User blog comment:ChishioKunrin/How much work would go into a RWBY MMO?/@comment-10380701-20150915073956/@comment-4010415-20150917064755

If it's all purely cosmetic, a loooot of people will choose Faunus. If we give bonuses to Humans so there's an actual reason to play as a Human, but we don't give any to Faunus, then people would say that's unfair, and some would even say it doesn't make sense, on account of Faunus having attributes that can give them advantages in the show.

Bleh, I tried going on the fanon wiki to see if they had categories for Human and Faunus, but they only have one for Faunus. I was gonna see what the ratio was for Human and Faunus OCs that have been posted there.

But yeah, pretty sure a lot of people would go with Faunus if both Humans and Faunus are exactly the same aside from cosmetics.

I'm suddenly thinking about an MMORPG I played called Perfect World. They have multiple races (and keep adding races), but when I first started playing, I remember there being human, untamed (animal people), and winged elf. Of course, more people are gonna want to go with untamed (where males are literal furry men, but females are girls with animal ears and tails) or winged elf (because hey, you can fly right off the bat, from level 1!). But what kept the population balanced out was that each race had two classes. You were forced to think about your gameplay style instead of simply jumping at whichever cosmetic choice you prefer.

Humans had blademasters and wizards. The wizards have command over three different elements - fire, earth, and water. The big perk with wizards was the fact that other magic users only had one element, while the wizard had three. That MMO has a system where some enemies have a certain element attributed to them, so they have weaknesses and resistances. Having three elements makes you more versatile.

Untamed had barbarians (male only) and venomancers (tamer type; female only). I never really looked into barbarian, but I played a venomancer with fox ears and a fox tail (HAHAHAHA I WAS ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE). Venomancers tame monsters and have the monsters fight for them, but they can also cast spells, most of which have a wood element. Also, untamed can transform into animals. Barbarians transform into white tigers, and venomancers transform into foxes.

Winged elves had archers and clerics. I suck at only being long range unless I have a pet keeping the enemy's focus, so I said hell no to archer. I think we all know what a cleric is, and the clerics in PW have offense spells that often have a metal (electric) element. And, like I said, they can already fly from level 1. The other races have to either spend cash to buy a flying mount from the cash shop or wait until they get to level 30 to get a free flying mount. Also, the winged elves have wings on their heads, and when you're customizing your character's appearance, you can actually change it to either be one pair of wings or three pairs of wings on their head.

If the differences between these three races were purely cosmetic and they all had the same classes available, there would be so few people playing as humans. I mean, why would they, when they can be an animal person who transforms into an animal or an elf with pointy ears and wings on their head?