Game looks somewhat interesting...

LizardEgypt

But why do these game developers insist on inputting stupid ideas that deter 50% of gamers away from their game, such as stupid looking/gender locked characters and the implementation of little girls as partners ? That just seems strange to me.

Vyeth

Gender Lock almost always equal failure in my book..

LizardEgypt

Yeah, considering one of the appealing things to many people is being able to make a character how they want to.. in any modern MMORPG you should never be forced to be a 10 year old girl in a skirt if you want to be a healing class.

Mizako

Don't like, don't play. If you are a brutal macho (rather want to seem like one in game) and your character = you, go find another game or psycologist. 50% of the gamers will not like playing a character that resembles an ape.

Shadowzanon

Originally posted by Mizako

Don't like, don't play. If you are a brutal macho (rather want to seem like one in game) and your character = you, go find another game or psycologist. 50% of the gamers will not like playing a character that resembles an ape.

you have it all wrong. The op and others are disliking the game that some classes your forced to be one sex in order to play it. there is no freedom of choice in this game when it comes to the classes compared to many other games, which well is stupid in my book.  Does not matter if the person wants to play a bulky male or a skimpy dd sized female. or whatever, if they want to play x class with such avatar they should be allowed. not forced to play the brute man for x class and the skimpy woman for another.

ElgrumPirate

Freedom of choices in character gender and look personalization is a luxury for F2P, not every game need to allow that.

Aika has it very limited (but there are reasons - made least possible strain for graphic system, so hundreds or more characters on same place could be easily displayed, not just made all laggy  -  required for huge nation battles), so if someone cannot bear such limitations is not forced to play. There is lots of other games around.

BMoor

I also think that the way the game is coded is limiting the variety of things that could be displayed (different genders, costumes, etc).  However, as the game is still young and in Open Beta, it's still forgivable.  Hopefully, future updates will increase the efficiency of resource management and therefore allow more customization.

Logos1326

Originally posted by ElgrumPirate

Freedom of choices in character gender and look personalization is a luxury for F2P, not every game need to allow that.

Aika has it very limited (but there are reasons - made least possible strain for graphic system, so hundreds or more characters on same place could be easily displayed, not just made all laggy  -  required for huge nation battles), so if someone cannot bear such limitations is not forced to play. There is lots of other games around.

good point and one of the major reasons F2P=less customization. There are a few exceptions but for the most part it is true. If the goal is to get a lot of people on your game fast or you have large pvp areas you won't give them character options because it is a big strain on hardware and causes lag. Companies can use this to their advantage too by selling custom looks into the cash shop later on. This is one of the big drawbacks of the F2P craze. You won't get as many choices, or you might but you'll have to buy that choice later. Your toon will just have to look like everyone else. It really shouldn't surprise anyone that F2P Aika only gives you preset characters.

EricDanie

It's understandable to limit character customization to save system resources, or at least it's what the elephant in the room uses to justify it, although for large scale PvP battles it is indeed correct, but shouldn't that come as a graphic option for your client rather than fully cutting customization? But gender locking classes? And it doesn't sound very solid when the game uses this excuse and then announce "get your unique armor skins now - for micro*cough*transaction of only $15".

ElgrumPirate

Originally posted by EricDanie

It's understandable to limit character customization to save system resources, or at least it's what the elephant in the room uses to justify it, although for large scale PvP battles it is indeed correct, but shouldn't that come as a graphic option for your client rather than fully cutting customization? But gender locking classes? And it doesn't sound very solid when the game uses this excuse and then announce "get your unique armor skins now - for micro*cough*transaction of only $15".

Options in client - it is possible (i played MMO, where you can change display of characters into shadows on terrain), but for game developer has disadvantages, if it was possible - almost all would chose this and all work required to made nice models, good looking gear would be wasted, as those would be not visible. Some graphical attraction is needed to encourage more players to try new game.

As for gender locking in Aika - could be possible to avoid, if same characters models would be used for similar male/female characters (warrior and paladin, warlock and cleric, dualgunner and rifleman), than only problem would be gear models (but again gear for different classes can have same look, so if cleric's in Aika wears maid clothes (cleric's clothes in Aika are clearly work of some maid fetishist ) , female warlocks could also looks the same). So it was possible to allow choose all classes without gender lock and still maintain low resources. But Aika was made different. Looks too late to change this now, so some will need to play characters in different gender, they would like too or no play at all.

As for me, is not much a problem, i'm accustomed to play different gender chars (my first MMO also had gender locking for classes), for some classes i even intentionally choose gender (gear for male mage/healer classes is usually some strange looking robes, so i rather choose female, than play 'pajamas' geared male char).

hardgames

I guess it's a matter of choosing which to satisfy. Whether to please players for less lag and less system requirements, or to please avatar-sensitive people who want a lot of customization and a choice of gender. We really can't blame the developers since it's really hard to support several hundreds or thousands of players, each looking very distinct from one another.

I'm pretty impressed already at how small the client size is but still maintain decent graphics. And I don't really care much at how my character looks. What I like are the more important ones like gameplay, plot, etc. and not so much on the unnecessary aesthetics.

We've been playing a lot of other games with no customization at all like Final Fantasy where it is just the long-haired Rinoa, or blue Chinese-clothed Chunli. We can't customize their looks but we're definitely satisfied because we like all the other features or aspects of the game. I think I can say the same thing with Aika.

ElgrumPirate

Even is customization in Aika is very limited, still characters looks very nice. It may be only few types of gear available (so except highest lvl all characters on one class wear same items), but those items are very detailed made and looks rather good (starter gear may be little dull, but becomes better on higher levels).