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Gendered color options for gear???

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Aug 04, 2015
2
So by now we've all noticed that in Wizard101, there are some colors that one gender can wear, while the other can't. Many people on this forum, including myself, have wondered why guys can't wear pink, and why girls can't wear brown, among other differences. This has even been met with some frustration, which I wasn't able to relate to until recently.

A while back, I was in the arena admiring a rare beauty, a full storm team. In addition to bolt spam, all the guys had one thing in common, an absolutely beautiful, dark, rich shade of plum on the trim of their gear. I was entranced by this hue, and I sought out to dye my gear this color immediately, as to absorb the heavenly purple through osmosis. But the closest thing I found to the color was a hideous, repugnantly bright purple. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have never had your heart broken, that is what it feels like. (Ok, that was very exaggerated, but I feel my point still stands.)

"Why the betrayal, why the madness???", I asked in my grief. After doing a little digging, I found that the current color selection was chosen by the beta testers. From what I understand, there was limited space for color options, so beta testers sent in feedback for what they thought the color options for each gender should be. Pink for guys, and brown for girls just didn't make the cut. To investigate further, I made a male character to compare the selection. I found the following to be true:
  • In place of pink, guys get a dark orange color that girls don't.
  • Instead of brown, girls have their own shade of gold.
I also noticed that many of the vibrant, female available colors have darker, more dimmed down male counterparts, which would explain the absence of my purple.

For point of reference, Wizard101 became available for beta download in mid 2008, meaning that these decisions were made 8 years ago. No one should be surprised that people from nearly a decade ago would choose like they did. In the past decade, we've seen a huge shift in attitudes about which colors are appropriate for men and women, as well as boys and girls. People are much more open now to different colors that were seen as unacceptable before. I've noticed many guys in game who say they would love to wear pink! Why deny them of that? The beta testers were of a different era of fashion, and I'd be willing to bet they have changed their minds too. I realize that recoloring every gear set in the game would be very tedious and time consuming. Even if it's a slow, gradual change, and even if talented volunteers need to be used, isn't it still worth it? I think it is, and I hope that after hearing me out, you do too.

side note: that part about me grieving the absence of the purple color is dramatized for emphasis, but mostly to amuse the reader and myself.

So what do you all think? I'd love to hear your thoughts and engage you in discussion!
I'm Erica Stormcaller , and you can find me crying in the crowded realms of Zafaria.

Mastermind
Mar 13, 2010
328
Occidite on Aug 28, 2016 wrote:
So by now we've all noticed that in Wizard101, there are some colors that one gender can wear, while the other can't. Many people on this forum, including myself, have wondered why guys can't wear pink, and why girls can't wear brown, among other differences. This has even been met with some frustration, which I wasn't able to relate to until recently.

A while back, I was in the arena admiring a rare beauty, a full storm team. In addition to bolt spam, all the guys had one thing in common, an absolutely beautiful, dark, rich shade of plum on the trim of their gear. I was entranced by this hue, and I sought out to dye my gear this color immediately, as to absorb the heavenly purple through osmosis. But the closest thing I found to the color was a hideous, repugnantly bright purple. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have never had your heart broken, that is what it feels like. (Ok, that was very exaggerated, but I feel my point still stands.)

"Why the betrayal, why the madness???", I asked in my grief. After doing a little digging, I found that the current color selection was chosen by the beta testers. From what I understand, there was limited space for color options, so beta testers sent in feedback for what they thought the color options for each gender should be. Pink for guys, and brown for girls just didn't make the cut. To investigate further, I made a male character to compare the selection. I found the following to be true:
  • In place of pink, guys get a dark orange color that girls don't.
  • Instead of brown, girls have their own shade of gold.
I also noticed that many of the vibrant, female available colors have darker, more dimmed down male counterparts, which would explain the absence of my purple.

For point of reference, Wizard101 became available for beta download in mid 2008, meaning that these decisions were made 8 years ago. No one should be surprised that people from nearly a decade ago would choose like they did. In the past decade, we've seen a huge shift in attitudes about which colors are appropriate for men and women, as well as boys and girls. People are much more open now to different colors that were seen as unacceptable before. I've noticed many guys in game who say they would love to wear pink! Why deny them of that? The beta testers were of a different era of fashion, and I'd be willing to bet they have changed their minds too. I realize that recoloring every gear set in the game would be very tedious and time consuming. Even if it's a slow, gradual change, and even if talented volunteers need to be used, isn't it still worth it? I think it is, and I hope that after hearing me out, you do too.

side note: that part about me grieving the absence of the purple color is dramatized for emphasis, but mostly to amuse the reader and myself.

So what do you all think? I'd love to hear your thoughts and engage you in discussion!
I'm Erica Stormcaller , and you can find me crying in the crowded realms of Zafaria.
This discussion comes up regularly. Nearly every player agrees with you.

The KI response is that it is a technical issue and that they cannot offer the same palette to all characters.

Squire
Jul 18, 2009
545
PaigeGoldenspear on Aug 28, 2016 wrote:
This discussion comes up regularly. Nearly every player agrees with you.

The KI response is that it is a technical issue and that they cannot offer the same palette to all characters.
Yep- in addition, they made the conscious decision a few years ago to take pink out of the boys' color palette and replace it with that pukey orange (the update note is now long gone because I'm pretty sure it was just a forum announcement). I will never miss an opportunity to voice my opinions on how I dislike this decision, so hopefully if this topic keeps coming up KI will reconsider someday.

Archon
Sep 17, 2012
4162
Starblood653 on Aug 29, 2016 wrote:
Yep- in addition, they made the conscious decision a few years ago to take pink out of the boys' color palette and replace it with that pukey orange (the update note is now long gone because I'm pretty sure it was just a forum announcement). I will never miss an opportunity to voice my opinions on how I dislike this decision, so hopefully if this topic keeps coming up KI will reconsider someday.
Players made the decision. They asked beta testers and pink scored lowest among boys and brown lowest among girls so those colors were removed. Blame player testers, not KI.

Squire
Jul 18, 2009
545
seethe42 on Aug 30, 2016 wrote:
Players made the decision. They asked beta testers and pink scored lowest among boys and brown lowest among girls so those colors were removed. Blame player testers, not KI.
Pink was removed from boys' palettes long after beta.

Archon
Sep 17, 2012
4162
Starblood653 on Aug 30, 2016 wrote:
Pink was removed from boys' palettes long after beta.
People have been posting about this since 2008 when the game was first released. It couldn't have been "long after beta".

Delver
Jul 17, 2009
261
Personally I think as long as we keep letting KI know what we want, eventually they will fix it. I know they are trying hard to expand the game to keep players, so I believe giving us more color choices will be an option someday. They have lots of issues with colors, and they are smart computer programmers so they will get it fixed. It just might not be a top priority for them.
Instead of updates of editing spells and fixing spellings and changing Pip rates etc, KI please please focus on the color issues. The issue with the hair style colors being off hasn't been fixed since hairstyles launched.
Pink is a boys color for half the world, and girls should be allowed to wear brown too. I should not have to play as a boy to have brown clothing if I want to play as my own gender. If it makes it easier to fix this, lets us choose which colors we want aka if we want the girl colors or the boy colors by allowing us to customize our color palette.

Historian
Jun 17, 2014
671
how to fix this: make, light, dark, and normal colors for: red, blue, orange, green, yellow, brown, black, white, pink, purple, brown, gray, gold, silver, 14 colors, 3 shades each 42 colors, all genderless and or even just light and dark shades and have 28 colors... i'm happy with that

Survivor
Jan 19, 2012
4
You would think it would be easier on them and the system to offer the same to everyone lol.