Guild Wars 2

Scantily clad sorceress? Check! Scantily clad sorcerer? … Yeah, about that…

As it stands I can have female human, sylvari and norn characters wearing about as much or as little armor as one could want, which is great! The same is not remotely true for male characters of the light and medium tier (heavy armor is actually pretty well balanced in this respect! Kudos!). Many of the male PCs are gorgeous and I’d like the option to celebrate that fact. GW2 needs more basic variety in male armor skins, and they ideally should be available via loot, karma or crafting, not behind a paywall (speaking as someone who has bought gems at regular intervals) as this isn’t something that should be considered special, etc.

I have heaped praise upon this game for so many reasons, but this has always been an obvious and disappointing short coming.

Is this something we’ll ever see? Is the armor skin staff unable to imagine men in attractive armor? Perhaps there’s something wrong there.

This is one of the reasons why people do not play Asura or Charr too much. They are forced to wear the male armors, but the male armors are boring.

Feathered chest shows off some abs. But oddly, for males, it seems the skimpiest armor is heavy hehehe

Hannelore.8153:

This is one of the reasons why people do not play Asura or Charr too much. They are forced to wear the male armors, but the male armors are boring.

And male Charr and Asura are forced to wear women’s clothes. Boring ones at that.

I want to see my thief’s body! I made him sexy for a reason.

The armors in this game lack variety in general. You speak about armors for females as an exemple of variety but those lack variety just as much. I play a female warrior and if I wanted to look scantily clad my only option would be to look like a cave girl. And on the complete opposite, if you play a female caster and you DON’T want to be half-naked, well… that’s not happening.

If Anet’s artists are out of ideas they should hire some of the Skyrim modders on nexusmods. There are some really really cool and varied lore-friendly armors for both genders.

EDIT: Also, what happened to the armor artists of Guild Wars 1? That game had some of the best variety of armors of any game I played, for both genders, from caster armor to soldier armor.

Bearhugger.4326:

The armors in this game lack variety in general. You speak about armors for females as an exemple of variety but those lack variety just as much. I play a female warrior and if I wanted to look scantily clad my only option would be to look like a cave girl. And on the complete opposite, if you play a female caster and you DON’T want to be half-naked, well… that’s not happening.

If Anet’s artists are out of ideas they should hire some of the Skyrim modders on nexusmods. There are some really really cool and varied lore-friendly armors for both genders.

You confuse me.

1. She’s a cave woman? Nah.

2. She’s a skimpy mesmer? Nah.

3. She’s a cave woman? Nah.

4. Two Kormir light armor combos… skimpy? Hardly!

5. A couple skimpy males. No medium skimp. Sorry boys.

Edit: these are the examples I had handy on my phone. I could probably find better.

Bearhugger, that’s not exactly true.

scantily clad heavy options in addition to the one you mentioned:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Barbaric_armor_human_female_front.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Pit_Fighter_armor_human_female_front.jpg

Mostly clothed light:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Student_armor_human_female_front.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Dry_Bones_armor_human_female_front.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Acolyte_armor_human_female_front.jpg
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Cabalist_armor_human_female_front.jpg

to name a few. And that’s drawing just from crafting, loot and karma. ANet was clearly thinking about options for more reasonably clothed female characters when they were designing their armor. And completely ignoring the inverse, which I think is crucial if you’re looking for some real balance in terms of how you handle gender, etc.

Edited for typo.

Yeah it’s a shame, especially when some races are designed to have parts of their body shown off.
Oh you’re a male human and wanna showcase dem abs? Nope.
You’re a male sylvari and you wanna show off your glow and pattern? No.
You’re a male norn and wanna show off your tats and muscles? No.
Male or female charr? lol, we don’t give a kitten about you.
Asura? Can anyone even see you?

Basically unless you’re a female norn, human, sylvari you don’t get to show skin (with few exceptions obviously).

I think that the game should have an option to just use the armor as it looks on the opposite gender, that way the display and objectification of both genders is guaranteed to be equal. Which is important for looking at pretty characters and/or wearing practical adventuring gear.

Since my female asura can’t look like a girl, I’m down to look like a man

My female asura looks like a girl.

For mens’ light armor, there are two bare chested armors, and one cleavage window. For females, eight bare midriff armors and 2 cleavage-y armors for females.

For mens’ medium, pretty much nothing, but the same goes for females excepting one set. Medium is a problem for any character aesthetic except dressing like you’re in the matrix or a spaghetti western.

