[Suggestion] Fashion/Vanity Slots.

[Zantetsuken]

Vanity slot (While it seems like a nice idea on the surface) actually defeats the need for gear altogether as we know it. Should future MMO's eliminate all gear and instead have 'Costumes' (cosmetic trimmings that have no stats at all) and 'Stat bonus' slots?

But on the OP's Suggestion...

There are some upsides:

• You get to look uniform/cute/cool/etc and still keep your best mix and match gear
• It makes older/weaker gear (Silver Tricorne, Templar set, etc..) more popular

But there are some big downsides and unintended consequences as well:

• It diminishes the collectibility aspect of gear.
• It incentivises players to copy what everyone else is wearing (stat-wise) and removes any incentive for being creative or different with your stat setup.
• It eliminates any drawbacks that Multi-melded gear have (Now I can have the best stat stuff AND the best looking stuff)
• It gives players no external indicator of a another player's achievements/power/play-style/etc. (can't trust what you see)
• It eats up increasingly short inventory space. (Not a big drawback, but it will impact those those that don't carry around cosmetic gear currently)
• The novelty of lesser seen gear is diminished -- now EVERY item can have any stat bonus
• It reduces the need for Devs to create new styles of gear (after all, once people have their preferred look they will likely just want to max it out with the best stats)
  

Now I'm sure many of you will think that these 'downsides' are actually perks (zOMG, I can wear my 4x Melded Cobalt Elmo AND have it displayed as a Templar Chain Coif!??!! WIN x1bazillion!!) but cosmetics plays a large part of the gear selection process in the game... It's why some people wear Darklight instead of multi-melded, or a Silver Tricorne instead of an Achievement Crown.

For many people (myself included) cosmetics forces some tough decisions in balancing out looks vs power.. individuality vs. max performance. The amount of attention this thread has received shows the impact that cosmetics has on gear choice. But asking for an easy-out in your internal struggle to be either an MMO fashionista or a power gamer might not be the best thing... It's the decisions that arise from that silent debate that ends up defining your character really.

Yeah, it would be cool to have your gear cake and eat it too, but it diminishes the value of gear itself when cosmetics become detached from utility. I just don't think players would be well served by removing this subtle, yet significant aspect of the game.