Child-like characters?

[SturmChurro]

Anyway, aside from how it sounds "on paper" to people who will never actually play, I don't get the big deal over having "official" underage characters when anyone could be playing a fifteen or sixteen year old. That's why I keep reading these threads, knowing full well people will never agree!

No. Some people want to play as actual children, not something that might look young. A child. As in, literally. A human-like child. So not the lalafell weird produce toddler aesthetic, but human.

[SugarPuff]

No. Some people want to play as actual children, not something that might look young. A child. As in, literally. A human-like child. So not the lalafell weird produce toddler aesthetic, but human.

I meant I don't get the big deal the other way around. I guess you could also argue that it's not necessary since we can already make underage characters but my intended point was the opposite, that I don't see why making it official is upsetting. I guess it kind of works both ways, that would restrict it to just teenagers though which seems silly.

[SturmChurro]

I meant I don't get the big deal the other way around. I guess you could also argue that it's not necessary since we can already make underage characters but my intended point was the opposite, that I don't see why making it official is upsetting. I guess it kind of works both ways, that would restrict it to just teenagers though which seems silly.

The issue is the people who are going to inevitably put a succubus glam on their child.

[Lersayil]

The issue is the people who are going to inevitably put a succubus glam on their child.

While a hassle, they could do alternative armor models for the child like race. As for players? Not sure why anyone should care. Creepy? Yes. But it impacts no one in particular negatively.

Damned if I ever understand people having issues with (age rating appropriate) suggestive content in video games.

Anyways, yeah, I can still see why SE would want to steer clear of this can of worms.

[SturmChurro]

While a hassle, they could do alternative armor models for the child like race. As for players? Not sure why anyone should care. Creepy? Yes. But it impacts no one in particular negatively.

They could, but even if they did you would have much of the very same people advocating for "child-like" races in an uproar. They would probably make faux argument like, altering items they paid real money for, grinded for, etc.

It is definitely not something SE wants to deal with, and I support them on that front.

[Lersayil]

They could, but even if they did you would have much of the very same people advocating for "child-like" races in an uproar. They would probably make faux argument like, altering items they paid real money for, grinded for, etc.

It is definitely not something SE wants to deal with, and I support them on that front.

Not sure what to think of their stance on this. If its a decision made due to the ethical reasons stated? Yeah, sure, possibly I can get behind their decision (even if I disagree with it on principle).

However, I have a nagging suspicion at the back of my mind, that its just a corporate decision to avoid the western vocal feedback, and they themselves have no real personal qualms about it. Which again... I would understand, but corporate dishonesty is something I deal with (and exercise in) daily in work and annoys the living hell out of me when I cross it in my personal time.

Eh... maybe I'm just too jaded at this point.

[Vidu]

Not sure what to think of their stance on this. If its a decision made due to the ethical reasons stated? Yeah, sure, possibly I can get behind their decision (even if I disagree with it on principle).

However, I have a nagging suspicion at the back of my mind, that its just a corporate decision to avoid the western vocal feedback, and they themselves have no real personal qualms about it. Which again... I would understand, but corporate dishonesty is something I deal with (and exercise in) daily in work and annoys the living hell out of me when I cross it in my personal time.

Eh... maybe I'm just too jaded at this point.

While I cant say for sure if its really a purely ethical choice, or maybe even something along the lines of the designers themselves not wanting to design/model sexy gear onto children (while it is in a sense their job to deliver whatever outfits Yoshi-P sees fit for the game, I could understand someone going "Yeah, I'm not comfortable with designing a playboy-bunny outfit for a child").

The reason I mention this is because the solution you're proposing is something they already did or are even still doing: Clothes are getting altered for lalafell.
I have my ARR artbook lying next to me and would like to quote from page 88, a comment made on the Taffeta Shawl by Namae: "I try not to make Lalafells too sexy when designing their gear, and the look here is that of a child's swimsuit."

While we went over the whole "lalafells are adults"-thing before, I'd like to point out that they still have certain features that makes one think more of a child, which are taken into consideration by the design-team, it seems. There are some more comments in the artbook all basically saying "the lalafell gear here was insipired by what a child might wear" and as you can already see in game, most "bikini-type"-pieces get a bit more fabric for lalafell.
Maybe I'm naive, but to me this already shows that at least one person in the design-team wasnt overly comfortable with designing sexy gear for characters that can look like they're a bit young.
Since lalafells are adults in the end and dont actually represent (human) children, its still not much of an issue - opposed to having actual children.

...and even if they alter the gear: mods are still a thing, that they're probably aware of.
But even besides that, there are things in the game itself that would seem just a little bit weird were the character a child (or at least clearly looked like one, aka used one of the child-models): Haurchefaunt, any other character that might flirt with you, the whole Eternal Bonding ceremony (even if they dont call it a wedding, it damn well hits all the marks of one - and you dont need a sucuubus-glamour to end up with a childs-bride...)... its simply a whole can of worms that I understand them not going anywhere near - wether its a buisness-choice, an ethical one by the team or maybe even just one on a personal level of "yeah, I'd rather not design this" is obviously difficult to say.
But going through that artbook at least gives me the sense of them being aware what they're putting out there and whats appropriate - and what isnt.

[SugarPuff]

The issue is the people who are going to inevitably put a succubus glam on their child.

Yeah, that's what I hear. It's just odd to me that someone might get worked up over that but not care about all the player characters that already exist and appear to be teenagers. I would probably still be neutral even if we all looked old enough to legally drink, but the issue would make more sense. As it is, I already see provocative glams on what appear to be kids so the main difference would be making it official and possibly a very slight change to the model. I'm not in favor of that, because it does seem too small to be worthwhile, but due to how most of us would look more appropriate sitting at a high school desk than a bar stool, I wouldn't argue against it either.