For mens’ heavy there are two shirtless armors and three half chest armors. And only three female bare midriff armors and two cleavage armors. SO they’re pretty much even.

Medium and heavy are pretty much even, the only difference is among light, and even that is only a difference of six sets. GW2 doesn’t really have all that many skimpy armors in the first place, something I think shows good taste on part of the developers.

Can we first get better scholar male armor?

I would love for some clothes that are simple BUT elegant, with a very focused and appealing theme behind them. Instead, most of our “simple” clothes are boring and bland, and everything else is overly-detailed, busy and nonsense.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Can we first get better scholar male armor?

I would love for some clothes are are simple BUT elegant, with a very focused and appealing theme behind them. Instead, most of our “simple” clothes are boring and bland, and everything else is overly-detailed, busy and nonsense.

I’m very fond of CoE male light armor. The detail and pattern is lovely

Lilith Ajit.6173:

My female asura looks like a girl.

I’m glad you’re using one of the three armorsets outfits that actually display the female version.

Still, I want to be a man if I can’t be a girl.

Esplen.3940:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

My female asura looks like a girl.

I’m glad you’re using one of the three armorsets outfits that actually display the female version.

Still, I want to be a man if I can’t be a girl.

Oh okay I’m sorry.

My Asura looks like a girl.

Sorry Lilith, but just because your hair is in a braid and has a bowtie doesn’t make every armorset you put on female. That armorset doesn’t look girl-ish at all, but it does appropriately match and accommodate your hair.

We’re talking about armor, not faces/hairs.

Esplen.3940:

Sorry Lilith, but just because your hair is in a braid and has a bowtie doesn’t make every armorset you put on female. That armorset doesn’t look girl-ish at all, but it does appropriately match and accommodate your hair.

We’re talking about armor, not faces/hairs.

Still looks like a girl.

Sorry Esplen. How you consider feathered, TA, parts of Arah, Winged, T3 light, to not look feminine is your problem.

Hmmm… now that I think about it… the armor both Kudu and Snaff wore is very, very feminine, along with multiple armors copy pasted from male -insert any race here- without their feminine (and not kittenty) counterparts.

(/sarcasm)

Sorry you can’t see the feminine nature of multitudes of armor sets.

Pikaia is clearly right, my norn mesmer wants to show some goods

and again, that’s your face and hair, not the armor itself.

Esplen.3940:

and again, that’s your face and hair, not the armor itself.

That was my Asura laughing at you. Nothing more.

The first armor is 1) a Vigil-exclusive and so far not even the gem store does allows you to bypass that restriction so that’s not an option for 67% of the warriors/guardians, and 2) it only looks skimpy because of the point of view, you barely see the girl’s legs normally. In fact if you count THAT as revealing, I could make a male norn, give him Pitfighter, look under the kilt and say “there, males have revealing armor.”

The female Phalanx armor is an atrocity that doesn’t even look like the original art that was presented (on the male character), and on top of that it cost gems. I’ll give you that it’s revealing, but it looks silly to me. I don’t even know what she’s supposed to be wearing around the waist.

Pit Fighter is just as revealing on the males if not more so I don’t see why that one was mentionned. I’m pretty sure barbaric shows a lot of torso and muscle on a man too so we’re far from full plate.

Doesn’t matter though, I can give you that females are probably better off, my point is that the variety is limited for everyone, and on a much larger scale than just which gender is skimpier. Look at the first game in comparison: it didn’t matter what gender your character were, you had something for pretty any class stereotype you wanted. Let’s take the warrior for example. Want to look like a total psychopath in dark armor? Core prestige armor, Kurzick armor, Primeval Armor. Want to look like a samurai? Luxon armor. Want to look like a knight? Elite platemail, Elite templar, Elite sunspear. Want to be skimpy? Elite gladiator, skimpy for both genders. And since paragon would be considered an heavy armor class here, you also get looks for roman centurion stuff. This game has nowhere near that variety. Yeah sure I’m picking armors from 3 campaigns and 1 expansion for GW1, but if GW2 is playing the “no expansion, small updates instead” then I think it’s fair to compare it to the first game.

And there are some really easy things they could have done in GW2 to break the monotony. Look at the first soldier armors you get, they’re so similar. Why didn’t they make at least one of them bare-legged. In Guild Wars 1 the starter armors for warriors were all bare leg. (And yes, that included males.) This is a really small fix that would make the starter armors look completely different.

