About the whole '' shorts and skirts '' thing...

[YatoShishi]

For me its the devs themselves that perpetuate the stereotype in this game, of pants for males, skirts for females and i believe its down to playing it 'safe' due to how many countries they sell to. It is boring but it is 'safe'.

I see you havent seen the fanfest, cause they explained how gear is chosen, the devs dont choose the design. An artist makes different designs and yoshi picks what he likes and then gives it to the devs and they create the gear that was chosen. we cant blame the devs for everything thats in the game.

[Schan]

I'm sort of like Iscah, but let me explain why I personally prefer trousers on my character.

First of all Females mostly get skirts or super short shorts. I'd like some more variety like... anything other than booty shorts for females. Can i get like a thigh or knee or even chin length shorts/trousers? Some jobs barely have any options regarding those lengths.

Secondly, skirts and shorts scale horribly on tall races like Roes. They suffer from what i call the "A shape syndrome". In other words they go at that angle and physics be damned. If you're tall it literally sticks to that angle and never changes. One of the pvp robes managed to tackle that somewhat but guesss what... they rarely use that model as basis for other robes / skirt shaped stuff for some reason.
To show you what I mean...

A shape syndrome on tall races:


This is referred as by me and my friends as the "tent" armour. they like to sit on my feet.

Booty shorts on tall races? It basically looks like underwear. I see it on cat and lizard girls and is this nice mid thigh length. If I try it on? Crotch level shorts.

Really short skirts? Looks okay on cat and lizard people. I can see my virtual underwear without tilting the camera. I just needed half an inch to cover that up but I guess that's too hard.

Hopefully if Viera are popular enough, people will complain enough because there's no way SE will listen to Roes and Elezen regarding this. We have been complaning for YEARS.

[Crushnight]

I see you havent seen the fanfest, cause they explained how gear is chosen, the devs dont choose the design. An artist makes different designs and yoshi picks what he likes and then gives it to the devs and they create the gear that was chosen. we cant blame the devs for everything thats in the game.

Artists and Yoshi P are part of the development team for ffxiv are they not, their positions are different but they are still part of the same team/division of SE so the devs do decide what goes in the game (Yoshi more specifically but even he can get overturned as was the case with Lakshmi's music) and generally(please correct me if i'm wrong as not an artist but have friends who are) when you present pieces to your boss/employer your happy with the base concept you may like to tweak things but the core design you tend to be happy with at that stage, so yes the devs do perpetuate the stereotypes but i do feel this out of playing it safe not because they don't want to.

[TroySoFab]

I'd rather not have a boobplate on my armor, thanks.

[SannaR]

Then you have the hot mess that is the Quintrell set where you can only tell you're wearing the skirt because it comes with stockings as the top has a skirt of it's own that over writes the actual skirt. I don't think I saw anyone break down the whm lv 80 pieces as that's one of the long time offenders of you call this a skirt when it shows shorts or pants which the guys will get. I do know that the guys get a full gown for the body and the ladies get a robe that has a cut away that shows a dress's skirt that goes down to the knee which is probably still part of the top some stockings and princess shoes. The big fear being that we'll get hopefully not get what we got this time which was some fancy underwear or the Eternal Sailor Moon skirt that barely covers the butt even on a lala, but a nice skirt that is the same length as the dress.

You can then go and look at the lv 80 blm set for the ladies what we can see is a top that seriously stops right at the bottom and yes it's a cute style and many might even like that style but the bottoms are so short you can't really see them. Meanwhile I want to say the guys get a whole different style and a fear me I'm going to burn you with a huge fireball kind of look. I do like an occasional skimpy outfit, but when it feels like it's the default for just about everything it makes me groan.

[Bahati]

Japanese game, Japanese gender ideals used for outfit design. As a business I imagine SE monitors what sets are popular (which are usually short shorts, frilly things, etc) and makes more of that to please the majority.

[Iromi]

OP, you should have seen the forums back in 1.x days when they revealed the first AF and the female DRG armor had a hole to show the stomach..heh.

[Melichoir]

Hmm,

I think the nuance here is they should provide both options (skirts and shorts), which most people are a-ok with. The complaint about women gear having attributes that are more culturally feminine (most notably, things that show off or extenuate parts of the female figure) I think is a misguided one. As the OP points out, saying that 'gender neutral' = shorts isnt correct, as thats more culturally masculine. In any case, there does seem to be fringe extremes who think that shorts/skirts of any kind, or showing off women as being sexy/attractive is misogynistic; not realizing that female players actually have their own tastes, and may want to glamour anything form being more masculine to Cute to Sexy. I think that view quite literally a short sighted view that takse to much liberty with what they think other people want.

You dont like shorts/skirts, and want your female to dress masculine, there are plenty of options for that. In fact, its easier to argue that in FF, you have a broader variety of styles and glamour for women than you do men. But I think people should lay off the outrage about female armor aesthetics. Give everyone the options they want, and leave it at that.

[Ceridwenae]

I despise the short shorts. I despise the miniskirts. But I'm okay with them being there, because a lot of people do like them. But that's often the new look for ladies. Here! more short shorts. Here! Have another miniskirt. You may have trousers, but they will seem strangely tailored. Or, if they seem to work as a decent pair, there's only one or two pairs of shoes that work with them (hello Bard ARR artifact trews. I love you, but by the gods I wish I had a pair of ankle boots which aren't the EB ones that work with you without clipping).

I love the long skirts where they occur, but object to not being able to wear at least a pair of tights under them. Some outfits, like the High House bustle (I love bustle, I want more), work as they're ostensibly just tops, but it doesn't work on all my jobs or locations, and can look a little too stuffy. The Eikon culottes of healing are great too, but sometimes they look a little too full (though I'm using them with the sky pirate coat on my WHM right now).

What I really want is for the plain long skirt (my favourite) to allow tights. It's literally the only thing I'd really ask for, even though there are a few other things which would be nice extras too. I'd give cookies, cakes, the crochet stuff I make for a living, whatever to have this tights with the skirt. I'd use it everywhere, teamed up with the Hannish shirt. I'd never need another skirt, and there could be all the booty shorts in the world thereafter. I mean, I do use the long skirt and Hannish shirt look anyway, but try to avoid climbing ladders as I have my standards. Even some mounts are out of the question if the wind is blowing too strongly.

The Riviera dress, being the next nearest thing, only works for a few looks, as the waistcoat can't be dyed and I don't always want off-the-shoulder (though it's the look of choice for when I'm RDM... which is about never at this point. And I lost the hat to stupidity). I like most of my things to be blue, and I can't have the red waistcoat on everything because it just does not work for my aesthetic.

I love feminine things, but not things that show too much skin, or are girly girl (like that frilly dress of my nightmares) and I don't want to dress my proxy like a man either. Things which show shape and not skin are great, but I would actually like a v-neck or scoop type top to show a little cleavage (not the whole bra) when I feel like changing from the autumn shirt - or just the waistcoat on the Riviera dress to have a dye channel or two as well. Hints, not the whole show.

... and I expect absolutely none of this to occur, so

[Jonnycbad]

Hmm,

I think the nuance here is they should provide both options (skirts and shorts), which most people are a-ok with.

How about they don't? I highly doubt it's as easy as letting players toggle which gender's legwear to use. Male characters and female characters have different skeletons and animations. That means they'd have to create a pants/skirt for males, and a pants/skirt for females. For each race. That exponentially increases the amount of workload, and there's thousands of leg armors in the game.