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[Garrett Hawke]

As a white person this is something that didn't even occur to me until I read that Narcisse article a while ago and I feel like it really opened my eyes. Like its bad enough that there aren't many black protags but even when you can customise one they're half assed.

 

[CNCOMICS]

Did you know not all black people have large lips and large noses depending on which African country their family is from?

That may make it easier. Also that 2nd image looks offensive.

Now that you're banned, go sit in the corner and think really hard about that last part, hell, about your entire post.

As for myself, Mass Effect 1 was the last time I spent hours creating a facial-ly correct 1:1 CNCOMICS Shepard. The uncanny valley was so real, I gave him green eyes to trick myself. Even with the green eyes, he freaked my friends out so much, that they actually stopped coming over when I had my Mass Effect sessions.

However, because it's so hard for me to make a character in my likeness in games lacking a robust character creator, I usually just end up creating a straight-haired redbone waifu out of frustration.

 

[Pinko Marx]

One of the main reason why I started making female characters was because I got tired of boo boo options for black males. It's a lot easier to make a black(ish) female than a black male.

 

[Yabberwocky]

I had this problem on both PC and PS3 in DA:O - I tried to make a black Warden, and she came out with purple-ish skin colour.

 

[Prisoner KSC2-303]

Well that sucks.

I wonder what's worse though, the fact that there are so few options, or that they seem to sporadically come and go, and there's little sign of an upward trend towards including them universally.

On a side note, I had no idea there was a hair style called a caesar. You learn something new every day.

 

[Phreakuency]

On the other hand all white guys in sports games, official and created look much less lifelike than everyone else.

 

[Melkezadek]

It's frustrating to me for sure. I was bummed when I was having a harder time making a black guy in DS3 than I had with Bloodborne.

I wish CC's had more options for hair in general. I usually end up having to settle for a lowcut or bald.

EDIT: Ugh, compression

 

[TriniTrin]

I've been trying to make a Mexican head coach in madden for years. I'm either black or white. Hee hee

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

Those damn hidden presets strike again!

 

[kewlmyc]

Hard? Usually impossible. Here's one black hair style for your character! Go get it! You deserve it!

I usually get lucky due to having an afro, and it's one of the few black hairstyles people bother putting in the game, though it's usually for comedic effects.

 

[Afrocious]

I'll update the OP. Here's my Shepard:

 

[Infinite]

Hair options fucking suck.

 

[Ratrat]

I can only imagine. The character creator in Froms games are so bad I couldn't make a decent looking character period.

As far race goes, I like what MGSV did. That with more options would be awesome. The cc made it easy to have attractive characters of different races without resorting to extreme stereotypes.

 

[PrinceKee]

I feel like the character creators in most games sucks when it comes to make characters of different races. Especially Asian and black. I lot of times your character comes out with just weird skins tones and Caucasian characteristics. It's something developers need to work on. But, as a black man it sucks and I'm used to it at this point...

 

[JeremyEtcetera]

It can be really difficult. There's been a slow progress in certain American made titles, especially with hair styles. The Division was a step forward but a huge step back because the customization in general is a bit bare bones. I've noticed that some Japanese and Korean developers still haven not progressed too far from the days of the Mr. T hairstyle, Cornrows and Afros. Kojimapro did good jobs, Capcom makes strides here and there but then they take two steps back sometimes and Team Ninja still likes Dennis Rodman.

 

[encephalon]

I can only imagine. The character creator in Froms games are so bad I couldn't make a decent looking character period.

As far race goes, I like what MGSV did. That with more options would be awesome. The cc made it easy to have attractive characters of different races without resorting to extreme stereotypes.

This is actually pretty impressive!

 

[Afrocious]

I can only imagine. The character creator in Froms games are so bad I couldn't make a decent looking character period.

As far race goes, I like what MGSV did. That with more options would be awesome. The cc made it easy to have attractive characters of different races without resorting to extreme stereotypes.

Woah this is good.

 

[Krappadizzle]

When I tried to make Eli(from Book of Eli) for Fallout 4, he looked plain awful, the skin tone never seemed right and I could never get a decent beard choice that didn't look like shit. I ended up just having him always wear masks/hats, but that kinda killed the point of me wanting to make him.

