Well, at least you don't have to look like a creepy mass of puddy and hair like in Oblivion.

Original Conan, Schwarzenegger or New Conan?

I think they look great, personally. My argonian looks like Killer Croc's little brother. It's freaking sweet!

I think the character creator is fantastic. I love how everything is more "rugged", I had an idea for a Spellsword type build and I was unsure of what Race to pick because I do like to futz with appearances. You can make ANY race look pretty damned awesome, imo. I love it.

Well, most people probably will spend their time fighting though, and probably in the wild, and in caves, and ruins. Which, I would assume, would collect a decent level of dirt, grime, wear and tear, and scars, etc.

Hell I'd take any of them at this point.

My Nord in Oblivion I did good with, he easily woulda passed for 20'ish something.

I think you got it the wrong way...in Oblivion you had to look like your 50 and homeless....on Skyrim theres nothing wrong with it and its sooo much better

Dude, that's really offensive and uncalled for.

I can't get past it because I can't figure out how to change my name. It still says "Prisoner".

...

You can make a decent looking male out of a Redguard

this, although its possible to make your character look cleaner. my only dislike so far was that all the hair seems baised towards nordic styles. i know that its set in the province of nords, but i like to play as a breton... also i like having blue hair, but won't complain about color customization since there is way more customization all around.

If you've really played the series from the beginning (which I doubt, what were you six months old when Arena came out? two years old when Daggerfall came out? eight or nine when Morrowind came out?), it means you haven't given up after Arena and Daggerfall's models (which were in most cases butt- ugly pixels - Hell knows Daggerfall Orcs looked like something the cat dragged in) or even Morrowind's models, you should just svck up the MINOR disappointment that your character will have to be a version of yourself - eight years older.

If, of course, we're all just here to grief... Oh dear, so you mean I just paid 50 euro for a game where I can't play as THE CHILD OF PROPHECY? They said there are finally children in this game. You mean that if I'm a seven year old "who wants Skyrim to both fit in with my desires and relate to myself, the player"... i can't? "If the game can't do that, there's A Problem." *rofl* Don't take yourself so seriously man ... Just go and try to enjoy what you paid for, trust me, the game is great, it's not that difficult.

And to the OP, the characters are beautiful within the confines of their race. I've made several sixy Altmer and Imperials for example, just to see how I'd like a future companion to look like. Not 17, I admit, but late 20s and yummy.

I haven't played the series from their release dates, but I've played all the games of the series and therefore from the beginning (from Arena to Oblivion). Anyway, I get the impression that you're spouting patronizing nonsense that likes to lean on the crutch of a hopeful wish of my age somehow maligning my point and proving my experience untrue. It's insulting and you're wrong. I've had plenty of experience with Arena and Daggerfall and I particularly enjoy Daggerfall's sense of open-ended adventure and role-playing, although the backstories, while sometimes nice, can interfere with that. In any case, no, I never found either Arena or Daggerfall's models to be ugly. I got my younger-looking, somewhat gallant and handsome character models from those games.

I'm not too picky with my Arena characters, but they also have characters that look young and fit what I'm looking for... aside from the murderous scowls etched on their faces. My Dark Elf in Daggerfall is the male one with the long hair and the gold headband and both his appearance and his backstory fit what I want perfectly. In Morrowind, again, it's not difficult to get the young, somewhat decent-looking character. I'm not asking for a "child" character, I've explicitly reacted to the OP's claim of not being able to play a character that looks younger than middle-aged.

i liked the character creator

*starts crying at the stupidity of the complaint threads*

I'm sorry if you construed my post as patronizing when all I was pointing out is that it was extremely unlikely you actually played the first games (DOSBox is notoriously unreliable and the fps rate is terrible) and were merely trying to support your point by exaggeration. I'm glad to have been proven wrong.
However, if you'd care to take a look, for all the eloquence of your discourse it just looked like you were blowing things out of proportion especially since Skyrim does provide the option for younger models as several other posters have pointed out and you just appeared to be taking at face value the inflammatory comments of the OP.
And I know you're not asking for a child character, I however happily await a mod that does just that. Beyond Divinity managed to have a child hero fit in with the lore and I can't see why Skyrim couldn't, not with the hero being extraordinary already. I won't however cry about the fact that this option is not in vanilla. Might just mod it myself after a few normal runs.

thenotebook, I'd thank you to remove or edit your previous post where you quoted me... since your post clearly supports mine, rather than opposes it. [it's 3 posts above ]

as regarding to wanting to create younger characters... the close you can get to a teen i imagine will be a rather buff HS line backer or a drug addled teen. but i would recomend playing around with the CC a bit more, and develop skill in it. in FO3 there was a similar issue but reversed, where it was difficult to make old characters, but with practice it was possible to an extent.

The original DOS builds? Of course I haven't played those, but what relevance does that hold to my thoughts on character creation? Essentially, I cannot know what you're meaning, of if you're really meaning it at all, if you're not originally posting it and I never appreciate the insinuation that I am lying in any matter, but that's all I could gather from what you posted. I apologize if I misinterpreted it. Regardless, I don't have any problems with DOSBox and Daggerfall (I hear the first unpatched build of Daggerfall to be released was far more broken than I could imagine) and to compensate for Arena's sluggishness with DOSBox, I just increase the cycles to a ridiculously rapid level. It makes the game feel very fluid, but catching up to NPCs wandering around town and properly reacting to hostile creatures quickly enough can be annoying.

Admit it... you just want your PC to be invulnerable, right?

It depends on the race. Bosmer and Dunmer look old and alienish, but Nords and Imperials can look good.

That was awfully pretentious, irreverent, and uncalled for...

Haha, if the shoe fits... no, just kidding. I just wanted a tiny Orc assassin. Not to give any spoilers but that wouldn't have messed with the lore much.

I wonder what a tiny Orc assassin even looks like. Do I want to know?

I thought my Imperial turned out well in a rugged, late-30s kind of way, which is what I was trying for. And I was in a rush to get into the game. It will take some time to learn, but I bet people will make some really great looking characters after getting some practice--I mean great in terms of "character faces that have character".

Think of the character creator as a mini-game that takes some effort and practice to get right.

A buff goblin?