Depends on the story. I just published a fantasy story with a lot of changing of eye colors and lots of overlays so it would get messy if I should do CC, limited or full. But if you have a storyline where in it doesn’t matter how MC and LI looks like, full CC or limited CC or none doesn’t matter to me. 
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It depends on my mood. Sometimes I’m in the mood to create characters and play as myself. Sometimes I’m not. If your story has limited or no cc at all. It doesn’t bother me otherwise. 🤷
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I don’t care. I usually read stories as books. (Even if the characters are not good looking)
But I would suggest keeping full CC on your story as some readers like to customize according to their looks…/ limited CC if there’ll be art scenes… or else it’ll look weird if they don’t match.
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Here’s your entire analysis report, from both a reader and a writer.
As a reader, I like cc. I don’t think it’s mandatory, but I’ll use every cc chance given to change the playable/important characters into my characters if given.
To certain readers, it’s super important; to some, it’s a nuisance but they won’t complain unless they’re forced to cc like, 5+ characters in a single go.
Limited cc is fine by me, but I do recommend you to have a solid reason as to why it’s important some features are getting locked.
For instance, if you’re writing a vampire story with a vampire MC/LI, their eye colors change all the time. To save up coding time and the trouble of mismatching eye colors during the transitions, you’ve decided to lock the eye color option for cc. That’s acceptable.
However, state your reason clearly. Not just “oh it’s for plot purposes”, but “their eye color changes from time to time, therefore I locked the eye color customization.”
And show it. If the limited cc is there because you will change their eye color multiple times, let the readers realize it. They won’t be happy if you limit customizability for nothing.
As a writer, if any of the character’s features are important to the plot (e.g. you’re using the character’s skin tone as Chekhov’s gun) or maybe you use heavy custom limb overlays which wouldn’t make sense if the skin tones mismatch by just a bit (If you’ve read Sleepless Nights and/or Shipwrecked by Nelly, you’ll understand what I’m saying), then limited cc is crucial to you.
If the playable character isn’t a you character (e.g. he/she has strong opinions and/or comes from a different era and/or you’re writing a story in which the character’s race is part of the plot point itself) AND you want to make it super clear, it’s fine to remove cc option.
Most people include cc because many readers look for interactivity, and customizing playable characters to look like themselves allows readers to immerse into the story more. But if your story is interesting enough, that wouldn’t be necessary. So it’s just down to your preferences.
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i don’t mind it with or without as a reader!
i hate ppl saying “omg your character is not good looking and i would prefer if there were a cc option”
episode is about choices not ccing characters lol pls understand that some characters are meant to look a certain way in order for the author to feel completely satisfied with their story.
most people in the episode community are so obsessed with cc that I wouldn’t be surprised if they created a cult over it???
what makes a story relateable is the qualities of a person not how they look 
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My (veeeeeeery) WIP story has a limited MC CC and full LI CC (if you so choose to customize them). This link has customization templates for you to use: https://www.dara-amarie.com/customization
(Just make sure to keep in the reader message crediting our goddess.)
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I am always going fo prefer full CC, but limited CC is totally okay too! Limited CC is honestly preferred when the character is of a specific ethnicity. No CC is absolutely valid as well, I just don’t usually read stories without it.
Reasons I Love Full CC (Because This Is Super Long)
I absolutely never change characters to look like myself, that’s always felt super weird and uncomfortable to me. I just love creating characters, and even outside of Episode it’s really rare I’ll play a game where I can’t customize my characters.
I don’t know why exactly, but I’ve always felt weird and disconnected when playing (and especially writing, outside of Episode) someone else’s character. I’m not their writer, and as a writer myself, I know how much I don’t know about them because of that, and I don’t want to do them wrong in a way. There are things about your own characters you just know that can never be put down and explained. But with customization and the choices most stories have, it feels like the character is more, not shared, but like, something like that if that makes sense? Like the character has a piece of you now, and there’s a connection.
