Continued from:
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1438310-stop-right-now-zmo-stop-and-reconsider-your-female-armours/

OP:

It's a hot topic!

That wasn't my point. My point was that the same type of armor should be equally revealing, independent of gender.

I'm not talking stiff nipbles/cameltoe revealing here, but revealing of skin.

Edit: briast plates with nipble ornaments, now that's a thing.

Since I'm unable to talk about the depiction of women in video games without getting emotional and consequently losing the ability to form logical argument, rendering the discussion pointless, I'll stick to the realism angle:
And yet all I saw in the trailer were women with giant holes in their armor (if it can even be called 'armor'...), exposing the most vital organs - heart, lungs, liver, stomach. This is going to get them killed, no discussion.
Male armor is protective, female armor is a joke. Why, ZeniMax? Can't you make a woman look sixy without showing off her briasts?

I see what you did there

Can we get back to faction lock threads now...

You go first

It makes me sad that this didn't die with the previous thread being limit locked.

My character will wear whatever I want him or her to wear, no matter how practical or impractical. And, while I appreciate that some folks don't want to wear armour that shows a little skin, please don't make that decision for all of us.

Looks like there's no easy way out

Some people want it, some hate it. Maybe there's something in between?

There is.. give enough armor variety for both xP

I don't think that's going to be a problem. Forcing your female character to wear skimpy stuff would just be ridiculous.

I worry about other players. I don't want to invade Cyrodiil with an army of poledancers.

It's really up to the developers what stance they want to take. It's not a matter of "Why wont you let me wear what I want to wear?" Luckily it's leaning towards realistic armors. I'd be surprised if there weren't nice dresses showing legs and cleavage though, but they'll probably be cosmetics then.

I could say the same thing: there are folks who want to wear skimpy armor, but please don't make that decision for all of us.

Can't we just have both? Variety is always a good thing.

And what if you're a girl who wants to wear practical armor, but putting in on automatically puts a big display window in the chest department?

Ahaha, this topic lives again despite the fact that I never did get around to posting another one months ago. That is absolutely excellent. Wish I didn't have stuff to be doing this morning or I could be more eloquent when it comes to this, BUT for the sake of this not being a wasted post, I'll at least offer a cliff-notes brief version of my views:

I would really, really prefer that skimpy armor, ESPECIALLY armor that is actually supposed to be protective (leather, maille, plate, etc.), protect vital organs. I mean, there's a point where you aren't actually wearing armor (typical cloth-material gear) but just coverings, and I guess there's a wide range of things you can do with that (but please don't make an entire tier a bikini or whatever, pleaaaase - it svcked at the intro to Burning Crusade, it will svck as badly here), but things that are actually intended to keep all your parts where they should be? That should actually look functional.

Will hopefully have some time to throw myself back into this particular dialogue later today, but I'm happy to see that it's still being discussed.

Like the apple coloured rack in your avatar?

I agree with those that say there should different armour styles. People should be allowed to decide whether they want to run around in a plate bikini, full armour that shows nothing, a set of leather or a dress/suit that shows your curves. Everyone is different, everyone likes different things. To be honest those pictures showed me a nice middle ground, unlike Tera which has a child race showing their undies and Everquest 2 which treated plate armour very realistically.

I love plate armour, armour is a big obsession for me in MMO's and while I, personally, don't want to look like a hoker in a game, I do like to show some curves.

Oh man... threads do have a habit of cycling in this place... I'll just stay out of this one, feel free to discuss...

Yeah. Looks stupid, doesn't it?

I'm all for diversity in armor types, and clothing in general.
However:
1) Armor ratings should coincide with how well the armor would protect someone in combat. They very rarely do.
2) Vests that magically turn into bikinis when put on a female character are just ridiculous.

'K. Thanks for the contribution, bro.

I'm all for more variety. But don't take away my choices to use an armor just because YOU don't like it.

You want to look like Joan of Arc? Go for it. But if I want to look like Xena, I should have that option too.

Give us more choices, not less.

Aslong as the right stats are taken from it then I see no problem with fighting like Xena

ps, Joan is epic

Exactly.

