Why do we have to dwell on meaningless issues?

[CSLionheart]

I think if we're going to talk about problems with this forum, we might want to address the issue of reading comprehension. Take yourself, for example, CSLionheart. You berate my thread, going on to talk about swimsuits, phrasing it in such a way as if I denoted I had an issue with them. That's quite unusual, considering the third paragraph of my opening post talks about swimsuits and why I was OK with them. It's quite strange people would take the time to scorn a thread, yet seemingly didn't comprehend the most basic of its content. Perhaps they only read the title?

So we now have another thread which, after ten pages, people are still lambasting my thread as hating on sexy gear. It's really strange, since if you actually take the time to read the thread, I don't ever say that I feel there should be no sexy gear. If you actually read the thread you'll notice I joke about subligars, say I like the breast size option and don't mind the coliseum gear. It's quite weird how people read things which aren't there!

Hey Laiferr, thanks for taking the time to reply. I admit I made this topic sound a little bit more targeted than I had originally intended. But I want to be clear that despite any differences of opinion there are no hard feelings So there's really no need to get defensive. That being said, there are a few things I'd like to clarify.

First, I realize that it's not the sexy gear itself you're concerned with. It's the inconsistency between the male and female versions of said gear. That much, I understand, and I think you're actually making a valid point. However, you seem to have overlooked the fact that I did indeed touch upon this fact in my post. Allow me to refresh your memory:

Furthermore, how can you possibly blame the development team? Female swimsuits, and clothing in general tend to be more revealing than the male equivalent. This has nothing to do with the FFXIV dev team, this is what society has chosen to be the "ideal image" for a woman. If you don't like it, it's not this game you have a problem with, it's the real world.

As you can see, I wasn't accusing you of being against revealing gear. What I do have a problem with is your accusations of the development team, when the real problem is not them or this game, but society itself. Unfortunately, the media portrays women wearing rather revealing clothing, which defines our perception of attractive. Call me a white knight or whatever you want, but I don't think the dev team, which has put an incredible amount of hard work into this game for the sake of the players, deserves to be accused of something as ludicrous as gender inequality. I cite numerous examples from your post (see, I did read it!):

It seems to me the dev team are very much encouraging the objectification of females

Then to go as far as to say some people on the dev team have certain 'inclinations' as if it's a funny joke.

That's because it WAS a joke...is it really so bad for someone to admit they're attracted to the female body, jokingly at that.

Going through your post once again though, I find that last question of yours to be completely off-base and ridiculous, in spite of whatever sarcasm was intended:

This is also a complete aside; does anyone know if there are any females on the development team, or even the entire FFXIV team? Just curious.

Unfortunately I don't have an actual source for this at the moment, but you do realize that the main artist in charge of gear design is female, right? Anyway, I hope this clarifies things for you a little bit. I'm not sure if you'll even read this, let alone reply, but I figured it was worth a shot.