Because someone or a group of someones decided that they did not like the feedback provided for in the original post regarding the censorship of outfits so they reported the post until it was hidden for being offensive or whatever excuse they used in their report.
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Amazon, you are such a weirdo
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At least it’d make it consistent with the male character, but it wouldn’t solve the main issue.
It kinda feels like if in WoW when you unequipped your gear/ started a new character your character would be in a store costume or in full epic gear.
It’s extremely bizarre and gives a very odd vibe.
The problems with them are all over the place and some have bigger problems than others and for various different reasons.
For example I actually think that the Magician one looks better, but it still looks too developed for ‘’ I have no gear on ‘’ and it also looks more like a store skin/ mid to late game gear.
It’s like there’s just a fundamental lack of understanding of progression and gear design going on there.
And some of them just blatantly don’t even fit the character fantasy like the Female Martial Artist who looks like a Gothic Knight.
The goal of their action IS to replace these entirely and eventually wipe it all out. Their goal isn’t to avoid the controversy, the entire reason they put time, effort, resources and delay time into the project IS this…having this affect ALL npcs and the game as a whole IS the endgame, it is the goal, it is the final product.
This is just one of many contradictions that exist when political narratives are shoehorned into the game. The goal is to get them in, not to care about what your opposition thinks (anyone who is against this is considered opposition btw).
This is what happens when the narrative involves censoring females and leaving the male costumes alone.
That’s the primary reason for the delays. This is why the game will release march, maybe later. They have to purify it all, they have to get rid of it all. They didn’t mention the outfits still in the game because they are keeping them, they mentioned those other outfits because they haven’t gotten to them yet.
The goal isn’t to create new options. They aren’t trying to create costumes to give us more options, they are creating costumes to replace the old options. Heck if you take off the gear, you’ll be even more covered up.
They are creating NPC changes to replace the NPCs too. Many children are removed, many Koreans have their skin color changed, several important NPCs in the game have been changed this way too.
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I really don’t think that it’s fair to just assume that there’s political motives and I also don’t think that it does any good it kinda makes people come across as unhinged.
I am very socially progressive and consider myself a Feminist but I also love the Korean gear design.
Trying to turn this into some political culture war and then when people throw in the NPC skin colors and all that is just making it easier for them to dismiss the issue as ‘’ bad people are being crazy ‘’.
And whether you like the skins or not isn’t and shouldn’t be a political statement it really has nothing to do with that.
If there are some personal feelings at the office about this I don’t think that it has to do with a ‘’ narrative ‘’ or politics, it most likely just has to do with personal sensabilities.
Having those sensabilities is fine I guess, but they should not override the game that the Korean developers created.
If they want to add in extra costumes for people with those that’s fine but they should be the ‘’ other option ‘’.
The ‘’ other option ‘’ should NOT be the original, the original should be the default.
Your entire comment can be summed up as… Amazon purposefully delayed the game so that they can water down, westernize, and shove as much of the leftist political agenda into the game to the point that the NA/EU version will be unrecognizable compared to the KR/RU/JP versions.
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Yes. It’s political motives. ABSOLUTELY ZERO REASON OTHERWISE ROFL.
No. AGS did this, not me, not you, not anyone on this forum. No one here censored costumes, that was AGS, not us.
They thought it was ok to purge the Koreans from most of the important parts of the game NPC-wise. If that’s not overriding, idk what is.
Then tell AGS to stop politicizing it.
It’s a shame, because this political push is no different from the conservative push for censorship on video games and TV shows in the 90s. The difference is that everyone playing and developing those games back then had a Libertarian view on it and doubled down…Sex appeal and Violence appeared in games MUCH more, it was a major booming success. That’s how much people hated censorship then.
I guess that makes me old fashioned to still have that libertarian view…one that rejects censorship no matter where it comes from.
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Like seriously please… Stuff like this is only counter-productive.
If people think that being a left or right-winger is the deciding factor of whether you enjoy these skins or not then some of y’all need to touch grass.
And even if you think that it’s true, you’re only making it harder for them to walk back because suddenly it becomes a political statement to make the game more accurate to Korea.
This isn’t a political issue…
No they didn’t, AGS have never made a statement about this that has been political you’re reading it into it.
If they came out and were all like ‘’ yeah these nasty Koreans huh? We had to solve this for current day ‘’ then that’d be different but nothing like that has happened.
You’re the one politicizing it here.
And even if you were right you’d only be making them feel as if they had to stick to what they’re doing now otherwise they’re letting ‘’ those people ‘’ win…
It’s just so dumb…
Edit: Seriously please just stop… I don’t want them to not take the feedback seriously just because people are going insane and trying to spin this into a us vs them, they have not said anything political about it’s all just speculation.
Censorship is a statement. It is the quintessential political statement. It is obvious, it is overt and it is front-and-center.
Sorry but those are merely implications, you can take their political stance any way you want. They did a racial purge of Koreans for “Diversity”. See? That makes it not racist.
