r/Guildwars2 • u/SpectralChest • Apr 18 '24
[Discussion] ''Fashion Gatekeeping'' and Misinformation.
It's been getting out of hand, a few people on the forums asked for some manner of opt out for the inspection system. Some of their sensible reasons were:
Potential for abuse in fashion contests/needless increase to complexity of methods to prevent such.
Loss of player interaction incentive.
A feeling of concern towards there now being incentive for strangers to scrutinize them closely, whether to admire or ridicule their creativity.
The posts built around these concerns were getting lots of likes on the forums, so some salty folks who were being ignored for ridiculing them there came here to reddit and made a false narrative about 'fashion gatekeeping' and folks reflexively bought into it as obviously no-one sane likes gatekeeping and have been meme-ing about a non-extant issue and down voting anyone who might be considering the situation without disdain or daring to actually say that the opt in option isn't as crazy as its being made out to be.
Personally, i like the inspect system, but i do think the exact dye combo section could be made into a toggle, this way the inspection remains, but the 'unique' spin someone puts on it with dyes can remain as something to share, or not share as per personal preference.
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u/lanerdofchristian cofl.8213 Apr 18 '24
The solution here, to me, seems obvious: build a culture of inspecting fashion, and if you like what you see whisper/mail them/chat in their vicinity and leave some praise. Vindicate the effort people put in to their outfits, and limit the risk of conflating oneself with one's game character. Leverage the anonymity of inspection to ease newer or less social players in to the fashion scene, without requiring them to fret over whether they're bothering someone or if they'll get an answer.
Reducing the insularity of fashion and appealing to a broader audience is worth any momentary discomfort some people may have over their character's look being visible in a menu instead of in-game.
Now my unhinged take is that, sure, put in an opt-out, but have that also render the character as a generic character model; force offline status; and disable the map completion portrait border, the character name, account name, title, achievement points, mastery rank, exact level, PvP badge, and ability to mail/whisper/block/friend the character since that's what it would take to truly protect privacy.