I know we're all very excited about creating our very own Transformers, so I'm pulling the relevant part out of the article.
Color me disappointed. Just reading this and looking at the word-choice of Coupe, when he says, "So you won't be completely without personalization . . . ," tells me that there's going to be next to none ala' Fall of Cybertron's "customization."In what ways can you create and customize your character? Do you play a single Transformer, or multiple characters?
Horton: Full character customization like you see in MMORPG’s can’t really be all that varied for a car that has to transform into a robot smoothly and also perform as a game character flawlessly, making a Transformers character that performs its duty a challenge before you add any really worthwhile customization. Picking bits of headgear, tunic colors or adding body kits to a vehicle aren’t that straightforward in a robot-vehicle character. We have customization, but the ultimate dream of creating your own custom bot from a car of your choice is a massive undertaking that doesn’t really enhance the game that much. It’s not as cool when you compare it to having your own collection of purpose-built bots with different play-styles, handling, weaponry, and specialties. It’s in the Transformers brand DNA as a toy, something that captures your imagination as you take it on adventures, not to mention the collectability, having a cool selection of Transformers characters. Its game art imitating life.
Coupe: Absolutely – I think players will really enjoy learning more about the new characters that we’re introducing to the Transformers’ Universe. These are genuinely brand new characters that people won’t have encountered, all with their own abilities, weapons and personalities, some Bots compliment other characters, some don’t and players are going to have to learn which combinations work best together. You’ll also be able to add elements of personalization to the members of your squad, so you won’t be completely without character personalization. The most obvious version of this is the personalization seen within weapons, you’ll be able to adjust modules within these weapons to give you multiple combinations that will be unique to your bot.
But I think the thing that pisses me off the most about this little snippet, is that A LOT OF PEOPLE were looking forward to building their own unique, original Transformer. A LOT OF PEOPLE!! There were entire press conferences and demos devoted to showing off nothing but the deep levels of customization. For Alex Horton to now come in here and basically tell us what we really want isn't customization, but all these other bells and whistles, pisses me off.
No, Alex. I didn't want an entire squad of robots. I wanted one unique robot that I could develop and tweak and build up and put my stamp on. I don't need a squad, because it's a MMO! The squad is made up of everyone else playing! If my customization options are limited to my various weapon loadouts, then I'm going to be extremely disappointed.
