Guild Wars 2

Do you mean switch the entire body to that of the opposite sex, or just make it so the skin of the male armor on a female frame?

Just the armour skin.

Not to belittle your problem, but that would be far too much work. There are already some skins that don’t fall into the fantasy trope of less armor protects better. The amount of work to convert skins to the frame of the opposite sex would be a nightmare. It would look like stretched charr armor if they didn’t spend a considerable amount of time on the endeavor. I know that I would very much so like to have male Phalanx on my female warrior, but it will never happen. It sucks, but they have bigger fish to fry.

Off topic but I was deeply amused to see that the word I used to describe male armour (bad posterior) got changed to ‘kitten’.

That’s how it goes here. Anything that can be considered a bad word becomes “kitten”.

BigfootArisen.6509:

Not to belittle your problem, but that would be far too much work….

I can see that it would be reasonably involved, although some of the sylvari males have fairly light frames so I guess the main problem would be the breasts? Personally I’d be happy to play with slightly distorted armour on the torso. And the legs would be pretty much the same, no?

I’m not suggesting that they change all the armour overnight, merely piece by piece if possible focussing on the pieces with the biggest difference.

If it’s too much effort and they have bigger fish to fry that’s fine. The charr are my favourites anyway. But I think that ArenaNet have worked very hard to create an inclusive space, and I think a change like this would contribute to it.

It would be lots of work because it would practically mean to create 6 new models for every armor available in game (asuming asura and charr also get a toggle to use the female version of the armor).

That said, if they ever do that, I’m making a male fat norn just so he can run around wearing this..

http://argos-soft.net/GW2/ArmorGallery/index.php?color=10&sex=1&race=3&w=1&skinID=mardigrai&lang=en

Not as simple as it sounds.

Those boobs and those biceps are part of the armor, essentially. Put ‘male’ armor on a female character and you get quite a tomboy.. or worse yet, the other way generates D cups filled by nothing but air, behind which is a hairy chest..

locoman.1974:

…asuming asura and charr also get a toggle to use the female version of the armor).

No, Asura and Charr already have pretty equal armour. I wasn’t even aware there were differences.

locoman.1974:

…That said, if they ever do that, I’m making a male fat norn just so he can run around wearing this..

http://argos-soft.net/GW2/ArmorGallery/index.php?color=10&sex=1&race=3&w=1&skinID=mardigrai&lang=en

That would be utterly glorious.

Lheimroo.2947:

Not as simple as it sounds.

Those boobs and those biceps are part of the armor, essentially. Put ‘male’ armor on a female character and you get quite a tomboy.. or worse yet, the other way generates D cups filled by nothing but air, behind which is a hairy chest..

I could rock a hairy chest.

HarlequinWild.4359:

locoman.1974:

…asuming asura and charr also get a toggle to use the female version of the armor).

No, Asura and Charr already have pretty equal armour. I wasn’t even aware there were differences.

locoman.1974:

…That said, if they ever do that, I’m making a male fat norn just so he can run around wearing this..

http://argos-soft.net/GW2/ArmorGallery/index.php?color=10&sex=1&race=3&w=1&skinID=mardigrai&lang=en

That would be utterly glorious.

That’s the thing, if female characters get a toggle to wear the male version, then male characters should get one as well, which is why I’m saying it would need 6 new armors to be created (female versions of male armor and male versions of female armor for norn and human/sylvari, and female versions of all armors for charr and asura).

The reason asura and charr are equal is that both male and female wear the male version of every armor, and actually it has been a common request to allow female asura and charr to actually wear female armor.

HarlequinWild.4359:

No, Asura and Charr already have pretty equal armour. I wasn’t even aware there were differences.

Enormously refreshing to come back to a game with species that actually can wear reasonable clothing and have reasonable body builds. Where there are races in which females aren’t just boobified up as the way to sexy them up for a teenage audience.

