Why are outfits gender locked?

Why can't I choose to wear the 'female' version of an outfit on a 'male' character?

Model/Body type differences pretty much.

They would have to make a male and female outfit version for every race and gender to do this, effectively doubling the workload for every outfit.

@Teratus.2859 said:Model/Body type differences pretty much.

They would have to make a male and female outfit version for every race and gender to do this, effectively doubling the workload for every outfit.

Doesn't this mean you're getting 2 outfits for the price of one? Bargain! Surely that'll increase sales?

@Towatha.4671 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:Model/Body type differences pretty much.

They would have to make a male and female outfit version for every race and gender to do this, effectively doubling the workload for every outfit.

Technically you're already getting 2 per race a lot of the time so that would double to 4 and could end up doubling the price of outfits too.. it would be justified at least >.<It would probably just be better to sell them individually in that case.

It's a lot of work already to make 2 outfit variants and then adjust them specifically for each race and body type, sometimes this ends up resulting in some races only getting one gender version for both genders, I am not sure if this is done to save time or because they hit time constraints and cannot get all versions done in time but it does happen quite a bit to a lot of peoples disappointment.

If it is due to time constraints then having to double the amount of adjusting to include 2 versions per gender would very likely cause more problems.

Maybe Anet should occasionally release some more revealing types of armour for both genders, there are some in the game for males but I think it's mostly light armour, then there's the Starborn outfit which I find a little too much for my tastes lol but that one was locked behind RNG which annoyed a lot of people who couldn't get it or invested far more than they wanted to in order to obtain it.Probably the best option to please everyone would be to add a few more outfits/armour like that but make them a bit more accessable in future so those who want them can get them and be happy.. and those who don't wont have to worry about accidentally getting it through RNG as I did with that Starborn one and being unable to trade it to someone who does want it.

Because male wear male stuffand female wear female stuff

Next question

Use outfits. They're universal.

Be a shame if they put all that work in to eliminate gender only to get run over when the culture war snaps back. Risky choices indeed.

Each Armor has different models for different Races and then each Gender, It's not like the armor can adjust to the body.If you mean you want the whole female body with a male head then yeah I guess it could be an option, I don't see anything wrong with it.

@Towatha.4671 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:Model/Body type differences pretty much.

They would have to make a male and female outfit version for every race and gender to do this, effectively doubling the workload for every outfit.

The math does not check out. You would need to double sales just to break even. It's like playing condi engi back in the day. 10x the APM just to do slightly worse DPS than other classes.

Maybe if outfits weren't as different for males and females in the first place this wouldn't even be an issue.

Because people just aren't ready for that yet. They haven't been able to make as much revealing armor for males as they have for females yet. We have some chest windows but not enough inner thigh windows, crotch bulges or buns of steel pants yet. Male models are relatively neglected in general because developers don't want to make "anyone uncomfortable" - and by anyone they mean the largest gamer demographic.In short - they just aren't ready to do something as progressive as letting a male character wear a cocktail dress and garters.

Just remember - the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. We need sexier male armor period. Sexy cross dressing may come later. (Though I suspect by then it will be a "jumping the shark" kind of scenario. lol!)

I remember games like Fable fondly, where clothing can be worn by both genders to varying success. This can range from cool unisex uniforms to haleriously ill fitting drag that nearby citizens will oft comment upon (ie. dashing handsome ladies or a man in a corset dress).

Sometimes outfits will need to differ to avoid being indecent, but why design two armours when this is not the case?

This kind of subject is a barrel of angry bees.

All I'll say is, you're not going to get things like girls in pants and guys without shirts unless you just unlock it all, but people don't want that to happen because then it would be going too far, while they are upset about not being able to have their look.

Its not even sexism, alot of its just people refusing to change, and thinking that everyone else should be just like them.

Its all relative to who you are and where you come from, and they'll never be a consensus. Even in this video game, people barely manage to co-exist with each other long enough to do a meta event in PvE, or take an objective in WvW.

@kharmin.7683 said:Use outfits. They're universal.

Did you not notice the OP is talking about Outfits, and no, they're not universal, a male character will wear the male version of an outfits and a female character will wear the female version, you can't choose which version your character wears.

@KeoLegend.5132 said:Because male wear male stuffand female wear female stuff

Next question

That may be true where you live but it's not true everywhere. Like @"Hannelore.8153" said, "It's relative to who you are and where you come from." The medium sized town I live in is in the South Central United States , firmly planted in what's known as the Bible Belt. Yet people wear gender nonconforming clothes here and no one blinks an eye. Heck, one of my alts in this game wears a gender nonconforming outfit that I really like. My Asura revenant is a female wearing a Noble outfit. On humans, the male outfit is an Edwardian suit kind of thing while the female outfit is a long ball gown. On my Asura female though, her outfit is the Edwardian suit and it looks much better on her than the ball gown would. So if the gender differentiation is important to you, don't put the Noble outfit on an Asura female. :)

Because clothing has been gendered since the mother fucking dawn of time and quite probably always will be to a degree, regardless of what the deconstructionists say/want. And because making several different versions of the same outfit would be prohibitive, leaving us with fewer outfits that'd cost more.