Sorry but if someone says that 2+2=5, I have the right to call it wrong and be objectively right when I do. The person saying this doesn’t have to say they are wrong for me to call it wrong. There’s nothing subjective about what censorship is. Censorship is a political action here.
You are right, making reactionaries more reactionary is counter-productive. But just like any other anti-political stance, you have to call a spade a spade or this crap isn’t going to stop.
Well I just wanna play a game that isn’t flipped on its head to sate a political stance. I’m sick of it and its a shame just watching everything become a company’s political soapbox. I want to play the !@#$ing game.
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Greetings,
I have finally gone through all the posts in this thread.
Right off the bat, I want to express my utmost gratitude towards all users who brought all the relevant information,
pertaining to the censorship in this game as a whole. Your efforts DO make a difference. Thank you!
Throughout this whole thread I’ve seriously considered every point made here thus far, and took notes.
Let me list what we’re dealing with currently:
- Heavily inaccurate and aggressive Chat Filters;
- Altered Friendly / Enemy NPC names;
- Original NPCs’ Skin color and Facial features changed;
- Character Customization Face Presets removed;
- Default Character Model’s Outfits removed;
Chat Filters. These are so aggressive and broad in what they touch on, that even ordinary everyday words in other native
languages are affected and quite simply, conversation-breaking to the point of having to use a social platform to continue it.
NPC Names. Other topics already are made on the fact that with rough translation, the consistency of names between other
regions is same or highly similar, while the AGS client is receiving completely different naming for Ally & Enemy NPCs.
This is immediately going to cause confusion and various misunderstandings when communicating with other regions, making
guides and references in general.
NPC Skin & Faces. The original game client already has a plethora of “people of color”. Where’s a logical and legal excuse for aggressively changing the world and visual content of the product that people have invested money and time into, when
these changes were not even suggested before AGS lauched the Founder’s Edition purchase webpage?
Character Customization. Removal of many original game’s face options. Stripping people of potential Role-Playing, diverse
customization freedom to one’s taste, and overall downgrading the product’s value.
Character Models’ Outfits. Removal of original attire that the playable characters wear when their equipment is taken off.
Once again, this brings us a different product where the theme of the characters’ attire does not blend or match the visual
environmental game concept, making them look out of place, while also severely limiting the possible mix-and-match potential
between various different pieces of equipment and the default “underwear” of our characters.
Next, some quotes from the “The Ark #4 Closed Beta Feedback” livestream:
35:10 Wilky: “I think why people are so upset isn’t in fact that they might NOT see the “booba”, or that there might be clothing over it, but I think it’s more about the actual ACT of the censoring that people are annoyed, sad, angry about. I think this is where the emotions are coming from, NOT actually from the FACT that they don’t get to see their skin on their characters”
35:40 Roxanne: “I promised they’re there. We’ve said this before: the starting outfits that you’ll get on your character, are different, and a little bit more covered up, but they’re there as WHITE DROPS. They have not been removed from the game.
Those are just new, they’ve been added-in, and you can find the old ones, the original starting outfits, as white drops.”
38:38 Sywo: “…Now, I don’t want to get into this race, and why Smilegate has changed the color of the skin of some NPCs to make them represent more of what’s going on here in the WEST…”
1:33:53 Lin-O: “… we have a lot of new face options, in fact, when you’re on character creator. However, this also means that some of the OLDER face options that are available in OTHER clients got DELETED 
. My Arcana’s face got deleted , so I was wondering, you know, for the chat as well, is there’s any… (gets cut off here by Sywo)”
Having watched their livestream, it seems clear: they do not seem to recognize or even bring up the fact that the default playable characters’ attires were completely changed.
Therefore, I can only give one advice to the whole playerbase - refund your founder’s packs ASAP.
You all paid for the original game.
This is becoming a Private Server of Lost Ark, under the publisher with a likely time-limited contract to Smilegate.
With reputation possibly crumbling down when they continue to censor future content that Smilegate will continue to
provide, you risk having your investment in this altered product version being completely stolen and possibly wasted,
if they choose to not transfer your account data if they ever have to shut down the western servers.
Play smart and safe, and use the information we provide to help others who are left in the unknown by their silence.
Also I have some input of my own.
I noticed something odd when I was interacting with a Rapport NPC in Prideholme.
My Berserker’s character body skin was not matched by the color that I chose (check face)
I ask that anyone with KR/RU account to check if their lv28~30 armor matches the color of face to other exposed skin parts.
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I’m honestly going to wait and see what changes the closed beta feedback brings about. If Amazon sweeps the most vocal feedback (things like the outfits, chat filter, skin tone on important NPC’s, and reverting boss names when they are tied to a musical set piece) under the rug then I will refund my Founder’s Pack. Ignoring those kinds of issues will show that Amazon cares more about catering to and creating a watered down version of Lost Ark instead of adhering to the original vision and look of the game as made by Smilegate.
Edit: Yes I know they’ve addressed the chat filter issue already but it remains to be seen what they actually do about it and what kinds of change they bring.