.. specially after trying out some of the upcoming MMOs on their beta weekends. Wildstar in particular.. every single female has boobs the size of their head and waists a wasp would be proud of. While the only race that might have been different – the chua, have a single gender option. Arg!

If a toggle isn’t possible, perhaps it would be easier for more practical female armor to be made. I been playing since launch but have deleted many heroes simply because I couldn’t stand their armor choices. Now I only play Charr (<3) and I enjoy mixing and matching pieces. The tail clipping on my fuzzy ladies isn’t as much of a problem to me as having my boobs hanging out in a starter area.

Lheimroo.2947:

HarlequinWild.4359:

No, Asura and Charr already have pretty equal armour. I wasn’t even aware there were differences.

Enormously refreshing to come back to a game with species that actually can wear reasonable clothing and have reasonable body builds. Where there are races in which females aren’t just boobified up as the way to sexy them up for a teenage audience.

.. specially after trying out some of the upcoming MMOs on their beta weekends. Wildstar in particular.. every single female has boobs the size of their head and waists a wasp would be proud of. While the only race that might have been different – the chua, have a single gender option. Arg!

I feel your pain. A part of me dies every time an awesome bestial species has a female design that’s the male’s but smaller and with two hemispheres whapped onto the torso.

I was drawn to play this game purely because of the female charr. I’d gush about them more but https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Give-Good-Feedback says I probably shouldn’t (if you love something, you can say so without excessive fanboyism).

AwkwardStarfish.1827:

If a toggle isn’t possible, perhaps it would be easier for more practical female armor to be made. I been playing since launch but have deleted many heroes simply because I couldn’t stand their armor choices. Now I only play Charr (<3) and I enjoy mixing and matching pieces. The tail clipping on my fuzzy ladies isn’t as much of a problem to me as having my boobs hanging out in a starter area.

I agree I have one humanoid and she’s a sylvari mesmer – I can mentally cope with an illusion class having sexualised armour, and the sylvari homeland is so beautiful (also charr don’t lend themselves to jumping puzzles).

Some more practical female armour would be great. Especially at character creation where I find it the most off-putting (you can play a sexy elementalist, or a sexy mesmer, or a sexy warrior…).

The only MMO I’ve played that treats female armor as seriously is SWTOR, actually. You rock a female trooper in that game, you’re wearing armor that looks like it means business. Voiced by Jennifer Hale, awesome.

If you’re looking for sheer silly diversity, though.. Saints Row IV. Nothing stopping you in that game from creating a fat black woman who speaks in the voice of Nolan North on helium while running around in fursuit costumes.

Lheimroo.2947:

…If you’re looking for sheer silly diversity, though.. Saints Row IV. Nothing stopping you in that game from creating a fat black woman who speaks in the voice of Nolan North on helium while running around in fursuit costumes.

Saints Row 3 is among my favourite games (I enjoyed SR4 but nowhere near to the same level). It blew my mind and made me feel powerful in a way I’ve never felt before with a female protagonist. Although Saints Row 2 has a more flexible character creation system – there’s actually a slider for gender so you can be as butch or as girly as you like. I like playing really muscular female characters and SR2 has been the only game that’s ever indulged me. SR4 made me really miss my Russian voice. The deepened European voice didn’t cut it.

They should really just avoid making armour sets that are so dramatically different based on arbitrary gender expectations. Slight differences to account for anatomy are fine and all, and I can even tolerate a few stereotypical gender signifiers if we absolutely must, but when you’ve got massive thematic/motif/construction differences and the armours don’t look like they belong at all to the same set, there’s a basic design problem. More in my sig link on that, though.

I guess TL;DR is that this shouldn’t be a problem that needs a toggle. When you’ve got dramatically different looks across two genders for the same armour set, make them separate sets instead.

Go look at the Heavy armor. Kinda hard to sexualize plate armor unless you add detailed nipples. But then you get the question of “why would you need nipples on armor?” And no, glass cutting isnt an acceptable answer.

HarlequinWild.4359:

locoman.1974:

…asuming asura and charr also get a toggle to use the female version of the armor).

