87 Hairstyles Are Not Enough: How Players Experience Character Creation in Baldur’s Gate 3

Key insights

7 takeaways

01
Players are not overwhelmed by high volumes of character customization options; even categories with over 100 choices were consistently rated as needing more depth rather than being excessive.See it on page 3
02
The Baldur's Gate 3 character editor is perceived well, but a majority of players desire more variety in both existing categories and the total number of customization categories available.See it on page 1
03
While categories with direct gameplay impact (such as Class and Race) are highly prioritized, aesthetic-only categories like Hairstyle and Body Type are equally critical to player satisfaction and role-playing immersion.See it on page 16
04
Female and non-binary players report significantly higher dissatisfaction with the current depth of the character editor and place greater importance on aesthetic customization than male players.See it on page 20
05
Character customization is driven by the desire for self-representation and the ability to create an 'imagined character,' with 90 out of 171 survey participants citing this as a primary reason for category importance.See it on page 34
06
Players frequently expressed a desire to remove arbitrary aesthetic or mechanical restrictions, suggesting that developers should prioritize flexibility over rigid adherence to game-rule constraints in character creation.See it on page 23
07
The most frequently cited top-three customization categories for players are Class (71.3%), Race (42.1%), and Hairstyle (41.5%).See it on page 13

Summary

87 Hairstyles Are Not Enough: How Players Experience Character Creation in Baldur's Gate 3 MARCO WEISS∗, Saarland University, Saarland Informatics Campus, Germany PASCAL LESSEL∗, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Saarland Informatics Campus, Fig. 1.

87 Hairstyles Are Not Enough: How Players Experience Character Creation in Baldur’s Gate 3

87 Hairstyles Are Not Enough: How Players Experience Character Creation in Baldur’s Gate 3

Key insights

Summary

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