Not as main characters. Sure, some NPCs and stuff can be "normal" people but the mains....nah ALWAYS make them cool, fit, good looking people. ESPECIALLY given what the average game character does....constant running, fighting, jumping, climbing, shooting, etc, aint no room for a tubbie lard ass doing that stuff!
Another thing 'modern' character design is overlooking is having distinct characters easily evaluated at a glance. There is a reason why the visual language of games was the way it was for so long. I look at the groups of characters in that new Dragonage game and I can't tell what class or skills any of them have (well, other than the big demon one that can't help but blab about herself) because they all look generic as hell. Their costumes are bland, there is little that stands out, especially glaring in a stylized game where you'd think they'd have class weapons and stuff always at hand.
The fitness of a character is relevant. The attractiveness is as well, since we have all been programmed by our genes to respond to healthy looking attractive symmetric people as superior breeding partners. Ugliness, deformity, asymmetry, these are markers of disease, poor genes, or unhealth that we simply can not escape a certain level of visceral repugnance to (unless it is overridden by other markers of success like ostentatious displays of wealth, social status, etc).
