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Why the gender lock?

LustmordLustmord Member UncommonPosts: 1,114

Why would a game today still have gender locks?

Comments

  • skeaserskeaser Member RarePosts: 4,181

    Easier to make and push out the door to get your microtransaction monies.

    Seriously, quality in F2P games is rarely high.

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  • GTwanderGTwander Member UncommonPosts: 6,035

    Originally posted by skeaser

    Easier to make and push out the door to get your microtransaction monies.

    Seriously, quality in F2P games is rarely high.

    Try again.

    It's because the models per character are unique, and therefore the smart move is to link them to classes, since the armors are usually linked to those classes anyway. There are a few exceptions though, in the case where armor can be worn by any class, and that roughs up the development time because each one has to have a new model/skin made for each unique character bodytype.

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  • skeaserskeaser Member RarePosts: 4,181

    Originally posted by GTwander

    Originally posted by skeaser

    Easier to make and push out the door to get your microtransaction monies.

    Seriously, quality in F2P games is rarely high.

    Try again.

    It's because the models per character are unique, and therefore the smart move is to link them to classes, since the armors are usually linked to those classes anyway. There are a few exceptions though, in the case where armor can be worn by any class, and that roughs up the development time because each one has to have a new model/skin made for each unique character bodytype.

    Which translates to...

    Easier.

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  • GTwanderGTwander Member UncommonPosts: 6,035

    Nope. Applying proper logic to what I said means they would have to do *more* work to get armors that only fit a specific body type, or doing them over again repeatedly every time they introduce a new one. The easy route is making a single male/female model and having everything made for them just once.

    Nice try rationalizing it to your qualms with F2P though, someday you might actually make a decent point.

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  • EricDanieEricDanie Member UncommonPosts: 2,238

    Originally posted by Lustmord

    Why would a game today still have gender locks?

    Just wait, they'll give you that option later on for the small microtransaction of $20.

  • skeaserskeaser Member RarePosts: 4,181

    Originally posted by GTwander

    Nope. Applying proper logic to what I said means they would have to do *more* work to get armors that only fit a specific body type, or doing them over again repeatedly every time they introduce a new one. The easy route is making a single male/female model and having everything made for them just once.

    Nice try rationalizing it to your qualms with F2P though, someday you might actually make a decent point.

    Not sure what you're on about. Even if you use the same model for each armor, regardless of gender, you still have to make the other character model, which takes more work. It's still easier to only make one gender per class, I don't care how you look at it. Having less in a game is easier, I don't know how you're trying to reverse this logic.

    Nice try rationalizing it to your love for FP2 though, someday you might actually make a decent point.

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  • GTwanderGTwander Member UncommonPosts: 6,035

    Originally posted by skeaser

    Not sure what you're on about. Even if you use the same model for each armor, regardless of gender, you still have to make the other character model, which takes more work. It's still easier to only make one gender per class, I don't care how you look at it. Having less in a game is easier, I don't know how you're trying to reverse this logic.

    Nice try rationalizing it to your love for FP2 though, someday you might actually make a decent point.

    [mod edit]I would think that making armors for 2 bodytypes (male/female) is a lot less work then say, 6, like Aika has. It's only less work in the animation department, where both the male/female models would need specific ones per class.

    [mod edit]

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  • WraithoneWraithone Member RarePosts: 3,806

    Originally posted by skeaser

    Easier to make and push out the door to get your microtransaction monies.

    Seriously, quality in F2P games is rarely high.

     

    Some times. It depends on the game. But I have seen quite a number of games that use the same engine, with different art assets and changed rule sets.  But Galnet seems to be rather odd when it comes to monies.  The other day I went to add Gpotatoes to my account. The transaction was approved by Paypal and my bank, but it was declined by Galnet.  This is the first time I've *ever* had a F2P company not want my money ^^  Since I've purchased Gpotatoes before, I suspect its some mis communication or other.

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  • bronzeroninbronzeronin Member Posts: 89

    just be happy if you are in NA that we don't have real life gender lock  http://news.filefront.com/chinese-mmo-bans-males-from-playing-female-characters/  Know the article is old but it makes laugh.  Talk about a great job watching girls play video games to make sure their legit.  Sorry ma'am I can't tell if you are female you will have to be more convincing, lol.

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  • GTwanderGTwander Member UncommonPosts: 6,035

    Originally posted by bronzeronin

    just be happy if you are in NA that we don't have real life gender lock  http://news.filefront.com/chinese-mmo-bans-males-from-playing-female-characters/  Know the article is old but it makes laugh.  Talk about a great job watching girls play video games to make sure their legit.  Sorry ma'am I can't tell if you are female you will have to be more convincing, lol.

    Wouldn't that basically force it so that 5-15% of the entire population end up playing a chickie?

    I personally hate sausage-fests, both in and out of game.

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  • BMoorBMoor Member Posts: 202

    Well, it'll depend on the game.  Some games really do have close to 50% female population and sometimes more.  Can be randomly sampled by listening to them on Vent and other evidence. image  They just don't flock to the stereotypical MMOs though.

     

    Having gender locks also allows for less things to be rendered for a system.  After all, with less models, there can be less textures and less hardware resources needed to render them.  Aika is still new and even though the scenary is beautiful at times, I think their graphics engine still needs work.  Running can still be choppy sometimes, especially when there are more than 20 characters in front of you.

