gender locked in 2025??

You know what else makes more money for GGG, exsea? MTX boxes, supporter packs, stash tabs. That's ok and they need their income. But you won't see me supporting an idea just because it makes money for GGG. The question is always whether or not it makes the game better, and on this issue I say it doesn't.

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ArtCrusade#4438 wrote:

You know what else makes more money for GGG, exsea? MTX boxes, supporter packs, stash tabs. That's ok and they need their income. But you won't see me supporting an idea just because it makes money for GGG. The question is always whether or not it makes the game better, and on this issue I say it doesn't.

besides stash tabs which are more or less mandatory for players to enjoy the game seemlessly. most other stuff usually relate to mtxs which are more for loot.

i would agree somewhat that there are other non cosmetic paid items such as pilfering rings that are desirable. but its logical to assume that ggg does focus a lot on cosmetics.

the entire discussion around why players are forced to town/share the same heist harbour revolves around players seeing other peoples cosmetics.

but i would prefer to talk about your last statement. on whether it makes the game better.

i m a huge fan of player choice. and to me what makes a game better is very subjective. i used to be against the implementation of SSF and always would go against everyone suggesting it, saying stuff like "just add a SSF tag to your character name".

but in the end the SSFers won. did it make the game better for ME? no it did not. not a single bit not at all. but did it make the game better for all the SSF enjoyers? it did by a great lot.

similarly different game modes exist. softcore, hardcore, standard, leagues, void leagues, private leagues. as a softcore player, hardcore doesnt make the game better to me. but it makes the game better to whoever enjoys it.

and if we see it in those lens. it doesnt really affect me that these leagues that i dont enjoy exist. how does the existence of SSF take away my enjoyment of playing a trade league? it doesnt affect me at all. how does hardcore mode affect me playing softcore? ZERO.

the ability to choose your character model is not something you feel is important and thus to you it wont improve the game. but to me and many others it would improve the game. the next question is how does this implementation affect you if it was ever implemented?

most of the time whenever this topic is brought up, the big 2 items that are mentioned are development costs and immersion. my suggestion does require SOME effort from ggg but it doesnt require them to create new models or new voiceovers. in a multiplayer setting what immersion is there to be had? 2 witches in the same party is already immersion breaking.

as for game improvement. having more options is actually a game feature. game features tend to be seen as improvements. look at baldurs gate 3 or divinity 2. you have preset characters that have unique storylines and voiceovers BUT you could create a custom character which totally disregards all the backstory and depth of each character that larian carefully crafted. but players loved the ability to do their own character. larian recognized that players enjoy doing such things. i myself play bg/divinity solely using custom characters. many others do too. and i would argue this feature without doubt made the game better.

maybe you might not care for this feature. and that is understandable. its fine even. but try looking at this objectively. if implemented, it would make the game better for more people and could generate more sales with minimal effort. if not implemented. nothing changes. its better for no one.

DID GGG just assume our gender?

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exsea#1724 wrote:

maybe you might not care for this feature. and that is understandable. its fine even. but try looking at this objectively. if implemented, it would make the game better for more people and could generate more sales with minimal effort. if not implemented. nothing changes. its better for no one.

Oh, but I do care about this feature. That is, it not being a thing. I thought that was clear from my other post.

1. The game's identity is built around class archetypes. If you now go and add male / female counterparts you'd have to not only create new models, rig existing gear and MTX to fit, you'd also have to re-record thousands of lines. The characters have thematic identity and aren't mere stat containers as much as people like to joke about MTX covering everything or characters not being very visible mid combat

2. Development cost is massive and you are blowing the potential ROI out of proportion. On the other hand, impact on gameplay is marginal and that doesn't add any level of depth to endgame or performance, 2 major things that people rightfully complain about

3. Gameplay in PoE isn't tied to class appearance. It matters most during the campaign when each character gets their moments of dropping a few cool one-liners.

4. The narrative structure is built around fixed protagonists. You are not just randomly generated Blob XYZ, you are a fixum in a story with a story of your own and connected to the world itself (see e.g. Templar and Dominus)

6. Gender selection is a cosmetic preference while the game's development is under a lot stress, as devs are stretched between two game titles and rising need for performance improvements, endgame variety, skill reworks and client stability

So what you are proposing imposes a massive technical debt fully knowing the devs have a limited development bandwith, and somehow you try to sell it to me like "it makes them money". You can already customize your character to your heart's content with various MTX , just not change your gender as it's problematic and if you do it the half-assed way like just cosplaying as another base class, you are tearing away at character's core identity.

So no, it's not that I "dont care" I have good reasons to disagree

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ArtCrusade#4438 wrote:

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exsea#1724 wrote:

maybe you might not care for this feature. and that is understandable. its fine even. but try looking at this objectively. if implemented, it would make the game better for more people and could generate more sales with minimal effort. if not implemented. nothing changes. its better for no one.

Oh, but I do care about this feature. That is, it not being a thing. I thought that was clear from my other post.

1. The game's identity is built around class archetypes. If you now go and add male / female counterparts you'd have to not only create new models, rig existing gear and MTX to fit, you'd also have to re-record thousands of lines. The characters have thematic identity and aren't mere stat containers as much as people like to joke about MTX covering everything or characters not being very visible mid combat

2. Development cost is massive and you are blowing the potential ROI out of proportion. On the other hand, impact on gameplay is marginal and that doesn't add any level of depth to endgame or performance, 2 major things that people rightfully complain about

3. Gameplay in PoE isn't tied to class appearance. It matters most during the campaign when each character gets their moments of dropping a few cool one-liners.

4. The narrative structure is built around fixed protagonists. You are not just randomly generated Blob XYZ, you are a fixum in a story with a story of your own and connected to the world itself (see e.g. Templar and Dominus)

6. Gender selection is a cosmetic preference while the game's development is under a lot stress, as devs are stretched between two game titles and rising need for performance improvements, endgame variety, skill reworks and client stability

So what you are proposing imposes a massive technical debt fully knowing the devs have a limited development bandwith, and somehow you try to sell it to me like "it makes them money". You can already customize your character to your heart's content with various MTX , just not change your gender as it's problematic and if you do it the half-assed way like just cosplaying as another base class, you are tearing away at character's core identity.

So no, it's not that I "dont care" I have good reasons to disagree

Technically they could use existing models so they wouldnt have to rework everything youre talking about... For example when you creater character u could make a witch and select the existing duelist model you would be starting on witch passive tree obviously and all the equipment/mtx would be no different than it currently is on a duelist

I argue against that development cop-out in the last paragraph. It'd also be weird and inconsistent with the lore... taking part of PoE's identity seems a steep price to pay for such a low impact cosmetic feature

lolwut.. PoE has lore? and if so there are people who care about it?

if you dont care about the lore, you cannot possibly tell me you care about your character's gender