Amazon Responds To Lost Ark’s Controversial Gender-Locked Classes

Lost Ark, which was originally released in Korea in 2018, finally made its way to the West with help from Amazon Games earlier in this year. Despite its success and solid reviews, the MMORPG has come under fire from critics. Amazon is now being asked to address the controversy over Lost Ark’s confusing gender locked classes and low female representation.

The following is an example of EurogamerAccording to “players”, they were disappointed in the existence of gender-locked classes as well as the use of more revealing clothing for women. Referring to the first, males have warrior-centric classes and females are mages. Smilegate Developer published a blog last year in which it acknowledged that the problem exists. 

We listened to players feedback on gender-locked classes from the very beginning of Lost Ark’s West announcement. We wanted to ensure that every class has both a male or female counterpart. Smilegate RPG is going to create more gender-locked counterparts in the future. We will also bring them to Arkesia.

Recently, Soomin Park was named as the franchise leader for Amazon Games. EurogamerThese changes are coming:

Let’s begin with the gender-locked classes. It is something we will continue to develop. Because classes have a very close relationship to their animation character models, it is more difficult to add opposite gender characters to a class.

Smilegate RPG has been actively involved in this effort. Smilegate RPG will soon bring the Berserker female to Korea. We tried our best to have both a male- and female counterpart in every class, even though not all of them are currently available. Smilegate RPG is going to create more gender-locked counterparts in the future. We will also bring them to Arkesia.

Park then spoke about the daring female armor sets:

We are not altering the armor sets in the game. However, we will make adjustments to ensure that less revealing options aren’t prominent in marketing and the character creation screen. (Of course, the original outfits of character creators remain in-game for early drops). There are some additional outfit choices that may not be as obvious, but they will not replace the original.

We are conscious of the need to balance hardcore gamers who desire a Lost Ark experience similar to the Korean original and the newer players who might not enjoy the existing armor and costumes options. Therefore, we have added outfits and alternative options to the game rather than removing them.

These changes, along with the promise of appropriate and respectful content, will make Lost Ark more fun for all its players. 

[Source: Eurogamer]