TERA beta videos show crafting, enchanting, Elin creation

@Ardra Diva

The race itself was controversial due to its childish appearance, and the rather... well I don't want to say "sexual" implications some emotes/armors had in conjunction, but it was enough for emotes and armor sets to be altered, if not outright removed outside of its Asian release (not sure if it was removed there as well).

@Ardra Diva

Yeah I think it was more because they look like 11 year old girls in ass-less chaps and they are writhing around like pole dancers.

@DevilSei It's interesting to see what gets such a stylized character seen as childish. The Elin have wider hips than most adults, but flat chests and heads as wide as their shoulders. They're more an amalgam of features, creating a look of their own that I'm pretty sure no one would mistake for a human child.

I don't mean to defend them—I think they're more obnoxiously silly than the popori—I just think how they're seen is fascinating.

@Saerain
I agree its a bit odd, but my post was more so of a generalization from what I've read on why they are "controversial", not my own opinion. I can certainly see why some might have issues with the appearance of the race with the sometimes questionable armor styles, but its not exactly different from putting a gnome in a pair of plate thongs to me.

@DevilSei Right, I did get that. I wasn't trying to argue with you, it just reminded me to make that observation.

@Saerain
Hey no problem, I didn't see it as an argument anyways, just a bit of clarification and adding in a bit of my own opinion.

@DevilSei It also didn't help to have the worst of both sides of the spectrum flocking to the issue.

On one side you have the 'lol pedo' bashing, which any Elin player is going to have to learn to cope with in the western environment.

On the other side you have some genuine freakshows who use this as a means of wearing their personal fetish as a matter of public display, at least in the roleplay forums.

@Borick On the gripping hand, all the controversy draws attention to the game.

@Saerain
For me it's the faces. Some of them have very stylized anime proportions, but some of them are more realistically childlike and I find those way squickier attached to the armor and animations. They look more like lolicon pandering than they do actual, realistic children, and I still think putting them in is going to hurt TERA's chances of having widespread appeal in the West tremendously. It's less "call the cops" creepy and more "grown man who talks to his anime figurines and wears cat ears in public" creepy, but creepy is creepy, and I don't expect that the average MMO enthusiast really understands or cares to make the distinction.

@DevilSei

"The race itself was controversial due to its childish appearance, and the rather... well I don't want to say "sexual" implications some emotes/armors had in conjunction.."

...the word I think you're looking for is "lolicon". Which I will not debate whether the Elin in of themselves fit that definition...since they are similar to the female versions of Gnomes in WoW, GW2's Asura and FF14's Lalafell. Which all could all fit under that term in the right unfortunate context.

However in the case of the Eastern version of TERA, it was mostly the outfits that they where rolled in, well...had disturbing implications (/inserts the pedobear image). To which I've noticed the outfits have been toned down significantly from what I've seen of the Korean originals. Not to say this will be good enough, I'm sure there's still debates understandably it's not.

@DevilSei

*Having re-type this all because my first reply didn't take. Thanks Joystick.*

"The race itself was controversial due to its childish appearance, and the rather... well I don't want to say "sexual" implications some emotes/armors had in conjunction..."

The term you are looking for I think is "Lolicon".

I won't debate if the Elin themselves fit that definaiton. Since female versions of Gnomes in WoW, Asure in GW2 and the Lalafell of FFXIV could all easily fall under that term in the right unfortunate context. It was the outfits the original game they are rolled in had some disturbing implications - as in, lol pedobear implications. To which I have noted the current Western versions have been toned down to that effect significantly. Now understandably it's likely debated its not toned down far enough though.

@(Unverified)

Oh bugger...double post. Having a bad day. :(

@Saerain I was thinking they'd look cuter, but my take-away is that they look a bit creepy, like dolls. I think it's the idle animation coupled with the glassy, unblinking eyes..

Also yeah, the extra wide hips aren't child-like in the least.

More like these are short, decolletage-bankrupt women with large heads.

Making a warrior with a weapon larger than her entire body would be amusing, but I could see these things becoming a dime-a-dozen fast. I may have to stick to making a Castanic as I'd already planned.

@Utakata In that 'pedobear' vein, it might be convenient that the males of that race, the Popori (yeah, Elin and Popori are females and males in the same race, talk about sexual dimorphism!) have some ursinoids that could be made into a pretty good representation of Pedobear.

In fact I fully expect that. Like how any playable Elf race in any given MMO has a glut of PCs named some variation of 'Legolas', we will be seeing all sorts of permutations of 'Pedobear'.

@Cyroselle

Elin and Popori are actually part of a collective of nature-bound races, not two halves of the same race (hence why they're separated in character creation as opposed to being under the same banner like humans, elves, castanics, and aman are).

