Amazon Games has responded to criticism about the gender representation in Lost Ark — specifically those related to gender-locked chapters and female-themed armor.
Despite the success of Lost Ark, many have expressed concerns about the ways the game has treated gender so far. Categories in Lost Ark are currently gender locked, which means that only certain genders can be a certain category. As it is, only men can be warriors and only women can be witches or murderers.
In addition, many players have expressed disappointment with the abrasive nature of the Lost Ark’s many female character armor sets. It’s a problem we’ve been seeing for quite some time, and it’s surprising that it still exists; The male characters wear full and intricate armor, to the point where you wonder how they even move. On the other hand, female characters are often given gravity-defying armor that doesn’t even protect them from harsh winds.
It looks like Amazon Games is looking to make some changes, albeit small. In a statement to EurogamerSomin Park, president of the Amazon Games franchise, said of the gender-locked chapters, “Smilegate RPG is actively working on this; female Berserker is the next category to come to Korea. While there is currently no male and female counterpart in the game in every category available, we’ve made an effort To include those in our launch row.”
“In the future, Smilegate RPG will create more peers for classes that are still gender-locked, and we’ll bring them to Arkesia in due course.”
As for the revealing armor, well, it looks like there are minor changes coming. Park continued, “While we don’t change any of the original costumes from the game, we’re making adjustments so that the most revealing choices aren’t front and center in places like marketing or the initial character creation screen.”
“We also include some new fashion options that aren’t completely revealing, but are an addition, not a replacement.”
Lost Ark is a free 2.5D MMOARPG, now available on Windows PC.