I actually like your avatar, which I'm guessing you have to be ironic or sarcastic or something. If I wanted to point a fault in it, the colours don't work well together but other than that, it's nice. I was tongue in cheek pointing it out because you seem to have an avatar that states one thing and posts that state another.

This seems to be a pointless "discussion" so my last words in it are that people have their opinions, wear what you want and just enjoy the game (when it comes out).

Pun intended? ^^

As with most subjects like this person A thinks their tastes are more important than person B, I will never understand why people refuse to countenance opposite views on non-factual debates like this one. In reality the more people that play this game the better it will be for everyone, so catering to both groups is often the way to go, or if one group is sufficiently large you can choose to cater to just the one (Some decisions are likely to alienate one group or the other, so you prefer to alienate the smaller group).

In this case there really is no harm in giving options, but I suspect the "Let us see cleavage" group far outnumbers those who disagree, as is shown in pretty much every computer game, film, tv show, advert and any other genre you can think of. I can't see people leaving because some armor shows cleavage, nor can I see people leaving because you cannot see it, but I can see people staying longer or enjoying it more (And thus recommending it more) because they really identify with how their avatar looks.

I look at my avatar in game and my priority is to look nice, waaay above looking safe or practical. I also prefer to play female avatars over male ones (As does my GF) and am not ashamed to say that I usually prefer the outfits that show skin (Though I do have limits, the dancers outfit in SWtoR is too far for example) and I base my initial choice of MMO on looks alone. The armor in the single player Elder Scrolls games has been pretty poor in my opinion, and I always went to mods to look nice - I have been very happy to see that they have taken inspiration from much of that gear (The archer in the latest video made me squee) - because any developer that takes direction from its community is likely to be a successful one.

The issue arises when top-tier "heavy" armor (for females) is designed to be just another of the stereotypical skimpy, nonsensical, and whorish armor that plagues most MMOs.

TES is pretty good when it comes to providing equal aesthetic protection for males and females using the same set of armor. Take the "Dragonplate" heavy armor from Skyrim. Equal amount of aesthetic protection for both genders, but not identical in that the female version has a logical "feminized" appearance.

Like I said, TES has been good when it comes to this. But just because TESO is an MMO, it shouldn't have to change that to appeal to the male (and some female) audiences. If six needs to sell your product, then there's fundamental flaws and issues with your product. Sell the product through it's features, functions, and design.

Ohay, I came across some time after all.

I dislike the idea that skimpy, plate bikini armours should be included just for the sake of variety. For one thing, I can see that sort of thing driving people away, but cannot see its ABSENCE having the same effect - I imagine the number of people who would stop playing purely for lack of a platemail bikini are far, far fewer than the people who wouldn't particularly care. And only one of these two things detracts from the game's aesthetics. More and more I find myself jarred out of the suspension of disbelief by stupidly designed armor with heart and gut windows, open thighs, sternum-crushing boob cups, and things like that. There are fantastic elements to the game, yes, but I'm being presented something I'm familiar with, and I expect that to work roughly the way I understand it would. Armour that, even to my uneducated eyes, blatantly wouldn't function or offer any protection makes the entire setting seem less serious - it detracts from the work itself in favour of crappy six appeal.

It's possible to create armour that shows feminity without creating armour that functions poorly or that serves as nothing more than fourth-wall breaking eye candy (and some would argue that there's no need for heavy armour to even distinguish between the genders of the people wearing it, which is a fair enough assertion, but...). It's possible for a design to be sixy without being... stupid, basically.

I just don't see how it has a particularly dire impact on the enjoyment of the game for the armours to actually make sense with the setting and aesthetic, rather than sacrifice both for the sake of "choice"? It's not like getting rid of boob windows and bikini bottoms is going to result in a bunch of samey armour - male armour designs certainly get by with a ton of variety and they're never strutting around in banana hammocks and nipble glitter.

I feel like there was more I wanted to say here but my thoughts are a bit scattered and I'm running out of time. Anyway, my current 2c on the subject.