I'm sure it's been suggested before, but what about a couple of skin color options when creating a new character.
I just got my gf to join and she is black. First thing she asked was where are the black characters. She has a point.

I want to be periwinkle, personally...

I want my ranger to be a forest green, let him blend into the trees. Not sure why skin color isnt a choice but we are all a happy community where color doesn't matter (well at least in my world).

Dont make joke guys, be nice
Now I honestly agree with you totally. She has a point indeed.
I agree with this totally.

First off, I understand the appeal of playing a character that has the same skin color as your race. Personally, I think it'd be nice if the character generator was more detailed, but I'm spoiled by CoH. That being said, I'm not really joking. If the devs were to consider adding skin colors, I'd want some that are unrealistic (green, blue, violet, etc...). This game isn't about realism by any means, nor do our characters really reflect who we are in our "real" lives. If skin colors are going to be added, they should be both real and unreal.

I completely agree, the second thing I thought is that fantasy colors could be fun.

I want this feature too! Sadly, the game engine and the art that we inherited from the previous team were not engineered to make player avatars with different skin tones happen at all. So, in other words, getting this feature into the game is a very big task.

This is a feature that I wish I could say we will put in soon, but given the mountain of work that we already face, and the limited resources we have to overcome that mountain... it is unlikely that this will get any attention any time soon. I will make sure we add more NPCs with a variety of skin color to the game. That is much easier to do in the short-term.

I apologize for not having more diversity of skin tones in the game. I hope we have the resources at some point to fix it, but at the same time, I don't want to set any false expectations. Thank you for posting on this topic and raising the issue. We do change our dev plans based on customer feedback. If this issue continues to be raised I could see some changes being made to our schedule.

Just a thought as an "easier" and/or temporary fix.
what if you add a little eguip box left of the headgear box and allow people to buy and equip skin colors kind of like a second level of armor that has strictly an non combat use. Later on when you do get the time to work on new character models it could be used for clothing (you know, the stuff you wear under the armor).