Dude, I've been playing dnd for nearly 40 years so stop with the 'age nknsebse'. Players have always largely preferred to play theur own characters if given a choice. The whole point if dnd is using yiur imagine and creating your character is 'half the fun' as they say. Sure, pre made characters have their place espicially in one shots. But, largely not a 60hour+ crpg.
Even the games you listed, like Kotor and and ME yiu are creating yiur own character. In Kotor, your Revan is a blank slate and he or she us a legit character of your choice. Shepard wven gets variant backgrounds, history, and everything. Outside of the basic you are a space soldier, it's your character.
And, no, I would nkt want to plsy as Imoen or Sarevok. Their npcs. Their great to interact with and suit their purpose well. They have their personalities. To try to 'rpleplsy' them.would be either very limited - much like acting - or you would just bend what the character is. Probably one of the reasons why I dislike Twitcher. Geralt is not my character so making choices fir him is silly. He has his pre built personality. You either rigidly follow it or you off kilter it and the character no longer matters.
The starter kit is a bad example since it's literally used to introduce players/dms to the game and it's mechanics. It's an intro. FYI, I've had some fun with pre made characters in the last, but cresting your own character is 1 million times better, and 99.999999% of people likely agree - not that I personally worry about that subject it comes down to personal opinion. But, that's the spirit of dnd. Creating your own hero or villain and playing thst character. My greatest memories if dnd is that not playing Bob Bozo created by some other person. Lol I had one group I was gonna join try go push me to play a character created by an ex member and I laughed at them, and created my own which they accepted. Lol
Anyways.... that's enough spam.
