For the 129392831203123801 time. STOP IT with the genderlocked gear.

[Welsper59]

getting a bit off-topic for this thread, but the side conversation seemed interesting, so......



Well, if "lasting" is your criterion, there aren't, but for those who play mainly for the story, having a completely different story for the first 15 levels worth of the game is a significant consequence anyway, despite not being a very lasting one. (Having it significant but limited to early levels makes it feasible for players concerned about missing the other stories to get them by making a couple extra characters to play through the parts that differ. That seems like a reasonable balance.)

In the grand scheme of things, I'm not saying that the current situation is bad or anything. It just tailors to specific needs, like practically everything else does. It just doesn't give us that lasting value behind what we choose with the choices we're given. Instead, we get forgettable filler that you could honestly slap a generic name to... basically the lasting power of the many forgettable quests that these games have. I don't even remember the Gridania one, besides talking to Miounne about adventurers, something that gets repeated across all 3 starting locations. Outside of player related influences, like being on the non-dominating side of Frontlines, the game itself never presents us with real situations that make us think we chose wisely or poorly.

I've heard that 1.0 had GC gear that differed a lot more (in actual stats, not just appearance) according to which one you chose. That would make the choice more meaningful in one regard, but it would be a hindrance otherwise. I doubt they could have even added something like Frontlines to the game if that had still been the case.

How much harder would it be to get balanced groups if all the players whose main is a tank joined the GC with the best tank gear while all the players whose main is a healer joined the GC with the best healer gear, and so on for melee, ranged, and casters? The fact that players now end up choosing based on things like what colors they like for their GC gear and barding, or which city's background music they want to hear while they're at the GC headquarters for turn-ins (which as personal preference type of reasons are much more varied) means that we can get a more even split.

1.0 was a different beast, and I don't remember much about the GC gear from my time on it, but I would not be surprised if it was very specific about good and bad choices for situations. It was headed by the XI team afterall lol. I certainly do agree with you here though about balance in our current situation, though mostly in regards to PvP. I honestly don't mean that the decisions we make should impact every aspect of what we do, or prevent us from access of the best gear, but rather that they impact us in non-progressional ways. It's okay to offer good gear as an easier or non-RNG way of acquiring stuff, but they have to also allow for things like we currently have for the sake of balance.

Again, I do highlight the preference thing as a reason why we might choose one over another. That's fine and all, but is that really all they should do with it? Right now, that's all we have to go on when we make such a decision that has no value besides aesthetics. Wouldn't it be better to make us WANT to be a specific side for the reason of the GC experience themselves? Rather than something that's just a carbon copy of each other. That's why I say, it really doesn't matter much. Don't get me wrong, we do make a lot of decisions simply because of vanity, but that just seems so short term to me that it just becomes irrelevant with nothing memorable to make it unique over the others. Glamour is fine, but how long are you really going to stay with that look until it inevitably becomes irrelevant to you? What then do the GCs mean? That's kind of what I'm getting at about it having substance (or lack thereof).

Edit: I want to also add that it'd be nice to have an identity of sorts behind the GCs in regards to support of not just the players and the gear offered, but any additional lore as well. Mael, being more about brute strength (physical DPS). Flames being more about unbreakable walls (tanks). Adders being more about the aether (casters). You know, something to attract like-minded players and doesn't have to be specifically what I gave as an example or anything. Separately, they're strong forces, but when combined, such as war efforts against a common enemy (Garleans?), they work together as an effective super power. Similar to how the classes/jobs do their lore. With regards to our current PvP restrictions however, this obviously wouldn't work well lol. These however, are one of many forms of lasting power behind the choices we can make. How relevant they remain is entirely up to the devs though.

[Noxifer]

This doesn't make sense in terms of truth or to read. Most female characters are played by male players, So in truth.. You have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not even sure if the person you quoted is actually female. You should remember this is an MMORPG where male or female can play whatever gender they feel like.

Well, tbh, Konicorgi could have been talking about in-game clothes with the first comment, but... generally, there would be a lot more people upset in the current world if women were suddenly barred from "male" clothes such as trousers and plain shirts (not frilly blouses), and were restricted to only wearing skirts on their bottom half.

And yes, people can play whatever gender they feel like ^^; Which is why it's so questionable when some people seem to immediately go, "Well, if you want to wear those clothes, use a fantasia! Problem solved!" No, not if I want to play a male character ;_; (And it wouldn't solve the problem either, same as having a sex change solves the gender equality problems IRL.)

Also, while the general assumption is that the majority of female characters are played by male players, likewise the assumption 'should' be that the majority of male characters are played by female players. Or at least it would be a reasonable assumption if you assume that the first one is true. Which also begs the question that if male players playing female characters are allowed skimpy clothes because they should be able to 'look at something sexy' while playing, why shouldn't female players playing male characters? ^^; Or, if you want to be more open-minded, replace 'male players' with 'players attracted to the female body' and 'female players' with 'players attracted to the male body'.