I'll give the technical explanation. Because outfits are created to fit on a certain character "mesh" and to then animate following the appropriate skeleton, which is a set of invisible bones that are inside every character. Male and Female characters use a completely different mesh and their skeletons have different poses, so their animations and skins aren't interchangeable. This means an outfit, or an armor piece, created for one cannot apply on another. In other words, using the same outfit on both genders doesn't mean less work for the developers, the outfit would still need to be created from scratch to fit the other rig. For outfits/armors this would mean creating 4 versions of the same piece to have both of its versions, fit both rigs, which would probably be prohibitive to go back and do on all old outfits/armors.

Creating unisex armor is neither "cheap" nor "free" in developer resources, in the noble outfit example, the male suit cannot be applied on females, it would need to be created from scratch to fit, meaning 3 total versions of the same outfit. Then the question is the gain of such a change and if it would be worth it financially.

Edit: Asura and Charr use the same skeleton and mesh on both genders, which is why they have many unisex skins. The humanoids are completely different.

@KeoLegend.5132 said:Because male wear male stuffand female wear female stuff

Next question

^ like it should be.

In ESO all outfits are unisex. Armor, dresses, tuxedo's, etc. Contrary to what people could think the game isn't filled with guys wearing dresses for fun. Most characters in the world are wearing more serious options. I think it's a much better approach IMO

because anet is a company.

Making stuff costs money.

If you make stuff that is fine for 90% of your target audience, changing it for the last 10% while quadrupling your costs does not make sense. ESPECIALLY if you risk losing a chunk of the other 90 at the same time.

Vocal minorities have hurt companies trying to cater to them a lot. That is why we see a lot of virtue signaling (Hollywood is a great example) but not much being done (again Hollywood being a great example), because at the end you have higher costs AND lower income (example? Hollywood of course).

The ONLY RACE to have both outfits on either gender are Sylvari... and ONLY because.. they have no gender lol..

Gender, lol. In GW2 gender has just 1 meaning: It decides which skin is shown for equipment. It really has no other ;)You proposal result in: Drop gender. Would be ok for me, it's a quite superflous distinction anyway :)

In fact that change you want already exist: https://wiki-de.guildwars2.com/wiki/Komplettes_Umstylingkit

But, well, we play in a world of mesmer illusions, maybe that kit can be improved to let you switch the gender-illusion per body part :o

@HardRider.2980 said:The ONLY RACE to have both outfits on either gender are Sylvari... and ONLY because.. they have no gender lol..

Well...that's not quite true. Each gender has the parts, both primary and secondary, they're all just functionally sterile.

I agree with OP. I'd like to be able to choose which 'gender' version I want for each of my characters.

@"maddoctor.2738" said:I'll give the technical explanation. Because outfits are created to fit on a certain character "mesh" and to then animate following the appropriate skeleton, which is a set of invisible bones that are inside every character. Male and Female characters use a completely different mesh and their skeletons have different poses, so their animations and skins aren't interchangeable. This means an outfit, or an armor piece, created for one cannot apply on another. In other words, using the same outfit on both genders doesn't mean less work for the developers, the outfit would still need to be created from scratch to fit the other rig. For outfits/armors this would mean creating 4 versions of the same piece to have both of its versions, fit both rigs, which would probably be prohibitive to go back and do on all old outfits/armors.

Creating unisex armor is neither "cheap" nor "free" in developer resources, in the noble outfit example, the male suit cannot be applied on females, it would need to be created from scratch to fit, meaning 3 total versions of the same outfit. Then the question is the gain of such a change and if it would be worth it financially.

Edit: Asura and Charr use the same skeleton and mesh on both genders, which is why they have many unisex skins. The humanoids are completely different.

The only reason I don't buy the argument "male and female bodies are different, so outfits need to be different too" is because we already have outfits that really are the same for both genders (e.g. Logan's Pact, Arcane, Balthazar's, Casual Clothing, Ceremonial Plated, Cook's, Defiant Glass, Dynamics Exo-Suit, etc). Even with male and female bodies being different, these outfits are the same (same characteristics, same details, etc), only adjusted to gender body differences, of course. But for other outfits, male and female versions change significantly; it's not just about different bodies, the outfits themselves are different (different characteristics, different details, etc). For these outfits, we see 2 versions.

@TheLadyOfTheRings.9148 said:I agree with OP. I'd like to be able to choose which 'gender' version I want for each of my characters.

@"maddoctor.2738" said:I'll give the technical explanation. Because outfits are created to fit on a certain character "mesh" and to then animate following the appropriate skeleton, which is a set of invisible bones that are inside every character. Male and Female characters use a completely different mesh and their skeletons have different poses, so their animations and skins aren't interchangeable. This means an outfit, or an armor piece, created for one cannot apply on another. In other words, using the same outfit on both genders doesn't mean less work for the developers, the outfit would still need to be created from scratch to fit the other rig. For outfits/armors this would mean creating 4 versions of the same piece to have both of its versions, fit both rigs, which would probably be prohibitive to go back and do on all old outfits/armors.

Creating unisex armor is neither "cheap" nor "free" in developer resources, in the noble outfit example, the male suit cannot be applied on females, it would need to be created from scratch to fit, meaning 3 total versions of the same outfit. Then the question is the gain of such a change and if it would be worth it financially.

Edit: Asura and Charr use the same skeleton and mesh on both genders, which is why they have many unisex skins. The humanoids are completely different.

Those that appear the same are still 2 completely different versions made to fit completely different models. I never said they can't do that, only that they'd need to create 2 new pieces of outfit/armor for all the old ones. Plus split any future outfits in two.