Of Clothing and Tailors

Basically, we all know the the biggest thing in cyberpunk, for the most part, is style.  A large part of style is fashion.  Back in the day, immigrants could get some generic material and make whatever clothing and accessories they wanted, made exactly how they wanted it.  Why this may some a little twinkish, I think it's a very acceptable sacrifice of 'realistically, immigrants wouldn't have shit…' to gain players being more unique, being able to express themselves better, etc.

"But, we have tailors!" I hear you cry. Before I say anything,  I want all to know that I hold no malice toward any IC tailors, and I'm honestly not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but the current player-created clothing available / for sale in the game, on a creative level, is abyssmal at best; it doesn't even come close to meeting the creative needs of the environment.  Those that wear this player-created clothing wear it not because they really like it (at least those I've spoken with, and it does appear to be the general opinion), but because they /have no other options/.  There's a sort-of monopoly occuring, and I think it's hurtful to the game as a whole.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm suggesting here..the return of generic materials to the public, some sort of automated NPC-based system for getting it out there...but basically, it comes down to this:

* Clothing and style are very large parts of CP, and I want to see characters expressing themselves.

* The current player-driven fashion sector fails at letting characters express themselves, for numerous reasons that I've already stated, and more.

Again, I'm not trying to insult anyone, but I do see this as a problem.

(Edited by Lotus at 2:26 pm on Feb. 16, 2004)

(Edited by Lotus at 2:27 pm on Feb. 16, 2004)

There's IC ways to be compensated for your work, and for getting it in circulation. If you think you could do so much better, start tailoring. Or if it's not in your characters personality to do so, submit the message sets via email and we'll see that they make their way into circulation.

But make sure they're up to par... The messages need to be creative, yet universal enough to apply to any wearer, and spell and grammer checked. We havn't put anything in the game recently because we havn't seen anything worth putting.

To quote Beavis: "This sucks, change it!". It's within your power to do so.

-Kevlar

Because what your saying is, 'only bitch if you can fix it'. LET THEM BITCH, how else is someone who -is- creative supposed to realize there is a preceived problem. People who perceive stuff to need improvement but yet don't have the ability have the right to complain.

Gods, I actually agree with Johnny. I'll go hang my head in shame over here now.

Personally, I think the negatives far outweigh the positives in not having easily accessible materials for players to make their clothes, as well as various inert items to use as RP tools. I do admit that I haven't been able to ever see what any broader implications of how materials were misused and abused back in the day, but they never reached me except for the occasional nonsensical item left abandoned somewhere. I did, however, see a lot of creativity going on, and often you got a much stronger visual impression of a character than just their basic physical traits.

There are still a lot of characters who have something better than 'newbie-clothes', but it's not as abundant as it used to be, and because of the limited supply, these materials have to be treated like a rare and valuable resource, even if it's really just a t-shirt. Using them as RP objects is a whole other issue. While it's just as easy to pose a lot of stuff, in many instances having an actual, tangible object works much more nicely. Especially if it needs to be persistent or change hands a few times.

Aside from that, there's a good mix of unique tailored clothing, as well as store-bought stuff.
And I think it helps visualize things if you already know what NeXus trenches look like in your mind, and half the characters are wearing them.
And changing outfits is good.

That is all. And all is incoherent. But..my vote is for yay.

...
meh.

but is there -any- armor in the game that is possible to be worn under clothing

Well there's armored clothing….

I don't know how many bulletproof vests you've put on recently but you don't exactly slip a button up collared shirt on over thoes, and not have it look like your wearing a monkey on your front and back (which is of course the problem with wearing armor like that under clothing: It should be noticable, but it's not). If it's lighter than that, I'de immagine it's light enough to be built into the clothing itself.

Which brings us back to types of materials which offer different forms of protection and that whole discussion... I know there's a post on the BgBB about that somewhere, so maybe that's a discussion worth picking up in that thread.

Perhaps if there were more people trying to be tailors and make clothing there might be more of an urgency to get that squared away...

-Kevlar

My mother wears her vest under a turtle neck and a button-up shirt every night she's on the paramedic rig. It wasn't noticible at all to me when I went home for a visit and she showed me.

I don't know what your mother's… err... build is, but was this a female's vest? Did it have boob holders?

Just for my own sanity let's stop using your mom as an example and switch to your averagely built woman.

I'm just getting this mental vision of a flat chested woman with a turtle neck sweater on... Am I that far off? Surely if they didn't have boob indents she would look pretty different than if she was just wearing the sweater?

And was she encumbered at all while wearing it?

Oh, and my statement was 'You don't just slip a button up collared shirt on over it and not look like your wearing a monkey on your front and back." I didn't say anything about sweaters...

-Kevlar

(Edited by Kevlar at 1:34 pm on Feb. 17, 2004)

Thanks so much.

Ahem. Yeah, thanks.

(Edited by Aikao at 1:06 am on Feb. 28, 2004)

If that's not as good a reason as any IC'y then I don't know that is.  

it definately requires skill, and how do you acquire skill if there's nobody around to teach you? trial and error, and practice, practice, practice…. how do you get to be good at anything? frickin practice....   fighters practice their fighting skills, people (at least I do, and I hope others do too) practice some shit ICly when their skills grow in them...   (oh yeah there is also that huge library on green full of books to read that you could ICly learn stuff from me thinks.)

* Artistry         --
Artistic ability that can be expressed through a variety of ways including tattooing and tailoring.

--an elaboration--

The ability to think in an artistic/creative manner that is applied to a given set of problems. These problems can be visual, tactile, even metaphysical. Let me provide you of a case where a character would benifit, though in a non-coded sense, from having some ability to think creatively.

John Doe is a gambler. He'd been a gambler his whole life, and he'd made a fortune at it when times were good. But the trouble with being a gambler is that times go bad real fast. So John, being the creative powerhaus that he is, has devised a 'system'. He bets 2k on the first hand, then doubles it each time, untill he wins. Statistically, he's always won within 10 hands. It's sheer brilliance!

----

Okay, so it's not the hottest example, but I hope you can see how the skill functions in a broader sense than simple coded jobs. Artistry is the ability to think creatively to solve a problem. A con man in an artist. A theif is an artist. A stripper is an artist. A bartender is an artist. A chef is an artist.

All of them need to think up schemes and plans to get the job done, often in creative and showy manners so they make good tips/grifts/ect

Hope that helps.

Quote: from Kevlar on 1:40 am on Mar. 15, 2004[br] SPELL AND GRAMMER CHECK

:)