Do you think all species should have dimorphism?

[Predat0rs]

The topic title is explanatory n_n

 

"Do you think all species should have dimorphism?"

 

In my opinion, yes. I think they should. As someone who categorizes my dragons by a male female male female pattern, I love it when my scroll looks like this:

 

and this looks so plain:

 

Your thoughts?

[Pink]

If the artists can pull it off, yes, it would be nice.

Unfortunately, spriting can be a lot of work, so I'm not expecting this to happen anytime soon.

 

[Goslander]

Nope, I don't. I enjoy there being variety in the way Dragon's genders are dealt with, and I think the ratio of dragons with and without dimorphism is fine. I'd also have to argue that there is absolutely nothing plain about that beautiful row of Sunstone dragons.

[Fuzzbucket]

No - I think it is entirely up to the artists, and I LOVE variety.

 

Some animals and birds, the genders look different, and others they don't. This is no different.

[Wookieinmashoo]

No, because it can be a pain to make. I find if the species has no difference between males and females that it's often pointless to make another sprite.

[Nymue]

I love dimophism but since the artists create (with a lot of work and effort) one single sprite we should be grateful for that one. If they'll add a dimosphed sprite I'll be more than happy, if not, I'm happy anyway

[elynne]

I'd love it if all the breeds were dimorphic; I think it's more interesting, and adds a lot of visual interest to a scroll's collection.

 

That said, there's only one breed I would -really- like to see be dimorphic, the reds--and that's because I have an -army- of them on my scroll, and it would be nice to be able to tell the males and females apart easily. u.u

[SolarCat]

I absolutely love dimorphism. It makes purebred lineages look more interesting, differentiates quickly between male and female images, and really adds variety to the scroll.

 

That said, making a single sprite is a lot of work, and so there's certainly understandable reasons why they may not be dimorphic. Having dragons with the same sprite for each gender is pretty, as well, and just as fun to enjoy.

 

So I'm okay either way, I have no complaints in one direction or the other.

(Although I truly do lament the loss of a chance for a male Frill, I was looking forward to him.)

[Completely Different]

I personally prefer it, but I don't think its necessary.

 

It can take a lot of time to produce a sprite, and as someone who's participated and released concepts, it can sometimes be difficult to get the second sex sprite down. In particular, if the artists or conceptors start going through a busy line, there's the possibility of the concept just flundering. Sometimes the conceptors just don't want a second sprite to better show that there's no fundamental difference between males and females.

 

This is especially true in concepts which already have multiple sprites for other reasons- they're part of a set (like 'gemstones' or ' plants' or 'elements') or one of my upcoming concepts which have night and day forms. Making four adult sprites could be very time consuming in that case.

[CoraxG]

I think it's fine to have it or not to have it.

 

Mostly, I just hope no more existing species will be given dimorphism retroactively. I like the way my lineage pages look now and don't want them to change.

[kadoatie]

I don't care/mind if new breeds do - probably prefer it - but like several people above, I very much prefer that old breeds not be given dimorphs. Lineages were hard enough without being upturned by new sprites :'P

[Caius]

I prefer dimorphism too, but there's a lot of work to change the sprite so if the artist(s) don't want to or don't have time to change it I won't argue with that. And as some already said, some speices has no difference between females and males so I don't mind that some dragons has dimorphism and some hasn't.

[Fengari]

Like many people here, I would love it but I'm not complaining because I know spriting is a lot of work (I tried a few times myself but I'm hopeless, I'm afraid).

[Renorei]

No, I definitely don't think all species should have dimorphism.

 

To be frank, most of the time the dimorphic sprites bother me. More often than not, the sprites for the males are more dynamic/bigger/more colorful/more interesting/more agressive, etc., essentially they are just generally better most of the time, whereas the female sprites are often less dynamic, less active, smaller, more demure, less interesting, etc. This doesn't even make sense from a RL perspective. Sure, with some RL species, there is a significant degree of dimorphism between male and females, but in many many others, males and females can't be determined unless you can see the animal's junk. Anatomy-wise, most of our dragons seem to borrow from canines, felines, and horses, and for the most part those animals aren't dimorphic (except lions) except for a slight size difference. Even in many reptile and fish species there is no dimorphism. The types of animals with the most dimorphism are birds, and most of our dragons have little in common with birds anatomy-wise, except for the fact that they have wings.

