I want an option to turn off your terrible taste in character skins.

[Neverhoodian]

Story of my life with TF2. The first few rounds of hats were (mostly) cohesive with the base game's Leyendecker inspired visuals, but once they introduced paint and allowed community contributions <a href=https://teamfortressnerd.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/440_screenshots_2013-01-24_00002.jpg>everything <a href=http://i.cubeupload.com/vzLqOs.png>went <a href=http://i53.tinypic.com/2rrmkjd.png>to <a href=http://i.imgur.com/Eh5Xiz8.png>shit.

Luckily I found a workaround of sorts in the <a href=http://www.teamfortress.tv/16179/no-hats-mod>"No Hats Mod," a plugin that hides cosmetics and works on every server I've been to. Not only does it do away with all that visual garbage, but it also increases the game's performance significantly (TF2's mass of spaghetti code was absolutely tanking my FPS). It's not perfect; heads and feet are sometimes invisible and the newest cosmetics aren't always hidden, but it's far better than the alternative in my book.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I don't really game multiplayer all that much but I can see how it'd be a problem. But it's unique in that I think in types of games where you can go all silly, I'm not that heavily role-playing anyways. And it's good to see the creativity of some. However, if I do play online it's mainly games that you can't go so overboard, so it hasn't really pissed me off.

I imagine if it ever were the case, then something like you mention (OP) would be very handy indeed. And no, I don't think I would give a crap about the value either, because I simply would never ever drop any amount of coin whatsoever on a freaking skin, maybe because I'm an old school gamer and still think those should be unlocked or modded rather than bought but that's a lost battle these days.

 

[mmiki]

But what if there was an option to just turn off the ugly? A list of every skin in the game with a show/hide toggle for each one. Skins set to 'hide' would be replaced on your screen by the default. (They would of course still be visible on the screens of other players, assuming they also didn't have them set to hide.)

I need this for real life - an option to turn off pink/blue hair.

On a slightly more serious note, I don't think most companies would willingly shoot themselves in the foot like that. Even if the percentage of people who get them for the 'ooh look what I got everyone' factor is small (and I don't think it is), it's potential revenue on the line.

 

[SpiralLegacy]

Meh. Not that big of a deal for me.

 

[Dragonlayer]

As someone who complained on the Killzone forums when it was first announced that victory taunt animations would be added to Shadow Fall's multiplayer, because it would end up with grim-faced soldiers in a dark and gritty conflict dancing around like meme-addled twats, I would use that option and demand its extension to non-skin related nonsense.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Yes, it can be extremely distracting in multiplayer titles. I only hope that Valve doesn't do to CSGO what they did to TF2. And if they do, then they should give us the option to turn that shit off. This bothers me enough that I don't even use CSGO weapon skins that most people are so obsessed with. And I'd like an option not to see other people's weapon skins too.

 

[bliebblob]

I wish I had something to add to this discussion other than "Yes, absolutely." to the first question and "Probably not." to the second. Even my underlying reasoning is already adequately explained in the OP: tonal discordance. There may have been a time I was indifferent to it, even liked it. But after team fortress 2? No. Down with that sort of thing.

Well, maybe I have one thing to add and that's it's just as bad in MMOs if not worse. Because while immersion isn't a strength of your typical MOBA or shooter anyway, it arguably is with MMOs. Or at least it could be, if it weren't for... Well, I'll let Jo of Nerf Now explain it for me:

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

While it

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

But sometimes an outrageous skin is a weapon of psychological warfare. Playing a female character in a skimpy outfit can serve as a useful distraction to help beat an opponent, or wearing an absurd costume can cause an opponent to not take you seriously.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

War Thunder makes all skins client side, so you only see what you want, at least from the player made skins.

 

[Something Amyss]

Whenever my friends have the option of playing dress up, they make their characters look like their character survived a tag sale explosion.

This suggestion beats my previous option of "find better friends."

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

You always have the option. The option to turn off the game and create your own perfect world through your preferred medium. Variety sets us apart and inspires those around us. To desire an option to turn off these designs is like wanting glasses that turn everyone's skin colour to match your own, or to replace their clothes with those of your selected choices. You stagnate your mind by walling it off to outside creativity. Comfort zones are not that good for personal growth.

 

[Nazulu]

Yes, I agree. It can be annoying for either being distracting or killing the immersion.

The only game I know that has the option to turn them off is/was Lineage 2, which no one should have any problem with since it doesn't effect them. It would be great in every game I reckon.

