Now I know this concept has in all likelyhood already been implemented but since I just started thinking about it this morning and I haven''t seen it in the topics I thought I''d post. The huge success of FPSs like UT and Quake etc has been from their modability, thats why people keep coming back for more because they can kep it new and interesting. You may not be able to do it the same way in a MMORPG because you must keep continuity in it for everyone. However why not give players the option of designing their characters look in a 3D MORPG? Of course guidelines would have to be set out (max polycount, certain restrictions as far as size) plus the fact that if there are races it must conform to certain givens. But this might be a small price to pay to add to the Role-playing factor of the game. Keep the templates were used to for those who dont know how to model their char as well. I don''t think this will keep them from old but it may prolong the interest of some who enjoy seeing a rough likeness of themselves running around on the screen. Textures as well could be custom to add more flavor. I imagin that they should be submitted to the company running the game for approval and insertion into the character''s profile. Thoughts?

while it would make for an interesting game, lots of nekkid chick models and the like :o the actual feasibility of submitting a model for approval and the like is not very high. unless you were being charged a sum, i don''t think any company would want to sift through hundreds of ameteur models. not including the fact that then that model and texture would then have to be uploaded to everybody''s version of the game in order for them to see you!

Thanks for the replies. I''m not sure that the models would have to be uploaded to everybody''s client since this would cause a lot of work for the client trying to keep the game current. Yes this means more bandwidth but this may not be as much of a problem since broadband options are more widely available now. It could be set up so that when a player enters an area near another modded avatar, the avartar''s parameters could begin to trickle in. I''m thinking the texture is going to be bigger then the actual model.

Truth is (I should have mentioned this before) when I thought of this I was thinking about a game with chars about the size of Diablo''s characters. So models could be kept at 150 polys at the most. And your right in that it would most likely have to be a person going over every single model (tedious at best). There would have to be restrictions such as not being able to change your chars model once started. I''m thinking that the option should be given from within the game at character creation, and players would be told that approval may take several days.

If models are submitted via the character creation interface then players could be kept from flooding staff with several models, since each model would be tagged with the players account and possibly filtered out. Still a lot of work but it might help some.

Have an optional package available for download every week/month? with the new models. If you dont download the package then you would just see one of the models that came with the game. So you wouldnt be required to download them to play which would be suitable for players with limited bandwidth or simply didnt want them. Obviously this still leaves the problem of having to check through the models.