One of the age old arguments between male and female gamers has always seemed to be about armor. Should female avatars be clad in heavy plate armor that barely allows for movement? Should she be swathed in so many layers of silk and cloth that she looks like a rag hag? The other option seems to be a very scantily clad lady running around in things that by all rights shouldn’t even be able to stay up. I have found very few games that come to a good medium on this subject. Why is it so hard to mix sexy and practical? There are several reasons supporting each side, and most of them are very valid.
Clad armor is said to be more realistic in its practicality, and I agree. The coverage of this armor type does offer quite a bit of functionality and realism. More realistic armor also doesn’t seem to harbor a lot of the gravity defying qualities that the more scantily armor does. Some of the “more appropriate” get ups can actually be quite appealing. Not all of it is clunky, awkward and downright ugly (though most of it is). Some of it can actually be kind of pretty and aesthetically pleasing. The most important aspect of coverage though, seems to be immersion. Some people play RPG’s for role playing, go figure, and those people want to disappear into another world. Not every female playing a female character wants to be exploited, or so I have been told.
Scantily clad actually doesn’t have much going for it in the way of being believable per say; It does however have the most important thing I think, people love it. I’m always running into people who are playing a female character. I automatically assume that they are a female gamer (you would think that I had learned by now) they usually aren’t. Male gamers just like to look at the butt of their female avatar for hours on end, especially when she goes into stealth mode. So why would they want to cover her up with tons of realistic armor? They don’t, and so the scantily clad armor is oh so popular because it is hot. It makes the character that wears it look sexy, and if you are paying good money to play a game, or even if you’re not, you are spending hours looking at your toon, and you want her to be pretty. I personally have spent hours and hours in every game I play looking for said gravity defying armor. This stuff shouldn’t even be able to stay on my character, let alone do any good, but I tell myself its still good armor because it’s enchanted.
Now some games have come to a good compromise with sexy yet practical armor. I think that these armor sets are really well done, and should satisfy the conflict between the clad and scantily clad armor.
Personally though, it’s not my cup of tea and I will continue to grandeur myself with the illusions that enchantments will save me when the shit hits the fan. The only other feasible option is that game developers add one simple little button to the gear panel. Some games have already implemented the ability to wear costumes, this simply changes what other players see your character wearing. They could do the same for your armor, I wouldn't think that it would be too hard. Just give us an option between sexy armor and realistic armor so we can be done with this age old fight. K thx bye. What do you guys think?
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