Missed Opportunities: Meaningful Sex Appeal

In last week’s post on gender-locking, I brought up the miniscule character traits of the Vindictus classes. The game’s story could only have improved if the classes were given the same depth and personality as the NPCs. It could have surpassed so many MMOs if it had gone this route, and could have turned their sexual character, Vella, into something more meaningful.

Vella, the sixth Vindictus character, was released a little over a month ago in North America and Australia. And when she was, there was a lot more skin on people’s screens than usual.

More so than any other female class in the game, Vella wears revealing armor that shows plenty of cleavage and thigh. This doesn’t come as a surprise to many gamers. Most MMOs showcase female characters this way, with their armor becoming more revealing as they level up, to the point where they’re wearing a metal bikini that somehow works better than chainmail.

This is one of the strongest armor sets for Vella.

So what’s my point?

My point goes back to the fact that Vindictus characters have slight hints at personality. When compared to the Evie character, Vella is far more open sexually. You can tell by her belly dance, her armor, her seductive smile when waving, and the rest of her animations. Evie, on the other hand, is bubblier and more sexually reserved – provided her player lets her put on pants.

Evie, wearing high-level armor. Still shows off her body, but not nearly as much.

So why is there a difference between the two? What’s the story? At the moment, there is none. Vella is simply a fan-service character, showing off her body more than either Evie or Fiona. But what if she wasn’t? What if she actually had a story to her?

If Vindictus had fleshed-out character stories, Vella could have been a meaningful character, rather than a piece of eye candy. The game could have told a story about how she grew up, what the culture of her home country was like, what her past relationships were, how she views sexuality.

She’d still be eye candy, no question, but I’ll take purposeful eye candy over blatant pandering any day.

Mini-series: Gender-Locking – Part Two

The way Vindictus (AKA Mabinogi Heroes) handles gender-locking leaves a little to be desired. Unlike Dragon Nest, the character classes in Vindictus don’t have developed personalities to hide the limitations of the game’s original character creator. They each have a name and their own unique animations and fighting styles, but that’s about it as far as the actual game is concerned.

On the main site, you can find that each character has a bio, and sometimes before a new character is launched, the site will release a short story that tells his/her background. Karok, for example, is from an endangered race of giants, and is desperate to keep his people’s legacy alive. Unfortunately, this can only be found on the site. No character addresses Karok’s size, his race, or his story during the actual game.

No matter which character you play, none of the dialogue changes aside from one instance where a guard flirts with any of the three females. This may not seem like a problem to most, especially since the game’s focus is challenging combat, but it’s a wasted chance to add a new layer of depth to the game’s narrative, and to give a reason for why Vindictus gender-locks.

And it’s not like Vindictus is incapable of telling good character stories. Each NPC you meet has a developed and interesting personality. For instance: Reilly is a kooky old man and a powerful magician who loves to terrorize his pupil Brynn. But when someone does something truly dangerous, he gets serious and becomes a man to respect and fear.

Vindictus’ Reilly

If the playable characters were developed like this as well, Vindictus would only be better for it.

That isn’t to say that the classes are completely devoid of personality. The animations for waving, dancing, cheering, and even sitting give subtle hints at their character. There is a huge gap in modesty between Evie’s dance and Vella’s dance. If only that was highlighted in the game and made clear in dialogue between characters.

I’d love to see those differences in personality between all of the characters show in the game. I want them all to shine like the rest of the cast and become memorable characters.

Mini-series: Gender-Locking – Part One

For the past few years, I’ve noticed a trend in free-to-play MMOs. No, not the trend to be like World of Warcraft; a different trend. A few free MMOs I’ve looked at – Vindictus, Dragon Nest, Lunia – have their character classes gender-locked, meaning you can’t choose to play as a male or a female character. So if the healing class is female, and you want to be the healer, you’ll have to play a female.

Eir, the Healer Princess from Lunia

Some gamers take issue with gender-locking, but for a free MMO, it makes sense why a developer would do this. It’s a money-saver. With gender-locked classes, the developer doesn’t need to put in a complex character creation system.

Those systems are expensive, especially since many gamers expect character creation systems to be on the same level as Guild Wars 2 or Skyrim. Rather than compete and fight an impossible battle, the developer gender-locks.

A smart developer will use this limitation to their advantage and tell character stories with the gender-locked classes. They’ll give the classes their own personalities and backstories and use that as a way to engage the player and connect them with their character.

Dragon Nest is a good example of how this idea works. Every class in the game has his/her own storyline and personality. For example: The Tinkerer comes from an apocalyptic future, and views the plot from a history perspective, already knowing – for the most part – what happens and when.

Dragon Nest Tinkerer

Although the character stories of Dragon Nest don’t have much presence in the overall game – with only a few missions ever hinting at them – they still provide a different experience for players and take advantage of gender-lock.

But not every gender-locked game follows this approach or uses its full potential for storytelling. Some make an effort and fall short, and miss out on a chance to turn their good game into a great one. Prime example: Vindictus, which I’ll be talking about in Part Two.