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I absolutely agree about the “NO HEELS” and boots instead 
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Hey did you know that Panda express isn’t real Chinese? hey didn’t you know that Cali roll are not real sushi? Or that Taco Bell isn’t real Mexican food? do you want to try the real thing or experience it as it was natively made? well good for you you can go to authentic places in there home countries, and there are place here that don’t censor the food either and provide the authentic thing. Yet you can’t do that with this game, and you can’t have the original or try it ever why? because Amazon say’s so and for hat reason? because they are politically charged is why. I don’t have a Korean address which is needed to play the Korean version not to mention the language problem that I would be willing to figure out a fix for, and so I have zero access to the original version of the game. So I and many other player a SOL why? for puritans who don’t really play the game or even its life blood of it. I am going to give them a chance to reverse it as I want to play, but if this shit isn’t fixed I’ll just refund.
Also I want to add that if the original game and this one had the same design I wouldn’t be asking for any sort of change for something more skimpy as that isn’t the point here. Again how about I take the OG Mona Lisa an put a Burka on it because it upsets the Muslim extremist and every other iteration too. It is wrong on principal, intent, an morally wrong to censor and remove intent. To not only me, but also the artist, an everyone else involved with the game. If you argument is oh I like this better that isn’t an argument that is adding ketchup to your own food, and not everyone else or get another dish.
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Holy heck this hits the nail on the head, I’m so glad someone else at least says it.
Irrelevant to the actual gripe and out of touch with the core of why the gripe exists.
This also builds on why there have been no follow-up replies to this thread at all after the single statement earlier.
It’s really sad that AGS needs to essentially remake the whole game, valuing their political stance over everything else in the whole release flowchart.
Yeah I’m not sure why it always has to be heels.
We don’t eat these things because they are natively made, nor do we care. We eat these things because they taste good to us…and its a terrible analogy for you to make.
It’s not the content, its the ACTION behind the changes.
Wilky: “I think why people are so upset isn’t in fact that they might NOT see the “booba”, or that there might be clothing over it, but I think it’s more about the actual ACT of the censoring that people are annoyed, sad, angry about. I think this is where the emotions are coming from, NOT actually from the FACT that they don’t get to see their skin on their characters”
It’s this. And AGS doesn’t care about this and WILL CONTINUE to censor everything because they think they have the moral and political high ground here. And this is why they are full steam ahead and don’t give a single !@#% about feedback here because to AGS…the conversation ended at post 10.
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I made an account on the Russia server. One weird thing is how much faster the account level (not character) is going. Might be a promotion or something idk.
It’s quite a bit worse than put on here namely for the Martial Artist class. I would provide side-by-side comparisons of the gear during the leveling process but I can’t exactly log back into the NA/EU version. Why this is being done is beyond me for an M rated title. I hope they don’t apply this to any of the story elements because the content is somehow too “sensitive”. It will derail the creator’s vision of the game. FF14 has one of the best stories I have seen in an MMO in a long time and it’s a Japanese developer AND doing immensely well here. I don’t know what their definition of Westernization or Normalization is here to be honest. It just seems like censorship.
It’s also really weird that they are adding some perceived diversity which includes the Asian themed continent and characters? Why are they changing Asian characters? Do we need to change the dwarves and elves to humans? Ridiculous. We don’t need coddling to be able to enjoy a game developed by another culture. It’s insulting and embarrassing.
Also, the cash shop aspect is the same really. You still get a free pet/mount at the start and earn others later. Also, the pet buff is cheap when bought alone from gems earned in-game so I hope they don’t force you to buy the “subscription” item to get it (a real change would be to make it free and have the convenience part paid). There are also a metric ton of free avatars (costumes). I imagine they will replace those with more “appropriate” ones since we get those without buying them.
This is all really disappointing. The funny thing is this game is doing so well in SKorea because Smilegate listens to their audience. SKorea gaming communities have been recently hating on P2W aspects of the games and Lost Ark is doing well because it has so little (gear doesn’t matter in PVP and competitive PVE content is item level capped).
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The founders pack skins are very mild compared to a lot of the store items (coming from someone that made a Russian account). There is absolutely no way we get those skins here if the trend continues. I’m willing to bet the Arcana class was delayed because the outfits are too racy because Mage classes are very popular.
Destroyer and Lancemaster were likely delayed because of upcoming reworks/balancing I think. That’s what I heard anyways that hey are getting balancing updates. I’m not sure about Reaper.
I see most of you saw the livestream yesterday and I see a lot of you saying you should refund your packs.
I agree. Refund your packs, show Amazon what your money can do!
Refund and dont play the NA/EU version.
Please
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Refund is a very good idea. Idk why people bought it in the first play, blindly.
But you can wait to see what they do, and what they… actually say, instead of being that silent.
No I will still play it. I dont care about this at all.
I just dont want to play with the people that do care.
Don’t worry, I will refund my pack, but you’re out of luck because I will also play the EU/NA version of the game. Of course they will not see a single penny from me until they can prove me it’s up to the quality of the original game… you know, because I do care.
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