No, Asura and Charr already have pretty equal armour. I wasn’t even aware there were differences.

Only a few.

Faowri.4159:

They should really just avoid making armour sets that are so dramatically different based on arbitrary gender expectations. Slight differences to account for anatomy are fine and all, and I can even tolerate a few stereotypical gender signifiers if we absolutely must, but when you’ve got massive thematic/motif/construction differences and the armours don’t look like they belong at all to the same set, there’s a basic design problem. More in my sig link on that, though.

I guess TL;DR is that this shouldn’t be a problem that needs a toggle. When you’ve got dramatically different looks across two genders for the same armour set, make them separate sets instead.

I pretty much agree. The different armour sets thing would also give us a good quantity of sexualised male armour – that would cover another frequently requested thing in the facebook girls group.

There is an appetite for the sexy female armour among female players too – one of them said that being a powerful bad-posterior in a flouncy dress feels to her like an inversion of the passive princess thing – that she can be pretty, flouncy, and still slay dragons.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Go look at the Heavy armor. Kinda hard to sexualize plate armor unless you add detailed nipples. But then you get the question of “why would you need nipples on armor?” And no, glass cutting isnt an acceptable answer.

During character creation on class selection there is like a paragon representation of each class. These descriptions are for those:

Human: the guardian is as you say pretty neutral, the warrior is in fishnets, a mini-skirt and some kind of metal boob-tube.

Norn: the warrior is in the above exact armour, the guardian has half an exposed pair of panties, impressive cleavage, exposed thighs and sides, with metal thigh-high booties.

Sylvari: the warrior is awesome, covered, no boobplate, just perfect (for my tastes). The guardian has cleavage and skin-tight plate-mail leggings, but otherwise is okay.

(edited for spelling of plate-male/mail)

Seriously?

There are a lot more armor sets to choose from that provide full coverage than there are “sexy” armor sets.

Examples:

Almost every dungeon set except Light TA and Light CoE.
Almost all human cultural except T3 Medium and Light.
Every crafted medium set.
Every crafted heavy set except Barbaric
Every crafted light set except Feathered, Winged and Masquerade, (Emboridered is debatable)
Every Priory Set
Every Ascended Set
Every Exotic Karma Set
Every Gem Set except Profane, Krytan, Flamekissed and Zodiac (debatable since it’s technically covered by “blue space”).

Lightyears.8624:

Seriously?

There are a lot more armor sets to choose from that provide full coverage than there are “sexy” armor sets.

Examples:

Almost every dungeon set except Light TA and Light CoE.
Almost all human cultural except T3 Medium and Light.
Every crafted medium set.
Every crafted heavy set except Barbaric
Every crafted light set except Feathered, Winged and Masquerade, (Emboridered is debatable)
Every Priory Set
Every Ascended Set
Every Exotic Karma Set
Every Gem Set except Profane, Krytan, Flamekissed and Zodiac (debatable since it’s technically covered by “blue space”).

It’s not just about coverage. But yes, seriously; what can I say I’m greedy.

locoman.1974:

…That’s the thing, if female characters get a toggle to wear the male version, then male characters should get one as well…

I think that would be great and very progressive. But I’d like to see the female characters getting the option as the priority of the two – making gaming a safe space where female players can engage with more options to not be sexualised seems more urgent to me.

locoman.1974:

The reason asura and charr are equal is that both male and female wear the male version of every armor, and actually it has been a common request to allow female asura and charr to actually wear female armor.

That doesn’t surprise me and I’m sure there are lots of men and women who would really appreciate such a change. I’d be delighted for them to have the option to play in the way that makes them feel happy and welcome.

While we’re on the topic I’d like to get a real full length skirt for my human elementalist (or other soft female class). I had to “fake” it with the Magician leggings since I can dye the stockings to match my skin color. Other skirts are too short or don’t take dyes well.