Bearhugger.4326:

The first armor is 1) a Vigil-exclusive and so far not even the gem store does not allow you to bypass that restriction so that’s not an option for 67% of the warriors/guardians, and 2) it only looks skimpy because of the point of view, you barely see the girl’s legs normally. In fact if you count THAT as revealing, I could make a male norn, give him Pitfighter, look under the kilt and say “there, males have revealing armor.”

The female Phalanx armor is an atrocity that doesn’t even look like the original art that was presented (on the male character), and on top of that it cost gems. I’ll give you that it’s revealing, but it looks silly to me. I don’t even know what she’s supposed to be wearing around the waist.

Pit Fighter is just as revealing on the males if not more so I don’t see why that one was mentionned. I’m pretty sure barbaric shows a lot of torso and muscle on a man too so we’re far from full plate.

Doesn’t matter though, I can give you that females are probably better off, my point is that the variety is limited for everyone, and on a much larger scale than just which gender is skimpier. Look at the first game in comparison: it didn’t matter what gender your character were, you had something for pretty any class stereotype you wanted. Let’s take the warrior for example. Want to look like a total psychopath in dark armor? Core prestige armor, Kurzick armor, Primeval Armor. Want to look like a samurai? Luxon armor. Want to look like a knight? Elite platemail, Elite templar, Elite sunspear. Want to be skimpy? Elite gladiator, skimpy for both genders. And since paragon would be considered an heavy armor class here, you also get looks for roman centurion stuff. This game has nowhere near that variety. Yeah sure I’m picking armors from 3 campaigns and 1 expansion for GW1, but if GW2 is playing the “no expansion, small updates instead” then I think it’s fair to compare it to the first game.

And there are some really easy things they could have done in GW2 to break the monotony. Look at the first soldier armors you get, they’re so similar. Why didn’t they make at least one of them bare-legged. In Guild Wars 1 the starter armors for warriors were all bare leg. (And yes, that included males.) This is a really small fix that would make the starter armors look completely different.

Lol first thing, any character can use any order armor. Lemme read the rest of your rant. Hold on.

After reading it: I think you’re giving all these reasons why the exceptions and examples that prove you wrong are invalid and refusing to accept them. Rather than saying “Oh right there is that but I would like there to be more x because I am unsatisfied with current choices. I would like y and z from irrelevant game 1 and possibly a and b.” You decide to go with “NONE OF THAT COUNTS.”

So silly.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Esplen.3940:

and again, that’s your face and hair, not the armor itself.

That was my Asura laughing at you. Nothing more.

Well I’m glad that you’re capable of having a discuss- oh wait, sorry wrong person.

Sort of an irrelevant aside, re: GW1. Almost every set of assassin armor made one look like a tool. Spikes everywhere. You can’t stealthily assassin someone if you get tangled up in the curtains because of all those senseless protrusions.

Only class I never really played much of.

Esplen.3940:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Esplen.3940:

and again, that’s your face and hair, not the armor itself.

That was my Asura laughing at you. Nothing more.

Well I’m glad that you’re capable of having a discuss- oh wait, sorry wrong person.

I gave you 4 examples how you were wrong. Your response was “my interpretation of feminine doesn’t match yours so you’re wrong.” There is no room for discussion there brah.

Echoing complaints, especially regarding the lack of diversity in medium armor. It’s particularly bad for Charr, since the more clothing Charr wear the more ridiculous they look. A few more bare-armed or bare-chested looks would go a long way, to say nothing of a chest piece that isn’t yet another duster.

Fleaman.9864:

Echoing complaints, especially regarding the lack of diversity in medium armor. It’s particularly bad for Charr, since the more clothing Charr wear the more ridiculous they look. A few more bare-armed or bare-chested looks would go a long way, to say nothing of a chest piece that isn’t yet another duster.

Medium Charr seriously got the short end of that toothpick.

I agree with Pikaia, both in regards to variety when it comes to male armor options, and those options preferably being a bit more revealing. Equal opportunity cheesecake is the least we can do!

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Lol first thing, any character can use any order armor. Lemme read the rest of your rant. Hold on.

After reading it: I think you’re giving all these reasons why the exceptions and examples that prove you wrong are invalid and refusing to accept them. Rather than saying “Oh right there is that but I would like there to be more x because I am unsatisfied with current choices. I would like y and z from irrelevant game 1 and possibly a and b.” You decide to go with “NONE OF THAT COUNTS.”

So silly.

You’re thinking too much into it.