 

[Frankster]

1) I can't think of an instance where a skin bothered me, but then I don't play a massive amount of multi games where cosmetics break the theme of the game, so whilst I dabble with moba games like lol and dota, I don't mind the cosmetic stuff there. Still I get what OPs getting at, if I was playing some sort of ww2 shooter I'd hate it if there was some cosmetics for the usa side referencing Trump or any aspect of the current US elections for example. Goddamnit people we are in 1942! Leave your futuristic ramblings out of this!

2) In general I get a skin for my own personal use rather then out of a desire to annoy people. Thus I'd have no problems with someone ticking option to disable my skin in their game. If you're not fabulous enough to appreciate my armor of the 5th age Taric skin I ain't gonna hate on ya.

 

[Spider RedNight]

Doesn't bother me. Yeah, I think some skins are ugly and don't really fit but I used to play Borderlands with a friend who was colour-blind so it seemed like he was spiting me by picking the most garish outfit he could think of and it bugged me at first (Zer0 seems much less intimidating with a Minecraft head and a neon yellow and purple outfit) but eventually I got used to it because it's aesthetic, cosmetic, doesn't negatively affect the actual gameplay so people can do what they want.

I mean, I equate this roughly with playing, like, Red Dead Redemption online and seeing some guy running around as [[insert character here]] and I'm like "I wanna disable so you look like a generic cowboy because I don't LIKE [[character]] >:C" or something.

That being said, I don't play a whole lot of multiplayer things anyway but whenever I have, ugly skins didn't bother me. If other people don't wanna see the skins I pick, that's their prerogative.

 

[Zhukov]

You always have the option. The option to turn off the game and create your own perfect world through your preferred medium. Variety sets us apart and inspires those around us. To desire an option to turn off these designs is like wanting glasses that turn everyone's skin colour to match your own, or to replace their clothes with those of your selected choices. You stagnate your mind by walling it off to outside creativity. Comfort zones are not that good for personal growth.

Oooookay.

Firstly, "just turn off the game and make your own" is an incredibly flimsy dismissal. The kind of argument made when people have no real argument to make.

"This game has an awkward control layout. I wish there was an option to change it."
"Just turn off the game and make your own."

"The fancy lighting effects are causing my game to stutter. I wish there was an option to turn them off.
"Just turn off the game and make your own."

Please.

Also, "stagnate your mind", "comfort zones" and "personal growth"? Really? You're aware we're talking about character cosmetics in video games, right? Things like this [http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com/thumb/6/6b/Muradin_Kandy_King_1.jpg/719px-Muradin_Kandy_King_1.jpg?version=12bcf17a71d662cd9042f6a4d94e0a0a] and this [http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/smite.gamepedia.com/c/cd/SkinShot_Agni_Swagni.png] and this [http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/smite.gamepedia.com/2/27/Newhebothesydneyshreddermodel.png].

Did being exposed to all that "outside creativity" just now cause you to grow as a person at all?

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...No, you must deal with my clashing skins and terrible colours. Why put them in the game if I can't subject people to my terrible, terrible tastes? My Warframe is fluorescent green for a reason, god dammit!

[sub]though seriously I say yeah, would be nice - just a 'default' mode where you could opt-out of the more elaborate skins/cosmetics client-side.[/sub]

Also, "stagnate your mind", "comfort zones" and "personal growth"? Really? You're aware we're talking about character cosmetics in video games, right? Things like this [http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com/thumb/6/6b/Muradin_Kandy_King_1.jpg/719px-Muradin_Kandy_King_1.jpg?version=12bcf17a71d662cd9042f6a4d94e0a0a] and this [http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/smite.gamepedia.com/c/cd/SkinShot_Agni_Swagni.png] and this [http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/smite.gamepedia.com/2/27/Newhebothesydneyshreddermodel.png].

Did being exposed to all that "outside creativity" just now cause you to grow as a person at all?

...I'll be honest, I think that second one made me regress as a person.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

No.

You're spending money and in some cases effort to customize a character to look a certain way, the idea being not just for your own self but to express yourself.

I was pretty bummed to find out that in The Division, the little paint jobs for the guns? The other players don't see them. Well then what is the bloody point of them?

 

[Buckets]

No not really, it can be annoying if the skin makes the character really large so it blocks view or messes with the hit box, but if it's kept to sensible dimensions it's ok, sometimes quite comical. If it was a massive issue, having an option to remove it from your game would be a good compromise.

 

[Zhukov]

No.

You're spending money and in some cases effort to customize a character to look a certain way, the idea being not just for your own self but to express yourself.

So?

You've expressed yourself (by buying a skin, very impressive). I've looked upon your work of self expression and decided it's ugly as fuck. Why shouldn't I be able to decline to look at it further?

Hell, it's not like you'd even know.