HarlequinWild.4359:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Go look at the Heavy armor. Kinda hard to sexualize plate armor unless you add detailed nipples. But then you get the question of “why would you need nipples on armor?” And no, glass cutting isnt an acceptable answer.

During character creation on class selection there is like a paragon representation of each class. These descriptions are for those:

Human: the guardian is as you say pretty neutral, the warrior is in fishnets, a mini-skirt and some kind of metal boob-tube.

Norn: the warrior is in the above exact armour, the guardian has half an exposed pair of panties, impressive cleavage, exposed thighs and sides, with metal thigh-high booties.

Sylvari: the warrior is awesome, covered, no boobplate, just perfect (for my tastes). The guardian has cleavage and skin-tight plate-mail leggings, but otherwise is okay.

(edited for spelling of plate-male/mail)

You forget that nearly ALL of those armor sets you see, are the T3 racial armor.

Aidan Savage.2078:

HarlequinWild.4359:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Go look at the Heavy armor. Kinda hard to sexualize plate armor unless you add detailed nipples. But then you get the question of “why would you need nipples on armor?” And no, glass cutting isnt an acceptable answer.

During character creation on class selection there is like a paragon representation of each class. These descriptions are for those:

Human: the guardian is as you say pretty neutral, the warrior is in fishnets, a mini-skirt and some kind of metal boob-tube.

Norn: the warrior is in the above exact armour, the guardian has half an exposed pair of panties, impressive cleavage, exposed thighs and sides, with metal thigh-high booties.

Sylvari: the warrior is awesome, covered, no boobplate, just perfect (for my tastes). The guardian has cleavage and skin-tight plate-mail leggings, but otherwise is okay.

(edited for spelling of plate-male/mail)

You forget that nearly ALL of those armor sets you see, are the T3 racial armor.

I wouldn’t describe myself as forgetting that. I was more just pointing out that you don’t even need to have a character created to see sexualised heavy armour. I was providing examples in response to your comment – ‘Kinda hard to sexualize plate armor’.

lioka qiao.8734:

While we’re on the topic I’d like to get a real full length skirt for my human elementalist (or other soft female class). I had to “fake” it with the Magician leggings since I can dye the stockings to match my skin color. Other skirts are too short or don’t take dyes well.

The males have some pretty cool skirts.

HarlequinWild.4359:

But I’d like to see the female characters getting the option as the priority of the two – making gaming a safe space where female players can engage with more options to not be sexualised seems more urgent to me.

Very much this.

I already quite like the ‘covered’ armor options (although more definitely can’t hurt) but for me especially light starting armor irks me. When I started playing during Beta I knew I was going to play GW2 because I loved 1, but the short skirt definitely turned me off. Whyyyy do I have to keep starting at my own, eh, hindquarters (trying to avoid kittens here)?!

As a game, I think GW is doing really well on the equality side of things: we get at least some nice, functional armor, storylines are well-written and also about personal relationships (which research shows does good for women in games), there’s good female characters, there’s some good gay representation, etc. ánd there are quite a lot of female players already into GW2. This is all the more reason for ANet to take a good look at ways in which they could make GW2 even more of a friendly space for girl-gamers. There’s a very real chance here for them to make a difference and get more girls into gaming and make girls feel at home in gaming. So yeah, making girls start in garters and too-short-for-comfort skirts? Not awesome for that!

Also – if ANet is at all curious about the opinion of about 1400 girl gamers, this is a frequent topic of discussion in our group, and girls definitely seem to edge the way of ‘we like the óption of looking hawt, but we álso like the option of not dying from boobplate!’.

Final Fantasy XIV is an example of a game that has a selection of armor choices for heroes that don’t look different when slapped on the opposite gender: http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/09/14/final-fantasy-xivs-gear-design-is-a-shining-example-of-gender-equality-in-games/

I’d love for ArenaNet to make less differences between the two genders when it comes to armor, but I don’t expect them to go back and change what is already in game. I’d just like them to keep equality in mind when developing future armor sets (and to maybe fix tail clipping with charrs… huff). If you’re going to make an armor based on a robe, don’t have one gender covered from head to toe and the other showing a flash of midriff and some leg.

