Avatar customization is actually a thing many people care deeply for, as proven by years of heated discussion about it. I do believe and hope itāll eventually come, thus far Iāll consider myself lucky in that I enjoy the fantasy of an old mage and aā¦ druidy druid, while not caring for the other classes much.
That being said, PoE comparisons do not stand. In PoE, you can play the same fantasy on different characters, with very few exceptions, and with different pros and cons - Iāve played the same exact fantasy (RF) with a trickster (young male), an elementalist (young female) and a hierophant (old male), with equal degrees of success. Thatās point one.
Point two is that you can make your character look like anything, making the gender and age of your avatar a non-issue - hell, all of my characters look like the Elder (an eldritch abomination with tentacles, for those not familiar with the game) because Iām a huge Lovecraft fan. And thatās just one example, there are cosmetics for just about any absurd fantasy, so people are free to don whatever guise they wish (for a price). LE currently lacks that degree of customization (which is also what fills PoEās coffers, people love to say that most people only buy stashes in PoE but never have I ever saw a hub without an angel, another kind of angel, at least a couple of demons, a lich, some blood abomination, a lovecraftian abomination, a skeletal pirate &c.), so the comparison quite simply does not stand.
I do understand there are other priorities before launch, obviously. PoE didnāt launch with the amount of cosmetic option it has now, either. Still, I stronly hope LE will follow a similar route, while hopefully also adding more customization options for the avatar as well aside from transmogs/cosmetic MTXs. And thatās because I want the game to succeed, nothing more, nothing less.
P.s. since I mentioned PoE, Iāll also mention D4. It succeeds in one field: maintaining revenue despite being a disaster gameplay-wise. Thatās in part because it appeals to a very different and broader audience, granted. But to claim that character customization doesnāt play a big part there too would just being disingenuous, and that affects ācasuals dadsā and the āsweaty & disgruntledā. Because what is it that generates revenue among the casual D4 players? Cosmetics. And the casuals are those who stay and play over a longer period of days, as opposed to people like who complete the seasonal journey in 3 days and only go back to check whether a patch did something good, and/or for events.
. I get what you mean but in the groups i played with everyone identified with the class they sticked most to. My Barbarian is still my Barbarian no matter what multiclass says. On the other hand I had a barbarian who thought he was a mage and a bard because he inspired other people tostuff done instead of beeing wrung out like an old sponge. I think this is highly subjective.