All of the features and characters are absolutely beautiful, but some of them have like different ?? art styles that I can’t help but notice way too much on some of the features to get passed it. Some eyes have blacker eyelashes that are super intense black, and the newest eyes feel like an entirely different style from everything else, and while they’re absolutely beautiful, feel off to me with the rest. The shading and line art are just different. It’s like the shading is too blended and the line art doesn’t have as much thickness variation in comparison to the rest. Which is absolutely no shade to the artists who made them, they’re absolutely fantastic, just a slightly different style to the rest that now that I noticed I can’t ignore it.
So many skin shades also don’t have matching lip colors, especially the mid tone copper ones, and sometimes the combinations people are stuck going with clash too much for me. I’m super matchy matchy, and I don’t know if that’s part of my OCD because I was only recently diagnosed and I’m still learning what’s my artist pickiness and what’s an obsession and compulsion, but colors and tones and shades not matching is a huge thing for me, and I can spend hours trying to fix that while making outfits for my own stories for example.
I’ve also never minded when things don’t match. If I choose to customize and things don’t match, that’s on me, and I don’t at all expect authors to make overlays for each skin tone and everything. The authors who give a few options honestly deserve so much love for that because Jesus the coding, I don’t even want to know what goes into that.
In regards to Limited CC, as Tess already said, please give a reason as to why.
If you choose to provide CC, please also don’t make the readers who choose to use it feel bad about doing so. If you really don’t want CC, don’t give it. I’ve read some stories where authors are really upset about it and won’t even share screenshots of customized characters of their stories, or they’ll have certain extra scenes hidden if you customized. I totally get the upset, some readers are way too pushy with it and it sucks and they shouldn’t be doing that, but that’s no reason to make everyone feel bad for it. You need to be confident in whatever choice you make, and be prepared for some people to really not like it.
Honestly, just do what feels best to you. It’s your story, and you are the only one who knows the best way to tell it. You have every right to tell it the way that feels right, and don’t feel pressured to include CC just because most everyone does. Some people take wanting to CC way too far, and you shouldn’t have to bend your vision to accommodate them. Interactivity doesn’t mean they’re the one telling the story and the one who knows best.
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a lot of readers may not see characters that look like them (ie. race, skin tone) so it’s understandable they would at least want to be represented in the main character.
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Tysm for mentioning me to this! You got me blushing. 
Indeed, if I had to include full CC it would take ages to go through the entire code. 
It’s all about preference, and what the writer wants to give detail to. I honestly live for these little limb moments so taking them away, or adding lesser of them to add full CC would make me less interested in writing. 
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I understand why some people don’t use CC I’m their stories but for me personally I can’t read a story of there isn’t some sort of customisation in it. I don’t mind if it’s limited cc or full I just like to have some decision in how the mc looks lol. I usually don’t like customising every main character in the story, but as long and I can customise the MC and the LI then I’m happy 
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I prefer full customization because I like to create new looks for the characters every time. It makes me feel like each story is simultaneously my own and different from the other stories if that makes sense. I NEVER use the lip and hair customizations when those pop up though. Sometimes I like the hair/ hair color ones but not often.
I’ll always put it in my story for people to decide because it’s easy to do now with @Dara.Amarie 's template.
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I usually only read stories with customisation in, I don’t mind either limited or full I think I just like having some decision in the way my character looks, it makes the story seem more personable and makes me feel like I have more input
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What happened to Chantelle on episode
Yes, I also prefer full CC, but if the ethnicity + race is important then I am perfectly fine with some limited customizations. I feel like not giving your reader anything at all is just something that turns a lot of readers away from stories even if the plot and storyline is good.
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I like to have full cc. But i almost always leave the character as the author imagined it but i like to have the choice of cc. Maybe there’s a lip color i dont like or i want to change something 
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Limited cc or no cc probably since they are episode characters I don’t feel the need for the characters to resemble or look like me.
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