9S Glam

[wereotter]

I still don't know what you are picturing that makes genderlocking better.

As far as I can see:

Scenario 1 (with genderlocking): they make onemale and one female hairstyle. Everybody gets one chance to receive a hairstyle they like.

Scenario 2 (no genderlocking): they make the same male and female hairstyle. Everyone has the same chance to like the hairstyle intended for their character's gender BUT ALSO a smaller second chance to also like the hairstyle intended for the other gender.


In the second scenario you are not getting anything less, while people with other tastes are getting the same amount or more. Thus my conclusion that you could only object if you dislike the idea that some people might like both styles while you only like one.

Besides, arbitrary genderlocking to male and female styles isn't going to stop some of those male styles from being not manly enough for your taste. Either that or never again giving people who like boyish anime-protagonist styles what they want. It is a fact that you will not like every hairstyle released for your gender, regardless of your taste.


For my own case, two of my male characters have long hair and any alternate styles I might want to use for them would also be long. Genderlocked styles would tie them into the likeliness that future hairstyles for them will be short while any long ones will be female-only.

A simple, longer style would work for them, but then why shouldn't female characters also have access to that?

Estinien's hair is probably a good reference point. If that got brought out as a player hairstyle, not linked to an existing character, what would you classify it as? Another feminine style, why aren't there any masculine ones?

The history of the past 2-4 years I should think shows why this isn't working.

They've had all unisex hairstyles since the launch of Stormblood, but more and more we see more androgynous hair that more and more players are growing dissatisfied with. You can see that in the threads on this forum, people playing female toons complaining that all the new hairstyles are too short, and they're sick of ponytails with braids. Meanwhile, players with male toons are complaining that the hairstyles are too long and too feminine. In an effort to make things usable for everyone, they've reached a situation where, at least based off the feedback I've read, fewer people are satisfied.

Additionally I should say that just because a character has certain hair, and even if the character is masculine, it doesn't mean every aspect of their appearance follows. Yes, if I tried on Estinien's hair, to your example, I would think it's a hairstyle for women. This was the same case with Ejika who, despite being a male potato, had a hairstyle that made most people think he was a woman, and to that end, I've seen more female PCs wear than male.

If it means that more players can be happy with the choices available to them, then yes. I also support going back to having at least some of the hair released each expansion be designed with male and with female toons in mind and locked to that sex to reinforce the design goal for the developers.

[Iscah]

...

I do agree that there needs to be a focus on balancing the genders. But I don't see why they have to be genderlocked as part of this process, as long as they stick to giving variety.

And yes I'm quite sure Ejika's hair was designed as feminine but they seem to always get someone in each patch's story using the new hairstyles, and Asahi had already taken the other one. (Which is a pity because it works well on Lalafells.)