Gender-lock removal still doesn't address the underlying desires

[pedromvilar]

So, first of all, I would like to say that I am thrilled by the extra formerly-gender-locked gear that is being unlocked, a process which has been happening for several patches now. It is definitely a great step in the right direction, and it will be a great day when we finally get all pieces of gear accessible by all genders!

That said, it feels to me like the devs are missing the underlying point of the request for unlocking gear - namely, that we want to have exactly the same options for males and females. It should be possible to achieve any look - trousers, dresses, skirts, shorts, leggings, all of those - regardless of gender.

And not only is this not currently true, it does not seem like it's on the designers' radar at all. For example, look at the Limbo/Asphodelos set:




The two pictures above are the same piece - the Limbo and Asphodelos Breeches of Maiming and Striking. And just "removing gender locks" does not affect this piece - it's already available for both genders! But it's extremely different between males and females, and so females have one fewer option for long trousers while males have one fewer option for shorts.

And even the options that have recently been gender-unlocked are not the same. Take the Thavnairian Tights - even though the devs explicitly did not have a male version before and then made one, they did not make it identical between genders:




So they went out of their way to create a version that fits the male hyur and roegadyn frames, which are the bases for all other male frames, that isn't the same as the female version!

Of course I understand gender-unlocking gear is active work, as those pieces just did not have a 3D model for the relevant genders at all and need to be designed and properly fit. However, as the above examples show, even when they do go through all the trouble of creating a new version for the missing gender, they still cling to design principles that separate the kinds of looks that should be available for men and women.

I originally thought of posting about this in the glam request megathread, but I feel like it deserves its own post as it touches on multiple glam options and on the recent trend of gender-unlocking gear - which, again, I think is great and goes in the right direction! I just wish glam options were really, truly, actually gender-neutral, with males having as much access to shorts and skirts as females, and females having as much access to long trousers and armour as males.

[Infindox]

I agree with you. There's many pieces in the game that I see that once I put them on, I'm completely disappointed. I don't want yet another skirt again.

[Rabin]

I have no problem with the male and female versions of the gear looking different. It gives me more options, not less. If I want the female version, I put it on my female character and vice versa. It’s a game, I like the way it works now.

[Esmoire]

I am definitely strongly against gear changing based on your character gender. Think that any time the developer wants another version that has more cleavage or something, it should be another piece of gear or something, so you have that choice. Remember being a sprout and being really discouraged when I received my first ninja or dragoon AF armour, because I have seen male NPCs wearing versions that looked really cool and had me excited.

[Nibelung2]

Adding my voice to this. And it's not like they haven't done this before. Good old 2B leggings are the same piece of gear on both genders.