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

Kudos to the three or four games that make the palms of our hands and underneath the fingernails the proper tone instead of the same exact color of the rest of our skin. Grosses me out when I have to play a character whose nails are permanently dirty.

 

[spazchicken]

The thing that's funny is that OP shows an example of a Japanese game that doesn't have a strong grasp of black features in it's character editor when most Japanese games don't even acknowledge that black people exist.

 

[Codeblue]

You just need to unlock the hidden negro presets.

 

[Atomski]

It's hard to make anything human looking in Souls games..

 

[RevenWolf]

It's hard to make anything human looking in Souls games..

Yup, I shally just hide behind a beard or slap a helmet on myself to fix any issues lol.

 

[bobbychalkers]

Kudos to the three or four games that make the palms of our hands and underneath the fingernails the proper tone instead of the same exact color of the rest of our skin. Grosses me out when I have to play a character whose nails are permanently dirty.

oh fuck I never noticed this! This will retroactively ruin some games for me haha.

 

[NastyBook]

Games I've had the easiest time making black characters in:

*Bloodborne
*MGSV
*Dragon's Dogma

 

[Crayon]

Eye opening thread. If I had designed a character creator, I would have messed this up.

 

[tintin1029]

I would really like a character creator that tries so hard to be black people friendly, that it forgets to also make good white people as well. Then all the white dudes end up looking like mutants.

 

[shoreu]

Don't pretty much all character creators have an option to change the shape and size of your nose, mouth, lips etc.? I don't get why you say you can't apply "black facial features" when all the options to do that are there.

Its hard to make them look like they do on me.

Fuck and don't get me started on hair styles you have 4

 

[sensui-tomo]

When i've seen other shepards (ME) there was only one shepard that looked good in the custom maker. If its offensive (i dont imply it to be as such though) i'll take it down.

 

[Nightbird]

Kudos to the three or four games that make the palms of our hands and underneath the fingernails the proper tone instead of the same exact color of the rest of our skin. Grosses me out when I have to play a character whose nails are permanently dirty.

This this this this so much.

Looks so horrible!

I have yet to come across Games with a great character creator for black people, but I usually play Japanese games, so there's that

 

[Zackat]

yo that MGSV set looks good. Pretty cool. Based Kojima.

 

[Moon_frogger]

#notallcharactercreators


Seriously though, why do people feel the need to chime in and make dumb comments like 'it's hard for white people too!' It's clearly impossible to make realistic black people in most of these games. Let's talk about what we can do to fix that instead of trying to shout it down and trivialize it

 

[cutthroatslim]

#notallcharactercreators


Seriously though, why do people feel the need to chime in and make dumb comments like 'it's hard for white people too!' It's clearly impossible to make realistic black people in most of these games. Let's talk about what we can do to fix that instead of trying to shout it down and trivialize it

would LOVE an answer to this...

 

[Gbraga]

Dragon's Dogma is cool

Ended up changing his hair when I got to Gran Soren, though.

 

[StylesClash]

I think the Division has the best choice of a default black character I've ever seen but there is not a single game that has allowed you to create anything close to that.

 

[Faustek]

OK I need to go back to DD, MGSV and remake my character. I kinda didn't even try since...well I've had given up

Also OP, being a bit of a perfectionist seems to have given you some nice chars

 

[Krappadizzle]

#notallcharactercreators


Seriously though, why do people feel the need to chime in and make dumb comments like 'it's hard for white people too!' It's clearly impossible to make realistic black people in most of these games. Let's talk about what we can do to fix that instead of trying to shout it down and trivialize it

I'm a white guy, and I won't speak for all white people, but if I had to guess it's because some people only see it through the lense of "it's not that bad, I can't make a perfect clone of myself, so I'm not sure why you're complaining" when they don't understand that it's not even about the fine, minutial details of a person's face, it's about very basic things as skin color/tone and hair just plain looking awful on most black characters in most games.

 

[The Faceless Master]

Saint's Row is the best non-sports game series in that regard.

 

[Spyware]

Yeah mostly I feel I'm just making "random features + dark skin" when I make a character with darker skin. Either that or something that is just "stereotypical black person".

Here are some of mine anyways.