I would be cool to have a Conan the Barbarian/Red Sonja look though.

but we definitely need real Norn female armor:

Honestly I find most of the heavy armours manly the basic, fine and masterwork to be dull. They all look the same in term of armour shape if they were put in silhouette. Seriously the scale and tempered armors are the same but different texture on the skin!
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scale_armor
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tempered_Scale_armor

Yes I know they suppose to be not that fancy but come on! Even the warrior armour back in Guild Wars were more distinct looking than GW2

Bearhugger.4326:

Doesn’t matter though, I can give you that females are probably better off, my point is that the variety is limited for everyone, and on a much larger scale than just which gender is skimpier. Look at the first game in comparison: it didn’t matter what gender your character were, you had something for pretty any class stereotype you wanted. Let’s take the warrior for example. Want to look like a total psychopath in dark armor? Core prestige armor, Kurzick armor, Primeval Armor. Want to look like a samurai? Luxon armor. Want to look like a knight? Elite platemail, Elite templar, Elite sunspear. Want to be skimpy? Elite gladiator, skimpy for both genders. And since paragon would be considered an heavy armor class here, you also get looks for roman centurion stuff. This game has nowhere near that variety. Yeah sure I’m picking armors from 3 campaigns and 1 expansion for GW1, but if GW2 is playing the “no expansion, small updates instead” then I think it’s fair to compare it to the first game.

Yeah except for male rangers, mesmers and elementalists. Oh and female elementalists on the opposite side. And female paragons who never got any pants.

But, unlike in GW2, at least the armors, even if they were skimpy or not, did look good.
GW2 has variety, lots of it. But so many armor pieces look so terrible and mix-matching doesn’t really work for some of them.

Esplen.3940:

Sorry Lilith, but just because your hair is in a braid and has a bowtie doesn’t make every armorset you put on female. That armorset doesn’t look girl-ish at all, but it does appropriately match and accommodate your hair.

We’re talking about armor, not faces/hairs.

TA Armor absolutely looks girlish. The flair on the sleeves, the flowing leaves of the skirt, the “cleavage” window….GIRLY. I looked at the male human version and yeah….GIRLY.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Nightmare_Court_armor_(light)_human_male_front.jpg

And even the male asura just looks like a really ugly girl asura.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Nightmare_Court_armor_(light)_asura_both_front.jpg

Also, she didn’t say that every armorset on female Asura is girly…she’s saying it’s possible. Could it be easier…yes, of course.

And exactly why can’t a certain hairstyle/facial features add to the girly look? Think babies…they all look the same until you add a headband to their head.

I want male armors that actually resemble their female counterparts. I mean look at the female Winged set …it’s basically an elaborate bra and panties with a butt cape attached. You’d expect the male version to be as just as revealing oh noooppe it’s an ugly robe. Same goes for Feathered, Conjurer’s, Embroided, Koda, Acolyte, Whispers, Profane and Masquerade sets. Heavy and medium are ok as far as equal skimpyness is concerned (except for that underboob armor ick).

DarksunG.9537:

I would be cool to have a Conan the Barbarian/Red Sonja look though.

but we definitely need real Norn female armor:

Completely agree. Why do Norns have all these fantastic tattoos and then cultural armor covers them up? The more naked a Norn, the better. I’m not sure about the other male races but I’d definitely like to see more scantily clad male Norns.

agreed. Even just being able to disable chest pieces would improve this given how many of the shoulder pieces are fairly large and diverse in appearance

Sweetblue Huntress.9856:

DarksunG.9537:

I would be cool to have a Conan the Barbarian/Red Sonja look though.

but we definitely need real Norn female armor:

Completely agree. Why do Norns have all these fantastic tattoos and then cultural armor covers them up? The more naked a Norn, the better. I’m not sure about the other male races but I’d definitely like to see more scantily clad male Norns.

Yep. I’ve just rolled (another) male Norn ranger and I’ve decided that for his map roaming life he’s going to spend the whole time shirtless.

Sweetblue Huntress.9856:

Esplen.3940:

Sorry Lilith, but just because your hair is in a braid and has a bowtie doesn’t make every armorset you put on female. That armorset doesn’t look girl-ish at all, but it does appropriately match and accommodate your hair.

We’re talking about armor, not faces/hairs.

