Suggestion "Cosmetic/Costume" Slots

[Tsukino]

I have mixed feelings about this whenever it's used or mentioned.

On the one hand, it's nice to have good stats and not look like a clown. I remember thieves in FFXI wearing the uglical hat, bright red scorpion harness, and green AF shorts. It was highly offensive to everyone's sense of fashion. It would be great to continue to look good in complete sets even after certain pieces are replaced by better things (or sucked from the start).

However, it's also immensely illogical and maintains no sense of purpose for changing armor models in the first place. Logically speaking, we should appear to wear what we actually are wearing. As far as the sense of purpose, if we're going to just pick our own looks anyway why don't we do so during character creation and then not add any models for new equipment like a console RPG where outfits are part of the character design?

I never can decide which is the lesser of two evils.

[ShinChuck]

I love having costume/wardobe options, like in PSU, Rift or Guild Wars. I like that my characters can still wear a style resembling something I/they'd wear without being utterly useless. Wardrobe options are a great way to allow players to enjoy their character while still participating in the world around them.

Anyway, TL;DR below. Sorry, it's late and I'm bored!

However, it's also immensely illogical and maintains no sense of purpose for changing armor models in the first place. Logically speaking, we should appear to wear what we actually are wearing. As far as the sense of purpose, if we're going to just pick our own looks anyway why don't we do so during character creation and then not add any models for new equipment like a console RPG where outfits are part of the character design?

I'm just not personally concerned about "logic" or "realism" in an MMO of this nature. Logically speaking, most of our clothing makes no sense. Harnesses should offer little or no protection, with my chest and back almost entirely bare, and yet, the one I'm wearing is vastly superior to earlier stuff that covered my entire body and was made from similar materials. There's absolutely no logic there.

We're also raising the dead, teleporting, playing as girls with tails, magically healing life-threatening wounds, looking at a UI, having our health measured strictly and specifically in numbers, riding airships that couldn't possibly fly, repeating random quests with arbitrary time limits, waiting in queues for dungeons, assigning specific levels to our individual talents, randomly and illogically being held back from assisting soldiers who are begging for our help because we did another Behest too recently, able to hold literally thousands of items in our packs, and... well, you get the point. Logic went out the window a long time ago, so I just don't find it a compelling reason to limit something significantly less illogical like a wardobe/costume option (which isn't even illogical in many cases - a long robe in a costume slot would fit fine over my current armor, and a platemail top in my wardobe would certainly fit over a leather jerkin - while many of the things I mentioned are *always* illogical and/or unrealistic, yet accepted MMO practice).

As for your second point about just doing it all at creation, there's two reasons why wardrobes are better than that. First, nobody wants a static character. Wardobes allow you to change outfits depending on mood or style. Especially if you play an MMO for multiple years, you might not want the same outfit at 24 as you did at 19. Or you may want play clothes for the city, and tough clothing for questing, and swimwear for the beach. This isn't just limited to RPers, either, I know lots of people who despise RP but still enjoy being able to customize their character.

Second, it's another carrot to dangle in front of players and keep them chasing. Whereas, without a wardobe/costume option, players are strictly hunting gear based on stats, with a costume option, many players are hunting both gear based on stats *and* gear based on look. It can be pretty thrilling to come across a new piece of armor or get a rare drop and see it looks really cool and would go well with your outfit, or as part of something new and original. More carrots to keep people playing tend to be a good thing from a developer's perspective, and players are always looking for another reason to keep going and another way to customize.