Guild Wars 2

As someone who is female and likes more androgynous clothing, I’m kind of upset with how some of the different armors change depending on who is wearing them. For example, the Sylvari Tier 1 Heavy Armor. Looks amazing on male characters, but it’s completely changed when put on a female character. It isn’t so much armor as a fancy coat.
I’m not saying that it isn’t a nice looking armor or that people can’t like it, because I really like a lot of the female armors in the game, but I don’t want to have to play as a male character to have an armor that actually looks like armor.
I LIKE playing female characters, and I love how GW2 has represented women in gameplay. But I just feel like some armors could be more gender neutral, or at least have the option to be.

I second this. I really hate the starting armor for Sylvari/human/norn female clothies. Mini skirt? Come on. I like the beautiful styles of the armor but at the same time, heavy armor at least should look like armor.

The three orders, IMO, have armor that aren’t too flashy or anything like that. I don’t want to go out on a limb and say it’s got the exact androgynous appearance you’re looking for because that’s a personal preference. But I dig ’em.

http://www.ign.com/wikis/guild-wars-2/Heavy_Armor

Other than cultural armors for humans, sylvari, and norn, I really wouldn’t think the differences for the majority of the armor sets might be a problem. But like I said, personal preference I guess lol

Not everyone wants their armor to look androgynous. They have a wide variety of armor sets in this game and I’m sure you can find some or even transmute the one you are wearing to look more like a burlap sack. Please stop going from game to game trying to have everyone wearing burlap sacks or full body tin cans because of some personal issue.

ODB.6891:

Not everyone wants their armor to look androgynous. They have a wide variety of armor sets in this game and I’m sure you can find some or even transmute the one you are wearing to look more like a burlap sack. Please stop going from game to game trying to have everyone wearing burlap sacks or full body tin cans because of some personal issue.

How in the hell did I say I wanted everyone to wear burlap sacks? Wanting more options than boob-plated armor isn’t some “personal issue.” Guild Wars 2 has done pretty well at that, but all I’m saying is that some armors, including my example of the Sylvari Cultural armor, change completely when they’re on female characters. I would rather have the OPTION to not have that.

I’m perfectly fine with plenty, even most of, the female armors in this game. And in most games. I would just like the option to not have to have a completely different (and less cool looking) armor set simply because I chose to play as a female character.

So screw off, and don’t put words in my mouth.

And to elaborate, I don’t MIND revealing armors. At all. I’ve said that, but it seems like people don’t read.
But when I have a character that’s supposed to be wearing heavy armor, and they look like this
http://i.imgur.com/HAt3I.jpg
While the male armor looks like this
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/image1221.png
I get a little peeved. I don’t want everything to be androgynous. I want it to be fair.

The example you provided is hardly the most egregious offense of stripperific armor/clothing. In fact, they actually might look a bit more similar if they had the same color schemes. I wanted to smash my head into the desk when I previewed the tier three medium Human cultural set: Assassin (That word alone is so overused, I could puke).

Male:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/6/6f/The_crescent_moon_concept_art.jpg

Female:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/8/88/The_crescent_moon_2_concept_art.jpg

Imagine, for a minute (or more), what the male character in the concept art would look like in the female version of the armor.

Let that imagine sink in... Niiiiice and deeeeep... Yeah.

Anything that gives players more choice and customization options is usually a great thing in my book. The developers have done a great job of supplying armor in many different styles to suit a wide variety of tastes, and it would definitely be nice if they could expand on that further and give more choice as to which design you prefer. For example, the male human cabalist light armor set looks fantastic in my opinion. I know there are lots of people who like the female version of it and they’re welcome to have it, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was a little disappointed at the drastic difference between what I hoped I would get and what I actually received (saw a male character sporting the set first and hoped the female version would be similar). I’m sure there are things that seem “better” on the female version but would work just as well for males; I think I heard someone commenting about a hat that only looked good on females, or something like that, but that could have looked really great on a male character as well.

Now see, my little Asura has to wear boy clothes! Charr girls too. I would like something a little more feminine. I don’t need a chainmail bikini or a leather bustier but something that differentiates me from the male Asurans would be nice. I have settled on TA armor for now because it has more of a feminine flare I think.

