Ability to change race/gender?

[Ecco]

Additional customization in-game after initial character creation is fine, I don't dig the whole gender / race thing though. That's what alts are for.

[Endrance]

NCSoft would never do that, unless they'd charge you real money for it. It's just another potential reason for them to make people play the game longer by making a new character. While I don't think that being able to change factions would be a good idea, gender change isn't as stupid as it seems. To be honest - I've been unhappy also with my char in several games after some time and in many of those games I would've needed a LONG time to redo all the stuff I've done for my character, so much that it just didn't seem to be worth it. So I get the motivation behind it. Since MMORPGs are still just games, I don't see a reason why a gender change would be stupid anyhow, as long as the developers make it have sense (which many of you are probably unable to think of). Although I also understand that many people refer to the real world in that case, which makes a gender change seem a little... transvestite'ish. And most people tend to not want something like that in a "cool" fantasy-like Game (while they could make it be less uncool by throwing characters in an astral world, where some mysterious power (probably done by some kind of "gods") changes their appearance for a rational reason).
Oh and, a gender change could also only be possible once (maybe twice or the option to be able to change back forever). So that "everytime you want" argument can easily be negated.

[Diablo]

Yes you can and it is very easy. Roll a new toon.

[Aseenus]

I seriously cannot understand how your minds work, seriously

Whats wrong with changing appearances? how does it effect you if this was implimented?

[Endrance]

The more or less irrational argument they'll come with will most likely be that it seems to make characters in general have less worth. People should make a character and adhere to them. They shouldn't be able to change their appearnce that much, that's also why many people say that another hairstyle is okay, but a different face would be not (unless it's just decoration such as tattoos). People are refering alot to the real world in that case, as it has a great social aspect (and that's what MMORPGs are the most in the end... or should be at least).
They just think that it "feels" wrong. They want their MMORPG to have a positive mind-effect to them at most. If people can do almost anything they want with their character they just feel like that a part of that pseudo-social feeling gets lost and on top of that, they feel like that if gender change would be a common feature, it just seems weird.
Though that's where I step in and tell them, that this is a game and people shouldn't be forced to remake their character they invested alot of time in just for the appearance. If they feel unhappy about it, they should be able to change it. The argument from above doesn't cover this at all, as I honestly find it more stupid to remake a character just to be able to play another gender than just being able to change it from their current character. If you make a female character and find out after investing alot of time in your char that the female thing isn't yours, you should be able to change it.
I'm also not for a feature that's usable over and over (so people just change cause they're bored), but I don't see a rational reason against being able to do it once (or once per year).

[Yame]

Arrgghhh... just because it's a fantasy MMO doesn't mean you should be able to do anything and explain it away with "magic." I think when creating a character, people should have the "pressure" of knowing whatever they're making is final. If they don't care about how their char looks, they can skip this and randomize, but those of us who care should spend enough time creating a character that is "perfect."

Our characters should be unique and recognizable. If you run into a familiar face, you should be able to recognize it even from a distance as you would in real life. I think that's very nice to have in a game that is social, and allowing anyone to change their looks at any time would ruin this.

Some things though, I think would be nice to have... like maybe temporarily changing a hair-do. I don't think this is major since I am not gonna play Aion because I miss Barbies, but it might be a cool feature to have, and being that with Aion's customization your hair is only one of many features that make you unique, changing a hairstyle wouldn't make you into a different person. With Aion's current hairstyle options though (at least from the last time I saw them), I would never even use this feature. I'm pretty disappointed with their options =/

[Cynthe]

They could just implement cloning, like Tabula? I never actually used the cloning system in Tabula but I hear it's similar to what is being proposed here. Since Aion is Sci-fi/fantasy (is it still?), I don't see the problem

Personally though, I see my character as it's own entity and I couldn't bring myself to change their gender, especially since I make up stories about them ect.. A hairdresser and tattoo artist would be very cool and almost necessary at this point, since other major mmo's have them, you need them too. Or maybe that's flawed logic, it still seems to be true since every game emulates each other.

[UnknownT]

Yeah I would have to agree with hairs being able to change but no to race and gender. If you want to play a new race/gender just roll onto a different server.

[Sun]

Any change is cool with me, if that's what you're into.

CoX's tailors are one of the best features in the game IMO. Never appreciated not being able to change character height there though. I hope there is something like this in Aion.

[c4tastroph3]

They should just go ahead and create NPC's in the world that will do these 'operations' for a certain amount of money. Those my friends, will be plastic surgeons.

[Heinel]

I rarely could make my character look to be up to my standards even though my average time spent in making is 2-3 hours.. So having appearance, including all face and body parameters adjustable afterward will be a big bonus for me. Gender change I personally don't care much about, it's just a +1 or -1 in a database value, easy to implement so I'm not against it either. faction change I'd say no. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be committed to your faction with the only-1-faction-per-server limit.

[Yuriev]

I'm all for ONE-TIME appearance change feature, like in EQ2, which allows you to customize all the aspects of your char's appearance.

AND hairdresser NPCs, which would allow you to change your hairstyle whenever you want for a fee. People won't undergo plastic surgery very often, but anyone should be able to get a haircut as often as one wants.

Of course, no race/sex change.

[Untrackable]

I'd rather that you can only change the aesthetics of your character and not Gameplay. Sex changes only affect what you look like, race changes on the other hand affect more that just you.

in short: I think Race Changes: No; Sex changes: Yes

[eVenom]

Not sure about gender changing or race changing, but to appearance, a big yes.

[Reapist]

lol i miss runescape whe nit was 2D )= lol /agree sex change and race change are a bit much but as far as hairstyle and what not sureee ^_^