Lost Ark: Outfits and skins continue to divide the community

If there is a debate that fascinates Western players of Lost Ark, it is without a doubt that of the skins available for their characters, especially female ones. But then, where is "the limit" and especially how to resolve this controversy once and for all? Amazon Games is already exploring avenues.

A real social topic for several years now, it is widely highlighted in the game of Smilegate RPG for three main reasons:

• The male characters wear extremely heavy and imposing armor, in addition to having an exaggeratedly developed musculature
• Female characters are often scantily clad and are seen by the community as intentionally over-sexualized in many ways
• The costumes are often very far from what one would expect from a "classic" RPG: cow costume, Mokoko, etc...

On this subject, Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG have already vaguely spoken. But that is probably not enough, and the community is far from unanimous. Moreover, she even criticizes the Western publisher for having voluntarily censored certain outfits.

Costumes: Where is the limit?

It was in a relatively long thread that appeared the day before the game's Early Access deployment in the West that the subject officially surfaced with Amazon Games: the lack of immersion of certain costumes in the RPG universe that is Lost Ark.

Some players have been complaining for some time now about the "absurdity " of certain cosmetic costumes that can be equipped on our in-game characters, claiming that it " ruins the immersion " in the a priori serious story that offers Lost Ark. They specifically blame being " a great Warrior in a world full of dangers " ending up " encountering a player riding a mount straight from My Little Pony or carried by a flying bed and wearing a Barney costume. the dinosaur ".

These seemingly strange elements often come from the Tortoyk region, home of the famous Mokoko tribe, whose seeds have attracted the covetousness of many adventurers since the launch of Lost Ark. Players deploring the existence of these " scenario nonsense " even claimed to completely remove the Tortoyk region from the Western version, a request to which the American publisher, for very obvious reasons, did not accede.

While many players responded to the thread simply explaining that " the game is probably not made for the author " if he criticizes this type of element present in Archesia, Roxx, Community Manager of Amazon Games, s was recently expressed on this subject, explaining in particular that these elements which may seem incoherent are part of the game and need to coexist with the more serious elements presented in other regions of the world (outside Tortoyk, therefore).

Here is our translation of his official press release:

While I do understand the desire for more serious costumes in an RPG, I think the world of Lost Ark in general is wacky and weird and sort of lends itself to the fun and silly – Tortoyk is one of the first few places you adventure to, and you literally shrink down to the size of a thimble and ride ladybugs around. While there are plenty of intense and serious moments in the game, there’s definitely room for both to coexist, and skins will be following that same pattern to some degree.

Roxx (Source)

"Sexy" outfits: The heart of the debate

This so-called "hypersexualization" is arguably one of the most heated debates about Lost Ark since its release, and even noticeably before. While some of the players probably want to get rid of it completely, others want to play a version faithful to the original one, thus involving rather very sexualized characters. Often, it is the heroines who are singled out, but the male characters are objectively no less exaggerated in the attributes they have.

However, is this a problem? It all depends on the prism from which you look at the game.

Some, and even some, think that it is simply a game and that, in essence, it involves a lot of absurdities and things that are impossible to achieve or achieve in real life. After all, has anyone ever seen demons or a woman throw fireballs on Earth? We don't. A fairly simple vision of things: it's a game, the evils of real life have no place in it and we should free ourselves from them to appreciate it at its true entertainment value.

Others, on the other hand, believe that the representation of the characters reflects very real societal behaviors that should not (any longer) be neglected: the fact that the female characters are forced to wear very short outfits, for example, that they are not leaves the choice to dress " as they wish ". This notion of "choice" is also strongly claimed when the community wishes to " cover " the ostensibly naked characters: the characters must be able to be heavily dressed or not according to these players, it is neither up to the developers nor to the community to Choose.

The two points of view defend and oppose each other again on this Monday, March 21, 2022, and this is rather normal since it is a very topical societal subject. However, Maselbart, Community Manager of Amazon Games, recently revealed that discussions were underway on this subject within the game's publishing teams.

Here is our translation of his official press release:

Hi everyone, I saw that I was mentioned here by a few people, first of all I wanted to apologize for the late reply. I was on a business trip and in my pride I thought I could take this trip and stay active from my hotel room. Unfortunately, that was not possible. Next time I will announce things officially so that no one thinks that I am ignoring the feedback that is offered to me. Since my statement to the German community was stated here, I wanted to reiterate what I said there. Overall, I can understand both points of view: those wanting more "practical" skins for their characters as well as those wanting more "revealing" skins. Some want more immersion, some want more aesthetics, in the German thread just like here as far as I know (I joined this thread late and there are over 3000 posts that I don't couldn't read them all). But I see a consensus here: the majority don't want to censor or remove anything from the game. What everyone seems to want is basically the selection of different options and ultimately the ability to choose and decide for themselves -same. This is something I can fully understand. Of course, I can't make this decision on my own, but I want to talk to the team and communicate it to them. I also of course want to gather more information on the matter as well as what is planned etc. I can't promise you much right now especially since I'm brand new and still have a lot of information to gather and people I need to talk to. But I'll talk to the team about it and try to get as much information as possible for you all.

Maselbart (Source)

For the moment, no solution seems to be favored by the editor since the subject would be under study. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the proposal of a "choice" was raised by Maselbart and could therefore be supported by publishers and developers. Amazon Games had also recently revealed that "less revealing" options would be added in addition to those already available, rather than replacing them with the new ones.

On the side of the male characters on the other hand, absolutely no news. This probably means that the community sees less of a problem there than their female counterparts. The same goes for the non-playable characters, or even the slightly exaggerated gait of the female characters. Too bad, these subjects would have been interesting to explore since the debate was open: quitting to explore lines of thought, might as well do it all to the end!

The next few weeks should therefore see the appearance in game of new alternative cosmetic appearances for our favorite female characters! All that remains is to hope for the rapid deployment of access to each class for both sexes...

Article written by MGG France and translated to English by bxakid

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