Quote Originally Posted by animatedex View Post
I guess my objection to this would be that i've seen it executed poorly by many MMOs. I would be so bold as to bet that shortly after "vanity slots" would be implemented, SE would begin making armor sets that are much like the wedding garb; completely useless. It wouldn't even be much of a stretch to say that they would charge real currency for these in-game items, much like other games that won't be named.

I don't want to say that the idea isn't a cool one. But, one staple of FFXI has been "town gear": a set that is pleasing to the player aesthetically, but has almost no utility.
The vast majority of gear in the game fits that criteria. The amount of gear that's functionally useless compared to other gear that's easier to obtain is staggering. The developers don't develop most of this "town gear" on purpose; the fact that it occurs is not a "staple" of the game's design or the intent of the developers. They don't make a piece thinking, "I'll make this look cool, but give this a weird, stupid, or crappy set of stat bonuses, it will make nice 'town gear!'" With the exception of holiday gear, which IS developed only for wear around town and for use in events, a majority of the "cool design/nearly useless stats" gear exist just because of underwhelming or outright bad stat bonuses chosen by the developers.

So if anything, the developers should welcome an idea like this to see their efforts (especially those of the artists/modelers/texture designers) not go to waste and to see old gear be appreciated in a new way.

Think about the way things have been over the years and throughout the history of FFXI. How many amazing head pieces were added to the game that weren't good enough to get people to take off their Optical Hat, regardless of how silly it looked? How many melees wore a hideously mismatched ensemble of daily wear based around their Scorpion Harness or Haubergeon? How many wondrous robes can a WHM clothe themselves in, but won't remove their trusty Noble's Tunic to wear? Even today, with the wide array of gear to choose from, how many identically dressed clones can you find running around town or out and about in Abyssea?

Meanwhile a lone SE modeler/texture-maker looks upon Port Jeuno, a single tear streaming down his cheek, thinking about what could have been.