After years of development and innovation,MMORPGsare still one of the most popular genres of modern gaming. Their popularity has seen a plateau since the early days of the genre and has gone through some profound changes.
Unlike a single-player or stand-alone game, each player feels as if they’ve inserted their custom-built avatars into a unique, living universe. The art of customization options in any game is something worth the developer’s precious time. With that in mind, here are some of the best MMORPGs and their character creators.
Updated on July 17, 2025, by Kristy Ambrose:It’s been a decade of ups and downs fora genre that was flying highalmost 20 years ago, but there’s still a wide variety of existing MMORPGs that are getting expansions, updates, and new content. The older ones that date back to the turn of the century are getting remastered and re-released, which includes ports to consoles, phones, and tablets. New games are being pitched and developed with character customization as a top priority. Most have them have made character customization a high priority because developers and producers know how important this detail is to gamers, especially in a role-playing environment, but it just comes down to making our characters look good.
Most MMORPGs are set in a medieval fantasy setting, so when it’s time to play something different with just as many character customization options, there’sSWtoR. Themix of science fiction and space operameans that players can also have their ships along with unique gear, companions, and mounts.
Star Wars fans would appreciate a world built around their favorite franchise, but even players who aren’t familiar with the aesthetic will warm up to the accessories and design. Classes include selections like Sith Warrior, Bounty Hunter, and of course, Jedi Knight.
22Secret World: Legends
Customize Using The Modern Spy Aesthetic
Originally calledThe Secret World, this game was launched in 2012 but eventually failed economically, only to be resurrected asSecret World Legendsin 2017. The setting, design, and subject matter haven’t changed, and players still use modern weapons to fight monsters like zombies, vampires, and strange, mysterious beings from other dimensions.
The character creation process starts with choosing from one of three factions, which doesn’t affect the look of each character.Secret: World Legendsdoesn’t stop with a myriad of choices for basics like hair and head shape, but also includes options for facial hair, eyebrows, accessories, and more. An MMO doesn’t have to use a fantasy aesthetic to offer a wide variety of choices, some of them shocking or even gruesome, for character building.
Lost Arkhas some of the more conventional limitations that most RPGs have when it comes to character customization. Players have to choose a class first, and their selection of clothing and weapons is limited by that choice to a certain extent, but the developers seemed to understand how important this stage of the game is to their fanbase and compensate accordingly.
The character customization process includes a display outfits stage, an emote preview, and the standard hairstyle and face choices, which naturally include details like cheekbones, chin, and eye color. Players can get even more detailed with tattoos and facial hair, and, if they work on it for a long time, they can save a preset with this MMORPG character creator and decide later.
20Ashes of Creation
A Fantasy Setting Designed With Detail
Ashes of Creationis still in development has has been for the past year, and is only available to Alpha One testers, but a recent major development update indicates that an official launch is imminent. Players have already been reviewing the character creation process over the past year, and the lengths that you may go through to make a unique custom character are extensive, with more improvements expected before release.
The process of character creation begins with choosing one of two factions, followed by choosing from a total of nine playable races. There are presets to choose from, which is a nice time saver because the choices for hair, tattoos, eyes, body type, skin tone, and every other detail can be overwhelming.
Technically,Destiny 2isn’t an MMORPG. It’s more of a live service game than an MMO, but it’s pretty close to being one. The game went free-to-play back in September 2020, so it saw a massive increase in concurrent players. That increase has kept up and the game isn’t dead by any means.
Those new players saw just how neat the MMORPG character creator is. It’s simple, but there are a ton of different ways to build a Human, Awoken, or Exo character. And, once in the game itself, the sheer amount of cosmetics for weapons, vehicles, and armor means that the customization keeps going. It’s missing some of the customization options common in other MMOs, but it still does a pretty good job.
18Kurtzpel
A Robust Character Creator
As an anime-centric MMO,Kurtzpelhas a lot to live up to. Sadly, it sort of drops the ball in the gameplay department. It was originally thought to be an MMORPG, but fans quickly discovered it was more PVP action battle-oriented. Recently the game made an effort to be more MMO by adding elements such as dungeons, levels, gear, guilds, and questlines.
The combat looks nice, but it isn’t very engaging, the costumes look great, but they’re such a slog to grind for, and the PvP looks fun, but their servers constantly have issues. The biggest draw forKurtzpelis its robust character creator that could easily fit into something high quality likeGenshin Impact. Quite frankly, since the game is free-to-play, players could easily just download it to try out the character creator for themselves.
17Crossout
Design And Build Characters And Vehicles
When talking about MMORPGs with cool customization options,Crossouthas to be part of the conversation just for its sheer uniqueness. After all, this is a car-combat MMO released in 2017 that gives players full control over the design and build of their vehicles.
For reference, players need to think of how much control players had over their “lifeform” in Spore, then multiply that by two or three. That’sCrossout. It doesn’t have a huge community, but the community it does have is insanely faithful. Plus, it’s also free-to-play, which is always great for bringing in new players.
16City of Heroes
Customize Even The Character’s Heroic Cape
City of Heroes was one of the most memorable games of all time, at least to us, simply because players could create their very own hero with a shocking amount of control. From their power combination, race, battle cry, background, and archetypes, players could even customize the character’s heroic cape past a certain level. While the character creator was pretty top-notch, it was the combination of powers, classes, and other customization options that made this heroic game shine.
When the servers finally fell back in 2012,CoHfans were heartbroken. In 2019, a hero among gamers released the source code for the game to the public, and now there are several private servers players can check out if they want to see what this classic game has to offer.
While so many other games use the medieval fantasy aesthetic with little variation,New Worldgives players a refreshing change with a style based on the Age of Exploration. This was a real-world time that lasted from about the 16th to the 19th century and the island of Aerternum, where the game takes place, is designed as a lost continent from ancient history.
Unlike other MMORPGs that require players to choose a class, this game has no classes and compels players to build both their character and class from the ground up. Even ifthe initial character customizationis fairly simple, relying on choosing a body type, hairstyle, and skin color, the class customization is wildly creative. Players dress in furs, linens, leather, or plate armor, and create professions and classes like Trapper, Musketeer, Pirate, or Survivalist.
14Maplestory 1 & 2
Crossovers And Collaborative Character Design
It’s difficult to name another MMO where players can get a helmet that’s just a bear that sits on their head. Or how about another MMO that constantly has collaborations with anime series and/or K-pop groups like BTS? Plus the amount of different classes and jobs is unlike any other MMO. From Buccaneers to Blaze Wizards, Beast Tamers, Shades, Mechanics, and even a Demon Avenger, there are just so many classes to pick from.
Each class has a ton of different ways that players could customize their build and experience. Then there’s the Cash shop, a place with a shocking amount of cosmetics for characters, some of which are account-wide. This combination of factors is whyMaplestoryis still decently popular even to this day, though it’s sad thatMaplestory 2didn’t find the same success.
