TERA introduces a new class. It is female. Again. Bluehole, my patience with your class policies has run out.
Blade Dancer. Arcane Engineer. Tempest. Ninja. Moon Dancer. These 5 names represent the total disregard for the male gender. Since the release in 2012 in Europe, not a single male class has been added.
From the dreams of the gods Arun and Shara, the game world Arborea was born. I slowly wonder if the two gods symbolize wet male dreams.
The reason for this Amazon army is obvious, logical, and understandable from an economic perspective. Maybe. But a limit has now been crossed. It annoys me.
Not only men should feel discriminated against, but also women. Their gender is virtually being prostituted here.
It is not about the Gender Lock!
You can think what you want about the gender lock. It doesn’t bother me. The gender lock is often intertwined with the backstory: Male Amazons or Valkyries simply don’t make sense.
And the gender lock ultimately ensures that a game has more different playable classes, resulting in more variety. For the Elin Blade Dancer, which was announced as the first new class with great fanfare, it all still made sense with the female gender.
The reasoning that the gender lock ensures more variety, however, loses credibility with 5 female classes in a row. If we already think in boxes: Why the hell is the Heavy-Metal Gunner, a damage dealer class with a big gun, only female?
Bluehole told MMORPG.com in an interview that creating binary classes in TERA requires a huge amount of work, that is, for male and female. Each skill has its own, very elaborate animation. Thus, it seems that the development team is weighing which gender to assign to the next class.
But why do they only bring out females? The motive is obvious.
The business with women in TERA
According to the developer, items related to women sell better, even saved the game from bankruptcy once. The introduction of the Fabled beings Elin at release was, in retrospect, a stroke of luck, considering they were not planned at first. Due to their childlike, girlish appearance, there were many controversial discussions here in the West.
How Elin in swimsuits saved TERA
The swimsuits and maid outfits of the Elin shake up the in-game shop at the last minute, bringing in by far the largest revenues. The swimsuits generated even more money for Bluehole than the skin sales of all other races combined. And it also became clear afterwards that embellishments of the female classes would lead the bestseller lists .
No wonder that marketing videos primarily aim to highlight the stereotype of a pretty woman. Or rather, certain body parts:
I don’t want to bash here, on the contrary. For the game, this marketing ploy of relying on women also had many positive aspects. Tera is experiencing a second spring after losing a lot of money due to a legal dispute with NCSoft and standing on the brink.
Until 1-2 years ago, the TERA world was still fine. The additional money has done the game well. The updates for the Korean action MMO are remarkable and would be considered standalone add-ons in other MMORPGs. The game has been consistently developed for the better. Even the classes are all unique and unmatched in their gameplay in the genre.
The balance is disturbed, you are losing players because of it
For me, it is clear: It’s profit maximization. They save money and resources by developing classes for only one gender and choose the path that brings them more money in the short run. I understand that, that’s how the world works, and I have nothing against making money. And in the end, the players determine the demand. But Bluehole is overdoing it now.
It is logical that only women’s clothes can sell well when only female classes are created. Eventually, one starts wearing blinders and no longer sees that there are other ways. The only way they are taking has worn thin. In my research, I discovered hundreds of forum threads where male players complain that only female classes are being introduced to TERA. Well-known international MMO sites have critically examined this as well.
I am sure many players would check back in if Bluehole announced a new male class. Especially players who prefer to identify with a class of their own gender. That shouldn’t be a few men.
I was thrilled at first about the PS4 / Xbox One announcement for TERA, having put hundreds of hours into TERA on PC since the beta in 2012. However, I now play more on the console. Only when I thought about starting again did I really get annoyed that since then no class has been added that I would play. The Slayer is getting on my nerves.
And when I heard that the Moon Dancer has been released, I lost my temper. How about you? Or do you see it differently?
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