    Perhaps in some distant future, when they hopefully optimize their engine and add in new features, they can finally add in the ability to choose genders.

    I'd rather they allow the ability for an account to have a third pran though.

  • WraithoneWraithone Member RarePosts: 3,806

    Originally posted by bronzeronin

    just be happy if you are in NA that we don't have real life gender lock  http://news.filefront.com/chinese-mmo-bans-males-from-playing-female-characters/  Know the article is old but it makes laugh.  Talk about a great job watching girls play video games to make sure their legit.  Sorry ma'am I can't tell if you are female you will have to be more convincing, lol.

    Yes, I remember that. I suspect its at least partly due to the major imbalance between males and females in China. Its a natural consequence of their infamous one child per couple policy(and the traditional preference for males).

    "If you can't kill it, don't make it mad."
  • skeaserskeaser Member RarePosts: 4,181

    Originally posted by GTwander

    Originally posted by skeaser



    Not sure what you're on about. Even if you use the same model for each armor, regardless of gender, you still have to make the other character model, which takes more work. It's still easier to only make one gender per class, I don't care how you look at it. Having less in a game is easier, I don't know how you're trying to reverse this logic.

    Nice try rationalizing it to your love for FP2 though, someday you might actually make a decent point.

    It's cute that your pride is this strong when it comes to F2P sucking, but I would think that making armors for 2 bodytypes (male/female) is a lot less work then say, 6, like Aika has. It's only less work in the animation department, where both the male/female models would need specific ones per class.

    Keep trying.

    First, I'm not arguing the quality of FP2 here, I'm arguing how you can be so vapid you can't understand my simple point.

    It is easier to make less. To add another gender to a class requires work, making it harder.

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  • mrcalhoumrcalhou Member UncommonPosts: 1,444

    Originally posted by GTwander

    Originally posted by skeaser

    Not sure what you're on about. Even if you use the same model for each armor, regardless of gender, you still have to make the other character model, which takes more work. It's still easier to only make one gender per class, I don't care how you look at it. Having less in a game is easier, I don't know how you're trying to reverse this logic.

    Nice try rationalizing it to your love for FP2 though, someday you might actually make a decent point.

    It's cute that your pride is this strong when it comes to F2P sucking, but I would think that making armors for 2 bodytypes (male/female) is a lot less work then say, 6, like Aika has. It's only less work in the animation department, where both the male/female models would need specific ones per class.

    Keep trying.

     I'm not quite sure I get your reasoning. It wouldn't be just two models. I would think it would then be twelve models, because then the six classes would have both a male and female version. It'd only be two if they used one model of each gender for all the classes.

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  • GTwanderGTwander Member UncommonPosts: 6,035

    Originally posted by mrcalhou

     I'm not quite sure I get your reasoning. It wouldn't be just two models. I would think it would then be twelve models, because then the six classes would have both a male and female version. It'd only be two if they used one model of each gender for all the classes.

    I said most games use two models (male/female), Aika uses 6 and going for 12 is overkill. My point is that the choice in going this route is *not* lazy, and in fact requires even more development time in certain circles. Animation not being one of them.

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  • mrcalhoumrcalhou Member UncommonPosts: 1,444

    Originally posted by GTwander

    Originally posted by mrcalhou

     I'm not quite sure I get your reasoning. It wouldn't be just two models. I would think it would then be twelve models, because then the six classes would have both a male and female version. It'd only be two if they used one model of each gender for all the classes.

    I said most games use two models (male/female), Aika uses 6 and going for 12 is overkill. My point is that the choice in going this route is *not* lazy, and in fact requires even more development time in certain circles. Animation not being one of them.

     Every game that I've played that had different classes and allowed a choice between the genders had different models for each class. That is, warriors had two models, mages had another two, and so on.

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  • GTwanderGTwander Member UncommonPosts: 6,035

    Yeah, and the armors are universal and will fit any model, with any class - whihc cuts the development time of new armors down drastically. Thusly you get a lot more choice in that department (wow for example), but then you have 50% more animation done since both the male and female models require their own for each class (so they recycle many of them, again, wow). Sometimes the choice on which direction to go depends on which department is stronger; modeler/texture artists or animators. You can get more bang for buck in either one depending on the choice you make.

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  • jusomdudejusomdude Member RarePosts: 2,706

    I think you two are ignoring the points the other is trying to make.

    If each class had different models for game a with gender locked classes and game b without gender locked classes had the same model for all classes then game a would take more work.

    but if game b had different models for all classes then it would take more work.

  • GTwanderGTwander Member UncommonPosts: 6,035

    It takes more work for a specific department.

    Plus your point was confusing, I was sitting here trying to solve for X.

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  • sidfusidfu Member Posts: 170

    akia is only a copy of prius online. hopely prius gets translateed soon since it found a publisher finaly for na

  • BMoorBMoor Member Posts: 202

    The only thing Prius Online has in common is having a little girl follow you so it's not really a copy if everything else is different.  Prius Online seems to focus more on PvE while Aika is focused on PvP.  I do plan to try Prius Online when it comes out though as I prefer PvE over PvP.  However, to the distaste of some, Prius Online may be published in NA by GPotato, the same company that is currently publishing Aika Online (for NA).  Hence, they will corner the NA market on games with little girl followers. image

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