Switching from female to male; an unbalanced journey.

[Scathefyre]

I have posted in many of these threads over the years, I wish Gaia would finally listen to us and not only for a little bit and then give up on it but instead keep up with a steady amount of male items, it is a struggle to make an avatar I am satisfied with.

I've seen my Girlfriend go in gold shops on her account, and I swear they have more pages of items then we do.

[Sunniesaurus]

Scathefyre

I have posted in many of these threads over the years, I wish Gaia would finally listen to us and not only for a little bit and then give up on it but instead keep up with a steady amount of male items, it is a struggle to make an avatar I am satisfied with.

I've seen my Girlfriend go in gold shops on her account, and I swear they have more pages of items then we do.

Because they do. 3nodding Take it from me.

[LabTech David]

I agree. They should make more male clothes/items.

[Nigte]

OMG I love you so much right now, can I have your bebies? emotion_kirakira

Edit:

on a more serious note.
I have always used a female base mostly because the few times I tried to be a male it was hard to make what I had in my minds eyes.
As in, gritty down and dirty you say one wrong word and I'll kick your a**. Kind of avatar.

Even then I like to make darker more grittier avis when the mood takes me and it is just so damn hard to do. We need the variety and I shake my head and Lanzer for his statement cus I mean jsut wtf man.

[Bishie Tuxedo Mask]

Kai Merha

Bishie Tuxedo Mask

*snip* A lot of male items we do have don't seem to even fit the male base very well from my experience *snip*

This is actually because (and this may not still be the policy), but when Juno was in charge many of the items were drawn FOR the female base and adjusted or just wholesale pasted onto the male base. It was a really lazy way to do things (and a**-backwards, if you drew them for the male base and then adjusted for the female base you'd be just pushing pixels inward instead of having to add more or looking awkward).

The idea that 'artists are women and therefore only like drawing feminine things' is one of the stupidest things Lanzer has ever said, and if that is how Gaia is being run it's not just stupid, it's irresponsible. Can you imagine being a graphic artist and telling an employer "I'll work for you, but I only like drawing girl stuff, okay?"

"...

Yeah I've read of this before and I equally don't agree with it. It that why so many items for the male base are like half shirts and half jackets? Seriously why are they cut soo high up on the base? Also even as someone who likes leg mods on the male base...no seriously guys need more regular pants.

Personally as someone who draws every day and is an IRL girl yeah I find that mentality insulting. I loves me some kawaii-desu but I also loves me some gothic stuff too. I can draw dragons and tattoos just as much as I can draw strawberries and unicorns. If your artists are so low on talent that they can't break out of a mold (which I find hard to believe given the complexity of many of the female items) well then times are tough in the US right now and I'm sure there's a plethora of artists that would love to supply their diverse talents -

..."

[AKB0048]

Bishie Tuxedo Mask

Yeah I've read of this before and I equally don't agree with it. It that why so many items for the male base are like half shirts and half jackets? Seriously why are they cut soo high up on the base? Also even as someone who likes leg mods on the male base...no seriously guys need more regular pants.

Personally as someone who draws every day and is an IRL girl yeah I find that mentality insulting. I loves me some kawaii-desu but I also loves me some gothic stuff too. I can draw dragons and tattoos just as much as I can draw strawberries and unicorns. If your artists are so low on talent that they can't break out of a mold (which I find hard to believe given the complexity of many of the female items) well then times are tough in the US right now and I'm sure there's a plethora of artists that would love to supply their diverse talents -

..."

Except said artists didn't apply. Gaia has had open applications for sprite artists before. Just sayin'.

[Bishie Tuxedo Mask]

AKB0048

Except said artists didn't apply. Gaia has had open applications for sprite artists before. Just sayin'.

"...

Does that have an influence on the ability to draw male items? -

..."