 

If spriters consistently made a sincere effort to make sure that the sprites for each gender were equal and that the females weren't generally getting the short end of the stick, then I'd like dimorphism more. But for instance, when I look at a female bluna sprite and then a male bluna sprite, it honestly bothers me. The male looks so awesome and active, and the female looks so passive. They are both extremely well-done sprites, but why does the male have to be so awesome compared to the female? Or look at the shallow waters. The male is this big, awesome, epic looking dragon and the female (while she is gorgeous for sure) just doesn't compare. Or the black marrows. Same thing again. Bad-ass looking male and far more demure female. There are so many other dragons that are the same way. It's not always this way--with some sprites I feel like the males and females are more-or-less equal in awesomeness, like with the nebulas, waters, and hellfires, but so often it's like the spriters said to themselves, "Let's make one sprite that is dynamic and bad-ass looking, and one sprite that is passive and less interesting, and let's have the male be the "cool" one and the female be the passive one." Why not make them both equally awesome? This isn't to say that there shouldn't be some sprites where the male is awesome and the female is passive, but it's gone too far in my opinion.

 

That's what I'm trying to do with my maroon dragons, though whether I have succeeded will be up to other people to judge. I put one of them in a tough, planted battle stance with its mouth open in a growl, and I put the other in a rearing pose like it's about to leap. They both look pretty dynamic to me, and I don't feel like either gender has gotten the "short end of the stick" so to speak. If I introduce dimorphic poses for my wish pygmies or eggstompers I'll try to do the same thing.

 

For sprites that don't have dimorphism, I wouldn't mind if the male and female sprites were mirror images of each other, just so someone could tell by looking at the picture which is male and which is female. But, no, we don't need dimorphism for every species.

Edited September 7, 2011 by Renorei

[Iside]

I don't think every species should have dimonphism.

 

And I really hope they will not add dimorphism in the future to some actual species that don't have at the moment!

[SPQR]

More often than not, the sprites for the males are more dynamic/bigger/more colorful/more interesting/more agressive, etc., essentially they are just generally better most of the time

Well yes, but that's because the males in most species of animals ARE more aggressive. Even with sprites that look similar, such as Purples, the male's stance is more open and aggressive, while the female is sitting. In real life, male animals tend to be the 'Alphas', while the females usually take care of their young.

 

Plus, there are some sprites that I like the female version of better.

 

Examples:

 

Pillow

vs male (Male actually looks way more passive than Female here)

 

Hellfire

vs male (Female also looks really aggressive and cool)

 

Vamp

vs male (Female looks more 'vampiric' IMO)

 

ETA: Back to the point of the topic, I think it should be as Pink said. Sprites take forever to make, but it would be cool if we had male and female versions of dragons, especially the older ones.

Edited September 7, 2011 by SPQR

[Mustangs44]

I think it should be up to the artist. More pretty sprites makes me happy, but I don't care if there's not dimorphism for every breed.

[mpolo]

Obviously, it's ultimately up to the artist. But I like dimorphism. For some of the dragons it should be more a different pose than a really divergent form. And then occasionally breeds where they are really different.

 

Someone there said that the female blunas make him/her sad, which I don't understand, since at least to me, they look like two poses of exactly the same thing, with the female no smaller or different looking than the male. Swallowtails and Moonstones have notably "plainer" females than males. But I'm not seeing it with the Blunas.

[Isuzu]

I'm all for dimorphism. It just gives the scroll a bit more diversity and more to collect for collectors.

On the other hand, it isn't half bad to have some species without dimorphism. I mean, in RL there are several animals who look the same regardless of gender, so why not in game too?