Pochibella.8394:

Now see, my little Asura has to wear boy clothes! Charr girls too. I would like something a little more feminine. I don’t need a chainmail bikini or a leather bustier but something that differentiates me from the male Asurans would be nice. I have settled on TA armor for now because it has more of a feminine flare I think.

I love that my charr has the same armor as the guys!

I don’t disagree with this thread at all, though. I’d love to be able to choose to wear the male armor on my humans.

Armors and female characters…In my opinion it’s silly to see a female character running trough snow with a miniskirt and a top. She’ll probably freeze, and how does that protect you from any attack? It probably makes you even more vulnerable.
It would be great to see a female character wearing something little less revealing and something that actually protects from damage, so a toggle option would be nice I guess.

Eh…guild wars 2 does a lot better in this regard to many MMO’s even if there are still many armors I would have liked it if they just tweaked the male version to fit female characters (for example tier 3 human medium armor which looks awesome to me on the guys but the female version…not so much) but at least there is choice. I do actually like some of the skimpy armors too. I don’t see them letting you toggle different version of the same armor, it would be too much work and you could just wear a different one.

I admit I despise the starting light armor and really wish I could just have the male version. When I made my Elementalist and my Mesmer I bought different armor as soon as I could and if I got new gear that was better but used the starting model I didn’t use it. Especially for my Elementalist who is a large tattooed Norn and looks really stupid in a miniskirt.

On the topic of skimpiness, I’d actually like it if men would wear a little less. I’ve stuck my elementalist in Vigil garb and human cultural t3 chest armor basically just because there are no sleeves. Why can’t men show just a little skin?

The differences between male and female armor is annoying, and I would rather them change this. Obviously we want both options available, but it’s always upsetting when you see an armor set you really like on one character, and find that it looks nothing like what you think on a character of a different gender. Unfortunately, the chances of existing armor sets being edited to implement more gender neutral styles are small. The best we can do is hope that future armor sets get the treatment we want.

The oddly backwards example of men=buttoned-up and women=skimpy is the Norn cultural t1, which is both baffling and annoying. I really like that armor set on the men, but on women it just looks like armored fur pajamas to me.

Oh, and on the subject of skirts, male and female characters seem to wear skirts with similar frequency. ArenaNet concept artists are apparently having a love affair with skirts. Granted, male character skirts aren’t nearly as short, infuriating especially for me on the Kodan light armor, but still. Worth mentioning.

Mentalhead.5721:

Armors and female characters…In my opinion it’s silly to see a female character running trough snow with a miniskirt and a top. She’ll probably freeze, and how does that protect you from any attack? It probably makes you even more vulnerable.
It would be great to see a female character wearing something little less revealing and something that actually protects from damage, so a toggle option would be nice I guess.

Pixel people don’t feel heat, or pain. None of their body parts are any more vulnerable than any other. How well they are protected is purely dependent on a numerical value associated with the armor they are wearing, not it’s appearance. You don’t need to worry about female toons. They are fully protected, head to toe, by numbers.

There once was a poor little RPG title for the Sega Genesis called Traysia. It was old, poorly translated, let you cheat by equipping unlimited power boost items, and had a clunky strategy battle system that i loved anyway.

There was a character that wore full heavy plate armor and helm by the name of Banegie.

Banegie was an enigma, tall, dark, silent, strong. He kicked bootay with the best, and cast magic with the rest.

Most importantly, he was a she. This was a total shocker to the party of course, who all assumed Banegie was a dude til she removed her helm.

I would like to play this kind of character personally. It would be very interesting. But that cannot happen so long as heavy plate armor in GW2 has curves and cleavage showing where it don’t belong in heated battle. I cannot anonymously play a female character and prevent other players from knowing that it is female. I’d love to get that shocked reaction when i remove my character’s helm and they realize she’s not a guy.

And i’m saying this as a guy.

Armor, like all clothing, adapts to the user.

Asura and Charr have very similar body types between males and females, also they armors do not change that much.

