Genderlocked classes generally don't bother me, as long as they're done properly, like Zewks said above. For example, if you're dealing with classes based on amazons or buddhist monks, it actually makes sense to an extent for them to be genderlocked.
As long as they mesh well and most of the classes aren't genderlocked, it doesn't bother me.
This is the approach I take for it.
I have no problem with gender locked classes, or race locked for that matter. It isn't lazy, it is lore/story.
Heck, I played an Elf Huntress in Shadowbane because I liked the story and concept of the Huntress. I could care less that it was a female character (that being said, my main character is typically female anyways, it just works out that it was a gender locked class with a good lore/story behind it)
Raquelis in various games Played: Everything Playing: Nioh 2, Civ6 Wants: The World Anticipating:Everquest NextCrowfall, Pantheon, Elden Ring
I do agree that the choice is a bit lazy by the developer, but I also think this is a very overly opinionated article. I think the author is taking this too seriously, and seems to have a personal problem when female characters aren't available. This isn't exactly disappointing, just a weak choice by the developers. I think this should have been written from a more neutral standpoint, and not from a woman who's angry that certain races don't have female genders.
I never. I'm just over the moon about this. A few select non humanoid races will be gender locked and they have lore reasons and budget constraints to back it up?
Oh my. I guess I'll write a big whiny article on the most prominent MMORPG site and slam the developer for the decision and make sure to mention my tumblr land whale circle as my "CF community" that is up in arms about this.
Stupid article. Stupid topic. Author pulled shit out of her ass in an attempt to bash men for a product their creating and their choices for it.
0/10 would not re-read.
Dear OP. If you're going to pull the doom and gloom bullshit. Could you make it a mechanic based complaint instead of bitching that a few races will be gender locked.
Well i donno much, and i could be wrong but, what i understand is this is not like a lobby MOBA where you log in and pick a toon to play. You will be using the toon you selected to play when you first start the game for the first time and put work into choosing its path and stuff.
From my understanding your locked into one toon as a free player, 3 if your subbed. When you go out to battle you are using these toons.
In this regaurd , yes it does matter to some. I have some friends that will only play female toons cause they are females themselves. If they have no option to do so, they simply will not buy the game. I can see the OP's POV here.
LOL if WoW or EQNext did genderlocking, these same exact people would be having a fit over it. but Crowfall the newest "savior" of the MMO genre does it .... it's "perfectly acceptable".
I think this article is a major reach. As others have pointed out there are only a few gender locked archetypes which the lore supports very well. They made one of the first stretch goals address the one class that was locked due to funding(female centaurs). I am glad mmmorpg is attempting to provide valid criticism of the games they cover bit an editor really should have sanity checked this one.
In the MMORPG world gender locked classes are pretty much only found in cheap Asian F2P games. The idea that so many people think it's wildly unreasonable to criticize CF over this is an indication of the hype level CF has reached.
It's also an indication of just how much people refuse to learn from history.
I noticed you said ''many in the community are unhappy'' with gender locking. I think thats total BS. I visit the forums, and other media outlets and this is the first time ive seen anyone cry about it.
They are a small company and many such as me are helping to fund it. I certainly dont want them spending my money developing a gender / class combo that hardly anyone will play.
I take it you're talking about CF specifically then? Because this issue is very, very old - and I've seen it countless times over the years. You can expect to see it pop up more regarding CF too in today's market where people have gotten very used to picking the gender they like.
I'm fairly neutral when it comes to this. All the classes that I want to play are already the genders I want them to be, or have the option to be both.
Yep, was talking about CF specifically. I visit the forums and keep up to date with the general goings on with its development. I dont like how this article tries to make out that the devs are ignoring their player base or being ''lazy'' as she puts it. She obviously has some personal gripe about a class / gender combo that isnt going to be ready in alpha so she's using her column to take a shot at the devs and give the general reader the idea that this game is somehow losing its way.
This article should be an opinion piece on her own blog. The jabs at ArtCraft is a bit much and developing a gender is EXPENSIVE, especially one that is unique to every other race.
