We all want the best items for our characters. But mixing and matching pieces of equipment can leave your character looking less like a bad ass and more like a clown at a kid’s party. For example, here is my mean, lean fighting machine in World of Warcraft, my feral druid:

All I need is a set of balloon animals and a red afro and I’m ready to conquer the 5 year old birthday celebration. And people wonder why I spend most of my playtime in cat form.

Everquest 2 has finally brought relief to it’s color blind players in its latest major patch, Game Update 38. Included in it is a second layer of visible equipment slots. Anything you put in there won’t add to your stats/armor/etc, but it will be the armor texture that is displayed. For example, here’s a screenshot comparison of my Bruiser, Katfight.

Admittedly, the armor on the left isn’t bad looking. But it is a complete set. Also, this guy is a monk-class, should he really be running around in that much heavy metal? When he first was created, he was granted a Gi that befits his class, but had only nominal stats. Fortunately, I never deleted it. Now I can have the appearance of his Gi, but the power and stats of his heavier looking armor.

Blizzard should definitely consider doing this in their game as well. They have already acknowledged the importance of appearance. In the next major expansion, Wrath of the Lich King; they are adding new hairstyles and dances. The least they can do is add functionality to make a raid look more like the Second Coming and less like Bring In The Clowns.