@Magson: It’s certainly not ubiquitous yet, but it does seem to be a rising trend. I’m just not sure who was the first to think that it was a good idea. Trying to adjust facial features whilst the character randomly switches between looking over its shoulder and up at the ceiling is rather frustrating, to say the least.

@pjharvey: I have encountered many MMOs which animate whilst you are adjusting the sliders, and so your sensible option does not seem to be a standard as of yet, alas. To be honest though, any animation is frustrating, even when not specifically adjusting options, because I might be trying to get an overview of the character to check proportions and such, and I can’t do so when it starts jiving around. I can already view various angles using the interface, so I don’t need it to animate. If they want to show-off animations on that screen then perhaps a button to trigger them would be preferable to random bouts of fidgeting.

EQ2′s guilty of this. The humanoid characters aren’t too bad, but the Sarnak’s twist all the way off the viewing area. But I’ve got all my slots filled now and therefore won’t be making any more so it’s a moot point for me there. We’ll see what the future holds with other games, though.

Oh and don’t even bother trying to get to that Circle (it’s the 17th, btw). It’s kinda full these days. I should know, I’ve got a flat with views of the lava-spews and special extra char slots.