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Me, I actually like the Elin for being a great breath of fresh air in terms of race selection. Cuteness has been sorely lacking in MMOs in general (gnomes being more... gross, to me, than cute), so it's really nice to see something addressing that. What *isn't* so nice, obviously, is all the hullahbahlloo surrounding them that really makes no sense to my mind.

I mean, you have the Castanics running around nearly naked (if not outright nude in certain "armors"), yet the relatively modest outfits of the Elin get so much attention, so much so that they actually had to change them for the western market? I've heard all the arguments, particularly the "they're obviously modelled after kids!" one, and they just make no sense if you actually stand back and look at them.

For one, they don't *behave* like children (hence the "writhing around like pole dancers" comment above). The accusation of "sexualizing children" would have a lot more merit if they were actually trying to complete the illusion. Two, again, they don't actually look that much like children - their body proportions are clearly alien, and their faces are heavily stylized (though some of the more realistic faces *are* irksome, I will agree - but mostly because they're ugly, not cute).

Thirdly - and I will play devil's advocate for a second here - even if they ARE pandering to that certain "demographic", is there really something wrong with that? A lot of folks seem to think there is, but quite frankly, I find that thought terrifying - it veers heavily into "thought crime" and "guilty until proven innocent" territory, the way a lot of folks condemn anyone who enjoys this sort of thing without thought or consideration. Let's be straight here, folks - there are very few paedophiles out there, the few that there are very rarely actually commit any actual crimes, and the ones who DO commit crimes are a rare few within that number. And of those that are lolicons, not all are paedophiles. The scare surrounding them is just that, and the only reason it exists is because of the recency effect (which has absolutely nothing to do with how frequently the crimes occur in reality - check with anyone who watches lots of TV news, and they'll estimate a much higher proportion of homicide than is in actual reality).

I could go into a tangent here about so many things, but I've already been thoroughly convinced that just typing this much is a complete waste of my time. There's simply too many people out there who subscribe entirely to emotion and completely ignore anything that does not jive with their instincts. It's a real shame, that.

A damn shame.

@(Unverified)
It's the mysterious cultural phenomena of, "Hey, this worked once, let's try it over and over and over again and see if it keeps printing money!" You may have heard that Western MMO development is similarly afflicted, even though it comes from a different starting point.

It also probably makes sense to at least find out whether or not a game is grind-heavy before ranting about it.

@(Unverified)

Firstly, this game is much less grindy than most western-originated MMOs, so your assertion there is dead wrong. People who felt it was grindy must be accustomed to gaining 5 levels in 5 minutes ala World of Warcraft, so that's just misinformation being spread right there. Asian games are typically terribly grindy, and the Korean version may have been, I can't attest to that - but the US version is definitely not, it's been westernized better than any asian MMO I've ever seen/played.

Secondly, the High Elven and Castanic males are pretty androgynous, as those types of races almost always are in games - but male humans, male Aman and Baraka - who while technically "sexless" look entirely male - look very masculine. I played an Aman on one of the servers and it was probably the coolest looking character I've ever had in an MMO, repeat, ever.

The combat really is all it's cracked up to be, the CBT weekend might be the most fun I've ever had in an MMO in such a short period of time, it was awesome. The few duels I had were easily the best, most rewarding PvP I've experienced, and my wife thought so too. I've been cautiously optimistic for 2 and a half years that this game would be great, not wanting to set myself up for disappointment because of the fact that the vast majority of MMOs are regurgitated crap with boring gameplay. After all that time, I can finally say that if you're sick of this same-old tab-target 1-2-3 hit chance dodge chance crap where the only thing remotely resembling any sort of tactics lie in the juggling of cooldown timers, then this game is an awesome alternative.

As far as other aspects of gameplay are concerned, I think the crafting is just fine. I mean, it's crafting, which never usually excites me much, but it seems a bit more interesting than the crafting most MMOs include - it's no Elder Scrolls crafting but it's good. Obviously I didn't get a chance to delve into the political system as (as far as I know) it wasn't in place for this CBT round, and the graphics, while awesome, are still not optimized because high-resolution texture packs have yet to be installed at this stage, so it's going to look even better, which excites me and frightens some. The questing in some ways was nothing special, though it did have some cutscenes with voice scripting for the more important parts, and it's certainly no worse than any other MMO's questing which is generally not exciting anyway - but the combat system really makes questing fun. You just want to find something to fight all the time, so quests telling you where to go and who to fight are A-OK with me. It was a great time, my wife and I already miss it, and the CBT round just shut down 10 1/2 hours ago, haha.

@(Unverified) "I've zero interest in the 'unable to tell whether it's a boy or girl' style of animation in games like this too. The male toons are almost as pretty as the female ones."

Oh, no. They sexes are almost equally objectified. How terrible.