Final Fantasy XIV - Low Level Character Appearance

I think I'm doing the whole "play computer game, see sexy female character" thing wrong.  I have a tendency to play both male and female characters in games I play for long periods of time.  Female characters are interesting to see how they interact with the world around them.  In some games, like EVE Online, your character's gender doesn't really matter.  Heck, for the first two years, my characters didn't even have bodies.  Even now, I mostly play with the hanger view on display so I never really see more than my characters' portraits.

A rare view in EVE

Apparently I am doing something wrong, because in the games I've played, I don't have scantily-clad, super sexy characters.

From The Secret World

I did see some rather revealing outfits in RIFT before I reached level 20, but in games like Everquest 2, Guild Wars 2, and Star Wars: The Old Republic, I didn't have the armor that wasn't really armor on my female characters.  I don't know if that's just the nature of the games or the classes I played.

Of course, just because I dress my characters conservatively doesn't mean everyone else does.  While games like GW2 attach stats to clothing/armor, EQ2 has an appearance system that gets around that restriction.  In both EVE and The Secret World, clothing doesn't matter at all beyond looks.  Let's just say that I saw a lot of female characters running around TSW in a bikini top and short shorts.

That brings us to the newest game I'm playing, Final Fantasy XIV.  Just how sexualized is that Japanese import?  To my surprise, not that much.

Beginning gear

The beginning clothing starts off skimpy, but became more tasteful as I've worked my conjurer up to level 16.  I'm currently wearing a long green robe with a hood.  Hopefully the style won't turn into Amarrian fantasy.

Delivering a message in FFXIV

Like I experienced in EQ2 when I hit the high levels, crafting in FFXIV has its own sets of gear to go with each job.  I keep several sets on hand because each of the crafting and gathering skills  are at different levels.

Taking the fish off the hook

One of the amusing things about appearance in FFXIV is that I go from nicely dressed to pretty poor in the blink of an eye.

Beginning Blacksmith

The difference in the quality of the clothing is pretty level dependent.  My botanist clothing got pretty nice looking around level 10 or so.

Talking to the botanists' guild master

I don't want to give anyone the impression that players in the early levels of FFXIV will not see a lot of female flesh.  Square Enix created an event called the Moonfire Faire that is currently running until 8 September.  Now that I've reached a high enough level, I'll need to try to run some of the quests.  But aside from the special event, the NPCs seem pretty conservatively dressed.

Two NPC scholars amongst the crowd

I'll close this off with one of the cutest things I've found about FFXIV so far.  When I log off in my inn room to get the rest bonus, I use the option found by clicking the bed.  This is the last view I see as the game closes down...

Getting a rest bonus for logging off