dtgreene: (All the games let you choose your main character's name, except *maybe* 9, which I don't know about.)
1 and 2 let you choose your gender and class, though the difference between classes is rather small. (I don't remember if these let you choose race.)
3 lets you choose race, gender, and class for all 4 characters (and any backup characters you create); unlike the other games, there is no single character who would be considered the main character. This is the only game in the series with a 3rd gender option.
4-6 let you choose gender, and you are then asked a series of questions that determine your starting stats. In 4, your answers to these questions also determine your class. No races in the series at this point. (Hint: Unless you intentionally want to make the game harder, never choose the humble option during character creation.)
7 got rid of the quiz at the start; your starting stats are always the same.
8 got rid of the gender selection; in 8 and 9, you are forced to make the avatar male. (This is actually the reason I haven't played 8.)
For completeness, Akalabeth only lets you choose the "level of play" (difficulty), a "lucky number" (RNG seed, which affects the random world generation and every other random number), and whether to play as a Fighter or Mage; you don't even get to name your character.
Thank you so much for the detailed descriptions. I'm neck deep in Might and Magic 6 but I'm really excited to delve into Ultima. I played Ultima Online a lot as a pre-teen/teen but never any of the single player games. Avatar create has always been a huge selling point to me in most video games and I agree when I'm forced into an avatar I tend to like the game a little bit less. It was one of the reasons why my teens and 20's were spent almost exclusively playing MMORPGs.
