Sometimes I open r/Gaming onRedditjust to see what’s going on in the zeitgeist. After all, if I’m going to be pitching in on gaming discourse, it’s nice to be able to estimate how many angry comments I’m going to get on a hot take by observing what Redditors are already saying online. I also like to know what people are angry about and what they’re playing, but that’s mostly because I’m nosy. It might be a character flaw.
But today I opened r/Gaming and saw a flood of images that made me feel… how do I put this politely? I was alarmed. I was a little horrified. Quite amused, as well.As I’ve admitted already, I’ve never played Oblivion. I’m familiar with Bethesda jank thanks toSkyrim,Fallout 4, andStarfield, but what I’ve seen in those games did not prepare me for the screenshots I saw ofOblivion Remastered.
Guys You’re Scaring The Maidens Please Stop
People are going absolutelyhamwith this character creator, and r/Gaming is flooded with people showing off their most evil creations. For example:
This is Benedict Cumberbatch, if he were the evilest elf you’ve ever seen in your life. This is one of the tamer ones. As several comments have noted, he looks a little like Kiryu Kazuma.
This is an incredible, awful recreation of JD Vance. There’s a reference to him killing the Pope, because, you know, recent events and all. Most of the comments reference the Pope, and also couches, desserts, and wearing suits. I will explain none of these, because we have content guidelines on this website.
Several people have made Old Gregg (I think?), which apparently refers to The Mighty Boosh. I don’t know what that is, because I’m not British, and I’m sure many of my colleagues are going to yell at me for this. Seehereandhere, andmaybehere? Here’san attempt at Link, who is uncanny enough that he may appear in my nightmares.
And quite frankly, the NPCs often look just as terrifying. While many of the major NPCs seem to have been redesigned to look like regular people who don’t inspire fear when you look them in the face, there are also guys like this:
Ugly Is Good, Actually
I’m not scrolling through Reddit just for the giggles, though I have laughed out loud multiple times. What I find interesting about this is that players are, in fact, completely capable of makingnormal-looking,andevenattractivecharacters. It’s just funnier when they don’t. It’s a pastime of Oblivion players to make the ugliest creatures Cyrodiil has ever seen, and given the tools, they will do so.
The NPCs also, clearly, don’thaveto look like that. Much of the remaster is, indeed, very beautiful, apart fromthat weird sprinting animation. Reskinning these characters so they look weird and off-putting is clearly a creative choice, meant to cater to fans wholikethat the game is kind of ugly. It’s part of the appeal because it adds to the nostalgia.
This is going to sound like a stretch, but I immediately thought ofinZOIwhen looking at these disgusting characters that people made for fun. When Krafton released its character creator for the life sim,I spent hours trying to make myself and my loved ones in the game, just for fun. I failed, because in that game, every character you make looks like a damn model. At the time, at least – I haven’t played it since – it was impossible to make someone who just looked like a regular dude you’d see on the street, let alone an abomination like you’d see from a seasoned Oblivion player.
That capacity for hideousness is a relic of older games that we rarely see carried over into more modern games, but it should be, because players love it. We always talk about player freedom and player agency, but doesn’t player freedom extend into the capacity to make hideous protagonists? Bring back the uggos, I say. They might scare me, but if gamersshouldhave any rights, this should be one of them.
