POLL: Do you want to change the skin color of your MC? (white, brown, or black)

Do you want to change the skin color of your MC? (white, brown, or black)

  • YES: Let me choose from [WHITE], [BROWN], or [BLACK] skin, for my MC. It's very important to me.

    Votes: 127 44.9%
  • YES: Let me choose from [WHITE] or [BLACK] skin, for my MC. It's very important to me.

    Votes: 14 4.9%
  • NO: Leave MC as [TAN WHITE] skin tone only. Spend more time on sexy renders for the love interests.

    Votes: 55 19.4%
  • NO: Leave MC as [PALE WHITE] skin tone only. Spend more time on sexy renders for the love interests.

    Votes: 50 17.7%
  • NO: Leave MC as [BROWN] skin tone only. Spend more time on sexy renders for the love interests.

    Votes: 3 1.1%
  • NO: Leave MC as [BLACK] skin tone only. Spend more time on sexy renders for the love interests.

    Votes: 11 3.9%
  • OTHER: I'll respond in the thread with my thoughts.

    Votes: 23 8.1%

  • Total voters
    283

Orgitas

Well-Known Member
Jan 5, 2023
1,986
6,676
I don't care for skin colour. What I do like is a well made MC and not just a standard genesis male from Daz. Put some effort into it. Try to make him look as good, design wise, as the women. It really isn't that hard. That and make the MC like-able (if he isn't an antagonist. Even then give him something relatable for the reader to relate to a degree). Oh, and give him a spoonful of intellect and rational thought. Rare features in a Male MC it seems.
 
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Jaike

Well-Known Member
Aug 24, 2020
1,330
4,480
I think this is the kind of thing that's "nice to have" if it fits the game. And I guess that a bit more diversity outside the kitchen sink games over all wouldn't be bad. But looks like that's still a view.
 

hakarlman

Engaged Member
Jul 30, 2017
2,083
3,230
It would be great if we could get at least 200 votes on this one, if not no worries.
 

comte bonfim

Member
Nov 13, 2021
110
206
I think it would be something unlikely to have, but I'd love to have some sort of customization if ever possible, skin tone doesn't really bother me. One thing that I'd love to be able to customize besides (if skin color would ever be an option in these types of game) would be personality & wardrobe, being able to actually pick if you want a more stoic/serious character or a more out-there-funny-messy guy, or being able to pick if you want something more formal to wear, or rock a leather jacket and long hair for once, I don't know if it's even possible to do something like this, but I know it'd take a long ass time to make a game with optional stuff, since you'll have to shoot renders multiple times.
 

Donjoe81

Member
Dec 30, 2022
303
1,308
I would love to see more Black Girls being used in games. But the problem I see is the usage of lame ass DAZ models that you´ve seen is so many other games, where the Dev just changed the skin color from white to black.
What skin color the male MC has is not that important to me.
 
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hakarlman

Engaged Member
Jul 30, 2017
2,083
3,230
I would love to see more Black Girls being used in games. But the problem I see is the usage of lame ass DAZ models that you´ve seen is so many other games, where the Dev just changed the skin color from white to black.
What skin color the male MC has is not that important to me.
What do you think of this new Genesis 9 black character lady? , please be totally honest. I think she looks good, although I'd change up her nose a bit; based on other popular mainstream black supermodels.
 

whizwart

Member
Apr 11, 2022
410
722
What do you think of this new Genesis 9 black character lady? , please be totally honest. I think she looks good, although I'd change up her nose a bit; based on other popular mainstream black supermodels.

Solid B. I actually think the primary photo is the worst one. Smile is kinda off and I have no idea why they felt that hatwould add to the model.
 

Yngling

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2020
1,435
3,035
What do you think of this new Genesis 9 black character lady? , please be totally honest. I think she looks good, although I'd change up her nose a bit; based on other popular mainstream black supermodels.
I agree with whizwart about the smile and the hat (and the green eyes).

But the nose is fine. It's just that the model is an East African type rather than the West African type which is more common America and Europe.

Overall, I really like the model and would like to see her in a game.

Some examples of Ethiopian women:





In my opinion, the Ethiopian type is more attractive than the Congo type with a flatter nose:



But of course attraction is very subjective. The Ethiopian type is more similar to European types, perhaps that's why.

