POE 2: Class Gender Lock is a Step Backwards

In Path of Exile, you are not creating a nameless hero. You are assuming the role of character that exists in the POE universe, with a backstory and all.

Not only does customizing a character simply just distract from the meaningful gameplay at the heart of POE, it also just doesn't make sense.

Not needed, no point in wasting any resources on it.

OP is a ragebait account lol, created in 2017 but has 2 lifetime achievements, and its killing brutus lmao...

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mankirk#2589 wrote:

In Path of Exile, you are not creating a nameless hero. You are assuming the role of character that exists in the POE universe, with a backstory and all.

Not only does customizing a character simply just distract from the meaningful gameplay at the heart of POE, it also just doesn't make sense.

Not needed, no point in wasting any resources on it.

still sane "exile"?

every npc calls kratos kratos.

every npc calls the exile exile.

in baldurs gate3 and divinity original sin. you get to play either as named characters with fully fledged out stories. or create your own unique character with your own set backgrounds and with any name of your choice.

you could appreciate the intricacies of each named character, or ignore it entirely.

that is the gold standard of player choice.

if you dont like character customization simply dont partake. use the default options and be done. and lets be real. we're NOT asking for character customization. we just want the option to different gendered character models.

also i ll repeat myself everytime someone mentions that it will take extra resources.

you're right. so instead of creating new character models, just let players choose their class, then choose their character model. all the npcs are going to refer to you as "exile" anyway. this saves valuable time and resources as the character models and animations have already been budgeted/created.

and since resources are so important, we can do away with class based npc dialogue lines. its a waste of resources.

its crazy how people pretend they cant just allow all characters to use all the ascendies and call it a day

It's crazy that people don't understand that decision pain is an important design principle for games in this genre.

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thelordrahl#5755 wrote:

It's crazy that people don't understand that decision pain is an important design principle for games in this genre.

u mean the diablo like genre.

the genre where all the characters have been nameless all the while.

that genre? the one where most of the games dont even show the player model because its cheaper not to make different cutscenes to accomodate all the different classes?

the genre where the story is mostly the same regardless of what class was chosen.

that genre!?

dayum. thats cray cray

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exsea#1724 wrote:

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mankirk#2589 wrote:

In Path of Exile, you are not creating a nameless hero. You are assuming the role of character that exists in the POE universe, with a backstory and all.

Not only does customizing a character simply just distract from the meaningful gameplay at the heart of POE, it also just doesn't make sense.

Not needed, no point in wasting any resources on it.

still sane "exile"?

every npc calls kratos kratos.

every npc calls the exile exile.

in baldurs gate3 and divinity original sin. you get to play either as named characters with fully fledged out stories. or create your own unique character with your own set backgrounds and with any name of your choice.

you could appreciate the intricacies of each named character, or ignore it entirely.

It's a multiplayer game with trading and chat. You also have multiple characters for different builds. You need unique names to address players, it's unavoidable. That's why users supply names to themselves, and dialogue and voice lines are kept ambiguous, referring to the character as "Exile" or their class, "Witch" etc. It'd be confusing otherwise to have NPCs referring to you as a separate name in game.

This isn't a single-player/co-op game like Baldur's Gate, your logic is flawed.

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mankirk#2589 wrote:

In Path of Exile, you are not creating a nameless hero. You are assuming the role of character that exists in the POE universe, with a backstory and all.

Not only does customizing a character simply just distract from the meaningful gameplay at the heart of POE, it also just doesn't make sense.

Not needed, no point in wasting any resources on it.

So you only play canon builds then, right? Each of these Priceless And Unique People with their own names and their own stories only ever use the builds the developers intended, wear the gear that matches their canon aesthetic, never indulge in any MTX, and never otherwise do anything to suggest they're nothing but a minimum viable template for the player to hang whatever insane whackadoodle nonsense Jousis has contrived now on?

...no? That's not what anyone ever does? 'Canon' doesn't exist and people ignore what the characters are "supposed" to do basically every single time? Ohhhhh, right - arguments to the canon characterization of the classes in this game are completely meaningless in the face of the entire actual game being an exercise in extreme customization. The story doesn't care if you're a giant Karui facesmasher, a frail eldritch waif, or a giant sentient flaming space crab because MTX.

This. Is. Not. A. Valid. Argument. Stop making it. All of you.

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girng#7675 wrote:

i was just trying to point out to that other user there's definitely an influence of modern politics in the gaming industry (software world, essentially). you are 100% correct, it's definitely dependent on the game company too

for sure, i feel like there always was tho regardless of if its a conscious one or not. when people make fictional characters in their media, be it film, books, games, they chose the gender, race etc of the character they are making or they make it optional.

thats always an intentional choice. when they made Alien they made ripley a woman because they wanted the hero to be a woman. whoever made rambo made rambo a big strong guy because thats what they thought their hero should be.

its always an intentional choice someone is making based on their world view and what they want to represent, and these issues have always intersected with politics.









i think people who want gender choices will probably get it via an mtx at some point. if ggg are not happy with an mtx that lets you play any class with the monk model and voice lines etc, which they probably wont be as there will no doubt be monk lore specific dialogue in there, then its a fair bit of work cause you need new dialogue.

there seems to be decent demand for it, if thats true and its high enough that it will pay for itself via an mtx i dont see why they wouldnt do it at some point.

it might be cool to have an all new character with its own personality and voice lines that can be applied to any class. the way ggg pump out awesome new npcs with great voice acting all the time i might even be into that sort of thing and i dont care at all about class genders really. if i could play as cassia with all her grumpy ranting and singing ngl i would probably buy that mtx and use it on a character.

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Jagdkommando90#7200 wrote:

I was so hyped for Path of Exile 2, but the gender-locked classes are a huge disappointment. It feels like such an outdated design choice for an otherwise modern game. I get that they’re going for a specific aesthetic with each class, but why not give players the freedom to choose their gender? It’s 2024 – customization should be a priority in any RPG.

What do you guys think? Does this bother anyone else, or am I overreacting? Would love to hear your thoughts!

I couldn't care less about single sex classes, and I appreciate that having two versions of every character model for Male and Female doubles the workload, and this game is already incredibly dense as it is.

[Removed by Support]

In fact, I wouldn't care if my characters were magically animated mannequins with absolutely zero "gender" or sex at all.

As long as they look cool, play well and make sense, sex, sexuality and gender in the game are pretty much meaningless to me.