It's not the content that's the problem, it's the fundamental design of the game that the content is in.

not to derail things, but you really should write an article or journal entry on this topic - especially with possible solutions you've found.

i notice a recurring theme in what you say with regards to this topic, and they always seem to be words of wisdom.

do us all a favor and post your thoughts on the subject and let us see what you've figured out.

level 1 artists can't post items without it being checked by a staff member, before player voting

you might just want to staff approve everything until the artist gets a good rep with the staff, at which point you can give them "trusted artist" status, and can relax the vetting process some. if they later mess, up revoke their trusted status, or ban them entirely, depending on the nature of the offense.

this gives you a simpler vetting system, and tighter content control, in one fell swoop.

an entirely different approach might also be possible:

let them do whatever they want. if it makes them look silly that's their business. depending on gametype, silly may be good, and therefore acceptable, or ti may be bad, and therefore players will avoid it.

"hey man, i'm about to go slay a dragon, i don't want to look like no GD fool!"

.

And let's not even get started on the bows...

that's just a summoned bow!

i thought you were going to show something really crazy! like the Hunstman:

a medieval composite longbow with a scope!

https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/57870-1-1410007430.jpg

or something truly ridiculous like this:

http://i.imgur.com/lHsg2.jpg

I think people who play a game like this would want something artistic, since it would potentially take a lot of effort to make the weapons. If you then block them from using things they've made until they grind X amount and so-on, I think it would be demotivating.

Now they brought the model, its theirs to do as they please with (assuming the artist has given permission.), so in that regard its okay but in terms of the game does it break it to much? potentially having every player walking around with legendary looking weapons.

Is this really a problem?

There are hundreds of potential problems that come to mind if such a system was put into a game in reality (which the penis sword problem just being #1 of them), the fact that beginners swords now could look awesome not being one of them to be honest.

If you afraid that the endgamers wouldn't like it: Given your game is popular enough, and the blacksmiths active enough, there would always be the one epic weapon that would actually look unique and epic... and the one trash beginner that would also look epic. It would give weapons another dimension other than stats... some players might choose a non-optimal weapon just because it doesn't look like the rusty beginners sword.

Let me tell you, the beginners would be THRILLED not having to walk around in rags until level 30!

If you are afraid the whole thing would break the story or atmosphere of your game, then chuck player customization out of the window now. Its a fact most of your players, especially in online games, don't give a damn about your story. If you want to force them to roleplay, you should limit customization. If you want to give them the max ability to customize, let go of some control. Let them have their beginners sword of epicness, and their master epic weapon deceivingly looking like a rusty noob dagger thingy.

If it will annoy some people, it will also amuse just as many others.

Now they brought the model, its theirs to do as they please with (assuming the artist has given permission.), so in that regard its okay but in terms of the game does it break it to much? potentially having every player walking around with legendary looking weapons.

Is this really a problem?

There are hundreds of potential problems that come to mind if such a system was put into a game in reality (which the penis sword problem just being #1 of them), the fact that beginners swords now could look awesome not being one of them to be honest.

If you afraid that the endgamers wouldn't like it: Given your game is popular enough, and the blacksmiths active enough, there would always be the one epic weapon that would actually look unique and epic... and the one trash beginner that would also look epic. It would give weapons another dimension other than stats... some players might choose a non-optimal weapon just because it doesn't look like the rusty beginners sword.

Let me tell you, the beginners would be THRILLED not having to walk around in rags until level 30!

If you are afraid the whole thing would break the story or atmosphere of your game, then chuck player customization out of the window now. Its a fact most of your players, especially in online games, don't give a damn about your story. If you want to force them to roleplay, you should limit customization. If you want to give them the max ability to customize, let go of some control. Let them have their beginners sword of epicness, and their master epic weapon deceivingly looking like a rusty noob dagger thingy.

If it will annoy some people, it will also amuse just as many others.

Thanks, I think in the end I dont care what everyone is running around in, and this is what I want the most to come from this is "Let them have their beginners sword of epicness, and their master epic weapon deceivingly looking like a rusty noob dagger thingy."

?Appearance is only that, if someone wants to look like a flippish noble from day 1 with everything epic looking.. I don't mind.

I just need a good system, for avoiding the penis swords..

You need player voting. Checking volume or polycount is meaningless as others have stated, to easy to bypass. And a bigger sword shouldnt by default be more epic/have better stats. Thats really bad design.

But why implement this at all? Seems you want to monetize like "second life" or something. But you do realize the game will look pretty ugly with no distinct art direction at all? Imaging WOW but all toons run around with player-made 3d-objects attached to them... In second life it works because there is no competition, just flaunting your expensive gear.

And you pay less for a more ugly sword/armour? So many players will buy just that (because who likes grinding for in-game money). Not a game I would like to play...

I mean it COULD work in a super-popular, super-populated gameworld if you strictly control the creation process with voting etc. I just dont think its realistic at all.

So you're talking about applying a skin to an existing weapon. One way to limit them is to make crafting take a long time so they cannot just be churned out factory style, or make them expensive so they're something for higher level characters to work towards. (It's probably better to save optional game mechanics for later anyway, new players may already have a hard time learning how the game works without throwing additional layers in)

I'd also make sure graphical overrides are a clear, obvious and separate looking kind of item, keeping them completely separated from regular items; selling pre-skinned items is a fairly straight forward way for scammers to create fake high level looking items.

Personally I'd keep a customization system to breaking each kind of weapon into parts (eg. blade/hilt/handle) and allowing customization by swapping the parts and materials/colors. If you get a large number of people in the same area at the same time, all with their own custom armors/weapons/clothes/hair/jewelry/shoes/effects you'll require every single user to download a copy of every single unique equipment model. It's going to bite server bandwidth pretty darn hard.

If you forced the player to craft the appearance of the weapon in game then you could have more control over it.

Assuming crafting happens in game, you could prevent people from duplicating weapons. If an artists makes a weapon they can keep it for themselves or sell it, but not both. When any specific weapon design actually reflects real time it adds value to the design. More intricate designs would naturally take more time and therefore would be more rare/valuable. Of course there will be hackers who would figure out how to mess with save file data to duplicate weapons.

Allot of very good points.

I might have a more in-depth look how dota does it with the skins, maybe reinventing a wheel here, it didn't occur to me until just now.

This just started from black desert having a lack of gear options, and trying to find an alternative that does not involve hiring a ton of artists, especially to give characters 1 of a kind appearance.