When a piece of clothing is not made for a gender, those of the other gender who want to use it have to use those made for the other gender.
That’s why women wore male pants until female pants were made, or why crossdressers had to use skirts made for females until there was enough demand for companies to made skits specially for them.
And that why most women in history who wore armor wore male armor. There just wan’t anyone making female armor.

In the world of GW2, females have been fighting just like males for ages, and so armors for females have been developed to fit their bodies.
Why wearing something that will put uncomfortable pressure on certain places when there’s armor available that will fit you perfectly?

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the outer shape has to reflect how well the inside fit. For example, bulges for the breasts in a plate armor would make attacks with long piercing and bladed weapons harder to deflect, as they may be directed straight to the Sternum, as opposed to male armors with a single convex plate that deflect attacks to the sides.
But this also applies to make armors, who tend to be shaped like a muscled chest instead with a proper shape fit for combat.

Now, one can argue that many armors do not seem to cover much or are not very well designed for protection, with many spikes enemies could grab, and shapes that would not properly protect or deflect attacks. But the thing is, most armors in the game are mostly decorative, as an enemy that can kill you in one hit will kill you in one hit regardless of armor you wear, and most of their protective properties come from magic imbuements, from the ingredients used for their insignia and runes.
A thief can have their belly uncovered, because they are supposed to avoid being hit at all, and you won’t see splurts of blood everywhere because there’s magical protections in place (well, it’s actually to keep the age rating down, but you know, it’s better to see it like that)
Because of that, adventurers in Tyria can focus more in fashion tastes and magical properties than in actual coverage when they choose their gear.

Once that is out of the way, comes why this will most probably never be done for exiting sets.
And that’s resources.
They’ll be making new sets of armor out of existing sets, that only a set out of a set of the players would use at all.
There’s lots of things to check, making sure they look fine in all animations.
And since most people is ok with how they are, it’ll be a waste of resources from a project managing standpoint.

There’s actually quite some sets that look mostly the same for males and females. There’s the chainmail sets, the scale sets, the draconic set, and maybe they’ll add one set that looks completely the same for males and females, who knows.
But I don’t see that happening. Not even toning down the CMNF feel some sets have. Marketing does that to content.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Armor, like all clothing, adapts to the user.
Why wearing something that will put uncomfortable pressure on certain places when there’s armor available that will fit you perfectly?

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the outer shape has to reflect how well the inside fit. For example, bulges for the breasts in a plate armor would make attacks with long piercing and bladed weapons harder to deflect, as they may be directed straight to the Sternum, as opposed to male armors with a single convex plate that deflect attacks to the sides.
But this also applies to make armors, who tend to be shaped like a muscled chest instead with a proper shape fit for combat.

Now, one can argue that many armors do not seem to cover much or are not very well designed for protection, with many spikes enemies could grab, and shapes that would not properly protect or deflect attacks. But the thing is, most armors in the game are mostly decorative, as an enemy that can kill you in one hit will kill you in one hit regardless of armor you wear, and most of their protective properties come from magic imbuements, from the ingredients used for their insignia and runes.
A thief can have their belly uncovered, because they are supposed to avoid being hit at all, and you won’t see splurts of blood everywhere because there’s magical protections in place (well, it’s actually to keep the age rating down, but you know, it’s better to see it like that)
Because of that, adventurers in Tyria can focus more in fashion tastes and magical properties than in actual coverage when they choose their gear.

Okay the part about breast bulges could not be any more wrong. Those two bulges? They make a wonderful channel between them for a blade to go along straight under neck armor, even with a flip out to protect the throat. The bulges direct to the side AND to the neck, that’s a terrible design.

Besides, why the hell would you be completely naked under a suit of armor? That’s really the only way the breast bulges would do anything but for women with really sizable breasts. With a heavy undershirt like would make some sense, the breasts wouldn’t ever go comfortably into the cups of the breastplate. And painful much? Yeah I don’t want my boobs knocking around metal cups, that would hurt.

A lot of plate armor is made to have a bulge out as it is, so it wouldn’t squish anything but a very large, unbound chest as it is. Male armor would be much more comfortable than “female armor” as far as plate goes.