Fallout 4:

Guild Wars 2:

Skyrim:

Mass Effect in horrible potato quality since I played on console and posted them on Instagram to try to hide the ugly distortion:

Much prettier Mass Effect 3:

Dragon's Dogma demo, also potato Instagram:

Edit: Right, this is what i "managed" in Demon's Souls.

 

[Afrocious]

Yeah mostly I feel I'm just making "random features + dark skin" when I make a character with darker skin. Either that or something that is just "stereotypical black person".

Here are some of mine anyways.

Fallout 4:


Guild Wars 2:


Skyrim:


Mass Effect in horrible potato quality since I played on console and posted them on Instagram to try to hide the ugly distortion:


Much prettier Mass Effect 3:


Dragon's Dogma demo, also potato Instagram:


Edit: Right, this is what i "managed" in Demon's Souls.

Yo, these are good. I especially dig your GW2 woman. GJ with dealing with ME's creator.

OK I need to go back to DD, MGSV and remake my character. I kinda didn't even try since...well I've had given up

Also OP, being a bit of a perfectionist seems to have given you some nice chars

Thanks!!

 

[bobbychalkers]

Saint's Row is the best non-sports game series in that regard.

Its got great facial options but I'm really hoping they throw in more black hair options for SR5. For male styles, watch a few NBA games and for women, watch Lemonade and Formation and take notes.

 

[The Faceless Master]

One of the main reason why I started making female characters was because I got tired of boo boo options for black males. It's a lot easier to make a black(ish) female than a black male.

and sadly, that's only really because of the negative view on black womens natural hair

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

I just want more curly hair for my black female characters

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/black-curly-hair/

Plus, I'm light skinned.

Spoiler

I'm a guy that mostly make female characters.

 

[Jack The Nipper]

Second guy looks like someone from a comic book cover, spiderman? Maybe another book. Forgot which book. He's sort of Conan or Amazon themed.

 

[TheKeyPit]

While I do pretty much always have a hard time making an appealing black woman, the grass isn't exactly that much greener for any race in character creators. They usually all look like terrible plastic doll versions of the race you were going for.

We need more options for everybody. My hair is ~5-8cm long, but you'll never find the perfect hair for that in a game. The only choices are to be bald, have a flat hair texture or choose hair that's too long.

 

[FLAguy954]

I can only imagine. The character creator in Froms games are so bad I couldn't make a decent looking character period.

As far race goes, I like what MGSV did. That with more options would be awesome. The cc made it easy to have attractive characters of different races without resorting to extreme stereotypes.

This should be the gold standard, damn that's awesome.

 

[Jack The Nipper]

Should make the hair portion whether you can make each part longer or shorter, then let you cut it to how you want

Wouldn't be that hard cutting off ends or cutting away depth. Then buzzing around shorter to the head with various Sizes for any character. Would take out the news for creating tons of hair styles.

 

[-BLITZ-]

I still dislike big time, the fact that Fallout 3 or New Vegas had those mix colors of purple and green over character skin for all races, but for african-american race is even worst when those colors come together with yellow as a third color and since shades or tits options never get it right or don't do a thing, in order to achieve that dark chocolate to mimic Carl Johnson from GTA that I like, I have to spend as much as 15 minutes on "choose random character" option clicking endlessly until the game will give the proper coloring that I want and after that I have to start to model the character. Can take up to 45 minutes

I was very frustrated and thinking if this will transit to Fallout 4 as well that will kill me for a new gen game, but after the reveal, now I'm relieved to see how well this race was redone.

Saints Row 2 done a better job and The Third even greater. Don't know about IV though since I never played it. I can't remember any game others than these two.

 

[double jump]

When i've seen other shepards (ME) there was only one shepard that looked good in the custom maker. If its offensive (i dont imply it to be as such though) i'll take it down.

Holy shit! DEEBO Shepard.
XD

 

[poodaddy]

As a white guy who creates only black or middle eastern characters in creation systems I can attest to this. Every time I look at my characters I feel like they're just Latinos who've been stranded on an island for a few years. That being said, it does seem easier to make middle eastern characters than blacks, so I've kind of switched over to that as my "preferred character race." ......hope that doesn't sound racist at all.