Anthem demo: thoughts on Javelin's fixed frame and faceless protagonist.

Anthem will have a social hub but it isn't ready yet. Not sure if it is in or out of the suit.

I'm confused when "RPG" came to mean "character customization and gender selection". Is The Witcher not an RPG? Deus Ex?

RPG is a very broad term, which can include many games. Some games offer you the choice of creating your own character almost from the scratch (TES games, for instance), others give you a pre-set, existing character for you to assume the role of. Some games offer you several decisions to make which affect the course of the game (such as the titles you've mentioned), others, not so many.

Now, are character customization and gender selection intrinsic part of RPGs? Not necessarily. Some RPGs have it as a core element, some don't. Just like some non-RPG games have customization as a pretty relevant element, particularly online looter games like The Division, Destiny and Anthem (yep, Anthem is not a RPG, mind you), and others don't.

All that being said, when character customization is a relevant element of a game, particularly on full-priced AAA titles from major publishers, I like to see it properly implemented, and not containing questionable design choices which can be interpret as shortcuts adopted to avoid the extra work.

because its a hack job of a game chasing an audience that never existed

Because it's a vehicle, not a character. Did you buy the "female" version Toyota Corolla?

Exactly what I included on my original post, that javelins are not simply armor but rather exoskeleton suits, or vehicles, as you mentioned. I guess there is no other explanation to that. And that explanation is in itself fair enough.

I believe that on a sci-fi game, Bioware could have taken the artistic license and made these javelins look differently on male and female characters. But well, they didn't, they took the gender-less route, fair enough.

you say design choice, I say cut corner

In Cyberpunk, the entire game is in 1st person. The combat takes place in 1st person. They took the 1st person design from the scratch and built the game from there.

In Anthem, the entire game is in 3rd person and it is built in 3rd person from the scratch (some of the combat animations are clearly recycled from Andromeda). The only moment that the game for some odd reason is not in 3rd person it's when you are outside of your javelin.

As for the javelins' fixed frames for male and female characters, I see your point and I agree with it. I personally think Bioware made some very questionable design decisions though, and I wondered where everyone stands on them.

I'm repeating what the devs actually said...you know, the ones who made the game...but you can think that if you want

LOL!

It's in your suit, as you can see from the short video clip. And, because of common sense -- personalization only applies to suits, as per /thread, and social hubs are to show off your personalization and *cough* mtx purchases *cough*.

So they cut corners in Cyberpunk too?

You already said that they are trying something new. So why FPV is suddenly not that?

And btw. I'm speaking as not a big fan of FPV, but I don't' expect every decision in every game I play to be to my liking.