Well, most of the time it’s ok. Heavy armor at least has more “battle appropriate” wear for female characters. Sometimes the boobplates get annoying when it comes to dyes. I mean really, you get some weird combos where the boobplate stands out from the rest of the piece. No!

Then sometimes you look at the differences between light/medium human t3 armor and am just like WTF. I don’t want a big coat on my ranger but I’m certainly not putting that on her, and the other choice I can see is that corset duelist armor which is just as silly.

As for light female armor, I honestly don’t think some of them are actually clothes and would take the male counterpart. I mean some of those outfits look like they’re from a really sketchy anime…

And note I’m a dude whose female guardian wears the vigil miniskirt so it’s not like I’m particularly prudish or anything. (It could be a little longer, really, would be perfect), but I find those light/medium choices pretty lousy. They either show too much or too little. Light at least has some choices.

tl;dr I should not see my character’s underwear 65% of the time. Can you imagine that on a male toon?

AwkwardStarfish.1827:

Final Fantasy XIV is an example of a game that has a selection of armor choices for heroes that don’t look different when slapped on the opposite gender: http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/09/14/final-fantasy-xivs-gear-design-is-a-shining-example-of-gender-equality-in-games/

That is awesome and exactly what I meant. I, and a great deal of others, have no problem at all with armour that’s revealing or sexualised or impractical, so long as it remains so on both genders and there is enough overall variety in the sets to allow people to cover up if they want to.

So yeah, I don’t expect Anet to go back and address the current imbalances in sets, but it would be nice to see this adopted as a standard for future armour set designs.

… and also this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/suggestions/Gendered-armour-splits-design-maxims/

HarlequinWild.4359:

Toggle for female armour to use male armour look

I’m a member of a GW2 Girls facebook group, and one issue that comes up pretty regularly is the female armour. Fairly frequently a piece of armour that looks powerful and kitten on a male character will look sexy/girlish and often exposing on a female. Several of the women in the group who like to play female characters prefer sexy, but the majority of them enjoy playing a more practically dressed character.

It is already possible to play a completely unsexualised female humanoid but requires hunting around for skins and armour sets, particularly for light armoured classes. The default light armour at character creation is a miniskirt, garter and crop-top, which can be offputting for a new player.

Guild Wars 2 is already incredibly welcoming to female players; the charr and asura are brilliant, and the female NPCs are whole people with their own motives. It’s this incredibly positive experience I’ve had that makes me hungry for more.

I think a great solution to this issue would be to have a toggle (maybe on the bottom right of the armour piece, like the show/hide toggle) that allows you to switch between the default ‘female’ armour, and the ‘male’ armour. This could be added gradually, focusing on the armour sets with the biggest differences between male and female.

Alternatively/ in addition a similar toggle on character creation might help a new female player feel more welcome and catered for.

While this isn’t part of my suggestion it would be nice to eventually see such a toggle on the male humanoids too, so that they can wear the cute girl skirts too if they want. That would be crazy-progressive.

Edit: To be clear I mean showing the skin of the male armour on the female frame.

I agree with the idea, but not the method. Giving females access to make armour models would be too controversial, due to little cross-dressing theme it brings with it (nothing wrong with that, but if that isn’t the intent then it becomes controversial), as well as the fact that they’d have to add female clothing for men.

How about a modified armour for both genders? Not the armour of the opposite gender, but rather a look more “buff” (for females) or “sleek” (for males)??

HarlequinWild.4359:

Just the armour skin.

Noooooot possible, male and female characters do not do not operate on the same modeling or animation structures, it would either require a ton of work on the models or the armors to adapt one to the other.

Kingkiller.9645:

I agree with the idea but not the method. Giving females access to make armour models would be too controversial, due to little cross-dressing theme it brings with it (nothing wrong with that, but if that isn’t the intent then it becomes controversial), as well as the fact that they’d have to add female clothing for men.

