Hey there, 

i like the idea of individual expression, too. :)

BUT: Whenever you allow ppl to do so, be prepared to see some REALLY inappropriate stuff. D*ck pics, nudes and things we may not even think of now.

Sure, there is this facebook pic thingy already going, and i have already seen some really nasty stuff. This would make things worse, i fear. :( 

That's why a collaboration with the games artist. 

You send a picture and the artist makes a nice ingame pic based on that?

Please dont take this personally, but - for many many reasons - I dont see this happening.^^

Same with a custom shield. If I want a catfish over a grill, I communicate via email with the artist or dev team. It's a nice way to personalize the game. Maybe a custom town appearance for the clan. Or a custom clan banner over each town. They like making money, offering a special event is a great way for them to do that. Also I could see some battles over it. There's been some complaints about a lack of warfare right? Well, give the players a reason.

Ok, i see now, you do understand that there is work behind this^^

Pardon my post earlier, but, as you may know, ppl love comming to game forums demanding really hillarious stuff without thinking about the effort/time/money needed... ^^

If you could provide PLARIUM with some nice ideas that fit in and individualize things AND they can firgure out a way to even monetize it, i can see this working. :)

Most games have some type of holiday special event. I haven't seen a one in vikings. For example ; on Valentine's day a special Valentine's "invader"  that you would earn the materials to create special gear specifically from that "invader"(the invader type part has different names in different games). Usually that is the best gear to have. Since those holiday sets are hard to get, it's usually a mad rush to collect those materials. The custom  clan shield and banner, hero appearance is also in a few other games. Extremely rare. There was a game that had live webcast q&a sessions between the players and a couple people from the development team. It was an awesome game and the players were fanatics. 

Thesilverfox said:

...

However, I highly doubt the development team even reads the forums. Due to the general opinion I get from players. Which is, they don't or extremely rarely even communicate. Still... 

Sadly, thats true as far as i am concerned. :(

I completely stopped giving feedback. There is no Playerbase - Dev communication here, besides some very rare generic answers that feel more like talking to a computer than having an actual conversation. I do, tho, understand that there might be reasons behind this. 

Well, things may change in the future, who knows. Always hoping for the best. :)

I think they read the forum, but prefer to remain in the shadows.

We appreciate your loyalty and we will forward your suggestions for consideration.