Plus gender locking is not something that is totally defined to the virtual sphere. Look at Amazons an all-female warrior nation in greek mythology. The sustainability is impossible sure, but it does not stop the idea that the nation is just that, all female. The game defines a universe with a deep rule set and the lore sets the definitions. Maybe the Fae are the hunters and the males are simply not and vice versa with the stoneborn. Or hell give the stoneborn no gender, then what will you say?
I agree it's being lazy to lock some classes, because it's being done to have a handful of carrots, not because it's burdensome to the developers to unlock all of them.
It'll also work, but it IS the easy way. And if it stirs up a little dust, so much the better.
The last game I played that had gender locked classes was shadowbane. I really liked them- my primary class was female only. I liked the lore behind the gender locked classes and the factions they belonged to.
Originally posted by logicbomb82 Really..who cares if you have to play a man or women.. lets hope it's a good game with fun mechanics that is the more important thing to worry about.
That's what I'm thinking.
With all of the things that new gamers have to contend with like abuses of DLC, pay to progress (the mobile billing model), the newest anti-legit-farmer movement, games with lots of content but no rewards for gameplay, stupendous RNG, storylines that were written by a 6 year old weekly reader class.....trust me there's alot more to be worried about in this genre!
After reading all sides of the issue, this column seems to be much ado about nothing. As long as the gender locking is backed up with lore reasons, then it's perfectly valid. As a guy I prefer to not play as female characters, but I've done so in the past when gender locking was in place. Honestly, it wasn't a tremendously big deal.
Gender locked classes is one of the biggest mysteries in the MMO world for me. Really, the reason why this was ever implemented in ANY game(and still is as it seems) still eludes me. It's just plain stupid and uncreative and adds nothing to the genre except making already mediocre games in terms of character customization, even more stereotypical.
In the MMORPG world gender locked classes are pretty much only found in cheap Asian F2P games. The idea that so many people think it's wildly unreasonable to criticize CF over this is an indication of the hype level CF has reached.
It's also an indication of just how much people refuse to learn from history.
I agree. Gender-locking has never been favored by the majority, or any major western MMO, in recent times. It's mostly been accepted in asian mmo's. People give it a pass, because Crowfall is their "savior". These people will never objectively criticize it. This is why developers get away with bad design decisions, because of people like these.
I have to admit, I'm a bit surprised at how much of a 'non-issue' response is being generated in most of the comments, and how much the author is being bashed for what is an opinion piece.
I agree w/ the author that gender-locking classes is outdated, outmoded, and lazy - and the 'but it's in the lore,' is so weak an excuse I laughed at the comments trying to use it as justification for what is essentially arbitrary discrimination.
The 'reasons' that the devs give for not making both genders of a race are so weak...
If you are OK with the original incarnation of the centaurs, for example, being exclusively male then I'd like to know how the lore explains that until the stretch goal unlock, there were NEVER, EVER, EVER, ANY female centaur warriors and somehow there were never any exceptions to the 'only males are warriors'.
I wonder if the nonchalant attitude of the 'gender locks are fine' folks extend to the extreme of 'if ISIS doesn't let girls get an education it's fine - it's in their lore.'
Claims by the devs of 'we'd have to scrub / change the lore...' or 'we'd have to create gender-based class name equivalents...' is exceptionally lame. Claims of lack of resources or funds is more legitimate, but why not my stretch goals that unlock both genders of a previously 'locked' race instead?
I'm only speaking for myself, but it's easier to wrap my head around a Centaur race being unlocked as a stretch goal and instead have had the resources used for just creating the male centaur used to make the male elf / assassin instead. Just seems like a derpy decision w/o genuine merit.
Pretty sure they addressed this is the centaur stretch goal, that due to limited people working on it they chose what classes to make locked and others are both, and want to go back to make the locked both when they time allows.
Originally, gender locking classes was a transparent way to both save money
It still is. Unless they want to re-use the same skeletons and animations across multiple races/genders (essentially destroying their uniqueness), they have to spend a ton of time and money creating new art assets for the class, and then going through all of the existing armor/weapons in the game and altering that art for the different model.
