Final Fantasy XIV Hot Takes

[aveyond-dreams]

Gender-locked jobs are better than limited jobs.

[Kolsykol]

Gender-locked jobs are better than limited jobs.

I have mixed thoughts on this in Korean MMO's.
In a lot of cases the reason why gender-locks exist is because the character you play is an already established character in the lore, they have a name and a backstory etc.
Vindictus is an example that comes to mind.
I'd even argue Genshin Impact to some extent.

Something I also like about it in Korean MMO's is that it tends to open up for pushing masculinity and femininity more because the devs don't have to worry about people getting mad because their male character gets '' girly clothes ''.
It makes the designs a lot more unique and distinct imo.
I don't really like the hyper masculinity thing with enormous angry guys but I really like the hyper femininity opposite end.

Not saying all games need to do this ( altho it does bother me how the masculine is basically always treated as the default women need to adapt to... ).
But my personal preference is for hyper femininity to be pushed, and I can just accept hyper masculinity as the opposite end so that what I want can exist too.
I don't think it's possible without gender-locks tho because when it comes to masculinity and what men wear and how they look it's significantly more rigid and people would flip the hell out if their male characters got the same gear as the female characters.
I mean ffs there's people in FFXIV who lose their minds whenever female characters get a skirt, imagine if they actually did go with the same gear for both genders but *gasp* used the female gear as the default.
Male characters getting a skirt for a gear set would cause a huge mental breakdown from loud sections of the community.

FFXIV does have some gendered stuff too but it's the exception and it's usually not the gear itself you get from doing dungeons and raids.
I do prefer it personally tho when the whole class/ Job has all of its gear and style designed around it.

[Shibi]

Male characters getting a skirt for a gear set would cause a huge mental breakdown from loud sections of the community.

Every male healer in FFXIV says 'Hi'.

[Kolsykol]

Every male healer in FFXIV says 'Hi'.

I don't think that's the same thing, but yes to some extent it kinda gets into what I mean.
Even just the hint of something that is perceived as feminine and suddenly it's a gigantic problem, but as a woman/ someone who prefers feminine fashion in 99% of games you're just expected to deal with everything being designed for men first and women being an afterthought.

The shoe is on the other foot and suddenly reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[Senn]

Even just the hint of something that is perceived as feminine and suddenly it's a gigantic problem, but as a woman/ someone who prefers feminine fashion in 99% of games you're just expected to deal with everything being designed for men first and women being an afterthought.

The shoe is on the other foot and suddenly reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Women tend to look good even if they wear gear that leans more towards the masculine side.
When men wear feminine clothing, it doesn't look right, at least to me anyway. Probably because a lot of feminine clothing are built around and compliment the female form.

If you ask me why, I wouldn't really be able to tell you. Women just pull off a wider range of clothing, feminine & masculine, better.
I'm not saying men shouldn't wear feminine clothing if that's what they want to do. Men can wear feminine clothing if they want and there's no problem with it. I guess this is just another one of my hot takes.

[Kolsykol]

Women tend to look good even if they wear gear that leans more towards the masculine side.
When men wear feminine clothing, it doesn't look right, at least to me anyway. Probably because a lot of feminine clothing are built around and compliment the female form.

If you ask me why, I wouldn't really be able to tell you. Women just pull off a wider range of clothing, feminine & masculine, better.
I'm not saying men shouldn't wear feminine clothing if that's what they want to do. Men can wear feminine clothing if they want and there's no problem with it. I guess this is just another one of my hot takes.

It depends a bit on the clothing but generally speaking I agree with you.
However I also think this has significantly more to do with the fact that we're not used to seeing men in feminine clothing and I also think that feminine fashion looks way better and is A LOT more varied and diverse.
I mean if you go back and look at a lot of clothes historically that men used to wear it often looks effeminate but used to be considered very manly.
These things obviously changes.

My overall point tho is that I feel like normally what ends up happening is that feminine fashion tends to get limited or even be non-existent in games because of this and I think it's sad and annoying.
And I also think that people should relax and not flip the hell out when they get something different every once in a while.
If you play a male character it shouldn't really be a big deal if you got one skirt per expansion it's not worth flipping out about and there are people who enjoy it too.
Not everything needs to be designed for male characters first and then just thrown unto female characters but that's how it tends to work.

In New World it was so bad female characters actually had bulges because that's how little effort they put into female characters ( and they had a ton of titles with the wrong gender ).
I think both that female characters shouldn't be an afterthought and also that people should widen their horizons a little on what men can wear.
I mean look at kilts and Roman soldiers ( Romans not necessarily skirts, but it looks like a skirt in armor ).
A lot of this is in peoples heads and how they've been socialized, I think you definitely can make a lot of this stuff work for men too the problem is a lot of people are very resistant to anything that on first impression they think is '' weird ''.
If they managed to get past that initial reaction tho they might actually end up liking it.
Roman and Ancient Greek soldiers are some of the coolest soldiers in history imo, but they essentially look like they're wearing skirts lol, that's not even getting into a lot of their other clothes that are sorta like dresses in a sense too.
It's really no different even if people think of it as different.

[Senn]

A lot of this is in peoples heads and how they've been socialized, I think you definitely can make a lot of this stuff work for men too the problem is a lot of people are very resistant to anything that on first impression they think is '' weird ''.
If they managed to get past that initial reaction tho they might actually end up liking it.

Maybe. Men generally don't like wearing girly/feminine things, but women tend to be ok with wearing feminine or masculine clothing. A lot of complaint against feminine clothing stems from the fact guys feel like they have fewer clothing options since femnine clothing is completely off the table for them (because it doesn't look good on men most of the time). Yeah, it's technically available for guys to wear, but most guys aren't going to touch it - might as well not even exist as an option in the minds of most men. Meanwhile, people can pick either femninine or masculine clothing for women since they look good wearing whatever.

It's true fashion sensibilities have changed over the years. But this is just the way things are right now. So the men of today, not from however many years ago in the distant past, would like to have their tastes catered to as well. I don't think there's disdain towards femininity. I just think guys generally think feminine clothing looks weird on them, and I don't mean that in a sexist way. It just visually looks off. But don't get me wrong, I do think clothing in this game should be unisex so people have the freedom to choose what they want to wear.