As a male gamer, thank you for not oversexualizing every female NPC

[Eye_Gore]

How we're all up in arms about boobs

Whoa, hold up there what do you mean "we're all"? This one's not included in that.

[Zyrusticae]

[snip]

You're totally missing the point.

There are several reasons why people find the bikini armor annoying:

1. It's often applied in a double-standard where ONLY THE WOMEN ever get forced into wearing those ridiculous outfits. It's fine if both sexes are made to wear absurd things, but if only one sex gets it it is, by definition, sexist.

2. In addition to #1, it is often forced upon players with no alternatives, or the alternatives are really bad and few in number. TERA in particular is an awful example because the number of actually-reasonable outfits on the females of any given race can be counted on one hand. You're right that players have the right to simply... not play the game if that bothers them, but then again, this is an entirely preventable problem, so why not inject some variety into their armor? (This is besides the point that the game's equivalent of the glamour system does not exist anymore and was pretty crappy even when it did).

3. When used on NPCs, it is often to the detriment of that NPC's character. When it is thrown on a character with zero regard for her personality and whether or not she would ever wear such a thing, it destroys immersion and makes that NPC look really, really bad and dumb. This isn't a problem if the NPC is supposed to be dumb and serve as an example for other, more-reasonably-dressed characters, but how often does that happen?

4. It's overdone. Like, just straight-up overdone to the point where it's 'normal' (re: boring). That just ain't cool, man. Don't we want more variety in our lives?

Nowhere on there is 'skin showing = sex and sex is icky!' on that list. Those people are a tiny and extreme minority and often used as a scapegoat for people trying to defend their precious, precious bikini armors. Most folks don't mind when it's there as long as they are merely options and NOT THE ONLY OPTIONS and when it is used carefully and with actual thought (i.e. don't put NPCs in them unless they're deliberately doing so for a particular reason).

[Kolsykol]

Whoa, hold up there what do you mean "we're all"? This one's not included in that.

Sry, you're right. I just mean in general.
I am just overall annoyed with the '' moral crusade '' that is going on these days.
People need to learn that not everything is marketed towards everyone. And that there ain't some inherent illuminati crusade going on.
It's almost as if SOME people believe that personal preferences and aesthethical appeal and preferences is non existent.

I have to say, that I've been pretty pleasently surprised with this thread tho.
Honestly. A realm reborn has one of the friendliest communities I've ever come across.

[myahele]

As a gamer, thank you for allowing us to sexualize our male characters

[Scholar-]

The fact that this is even a thread its concerning, do people actually take notice of video game boobs ?

Plis, git sum irl Lul

[Eye_Gore]

The fact that this is even a thread its concerning, do people actually take notice of video game boobs ?

Plis, git sum irl Lul

Countless threads on video game butts, why not boobs.

[Kolsykol]

[QUOTE=Zyrusticae;3139034][snip]
I am not even really disagreeing with you.
I was just expressing my opinion more in general.
However, I think that people are bit unfair to Tera honestly. The developers have every right to choose their own art direction for their game. And you're not entitled to like it.(hence why it's a niche market).
But there actually are far more fully covering armor in that game than people give it credit for. And then there's the Aman race. I also find that the game is a bit satirical and humerous in nature.

I do prefer when both genders have the same options.
Whether or not it ruins immersion, is also a personal opinion.
Some people just see what they '' want '' to see I guess. I don't buy for a second that revealing armor is some kind of norm honestly as some claim or imply. I find that when it's the norm in the game itself, it's rather niche ( Tera ). Usually when it's present, there's a wide variety of different designs, and the revealing is the few.

[Aegis]

I've said it before, but:

a) I always appreciated the restrained aesthetic XI and XIV (used to) have. It made the world feel more... solid, believable, kinda. Not just avoiding the bikini plate mail of ultimate defence, but avoiding the shiny lightsabres of glowiness as well. This went away a few months into XIV 1.x's life. Firstly they introduced the Coatee which was just an acre of exposed cleavage for no apparent reason. Then they introduced Ifrit's glowy weapons of death, then the DRG AF with the belly-window, then the Miqo'te RSE etc etc.

b) Where outfits are skimpy I have less of an issue with it as long as the gear is gender-neutral. Take, for example, Subligar; that's a legitimate piece of armour, equally revealing on men and women. Coliseum Galerus? Okay, kinda legit armour, but equally revealing. Dragoon plate mail? Okay, at least it was 'inspired' by real armour, but.. solid, flexible armour on males, big stab-window in females? Not down with that.

[NaliaBrown]

Me and my retainer. He's beautiful.

Actually, usually I'm dressed in as little as possible as well, but since Heavensward happened it's been too hard to keep up with the glamour. And I'm female, btw. I just like looking at beautiful people, regardless of gender.

[Zyrusticae]

The fact that this is even a thread its concerning, do people actually take notice of video game boobs ?

Plis, git sum irl Lul

Huh, what? The thread is about clothing and armor and how female NPCs are dressed. Doesn't matter if it's cleavage or panty exposure or whatever.

And yes, people bloody well notice! If this were 90% of the clothing and armor in the game:

And glamours like this were not possible:

The game would indeed have a much smaller, more niche player base. You would certainly be seeing a much smaller proportion of the population consisting of female players, in the same way TERA is extraordinarily male-dominated for an MMORPG.

I am not even really disagreeing with you.
I was just expressing my opinion more in general.
However, I think that people are bit unfair to Tera honestly. The developers have every right to choose their own art direction for their game. And you're not entitled to like it.(hence why it's a niche market).
But there actually are far more fully covering armor in that game than people give it credit for. And then there's the Aman race. I also find that the game is a bit satirical and humerous in nature.

Of course they have the right to do whatever the hell they want. That's the definition of a 'free market'.

I (and everyone else who complains about their armor) also have the right to make my grievances known. So that's what I do.

And no, seriously, you can't argue that there are actually "more fully covering armor in that game than people give it credit for". 90% of the armor female characters wear are baring absolutely unnecessary amounts of skin. Even a simple google search confirms this to be the case.

Comparing it to FFXIV is absolutely comical. It's really sad, quite frankly.

I do prefer when both genders have the same options.
Whether or not it ruins immersion, is also a personal opinion.
Some people just see what they '' want '' to see I guess. I don't buy for a second that revealing armor is some kind of norm honestly as some claim or imply. I find that when it's the norm in the game itself, it's rather niche ( Tera ). Usually when it's present, there's a wide variety of different designs, and the revealing is the few.

Haha....

You can only make that kind of claim in ignorance. It is absolutely normalized. I mean, holy crap, it is everywhere! It's absolutely crazy how common it is. It's so common that it HAS to be pointed out when an exception exists, which, thankfully, FFXIV is. And that's to its credit, as the variety in the game's armor is so much better than so many other games. Especially for female characters.