The idea of wearing the clothing of another gender still being controversial makes me feel very sad

Kingkiller.9645:

How about a modified armour for both genders? Not the armour of the opposite gender, but rather a look more “buff” (for females) or “sleek” (for males)??

That could be cute, I don’t mind what they call it.

Conncept.7638:

HarlequinWild.4359:

Just the armour skin.

Noooooot possible, male and female characters do not do not operate on the same modeling or animation structures, it would either require a ton of work on the models or the armors to adapt one to the other.

I’d be perfectly happy with some shortcuts initially. And for me the real priority is the starter armour set, so them just fixing that up with an alternative would be great.

I pictured them reworking the armour skins that have the biggest differences piece by piece and making them available as they’re done. I have virtually no experience with 3D modelling, but I’d hope that they could reuse a good bit of the work they’d done before with the male and female armour.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

… and also this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/archive/suggestions/Gendered-armour-splits-design-maxims/

That was really cool, thank you

I just want to say that its a myth that females hate the revealing armor. Actually, for many of us, its our preference. We like looking cute, sexy or whatever. The ones who flame it are mostly a vocal group who get offended at gender stereotypes, and has nothing to do with the actual armors itself.

That said, I support this option, because I think being able to either embrace or break out of gender stereotypes (or, stick to a gender stereotype other than your own) is somenone’s right, and one of the core rights that we receive in MMOs given that we are hidden behind a virtual avatar.

Faowri.4159:

….So yeah, I don’t expect Anet to go back and address the current imbalances in sets, but it would be nice to see this adopted as a standard for future armour set designs.

I can see that, and your maxims are very cool.

I’d like to see starter light set looked at. This is your first introduction to the game and what you design your character around initially. It can be a little alienating to see your magus who can immolate people with her mind choosing to dress as a kittentail waitress.

Hannelore.8153:

I just want to say that its a myth that females hate the revealing armor. Actually, for many of us, its our preference. We like looking cute, sexy or whatever…

This has been my experience talking to the other women on the facebook group. There are strong voices going both ways.

Hannelore.8153:

…That said, I support this option, because I think being able to either embrace or break out of gender stereotypes (or, stick to a gender stereotype other than your own) is somenone’s right, and one of the core rights that we receive in MMOs given that we are hidden behind a virtual avatar.

That’s an awesome and progressive opinion and I think you rock.

Uniles.2397:

>> Loads of really really good points <<

I agree with everything you said

AwkwardStarfish.1827:

Final Fantasy XIV is an example of a game that has a selection of armor choices for heroes that don’t look different when slapped on the opposite gender: http://www.dualshockers.com/2013/09/14/final-fantasy-xivs-gear-design-is-a-shining-example-of-gender-equality-in-games/

I just recently looked through those and they are pretty hawt. Dark Souls has an interesting approach too:
http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Dark_Souls:_Female_Armor_Set_Images
http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Dark_Souls:_Male_Armor_Set_Images

AwkwardStarfish.1827:

I’d love for ArenaNet to make less differences between the two genders when it comes to armor, but I don’t expect them to go back and change what is already in game. I’d just like them to keep equality in mind when developing future armor sets…

I would like them to give more options on key pieces – especially starting light armour, and some of the cultural armour. These are fairly major and iconic, and I think deserve more attention.

just a waste of human resourses and time. never happens due to low profit and lowest priority.

ArchonWing.9480:

Well, most of the time it’s ok. Heavy armor at least has more “battle appropriate” wear for female characters. Sometimes the boobplates get annoying when it comes to dyes. I mean really, you get some weird combos where the boobplate stands out from the rest of the piece. No!

Then sometimes you look at the differences between light/medium human t3 armor and am just like WTF. I don’t want a big coat on my ranger but I’m certainly not putting that on her, and the other choice I can see is that corset duelist armor which is just as silly.

