Realism in Games - Equipment Skins

Equipment skins, transmogrification, costume items - this game feature goes by many names. It is when an equip-able item, that has its own look when worn, changes its appearance while keeping the benefits of wearing the item. In other words, if you want to combine the protection of full plate armor and the fashion of a party dress you like, which would be impossible in real life, you can do so with this game feature. Here are some reasons for why I think this is a great feature to have in RPGs and especially MMOs even though it may be unrealistic.

Reason 1: Default Armor Designs

Often the armor designs that you come across in a game may not be to your liking. Too revealing, too reserved; too pointy, too smooth; too bland. But sometimes you find good looking armor that you have to pass up because of its inferior attributes. However, with equipment skins, you can use the look of the armor you like with the attributes of your best armor.

Reason 2: Mismatching Equipment

In many games, when you get new armor, it is just a "re-skin" of armor you have already worn with a different texture or even worse - just different color. This will cause your character to have mismatching pieces of equipment, like having all of your armor pieces of different color, even though you want them all to be white. This disallows the players to choose what kind of look they want to go for and can be a major peeve for some.

Reason 3: No Interference

The equipment skins game feature does not interfere with the major game mechanics like the gameplay and the quality of content. Therefore, implementing this feature does more good than bad. The only place where this feature may be inappropriate is in games that pride themselves on their realism or where armor does not have a significant impact on the power of your character.

The Best Implementation

In my opinion, the equipment skins feature is best implemented by the DC Universe Online MMORPG. There you can collect armor designs by equipping the armor once, and from there on you can use any look in your collection even if you are wearing something else. This allows for some amazing personalization options which are especially imperative in a superhero game as its all about your iconic look and powers.


In conclusion, giving the player a choice of what they want to look like without making them less powerful is a great game feature for RPGs and MMOs where role-play and uniqueness is prized.

Take a look at the Reddit discussion of this topic if you are interested.

Respectful comments, discussions, suggestions, and constructive criticisms are always welcome.