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In a recent tweet, the developers of Tarisland shared a first look into a female version of the Paladin, a class that previously had a male avatar. The upcoming MMORPG, due for a global release on June 21, has nine classes that have been shown off so far. Until recently, they were all gender-locked, but it appears that will not be the case for long.
Tencent is calling this its first 'dual-gender' class, and after debuting the Paladin's female avatar, the developer also tweeted a first look into a male avatar for the Mage class. This article explores more.
After Paladin and Mage, Tarisland's developers will eventually introduce dual-gender options to all classes
Gender-locked classes are a major subject of debate within the broader MMORPG community.
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On the one hand, character customization has been a staple of role-playing titles for a long time. There are long-standing jokes about gamers spending hours just tuning different bars to create their bespoke hero before they begin their adventure.
Dragons Dogma 2, for example, released a character creator before the actual game.
On the other hand, adhering to one particular look for a class can be a deliberate art design choice, making them more concrete characters with a static backstory. Many games in the broader MMO genre, such as Last Epoch, have classes that will be tied to a singular look, thus becoming 'gender-locked'.
If not a design decision, the presence of gender-locked classes can also be due to budget restraints. Even without introducing proper character customization, an alternate gender option for a class will mean creating new animations and cosmetics from scratch.
Ultimately, more self-fashioning options allow players to uniquely express themselves in an MMO environment. Most would prefer classes not to be gender-locked, and Tarisland's developers will seemingly be on the right side of history regarding this.
A week leading up to the global release, Tarisland has now introduced alternate gender options for two classes: Paladin (previously male-only), and Mage (previously female-only). They also have plans in place to gradually introduce dual-gender options for the other seven classes as well.
About the game
Tarisland is a free-to-play MMORPG with raids, open-world exploration, and diverse class build options, in the same vein as BDO. Available on PC, mobile, and iOS platforms, it will be playable for the Western audience after its global release this month.
