Girl Armors (Not A discussion!)

Hi there, it's me, your friendly butterfly moderator, Winnie.

A while back there was a Female Armors topic, and I decided, even after the lock, to send AE a letter about it anyways. Here's the letter and the response:

Hi Artix,

There was a topic on a forum a while ago about female armors, and how revealing they are. It made me wonder if you could tone it down a bit? All the good armors are really revealing. It doesn't help that this game is played by mainly boys. You can't log on and stand around BattleOn without getting a PM or two saying "Nice Pixels. You single?"

You can see the problem.

There aren't any good looking armors that don't show skin. Shadowslayer X was just the tip off, which started a mini 'riot' on twitter.

A girl in my clan, Crystal, made a very good point. You are usually set apart from other games in people's minds becuase of how it is. I think that if you want a game that has revealing armors, you can go play Perfect World, Ragnarok, and Wonderland Online. You can do better than that, I know you can. That's one reason I love your games- The sound effects are campy, and they make me laugh. The armors in DF, MQ, and AQ aren't revealing, the releases are always great, and the plot is interesting.

The armors are getting worse, the releases are getting less... AE-like, and the plot hasn't gone anywhere... When are we going to fight the Twins, anyways?

That's a rant for another day.

Here are a few Quotes from the topic I mentioned earlier:

"Last I checked, DF armors weren't always revealing. And ah non, if revealing clothes suit a woman, by all means, go ahead, wear them! Doesn't mean that a game has to resort to only revealing clothes for women, because not everyone wants to wear leotards and slitted skirts to battle, even if it's fiction."

"I'm talking the female hero player. Usually, in other AE games, it's not implied that the player is a Helen of Troy, hence the fewer revealing clothes she has to wear. Suddenly, in AQW, she must wear leotards and slitted skirts almost all the time, while the game still doesn't fix her in the role as a seductress, but that of a fighter/mage/whatever class she is. The player doesn't have any actual option to pick a love interest in the game, that sort of situation is only created through fanfiction of said AE games."

"Take, as an example, Warrior and Warlord. Heavily armored, random section of skin showing the thighs. Necessary? I think not."

My point is, that a lot of girls are on their wits end, (And some boys) and I know that you'll do somthing about it.

For Me? Crystal? Juliana? Kay? I know that, given the chance, at least 90% of the female AQW population would want this too.


Thanks for you're time, I know you'll do somthing.

-Winnie, Crystal, Sticky, and the others from the 'Female Armors' topic.


I recieved two replies, one from Artix and one from Cysero.

Winnie,

I will take action on this for you immediately.

Can you clarify one thing for me... what did you mean when you said the releases are getting less... AE-like?

Battle on!
Adam (Artix)

Here's Cysero's:

Hey Winnie,

Artix read your letter then sent it to me to read. You know as well as we do that the sexy armors question has caused a lot of problems lately. You're right that we do set ourselves apart from those other games that you mentioned, but unfortunately those games generally do a lot better than out lil mom and pop games do. As the head of AQW I find myself caught between a Victoria's Secret and a hard place. On the one hand sexy female armors DO really appeal to the greater part of our fan base and when we use thoe armors to advertie we notice a surge in new players which keeps tha game going and growing.... on the other hand I'm a femenist and hate catering to the current paradigm. Trying to use whatever meager media influence I have to shape your generation into one where the genders are really honestly equal is hard business.

The funny thing is we've been dressing up doughy gamer boys as studly beefcakes since day one and none of them complain. *shurg* equality is in how you view it.

However! Just spoke to Miltonius (who is in charge of the direction of the art style in the game and also the artist who makes nearly all of the armors and NPCs), and we've decided that the next 12 (at least) armors are going to be nicely and completely armored, (no exposed strip of thigh, slit skirts, stripper boots, low cut tops ETC) at LEAST as much as the males, but still awesome looking. He has no problem and says "I think there are plenty of sexy armors in the game already, i'm happy to give them new options."

That starts THIS Friday with Quibble's new armors. Hope this puts your mind at ease.

-Cysero
(Insert job title of your choice here)
www.DragonFable.com
www.AQ.com
Artix Entertainment LLC.


It's good to know someone out there cares. We made a difference.