Are they disappointing? Sure. But realistically, what do you expect out of a small indie developer? They don't have the kinds of resources to throw at everything, and I'd much rather they prioritize gameplay/design over creating two genders for each class. Does that mean I may have to play a male character for a class I want to play instead of a female character? Possibly, but if that means that I can have a better experience within the game with more engaging content, I'll take that tradeoff any day.
Where is all the "negative feedback" according the author? I'm not seeing it anywhere. Please provide a source. There isn't any even on this normally negative website.
We already have one of "locked" classes "unlocked" and it can easily happen with some other, but I never cared much about such things anyway. Also, I haven`t heard much noise about that on CF (or any other in fact) forums!?
PS Now that I think of this, I played Goblins for years (WAR), without even thinking of what gender they were?
Completely agree with the author, gender locked classes are just a terrible design choice. This as well as the fact that crowfall uses unity as a engine, made me decide this was not the game for me. Good news is I still have several other better games being made, so I won't miss this one.
To find an intelligent person in a PUG is not that rare, but to find a PUG made up of "all" intelligent people is one of the rarest phenomenons in the known universe.
Comments
This is the approach I take for it.
I have no problem with gender locked classes, or race locked for that matter. It isn't lazy, it is lore/story.
Heck, I played an Elf Huntress in Shadowbane because I liked the story and concept of the Huntress. I could care less that it was a female character (that being said, my main character is typically female anyways, it just works out that it was a gender locked class with a good lore/story behind it)
Raquelis in various games
Played: Everything
Playing: Nioh 2, Civ6
Wants: The World
Anticipating: Everquest Next Crowfall, Pantheon, Elden Ring
Well.
I never. I'm just over the moon about this. A few select non humanoid races will be gender locked and they have lore reasons and budget constraints to back it up?
Oh my. I guess I'll write a big whiny article on the most prominent MMORPG site and slam the developer for the decision and make sure to mention my tumblr land whale circle as my "CF community" that is up in arms about this.
Stupid article. Stupid topic. Author pulled shit out of her ass in an attempt to bash men for a product their creating and their choices for it.
0/10 would not re-read.
Dear OP. If you're going to pull the doom and gloom bullshit. Could you make it a mechanic based complaint instead of bitching that a few races will be gender locked.
Well i donno much, and i could be wrong but, what i understand is this is not like a lobby MOBA where you log in and pick a toon to play. You will be using the toon you selected to play when you first start the game for the first time and put work into choosing its path and stuff.
From my understanding your locked into one toon as a free player, 3 if your subbed. When you go out to battle you are using these toons.
In this regaurd , yes it does matter to some. I have some friends that will only play female toons cause they are females themselves. If they have no option to do so, they simply will not buy the game. I can see the OP's POV here.
LOL if WoW or EQNext did genderlocking, these same exact people would be having a fit over it. but Crowfall the newest "savior" of the MMO genre does it .... it's "perfectly acceptable".
damn I wish this is all I had to complain about with MMO's these days.... if only
BTW I call click-bait on this article.
In the MMORPG world gender locked classes are pretty much only found in cheap Asian F2P games. The idea that so many people think it's wildly unreasonable to criticize CF over this is an indication of the hype level CF has reached.
It's also an indication of just how much people refuse to learn from history.
...
Yep, was talking about CF specifically. I visit the forums and keep up to date with the general goings on with its development. I dont like how this article tries to make out that the devs are ignoring their player base or being ''lazy'' as she puts it. She obviously has some personal gripe about a class / gender combo that isnt going to be ready in alpha so she's using her column to take a shot at the devs and give the general reader the idea that this game is somehow losing its way.
Can I down vote an article or something?
This article should be an opinion piece on her own blog. The jabs at ArtCraft is a bit much and developing a gender is EXPENSIVE, especially one that is unique to every other race.
Plus gender locking is not something that is totally defined to the virtual sphere. Look at Amazons an all-female warrior nation in greek mythology. The sustainability is impossible sure, but it does not stop the idea that the nation is just that, all female. The game defines a universe with a deep rule set and the lore sets the definitions. Maybe the Fae are the hunters and the males are simply not and vice versa with the stoneborn. Or hell give the stoneborn no gender, then what will you say?
I agree it's being lazy to lock some classes, because it's being done to have a handful of carrots, not because it's burdensome to the developers to unlock all of them.