Edit: another probably Ethiopian type (judging by the model name) which I find less attractive but still fascinating:


Also:


Classifications like "black" or "white" purely based on skin color don't mean much. A person from Finland and one from Greece are both "white" but look totally different. Same as the one from Ethiopia and the one from Congo as shown above. A person from India can have very dark skin but they are still closely related to Europeans, genetically speaking. While some persons from the Phillipines (e.g. "Negrito") may be mistaken as Africans, they have genetically nothing in common.
 
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kintarodev

Member
Game Developer
Oct 9, 2022
111
95
What do you think of this new Genesis 9 black character lady? , please be totally honest. I think she looks good, although I'd change up her nose a bit; based on other popular mainstream black supermodels.
Undoubtedly, it looks appealing. However, I am tired of seeing vendors in the Daz store using excessive post-processing beyond what is reasonable. Frankly, it borders on deception. And yes, I believe I have enough experience as a user/buyer of Daz assets to reach this conclusion. In reality, the average user should learn about lighting when using Daz3D, but at the end of the day, many products are advertised with results that are impossible to achieve without the use of Photoshop or similar tools.

Another case would be those skins whose advertised results can only be achieved through an extremely specific lighting setup. In that case, the discussion becomes rather gray.

Returning to the original topic, in my recent published game, I have added the option to choose from multiple skin tones. Since it is a 3D game, it has been '''''''relatively simple''''''' to implement. As I mentioned before, I don't understand why developers creating 3D products don't offer this type of feature when it can be quite straightforward to implement.
 

Yngling

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2020
1,435
3,035
I have added the option to choose from multiple skin tones. Since it is a 3D game, it has been '''''''relatively simple''''''' to implement. As I mentioned before, I don't understand why developers creating 3D products don't offer this type of feature when it can be quite straightforward to implement.
Because skin tone is only one thing, but to create a person from a certain geographical region, you need more than that. Like I have shown above, the women from Ethiopia and from Congo are quite different, even though they have a similar skin color and are from the same continent.

Different nose, different cheekbones, different eyes etc. etc. Completely different 3d shape.

If you want to portray a stereotypical "black" woman, then taking the stereotypical "white" female 3d model and putting her in the sun for too long won't look good.
 

kintarodev

Member
Game Developer
Oct 9, 2022
111
95
Because skin tone is only one thing, but to create a person from a certain geographical region, you need more than that. Like I have shown above, the women from Ethiopia and from Congo are quite different, even though they have a similar skin color and are from the same continent.

Different nose, different cheekbones, different eyes etc. etc. Completely different 3d shape.

If you want to portray a stereotypical "black" woman, then taking the stereotypical "white" female 3d model and putting her in the sun for too long won't look good.
I meant for your typical blank MC avatar. Obviously, when it comes to potential partners, their personality and ethnicity should be carefully considered. In such cases, me too I believe that skin modification options should not be available. IMO, this holds true even for avatars with a well-defined background where ethnicity also holds significant importance. Overall, I see this a case by case situation.
 

Fantasy Ireland

New Member
Sep 24, 2020
5
2
It would be a nice feature to include, so long as it wasn't just a simple palette swap but more a choice of different MC model by ethnicity if the MC is seen from the neck up. But of course that means a lot more time spent on rendering the same scene with swapped out models, which could be too tedious for a lot of smaller/solo developers.
On a faceless MC you could possibly get away with a palette swap of skin tone, I suppose.
 

Donjoe81

Member
Dec 30, 2022
303
1,308
What do you think of this new Genesis 9 black character lady? , please be totally honest. I think she looks good, although I'd change up her nose a bit; based on other popular mainstream black supermodels.
I think she looks really good. I hope that there will be many more models having gen 9 and also with the new possibilities like using AI with Gen 9.
 
Aug 8, 2023
190
479
White, black, or brown... It really does NOT matter for me. As long as the story is good and has NO futa content, skin color of MC's is just a small detail.
 

SwitchLaid

New Member
Game Developer
May 23, 2021
13
53
If it's a game where you can move around, customizing the character's skintone is always a plus. Literally nobody loses if there's an option for more immersion.

It's different if it's a VN though, as you'd just be doubling (or tripling) the time it takes to render what's essentially just an illustration to a book.
 

Leo D. Marstone

Active Member
Nov 2, 2017
961
869
I would say keep the skin colour the dev envisioned his character to be. I have no qualm playing as white black or yellow :HideThePain:

Big part is that I dont project myself onto a MC's so that helps as well.