If there is a discussion that fascinates Western players in Lost Ark, it is without a doubt about the outfits their characters wear, especially the female ones. But then where is the “limit” and especially how to resolve this dispute once and for all? Amazon Games is already exploring the possibilities.
A real social theme has been widely covered in the Smilegate RPG game for several years now for three main reasons:
- Male characters wear very heavy and imposing armor, and also have overdeveloped muscles.
- The female characters are often scantily clad and are viewed in many ways by the community as deliberately over-sexualized.
- The costumes are often very far from what one would expect from a “classic” RPG: cow costume, Mokoko, etc.
Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG have already spoken vaguely on this topic. But this is probably not enough, and the community is far from unanimous. Moreover, she even criticizes a Western publishing house for voluntary censorship of some outfits.
Suits: where is the limit?
It’s in Topic Relatively long time ago, the day before the game’s Early Access rollout in the West, a topic officially surfaced at Amazon Games: the lack of immersion of some costumes into the RPG universe that is Lost Ark.
Some players have indeed been complaining for quite some time.absurd“about some of the cosmetic costumes that our playable characters can wear, referring to this”break the dive“in a priori a serious story that “The Lost Ark” offers. They are rather reproached for the very fact of being”great warrior in a world full of dangers“ending”Meet the player on a mount straight out of My Little Pony or on a flying bed dressed as Barney the Dinosaur.“.
These seemingly strange elements often come from the region of Tortoic, home to the famed Mokoko tribe, whose seeds have attracted the greed of many adventurers since the launch of Lost Ark. Players lament the existence of these “nonsense script“even announced the complete removal of the Tortoik region from the Western version, which the American publisher, for obvious reasons, did not agree to.
While many players have replied to the thread simply explaining that “the game is most likely not made for the author“If he criticizes this type of elements present in Archesia, Roxx, Amazon Games Community Manager, recently spoke about this, explaining in particular that these elements, which may seem rambling, are part of the game and should coexist with more serious elements. presented in other regions of the world (outside of Tortoika, therefore).
Here is our translation of his official press release:
“Sexy” outfits: the crux of the controversy
This so-called “hypersexualization” is arguably one of the most heated discussions about The Lost Ark since its release, and notably before. While some players probably want to get rid of it entirely, others want to play a close-to-original version featuring rather sexualized characters. It is often the heroines that are singled out, but the male characters are objectively no less exaggerated in their attributes.
However, is this a problem? It all depends on what prism you look at the game.
Some, if not some, think that this is just a game and that, in fact, a lot of absurdities and things are involved in it that cannot be achieved or achieved in real life. After all, has anyone ever seen demons or a woman throwing fireballs at Earth? We do not know. Pretty simple vision of things: this is a game, there is no place in it for the vices of real life, and we must free ourselves from them in order to appreciate its true entertainment value.
Others, on the other hand, believe that the depiction of the characters reflects very real behaviors of society that should not (any longer) be neglected: the fact that female characters are forced to wear very short outfits, for example, that they don’t leave a choice of clothes”how they want“. This notion of “choice” is also highly demanded when the community wishes “coating“Characters are allegedly nude: characters should be able to be heavily dressed or not, depending on these players, the choice is neither up to the developers nor the community.
This Monday, March 21, 2022, the two points of view are defending and again confronting each other, and this is quite normal, since this is a very relevant social topic. However, Maselbart, public relations manager for Amazon Games, recently revealed that there are discussions on the matter within the game’s publishing teams.
Here is our translation of his official press release:
At the moment the editor does not seem to support either solution as this issue is under study. However, it is interesting to note that the “choice” proposal was put forward by Maselbart and could therefore be supported by publishers and developers. Amazon Games also recently revealed that “less explicit” options will be added to those already available, rather than replaced by new ones.
On the side of the male characters, on the other hand, there is absolutely no news. This likely means that the community sees this as less of a problem than their female counterparts. The same goes for NPCs, or even the slightly exaggerated walk of female characters. It is a pity that these topics would be interesting to explore, since the debate was open: leave to explore the axes of thought, let alone do it to the end!
As such, new alternate cosmetic skins for our favorite female characters should be coming to the game in the next few weeks! We can only hope for a rapid rollout of access to each class for both genders…
After over a month of unresolved issues with Lost Ark and promises of better days from Amazon Games, some MMOARPG Smilegate RPG players have decided to speak out more to show their frustration, claiming to have reached their limit.