IceCreamMyself

I didn't said it would be a detriment. Then how is it "[undermining] a system that could play an interesting role in player encounters?"

I quite like the permanence of it. Hopefully it'll stop people just playing a chick because they think it gives them an advantage. Many people find it more fun to roleplay as someone who is entirely different to them. I mean, when I'm playing the game I'm not pretending to be myself. If I was, I'd just an hero the moment I saw a zombie.

I suggest this because the way the skins work as of now, whereas your skin is chosen randomly from a few pre-designated models, doesn't really encourage team play as it is really hard to spot your friend when there's several other people who look exactly like him. Also it makes killing people extremely unforgiving as you are marked as a target to everyone, even when you killed in self defence. Allowing for users to choose their skin would let us easily distinguish our friends and group mates from outsiders. It would also make bandits harder to spot, but I think it's part of the nature of the game. Seeing someone for the first time and having to evaluate if they are a threat or not and whether to engage them or sneak around them would be a much more fun system than "This guy looks like a terrorist, let's kill him". I wouldn't object to having some sort of blood stain on the person if they killed someone (If that's possible at all) as it wouldn't make them distinguishable from a range and wouldn't imply that they are a obviously a bandit.