, then Second Life is the place to look at, with the ability to directly upload textures and 3D models and such. Of course, just as in APB, there's a area-based population limit.

Certain things simply aren't for MMORPGs, until server/networking technology evolves quite a lot.

Having different body morphs for a character body is pretty cool and would be possible in a MMO RPG. Same goes for tattoos, and many other things.

Tattoos increase the memory footprint a LOT if they're done in a vectorial designer like the one in APB. If they're not, and only a limited number of designs is allowed, I'm quite on the fence about their inclusion, considering that it would possibly *increass* the clone effect instead of decreasing it. This without mentioning that considering the fact that FFXIV isn't exactly a "show a lot of skin" MMORPG, their priority isn't exactly high.

Body sliders have the usual problem. The more variations for the body, the more animations need to be generic in order to accomodate them.

Any kind of texture uploading (IE: flags) would require direct moderation (IE: employees that check every file that's uploaded and remove inappropriate content) and even more, server->client downloading (that would increase the data flow, and with that the lag) and that's why MMORPG developrs shy away from it.