As for light female armor, I honestly don’t think some of them are actually clothes and would take the male counterpart. I mean some of those outfits look like they’re from a really sketchy anime…

And note I’m a dude whose female guardian wears the vigil miniskirt so it’s not like I’m particularly prudish or anything. (It could be a little longer, really, would be perfect), but I find those light/medium choices pretty lousy. They either show too much or too little. Light at least has some choices.

tl;dr I should not see my character’s underwear 65% of the time. Can you imagine that on a male toon?

:D Your post was both valid and amusing.

Honestly if I had the option to create a sexy male character whose underwear I see 65% of the time I might be more inclined to play male characters (why google for sexy men when I can conveniently have them combined with another hobby?). Sexier male armour is another major request I hear from lady players. I don’t think I’d want the undie-flashing male character though if it could make people feel less powerful or alienated.

What needs to happen is this:

We have options now, but obviously they are not enough. A simple solution that would avoid the problems presented by attempting to put armor on a new kind of frame would be to merely create new armors. By this I personally really want more skimpy armor for male characters and more conservative armor for female characters.

I also want feminine armor for women that is not revealing and masculine armor for men that is revealing. In addition there really needs to be feminine armor choices for both the charr and asura. Wiping femininity from the slate as with asura and charr armors which only use male versions of all armor is not preferable.

We do need fewer revealing (or ‘practical’ I suppose, although the definition of practicality is skewed when you can wear robes and not get hurt from swords) armors, but we also need to keep in mind that in a fantasy setting people want to wear things that otherwise would not make sense. There is the same problem with women’s Halloween costumes; it is not a problem that there are skimpy options, but it is a problem that there are literally zero other options on the table. You can literally only be skimpy if you’re a woman looking for a Halloween costume.

Plenty of people want to skimpy but the problem is that there is no choice to the contrary. Give people a choice that’s easy to take…and you win. Congrats. Whoohoo.

(But please more feminine armor for charr and asura please please)

There’s several sets that share name but are nothing alike between each other. It’s one of the many inconsistencies you’ll see in Guild Wars.

I would really love more consistency between items.

Look at cabalist armor:

For female human, norn and sylvari, it has a victorian look that features a skirt with bloomers underneath. While males, and both genders in charr and asura have some sort of cultist long tunic.

Why not making them two separate armors, and make a male victorian look with breeches (who doesn’t want to see a charr in breeches?), and also the victorian female look for asura and charr?
Then make a female version for the cultist-looking for female human, norn and sylvari.

Or look at the feathered armor. The male version has a hood. And the female version has a hair ornament. Why can’t there be a way to let females have also the hood and for males to have the hair ornament? Where is written that a guy can’t go around with a feather brooch on their hair?
Males have rune-like pieces of metal in the torso, and the back covered, females have that triangle-trimmed pieces of cloth that look like handbras, and the back revealed. Why not a version for females that looks more like the males, with runic metal pieces and a covered back, and a male version with the spike-trimmed cloth and a free back?
And females have those tight culotte shorts, and males have long pants. Why not shorts and pants for both?

Why? Not enough resources. That’ll be making 5 new sets for males, and 5 new sets for females. Anyone would say by looking at the flamekissed armor that they sometimes barely have time for gemstore armors. Where would they find time to make two versions of those armors that look too different.

And they’ll have to make versions for both. If an armor has a female version with skirts and a male version with pants, you can’t make a new pants version for females without making skirts for males. This is Guild Wars, manly men can wear skirts, and long tunics and still be manly. Just look at the paragons in GW1… well.. better just look at several heavy and light armors in GW2, like the gladiator armor.

I do agree that gender versions between armors should be much more closer, and that way too many look like completely different armors, and that charr and asura should have the option for the female version too, instead only having the male version.
But you can’t simply put the skins from one armor in another. There’s changes in the model, and various changes in the textures and shaders and the like.
It won’t be making new armors from scratch, but adapting versions of existing pieces for both genders and all races, but it would still be a lot of work.