As you may know, I’ve been re-subscribed to World of Warcraft for several months now and have been having a great time in the new expansion. One of the things that’s been most enjoyable is seeing the Outlands from a new perspective- this expansion uses a parallel universe as an excuse to go back to the same location (albeit under different conditions) as their very first expansion, The Burning Crusade. Even more enjoyable is the fact that the armor choices for gear this time around have made a marked improvement in nearly every way! As the comic suggests, WoW has had some pretty egregious sets of armor, several of which offer full coverage to male toons and somehow disintegrate when a female toon equips them…
Vanilla and Burning Crusade years were dark times for female plate-wearers(or, at least those that wanted some semblance of coverage in their gear). Between these two releases a number of plate bikinis were designed. Indeed, the set to the left was presumably popular among designers, as it has no less than three recolors of its own and a similar set with an only slightly different “bra” piece also has three recolors. Yup, that’s a total of six plate “panty-and-thigh-high” sets right there (and this is just one style of metal lingerie). This post , while appearing after the release of WotLK, features mostly Vanilla/BC and and depicts the variation between male and female characters (and the issue itself) quite well.
In the next two expansions, Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) and Cataclysm, Blizz seemed to drop its affinity for plate bikinis, however it moved into a deep-seated love for crop-top armor. Yup, 
many of the armor sets seemed to boldly state that female mid-sections needed absolutely zero protection. Furthermore, while most of the older plate bikinis were questing gear and not high-level dungeon/raid gear, in these expansions several of the top sets (including the one pictured at right) did feature a bare midriff on female characters (but, mysteriously, not on male characters). Thus, while it would have been reasonably easy to just wear something else during the Vanilla/BC years (or change your armor quickly, if you had nothing better at the moment), in WotLK years female plate-wearers often didn’t have any other options. The Cata expansion introduced the transmog feature, allowing players to alter their armor’s appearance to any other piece they owned of the same armor type.
Finally, the latest two expansions, Mists of Pandaria (MoP) and Warlords of Draenor (WoD) feature no plate bikinis or crop-tops! That there is the armor of someone about to kick some butt in the 
name of the light. In some ways this is quite ironic- up until Cata players had very little control over the armor their characters wore. Sure, you could put a shirt under your armor or a tabard over your armor (both of which end up looking weird in many cases), but the gear you had was the gear you had and the only way to get the maximum output out of your character was to wear the best gear you could get. When Cata released and transmoging gear became a possibility players were given more control over the aesthetic of their characters. Love skimpy clothing on your character? Great! There are dozens of choices of old sets with questionable armor. Prefer something that actually looks like armor? We’ve got lots of that, too!
In it’s 10 year history WoW has evolved from having some pretty appalling examples of female armor to some much more reasonable styles, things that actually, oh I don’t know, look like they might defend you in a melee fight? Perhaps more importantly, though, is that the current game design provides a high level of choice to the player over how his/her character looks. While I was never a big fan of the plate bikinis (no, my holy warrior of the light is not interested in roaming the countryside wearing thigh-highs), those armor sets are still in the game, and with the transmog ability players who have the passion or the interest can design the look of their character however they like.