It'll also work, but it IS the easy way. And if it stirs up a little dust, so much the better.
Avatars are people too
Out of 12 classes, 8 are not gender locked.
Don't see what all this fuss is about...
The last game I played that had gender locked classes was shadowbane. I really liked them- my primary class was female only. I liked the lore behind the gender locked classes and the factions they belonged to.
That's what I'm thinking.
With all of the things that new gamers have to contend with like abuses of DLC, pay to progress (the mobile billing model), the newest anti-legit-farmer movement, games with lots of content but no rewards for gameplay, stupendous RNG, storylines that were written by a 6 year old weekly reader class.....trust me there's alot more to be worried about in this genre!
General boredom-induced genderlock = bad. Genderlock with lore-induced meaning behind it = good.
Don't put everything in the same bag.
After reading all sides of the issue, this column seems to be much ado about nothing. As long as the gender locking is backed up with lore reasons, then it's perfectly valid. As a guy I prefer to not play as female characters, but I've done so in the past when gender locking was in place. Honestly, it wasn't a tremendously big deal.
Gender locked classes is one of the biggest mysteries in the MMO world for me. Really, the reason why this was ever implemented in ANY game(and still is as it seems) still eludes me. It's just plain stupid and uncreative and adds nothing to the genre except making already mediocre games in terms of character customization, even more stereotypical.
I agree. Gender-locking has never been favored by the majority, or any major western MMO, in recent times. It's mostly been accepted in asian mmo's. People give it a pass, because Crowfall is their "savior". These people will never objectively criticize it. This is why developers get away with bad design decisions, because of people like these.
I have to admit, I'm a bit surprised at how much of a 'non-issue' response is being generated in most of the comments, and how much the author is being bashed for what is an opinion piece.
I agree w/ the author that gender-locking classes is outdated, outmoded, and lazy - and the 'but it's in the lore,' is so weak an excuse I laughed at the comments trying to use it as justification for what is essentially arbitrary discrimination.
The 'reasons' that the devs give for not making both genders of a race are so weak...
If you are OK with the original incarnation of the centaurs, for example, being exclusively male then I'd like to know how the lore explains that until the stretch goal unlock, there were NEVER, EVER, EVER, ANY female centaur warriors and somehow there were never any exceptions to the 'only males are warriors'.
I wonder if the nonchalant attitude of the 'gender locks are fine' folks extend to the extreme of 'if ISIS doesn't let girls get an education it's fine - it's in their lore.'
Claims by the devs of 'we'd have to scrub / change the lore...' or 'we'd have to create gender-based class name equivalents...' is exceptionally lame. Claims of lack of resources or funds is more legitimate, but why not my stretch goals that unlock both genders of a previously 'locked' race instead?
I'm only speaking for myself, but it's easier to wrap my head around a Centaur race being unlocked as a stretch goal and instead have had the resources used for just creating the male centaur used to make the male elf / assassin instead. Just seems like a derpy decision w/o genuine merit.
Originally, gender locking classes was a transparent way to both save money
It still is. Unless they want to re-use the same skeletons and animations across multiple races/genders (essentially destroying their uniqueness), they have to spend a ton of time and money creating new art assets for the class, and then going through all of the existing armor/weapons in the game and altering that art for the different model.
Are they disappointing? Sure. But realistically, what do you expect out of a small indie developer? They don't have the kinds of resources to throw at everything, and I'd much rather they prioritize gameplay/design over creating two genders for each class. Does that mean I may have to play a male character for a class I want to play instead of a female character? Possibly, but if that means that I can have a better experience within the game with more engaging content, I'll take that tradeoff any day.
Where is all the "negative feedback" according the author? I'm not seeing it anywhere. Please provide a source. There isn't any even on this normally negative website.
We already have one of "locked" classes "unlocked" and it can easily happen with some other, but I never cared much about such things anyway. Also, I haven`t heard much noise about that on CF (or any other in fact) forums!?
PS Now that I think of this, I played Goblins for years (WAR), without even thinking of what gender they were?
To find an intelligent person in a PUG is not that rare, but to find a PUG made up of "all" intelligent people is one of the rarest phenomenons in the known universe.