A Noble Guild Wars 2 Redesign

In the same week that Ozzie redrew the GW2 Halloween outfit, Icy decided to take out one of her pet peeves by redrawing one of the Noble outfits from the game.


I just want more ladies in suits; why is that so hard? Besides that, when I saw this dress and noticed that she’s, like, 13 heads tall, I just had to fix it. I started by redlining the original to figure out how tall she was actually supposed to be.

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[Informercial Voice: “Look at the difference!!]

After that, what I ended up doing was basically copy the dapper noble man outfit.

It was a pretty simple redesign, besides having to figure out how to get that frigging vest to look good. I also fixed her hair just a bit.

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Even though I wasn’t designing the new outfit, it was still fun to work on this, and I think it looks good. I get that GW2 is another semi-industrial fantasy world (but with a race of robot-builder scientists… sure), but that dress was just hideous, in my opinion. Anyway, enjoy a lady in a suit.

-Icy

Guild Wars 2′s Sexy Spooky Witch

Kept especially for Halloween, my redesign of witch’s outfit from Guild Wars 2 (human version). 

So, what does the original give us? Amazingly washed out monochromatic color palette, generic witch hat, bare thighs and shoulders, majorly over-designed bone ornamentation that looks super stabby (not to mention, frames her boobs)… and, of course, male version which looks nothing alike


After covering the gratuitous bare skin parts with poofy pants and sleeves, I decided to stick to two priorities: 

  • Make her color scheme more balanced (original, especially model sheet version I found on GW2 Wiki, is basically all just one shade of emerald!). Hope that dark teal, moss green and ebony compliment each other better when not so washed out.
  • Turn those needless small ornamental shapes into bigger, less distracting and less likely to stab her if she leans down. Obviously most of what was on her chest had to go in favor of something that doesn’t focus on the bebws.

All the actual design details and shapes were mostly incidental, as I was changing everything as I moved along, over two or three separate streaming sessions. 

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I guess I could have gone the path of what we did to Saint Seiya Online and change the lady’s design to that of her spooky (warlock? lich?) skeleton male version, but I don’t like his design either, just for reasons different than overt sexism.
His bone motif is somehow even more overdone than hers (three little skulls on chest, one on right arm, another one on his… crotch?) and there’s the vague “witch doctor” vibe to him that puts this in exotification category. 

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I decided to go with the traditional sexified male armor path of stripping him down to as little clothing as possible without changing the silhouette. And gave him face skin, because if lady witch doesn’t have a skull head, why should he?

Also made that weirdly suggestive crotch skull actually frame his package with its scary jaw, because we would never miss such opportunity.

~Ozzie

platinumwarden:

Are you sure about that? 

Guild Wars 2 continues to be the textbookiest textbook example of most typical of double standard cliches in video game armors. 

For a game that

can provide occasional (relatively) nice female armor and has a commendably self-aware fanbase, GW2 itself is lacking self awareness of its very obvious shortcomings. It just plays the bikini armor tropes straight and pretends there’s nothing out of ordinary about a lady in metal lingerie being the direct equivalent to a dude in heavy armor.

~Ozzie

Yikesaroonie. This also seems to be the Norn race, which live in a place that’s so cold, they have giant ice statues just standing around in town, as depicted vaguely in those background colors. I can’t even tell where her crotch flap is supposed to be attached? Is it coming from her underwear??

Armor like this becomes even more hilarious when you’re in the super serious story cutscenes, and people are talking about military tactics and loss of life, and your character is just… dressed like that… being a commander and stuff… yeah.

(The color scheme is also Awful, but it’s customizable. I just wish their algorithm was better at picking the preliminary examples for you.)

-Icy 

edit: Corrected the Norn name. Thanks for correcting us, no thanks for the tone, dear rebloggers.

GW2 Level 80 Boost

vadhnatta:

Or “I Didn’t Ask to Suddenly Be Naked”

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So I’ve been liking my mesmer character, figured this should be one of the two I spend my level 80 character boosts on. Those boosts come with a trial period where you get all the top-level abilities unlocked and can run around a specific area of the game to make sure you want to use this boost before you commit. It also gives you upgraded armor. And locks out your ability to spend transmutation points to change its appearance. And locks away your old gear so you can’t put it back on, even at a significant stat disadvantage. Meaning that upon deciding to try out this boost (which I could only get by pre-ordering their expansion packs or by spending lots of in-game time/real-world money to buy on their gem store), I am very suddenly, unexpectedly, and irreversibly naked. Yes, I’m saying naked, because I can see her fucking crotch. 

This game falls squarely within the genre of MMORPG – massively multiplayer online role-playing game. No, I don’t fully ‘role-play’ this character like some people enjoy. But this type of game generally holds the expectation that the player puts fairly significant investment into character creation and advancement. That’s the point of the genre. After playing this game for years, I tend to make characters that reflect some aspect of myself – in this case, (if the hair didn’t clue you in), my queerness. I directed my feelings about my identity, about pride and resilience and sometimes having to redirect attention, into this character and how she looks and how she plays. It’s a game, yes, but it’s also a fun escape that I’ve poured hours into around grad school and a family that I can’t come out to yet. It still means something. So to have that character’s appearance be suddenly taken out of my control, in a way that left her fucking *naked*. Is appalling. And uncomfortable, and sick, and makes me want to scream. Especially in such a clearly objectifying way that even added tattoos that point at her crotch for good measure.

GW2 certainly doesn’t have a perfect history with this kind of stuff, most notably because their starting light armor for their humanoid female characters includes a short skirt and garter belt. But that’s pretty easy to get rid of quickly, and not still not as bad as this. Otherwise, this kind of ‘armor’ tends to be one option among many, there for those that want it and easily passed by for those who don’t. Which is how it should be. But this shit. This isn’t okay.

@bikiniarmorbattledamage

Guild Wars 2′s track record regarding female designs is, in the most generous words, flawed. And wow, this situation is the textbook example of everything wrong with the skimpy high level trope. 
The game gave you an opportunity to test all the high-tier gear… by locking the character in probably the most objectifying costume possible. How charming! 

Also nice commentary on the fact that MMORPGs are the game genre where players put a lot of investment into their characters. And how making top tier armors like this directly contradicts the appeal of character customization.

Hope you still can decide not to commit to this boost.

~Ozzie

“Hey, this combination of light armor pieces looks really nice on my elementalist! Let’s see how those exact same armor skins look on my mholy fuck why.

wolpertinger-roadkill submitted (and Ozzie bingo’d):

(I love Guild Wars 2 with all my heart, it’s such a beautiful and fun game with many many good styles and pieces and colors to choose from and to mix-and-match freely, but this. this really bugs me.)

What I notice about Guild Wars 2 fandom is that they tend to express their adoration for the game, while being completely aware of godawful double standard “armors” that can be found there (the game does have better examples for comparison).

Fans of a certain type, like the ones religiously devoted to whatever Blizzard or Warhammer 40k spews out, could learn a thing or two from GW2 players about proper critical attitude towards the thing they like.

~Ozzie