TA Armor absolutely looks girlish. The flair on the sleeves, the flowing leaves of the skirt, the “cleavage” window….GIRLY. I looked at the male human version and yeah….GIRLY.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Nightmare_Court_armor_(light)_human_male_front.jpg

And even the male asura just looks like a really ugly girl asura.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Nightmare_Court_armor_(light)_asura_both_front.jpg

Also, she didn’t say that every armorset on female Asura is girly…she’s saying it’s possible. Could it be easier…yes, of course.

And exactly why can’t a certain hairstyle/facial features add to the girly look? Think babies…they all look the same until you add a headband to their head.

Yeah babies all look like little wrinkled aliens. Hehe.

But right you can’t say there aren’t options, which was my point exactly. To be entirely honest I don’t want more feminine female asura armor before we get some pants without butt capes.

Ps. Skimpy female Asura… doesn’t look feminine to me, so full flow dresses do, but not my attached picture. Despite how cute and pink she is.

I will point out the difference between “skimpy” (generally getting to show skin), and traditionally “feminine” clothing. I think Pikaia might have started with the former, and the latter has been mentioned.

As for me, I support more of both! GW2 has done a pretty good job with striving for equality, and I think it’s an area that they could improve on.

Absolutely. With how good they are with most things, it the imbalance feels out of place, unlike other MMOs. They should definitely try to do better.

Antipas.6421:

Absolutely. With how good they are with most things, it the imbalance feels out of place, unlike other MMOs. They should definitely try to do better.

Exactly. Guild Wars 2 has built up a reputation for having good, well-developed, well-thought-out content – NPC gay couples, women in leadership roles and random female soldiers, villains who are clearly and conspicuously misogynist, and so on. Likewise, GW2 is known for having an astonishingly positive and welcoming community. I’ve read multiple articles on how distinct it is from other games in this regard.

And yet. All the cheesecake. No beefcake. Where’s our beefcake? Where are our beefcake options?

I’m all for metal speedos and leather straps like the female norn T2.

As a female gamer, I like to look at a hot beefcake kitten while I play, but unfortunately the only kittenty armor options are for female characters. I want my male character to strut his stuff.

semi srs.

Yeah I want to be sexy as a male character too… Sexy/pretty armours for males ples

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Esplen.3940:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

My female asura looks like a girl.

I’m glad you’re using one of the three armorsets outfits that actually display the female version.

Still, I want to be a man if I can’t be a girl.

Oh okay I’m sorry.

My Asura looks like a girl.

If anything, I’d call that another problem with armors in general: SKIRTS!

Because that armor really isn’t supposed to be feminine…except it’s a skirt-type light armor. Are you saying males wearing that same armorset are girlish?

But this I find is a problem with GW2 armors in general…and with a lot of MMOs now-a-days, they put in so many butt-capes and skirts, it leaves little option for variety…it’s like people think those skirt dealies look good when your avatar is running around, jumping and kicking stuff…it’s not.

Leo G.4501:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Esplen.3940:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

My female asura looks like a girl.

I’m glad you’re using one of the three armorsets outfits that actually display the female version.

Still, I want to be a man if I can’t be a girl.

Oh okay I’m sorry.

My Asura looks like a girl.

If anything, I’d call that another problem with armors in general: SKIRTS!

Because that armor really isn’t supposed to be feminine…except it’s a skirt-type light armor. Are you saying males wearing that same armorset are girlish?

But this I find is a problem with GW2 armors in general…and with a lot of MMOs now-a-days, they put in so many butt-capes and skirts, it leaves little option for variety…it’s like people think those skirt dealies look good when your avatar is running around, jumping and kicking stuff…it’s not.

I agree. I want light pants with no butt capes!

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Leo G.4501:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

Esplen.3940:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

My female asura looks like a girl.

I’m glad you’re using one of the three armorsets outfits that actually display the female version.

Still, I want to be a man if I can’t be a girl.

Oh okay I’m sorry.

My Asura looks like a girl.

If anything, I’d call that another problem with armors in general: SKIRTS!

Because that armor really isn’t supposed to be feminine…except it’s a skirt-type light armor. Are you saying males wearing that same armorset are girlish?

But this I find is a problem with GW2 armors in general…and with a lot of MMOs now-a-days, they put in so many butt-capes and skirts, it leaves little option for variety…it’s like people think those skirt dealies look good when your avatar is running around, jumping and kicking stuff…it’s not.

I agree. I want light pants with no butt capes!

I’ve been dabbling in swtor this last week because my bunk mate is trying it. They have a similar problem, at least for some jedi. Butt-capes as far as the eye can see…