So I watched the Everquest Next Keynote from SOE Live yesterday and I've got some.... reservations about the armor situation.
Like some of it is pretty awesome:
Granted it does have the whole boobplate thing going on, but she does look about 10 different kinds of badass and emphatically not vulnerable to attack.
Some of the other armors shown for the Dark Elves, though, leave me quickly ratcheting down my expectations for the game. Here's the introductory armors for the male and female dark elves:
First off, it is a good thing that if they're going with the whole 'morally ambiguous subterranean elven society = not a whole lotta cloth" thing that they are at least having the male DE's show some skin, too. It's a very, very good thing (even if racing to the bottom of the sexy armor barrel is not).
That said, it is unsurprisingly unequal in terms of un-armoring the character. The "top two buttons undone" neckline of the male armor is traded-in for a plunging neckline that gives both cleavage and underboob on the female armor set. Also, she's wearing (wedged) high heels compared to his flat heeled gladiator sandals. This seems to be a widespread issue in the EQ Next/Landmark female armors as the female stance/model seems to have heels built in and any shoes that are meant to be a normal or a flat heel height have to camouflage the arch of the foot.
In other, related commentary - the way the bust is designed and animated looks... off to me, but I can't quite place it. (I only have a pic as I do not know how to gif things)
Maybe it just moves too much like solid muscle and bone (aka isn't animated/modeled differently from the rest of the character). Not that I like jiggle physics, but if you're going to put them on display like that... maybe make sure they at least look like boobs instead of muscle bulges?
I'm still excited for the game because I have many fond memories of the EQ franchise. Sadly though it definitely seems like they're going to the EQ1 armor route instead of the gender neutral EQ2 armor route. Which sucks because my patience for this particular gaming trope is about worn completely thin. Combine that with the dawning realization that I may not have the attention span/time available for MMOs anymore and I'm worried that despite really wanting to play EQNext for years like I did with its predecessors, I will only get a few months of enjoyment out of it at most.