[Obscure_Trash]

Nope; I like the variety we can do, and most of my favorite sprites don't have dimorphism. :3

 

EDIT: (I actually wish for less dimorphism sometimes, lol.)

 

EDIT2: Actually, it's ironic you put the sunstones up as "plain". To me they are anything but plain and fought out a lot of other dragons for my favorite as soon as I saw the adult. They're absolutely gorgeous and I actually don't think I'd like them as much if they had dimorphism. (Lots of time with dimorphism I end up liking one sprite a ton better than the other and that balances out so that I don't really care for the dragon as much as I would if it had been just the one sprite.) ^^

Edited September 8, 2011 by SockPuppet Strangler

[rubyshoes]

I think it should be up to the artist. More pretty sprites makes me happy, but I don't care if there's not dimorphism for every breed.

Agree with this. The more pretty sprites the better but I don't think every species need dimorphism.

[blackdragon71]

It'll be up to the artists in the end, but I'm okay with some of my favorite breeds not having differences in the genders. Not every species in reality has a gender difference, either, and that doesn't detract from the beauty of nature for me either. Leave well enough alone, says I.

[egwenna]

I'm in with Rubyshoes and Mustang44: dimorphism is a grand and wonderful thing, but not a necessity. I loved the Stripes just for having different colors and wish more dragons had a similar 'quirk' to them. Variety adds spice.

[Renorei]

Someone there said that the female blunas make him/her sad, which I don't understand, since at least to me, they look like two poses of exactly the same thing, with the female no smaller or different looking than the male. Swallowtails and Moonstones have notably "plainer" females than males. But I'm not seeing it with the Blunas.

You're right, they pretty much look like exactly the same dragon but in a different pose.

 

But that different pose is very significant. Let's look at the male. He is in an "open", active, moving pose. His "wings" are spread and the sail on his back is raised. His pose looks like a dragon that was photographed in the midst of movement, like he was swimming along at breakneck speed and suddenly he sees a fish off in another direction, and he is about to charge it.

 

Now let's look at the female. Her body is in a "closed" pose. Her wings are folded, and her tail is held close curled up to her body. The sail on her back is lowered. Her pose in general does not suggest activity, dynamism, and movement, but demureness, passiveness, stillness, etc.

 

Both sprites are GORGEOUS. But I wish we had only gotten one of them, preferably the male sprite, or that we had gotten two of them and the female sprite had been in an equally active, interesting pose.

 

 

There are some examples in the cave of "dimorphism done right." Sunsongs are a good example. There are no noticeable anatomical differences between the sprites, they are just in different poses. But neither pose is "more awesome" or "more dynamic" than the other. One of the Sunsong sprites is actually in a very similar pose to the male bluna. The other is in a completely different pose, but it is no less dynamic and interesting than the other.

Edited September 8, 2011 by Renorei

[Goslander]

If spriters consistently made a sincere effort to make sure that the sprites for each gender were equal and that the females weren't generally getting the short end of the stick, then I'd like dimorphism more.  But for instance, when I look at a female bluna sprite and then a male bluna sprite, it honestly bothers me.  The male looks so awesome and active, and the female looks so passive.  They are both extremely well-done sprites, but why does the male have to be so awesome compared to the female?  Or look at the shallow waters.  The male is this big, awesome, epic looking dragon and the female (while she is gorgeous for sure) just doesn't compare.  Or the black marrows.  Same thing again.  Bad-ass looking male and far more demure female.

The three examples you cite are three dragon breeds for which I think the female sprite is far superior to the male sprite. Where you see "demure" I see "elegant and stately," and when you say "bad ass" I'm thinking "hokey." I went through and found only three breeds where I believe the female sprite does look less dynamic than the male, but that was it, so I think what you're noticing relies a lot on personal taste.

 

I personally don't care if every sprite from here on out has dimorphism or not. Occasionally I do wish we had a tad less dimorphism, but I also think dragons with useful BSAs are better served by having dimorphism simply because of the need to collect so many of them (I'm looking at you, Reds).

Edited September 8, 2011 by Goslander