Default Skin(s) are the Best in Shooters: Here's Why.

With a lot of modern shooters these days, be it first or third person, a strong emphasis on character visuals and more specifically, skins, has been placed on the ecosystem of online games. Whether those skins are unlocked and earned through gameplay, or sadly the reality most of the time is purchased through a store with money, a lot of people enjoy the idea of being able to select a character and/or costume/skin for their online avatar. It can be as simple as a design or color scheme that you really like or think stands out amongst other skins available. Or, it can go a little deeper than that. For myself personally, I find skins that are usually a little simpler, but have a strong theme to be more interesting. And the one aspect to skins that I probably enjoy the most out of any, are faceless skins; where you can’t put a face to the character you are looking at. Now, this isn’t always the case, and there are exceptions for everything. But I much prefer skins that don’t have a set character and back story behind them for online shooters. The nameless, faceless character is more interesting to me personally. Which brings me to the main point of this video; the default character, which I have aptly named “the default dude” or any skin that closely resembles a faceless character are the best. Bar none.

What do I mean by default character? If we use Modern Warfare 2019 as an example, when the game first came out, we had a small host of operators to choose from to play as. And while there were a lot of interesting choices, and cool designs and themes, for me, the characters I played were the default characters; the ones that didn’t really have a name or interesting backstory. They looked like any generic soldier. And I love that. To me, characters that are not their own person or entity can create a much more positive response when playing as them. It helps to facilitate the self-insert desire; where by playing as someone who isn’t really their own individual; they are not provided a distinct name, or relation to the cause they are fighting for, it makes it feel more like I’m piloting an extension of myself, rather than anyone specific. This mentality is very similar to my thought process with the characters in For Honor; opting to play heroes that don’t have a visible face so it more feels like me playing someone that could be me, versus someone specific with a name, story, and background all to their own. They can certainly look cool, but it’s never as cool as some of the default skins on offer. I also think it simply boils down to the default-style looking characters and skins, are just more pleasing to my eye than some of the more lavish and exotic looking skins. I’m sure some people love them, and that’s fine, but they’re really not for me. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Now, not every game is like this either, where their base roster is pretty meager, but gets better overtime and has more interesting default dudes. But for the example of 2019, this really wasn’t the case.

And this goes for shooters and any other game with skins as well. Now, again, there are exceptions to this. Roze was a character that was introduced in season 5. And she ended up becoming the character I played as the most. But, to be fair, her face in her default skin (let me say that again, default skin we’re talking about here), isn’t completely visible. There is a little more information given to the player that can fill in the gaps with some minor facial features visible, but it’s not enough to make her face completely canny. She does have another skin where her head is completely revealed, but in the end, I didn’t like that. The added mystery of what she looked like under the mask and helmet added to her allure. I mean, she was also just a badass character in my opinion, but I digress. The skin I used for the longest time before she was added was this guy. Same dude from the thumbnail: The Balkan Special ATU skin. His design is, to me, perfect and the absolute best representation of what I am trying to convey in this video. Some more awesome designs that facilitate the “default dude” idea is the default Spetsnaz character, as well as almost all the Mil-Sim skins. Anything that didn’t reveal all the characters facial features are some of the best designs. Simple, straightforward, and grounded; I enjoy a little bit of “realism” with what a character would be wearing when going to shoot people in a simulated experience. I’m sure there are people who enjoy these kinds of skins more than the crazy ones. Here are some examples: like c'mon; these are so cool and badass. All geared out, operator as hell, ready to kick ass. To me, these are default dudes; and I will always personally choose a skin like this over most other options.

It’s why in a game like Tarkov, I always try to conceal my character’s face. Because not only does it make me harder to see, but it allows for him to look way cooler than if his face was just exposed. And in Tarkov, you can do more than just cover the face. You can put glasses on, different hats, even fake facial hair. And again, those can mirror the same effect, a full shemagh or balaclava makes this feeling more potent. Although, to be fair, Tarkov is way less about the self-insertion aspect, and more about making sure my guy's pasty ass bald head isn’t seen from 400 meters by someone with a scope. But the point still stands! Default dude is best dude.

When it comes to a variety of different shooters, a lot of the time, default character designs really stand out. Especially if later down the line, they are iterated upon and new and different “default styled” characters become available. I know people might not use the word default to describe these kinds of characters, but within the context of a shooter with a lot of different characters to choose from, most people see these kinds of characters as the default option. Especially considering they are usually the first options not only available to you, but are chosen the first time you boot up the game. Either way, these skins are awesome and to me, superior to a lot of what’s on offer for unlock or purchase. Don’t feel bad if you only use the default character. Rep that default dude with pride.