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 There are all kinds of things that can make you stick with one game for a long time. For me, one of the biggest reasons I keep playing Mobinogi is character customization. The freedom is remarkable: I can style a character exactly the way I like, recreate characters from other games, or even make the leads from comics I used to love. Mabinogi Mobile has reincarnation, a huge range of outfits, and a dyeing system that lets the very same outfit give off a completely different vibe. And on top of all that, there is one more kind of fun I enjoy that feels a little different from everyone else’s. I make characters based on people I know in real life.



That is, I build characters with real-life acquaintances as the inspiration. It gets even more entertaining when you run into someone from your actual life inside the game. Even if they do not actively play with me, it also makes for very effective bait when I am introducing Mabinogi Mobile to them or trying to recruit them. That is how my first sub-character ended up becoming a character version of my husband, Yeonho. He started first, but I was the one who kept updating the character to match his hairstyle. Before I knew it, that was part of why Mabinogi Mobile settled into my heart as one of those games I simply had to keep playing.

Around the time we started Mabinogi Mobile, Yeonho had not cut his hair even once since our wedding, so he had shoulder-length hair. That is why I built the character like the one below. His beard starts coming in by evening, and he has a fairly intimidating gaze, so that was the look I aimed for. When I showed it to most of my friends and family, it got a very favorable response.



But time passed, and at some point his hair had grown out quite a bit. So I thought, ah, it is time to update Yeonho’s character. And when I went to change it, would you believe there was a hairstyle that looked almost exactly the same? I picked it immediately, delighted. After that, I kept that hairstyle until the character was well into his mid-thirties. I even went through the main story with that long hair.



 And lately, Yeonho has been wearing his hair tied up. I suppose the hot weather has something to do with it, and once your hair has been long for a while, it does seem to become a bit of a nuisance. Apparently letting it hang loose is annoying too, because he has been wearing it in a little round bun. If he grows it a bit longer, it will be long enough to donate, so I think he plans to keep growing it out. At some point, even to my eyes, long hair started suiting him more than short hair.



 And when it comes to reincarnation, age 10 is basically the standard, isn’t it? Since a sub-character usually spends several weeks after a reincarnation anyway, I turned him into a 10-year-old. It is just too cute. Yeonho must have been cute at that age too, right? Hoho. I always use body type 4 for Yeonho’s character, because in real life he is tall and fairly broad as well, so it is the ideal build for getting the resemblance right.

 I think there are many reasons people keep enjoying a game over time. Of course, part of that is the variety of content the game itself provides, but I also think the kind of content you create for yourself matters just as much. In fact, when I try to pull my friends into the world of Erinn in Mobinogi, I sometimes tempt them by showing them this character. Come play with me! You can make characters like this too! That is what I tell them. A game’s appeal also shows in how much you can do with the systems and content it gives you. I hope we get even more varied appearances, more outfits, and even more kinds of charm in the future. With that, I will wrap things up here, hoping everyone reading this is happy, and that it made you smile at least once.