As the tracked launcher of E3 rolls into position and elevates its firing tubes, the gaming news sections of the internet are blanketed with dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, jamming RSS feeds with a devastating combination of trailers and presentations, shattering rational thought with the shock and awe of hype. Slightly ironically, then, the one thing that caught my topical eye is from Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s non-E3 series They Are The Champions Online, specifically the character customisation article. I’m a sucker for customisation. Library of animation stances? Facial animations to convey emotions? Oh my! I was waxing lyrical to Melmoth about the possibilities when he sounded a thoroughly sensible cautionary note: “I guess we shouldn’t fall into the hype trap, lest we come to play the game and find out that customisation actually consists of a single hat, which you can either have on your head, or not.”
I don’t know, that’s a pretty tough choice… Am I really a hat person, or do I go bare-headed? Give me a hundred hats and I’ll settle for the one I like most, but only two choices will automatically group you with other people of the same hat dispositions, which can be hard to live with if you don’t get along with them.
Don’t worry, they’ve been working hard for the last two years on the first expansion where they’ll be giving players the option to wear the hat at a jaunty angle, or not.