[Slick Southpaw]

maaaan this thread gets all my love. There's a reason why I prefer to not wear clothes. :v

[The stepfather of lies]

Not only the difference on the ammount of items is huge, but did you try to dress an avatar as the opposite gender and make it look as if were of the opposite gender? Well, is incredibly easy to make a male avatar look like a female one due to the ammount of feminine body mods on many range price; but to make a female avatar look like a male base/ one is a challenge ( if you like variety ). Hence another way to show the disproportion

[Sunniesaurus]

Mermaider

Not only the difference on the ammount of items is huge, but did you try to dress an avatar as the opposite gender and make it look as if were of the opposite gender? Well, is incredibly easy to make a male avatar look like a female one due to the ammount of feminine body mods on many range price; but to make a female avatar look like a male base/ one is a challenge ( if you like variety ). Hence another way to show the disproportion

Only made my female look male because of nice suit for work and the new Swanky Gent because it legitimately is a male based leg mod. The female gain the male look of the legs.

[Sunniesaurus]

Slick Southpaw

maaaan this thread gets all my love. There's a reason why I prefer to not wear clothes. :v

Doin' what I can to help y'all out <3

[The stepfather of lies]

Awenita

Mermaider

Not only the difference on the ammount of items is huge, but did you try to dress an avatar as the opposite gender and make it look as if were of the opposite gender? Well, is incredibly easy to make a male avatar look like a female one due to the ammount of feminine body mods on many range price; but to make a female avatar look like a male base/ one is a challenge ( if you like variety ). Hence another way to show the disproportion

Only made my female look male because of nice suit for work and the new Swanky Gent because it legitimately is a male based leg mod. The female gain the male look of the legs.

Should be more balanced, some female arm mods work for slim guys, but a slim guy arm's mod could have defined muscles too ( for example )

[Frozen Mist]

It's not just Gaia though.

As a project for a feminist class I mapped out a few big name stores. In most cases 80% of the floorspace was dedicated to female shoppers. It's not surprising, if you knew 83% of consumer power comes from WOMEN.

Not only does Gaia seem to follow this target demographic, but I'm sure the artists struggle to break away from it since there are very few examples to run on for male fashions irl (aside from blatant overdone stereotypes and genres, which Gaia has mostly covered).

I think there are three things they should do for male players that could make an impact. Any time a skirt or dress is made, same-styled pants should be made as well. Any time a body mod is made, there should be a masculine version as well as a feminine version. (as pose options, NOT defaulted by the avatar's gender-- since both genders may prefer to mix and match fem vs masc body parts). They USED to be pretty good at making gendered alternatives, but this practice dropped off as rigs took over.

They also need to work on adding accessories that allow men to "gruff" up. This means beards, 5 oclock shadows, making facial hair mix-and-matchable.

Lastly, I've noticed that all of the hair for men that is released from rigs (either items or sdplus poses) look fairly the same, with only minor differences. Men's fashion may not have great variety, but their hair certainly can and does. Artists really need to push themselves to come up with unique hairdos for the male population. This could probably extend to eyes as well.

[I WAS HOP OFF MY D]

i personally see no problem, or i just dont understand it, i have gone thru this thread and all i can say is i think everyone is over reacting
maybe gaia is having the same issue. and i have followed the links in this thread and they have all but given me a headache trying to read them
maybe if those pages were simplified or fewer requests it would help gaia out
but as it stands if a regular user in advanced classes in school is having issues with understanding this then artists here on gaia is gonna have the same issues too

i bet if people asked me to do tek tek's of male avi's i could make thousands of unique outfits

comment on hair color, most men have grey, white or black / brown hair
when irl have you seen pink hair on a guy? a pink beard? a pink anything on a guy?
lets keep hair realistic like it is now

also one other thing and i know ppl will wanna disagree with this but lets face it, MOST MEN ARE WELL LESS THAN CONCERNED WITH FASHION IRL so why be so concerned about it online in a virtual world

[Gemiinii]

Frozen Mist

Not only does Gaia seem to follow this target demographic, but I'm sure the artists struggle to break away from it since there are very few examples to run on for male fashions irl (aside from blatant overdone stereotypes and genres, which Gaia has mostly covered).

I agreed with the majority of your post, except for maybe this part. I have seen some huge threads here in SF with some fantastic examples, that if implemented on a regular or even semi regular basis would have users that love masculine items over the moon with joy.