Having Kids Helped Solve My Problem With Video Game Character Creators

Who do I want to roleplay as? It turns out, I wanted to go on adventures with my kids.

There are two kinds of people: people who could spend an afternoon customizing the character they’re going to play in a game—and people who don’t care at all. There’s no middle ground. You’re one or the other, and I’m firmly someone who does not spend any time at all twiddling with a character creator. I’m likely to tap “random” over and over until the element of chance lands on something that looks pleasing, and move on.

What really used to stump me, though, were names. 

Some games have an option to randomize, letting me stumble into good enough. Others force me to be creative, at which point I’ll sigh, put my name, and move on. (I was always partial to the approach for some of the Legend of Zelda games, which often gave the option of naming the character, but also suggested a default, like Link.)

I thought I solved the problem when my oldest daughter was born. I was already partial to playing women in games because it was more interesting than playing digital me. Thus, my grand idea: I’ll just play as my daughter in video games!

It made me chuckle to design the character in her image, then make some tweaks along the way, like imagining my daughter as an elderly woman, someone who’d seen some shit, and yet was thrust into the role of having to save the world all over again.

As someone who values efficiency, being able to jump in knowing what the character will look like and what their name will be? Now I’m spending even less time in there!

Now, I have two kids. Who gets to be my lady on a quest for vengeance?

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard—which I’m very much enjoying, by the way—I entirely chose the coward’s way out. Though your character is referred to by a nickname, Rook, you’re able to choose their first name, at least. (The last name is pre-determined by other choices you make regarding their background and history in the world.)

And so, I chose…uhhhh Grier??

I don’t use my children’s names on Crossplay, in the same way that I don’t share photos. But I can tell you with some degree of confidence that neither of my children are named Grier. Maybe it was on a list of possible names before they were born?

(It wasn’t.)

Side note: When my youngest was born, my oldest was excited about being a sister and wanted to suggest some names. She was very into The Little Mermaid at the time, so she suggested Ariel. At least, we thought it was a suggestion. When my youngest was ultimately born, my oldest took offense at learning what she was named, because in her mind, once Ariel was suggested, it was the real name. For a few months, she would correct us in front of other people, declaring “no, actually, her name is Ariel.” We started referring to my youngest as “the baby” to avoid creating tension with her.

Writing this post has instilled a great sense of shame. I should have picked a side. My oldest has had many adventures with me, and it was time to give my youngest a turn. I’m pretty sure you can change the name of your character in The Veilguard, so maybe when I boot it up the next, I’ll search for the courage of my convictions and switch.

Does anyone else use their children as a basis for the characters they play in games or other media? Am I alone? If you have several kids, how do you choose between them?

Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.

---

Also:

• One of my old character solutions was naming them after characters from Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, which remains my favorite set of books.

• I have tried to care about character creators, and appreciate well-done ones, but it’s just one of those things that I cannot manage to muster much interest in.

• My reaction to character creators, I think, is similar to my inability to find fun in Minecraft until my daughter got into it, because then she’d assign me tasks.