Your Character; a projection, a fantasy or something random?

[Lexia]

Something nice to look at.

[Joe_Schmoe]

Mostly a projection. I'm a loner and a rebel (inb4 Pee-Wee Herman) in real life who's all business, with a healthy dose of Frank Zappa thrown in as well. This translates to in-game as well. I don't do seasonal stuff or dance next to aetherites etc., which I find a waste of time. I just want to log in and quest/craft/run instances and help others out when I can, with giving them a chuckle a bonus. The rest is just fat.

[Tachyon]

My 'characters' are all unique in looks/personality/backstory. Though in this game instead of making multiple characters I have just the one, but when I get really bored of a certain race or look I always change their name as well. Xah is dead, long live Steven! etc. It can be a little jarring at times. So far between when I first started and now I have had 4 unique name/character combinations. SE likes taking my money for fantasia/name changes.

[Knahli]

My 'characters' are all unique in looks/personality/backstory. Though in this game instead of making multiple characters I have just the one, but when I get really bored of a certain race or look I always change their name as well. Xah is dead, long live Steven! etc. It can be a little jarring at times. So far between when I first started and now I have had 4 unique name/character combinations. SE likes taking my money for fantasia/name changes.

Why would you deliberately opt against alts and take your chosen alternative? Whenever you feel your interests leaning toward a different aesthetic, couldn't you simply play a different character for a while with no reason to erase your others?

[Tachyon]

Why would you deliberately opt against alts and take your chosen alternative? Whenever you feel your interests leaning toward a different aesthetic, couldn't you simply play a different character for a while with no reason to erase your others?

I really don't like re-lvling that much between my battle/crafting and gathering classes. Most of my changes last for months at a time so its not that much of a bother to me if I only do a drastic change once in a while.

[myahele]

I always try to make a character look like myself, so when I got the game that's what I did, down to the hairstyle. So if anything, I suppose I "projected" myself into the game world in a sense

This being my 1st and only MMORPG I was able to how everyone's character was so unique and stood out so much ... then I see my character and he was so plain in comparison. I already used up my vet reward fantasia to make minor changes to my character and back then Fantasia was not in the cash shop and there were no aesthetician, so I was stuck and I wasn't willing to redo the game as a different character since I accomplished a lot already.. The release of the aesthetician helped a bit.

When Fantasia was purchasable, I changed as a Miqo'te and switch to a lore-friendly name (seeker) since their lore was interesting and since then each race I switch to have their own separate head cannon and names.

[Krissey]

Why would you deliberately opt against alts and take your chosen alternative? Whenever you feel your interests leaning toward a different aesthetic, couldn't you simply play a different character for a while with no reason to erase your others?

I am the exact same way. I am not going to trudge through the story all over again just to play a class I've already leveled more than likely just to look different. Unlocking all the dungeons, all the primals, all the side quests for glamour and fast travel and the aesthetician. I'm not replaying the whole game, no thanks I'll pay 10$ and just change my character's aesthetic.

[Morningstar1337]

Gonna say "Fantasy" here, with a touch of Special Snowflake (Note the name [Though I can use the Nickname excuse for that], and the eyes). Though I did attempt to design her around the Aurora Borealis.

As far as how I play, Well I have something of a backstory for Aurora, but parts of it changes to my playstyle whole other remain inconsistent with how I act IRL. For example, My choice of Guardian was because I wanted to craft, but after finding that a little too tedious (It took the Ixali beast tribe quests to get me back into crafting, an I haven't gotten them beyond 50 yet), I since deiced to go for a metaphorical builder of bridges take on it.

Other times, I do things because of what I had in mind for her. For example She went to the Coils and Alexander as a result of the events in Azys Lla, which left her curious of what exactly makes a primal (crystals and faith aside) and afraid of what she might be becoming.

[Iagainsti]

I downloaded the game knowing full well I was maining a Marauder/Warrior(still do), and being a fan of Robert E. Howard, tried to make my avatar as Barbaric as possible, over the years glams have ranged from Golden Axe, Gauntlet, Conan, etc, so very Sword and Sorcery for me; as you can see, I don't resemble my avatar whatsoever xD

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ow+face+zalera

P.S- I'm the Dog if you're wondering

[Meraii]

Well in the case of Meraii Hale, that is an alter ego I created as a teen. All Meraii Hales in every game have silver hair (or white if no silver is available), and if possible, one red eye and one green (if not possible, just green). The length/style of the hair and the height/race of the character vary depending on my mood, but I tend to lean towards short characters because Meraii has an innocence about her, plus the short races usually end up being the super smart ones. On WoW that means Meraii is a gnome, in GW2 she is an Asura, FFXIV a lalafell, on other games though, she is a human or an elf depending on the options.

For non-Meraii characters, I tend to go with what looks best/most fitting for each race and just play around until I find something I like. I'm in the process of making one of each race (still choosing a name for an elezen and haven't bothered at all with an au'ra yet)

There's not much point in making a character that looks like me.
edit: Although I supposed you could argue that Meraii is an idealised projection of myself, although obviously, I have a better figure.