Thieves with uncovered skin makes no sense. Sure you go down fast but you go down less fast if you have something between you and a dagger. And there is the sneaky element. Uncovered pale fur/skin/bark is not very good for sneaking!

With your point on armor making little difference: It’s true that armor in this game is largely cosmetic and it is mostly the stats. However, that’s a player knowledge element. Yes your character will know that these enchantments make things better but would they know that their stomach is magically protected by a series of stats? This also defeats the purpose for different armor classes as it is. If it really comes down to stats/enchantments, it doesn’t make sense to wear anything other than well enchanted cloth. You can, realistically, dodge better, run better, and attack so much easier with cloth instead of something restrictive like plate. This is what the Npcs and characters of Tyria would know even if, because of balance, it can’t apply to us, the players.

So the Npcs and characters see armor as a protective thing. With this in place it doesn’t make sense for there to be such revealing armor for anything other than cloth.(because, well, cloth is gonna do nothing for you so it makes no difference how much you’re showing off)

The revealing armor for women is, frankly, purely to make them look “hot” or more appealing. That’s it. It’s fine to like that, it’s fine if you want your female characters in plate bikinis, but more options for armor that makes some sense and is more gender neutral would be nice. Especially for starter options. I still cringe when I try to make a female Sylvari/Norn/Human clothie.

As a woman, I’d like to see sexy men in armor … I’m not a lesbian, sexy women, it is for men …
I prefer men, and I want a balance. You sexy women, we women, we want men more “hot”!

IMO, this is T rated video game, the focus shouldn’t be on sexy characters (both male and female) it should be on the gameplay.

there are a whole bunch of gender options I would love to see (I am realistic enough to know many can’t be implemented tho)

—chose gendered clothing when equipping
—choosing voice from more than 2 options (male/female/androgynous) at character creation.
—choosing which gendered emotes to use.

A lot of good commentary here, which is nice!
It just grinds my gears when I wear heavy armor and it’s not…armor. Boob plates are idiotic, but I can get around them easily by choosing another armor set. But when an armor that’s really just great is totally changed to make it more “feminine” I have to wonder if the character designers really think that everyone wants their character to look like that.
People can look how they want, which is great. I just wish we had a little more choice.

In the MMO world the devs play by ear depended on rating. If it is rated T then it has to be practical armor, but still show that hourglass siloette of the female figure presented in the armor. Then when you go to rated M then you got Tera armor on the females. I also recall WoW, back in the day had to change a female plate skin.

Do to the rating of the game. The players called it the battle thong, and it was always seen on the female Blood elves. TBH I rather see that hour glass siloette present on the female characters. In a T rated game but nothing out of the ordinary. If not then you got Rift female armor, which is boreing looking, and it matches what the dude characters look like.

Stron Magnesson.8017:

There once was a poor little RPG title for the Sega Genesis called Traysia. It was old, poorly translated, let you cheat by equipping unlimited power boost items, and had a clunky strategy battle system that i loved anyway.

There was a character that wore full heavy plate armor and helm by the name of Banegie.

Banegie was an enigma, tall, dark, silent, strong. He kicked bootay with the best, and cast magic with the rest.

Most importantly, he was a she. This was a total shocker to the party of course, who all assumed Banegie was a dude til she removed her helm.

I would like to play this kind of character personally. It would be very interesting. But that cannot happen so long as heavy plate armor in GW2 has curves and cleavage showing where it don’t belong in heated battle. I cannot anonymously play a female character and prevent other players from knowing that it is female. I’d love to get that shocked reaction when i remove my character’s helm and they realize she’s not a guy.

And i’m saying this as a guy.

I love this idea so much.

I agree with having armor actually look like the armor you purchased AFTER equipping it, regardless of gender. I am so tired of female armor looking like I am trying out for the cheer leading team or a courtesan in a movie.

I would like the opportunity to choose a piece of armor because I like the look of it and not have it change once equipped. I also am not fond of all the revealing outfits the devs seem so fond of for female characters.

A simple body suite would also be nice for a change. Or perhaps a mandarin collar on a cool side slitted tunic that has brocaded design on it.

Stron Magnesson.8017 has the right of it in my opinion. I would love to be that enigma as well.