What is going on with Square Enix and the 14 team?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AmpelioB

you are absolutely taking that phrase with wrong context.

---

I beg to differ, I think the community as a whole has been taking that phrase way out of context.
Honestly I personally think it came off to a lazy answer to a question.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Theodric

One has to question why they're made aware of a vocal minority demanding male characters to be granted the ability to use the infamous 'Karen' hairstyle

---

The Karen hair was always unisex. Gaius' son was our in-game preview for it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rokke

The Karen hair was always unisex. Gaius' son was our in-game preview for it.

---

This does nothing to remedy the fact that resources were wasted on a hair that is universally shunned by many male (and female) player characters instead of a style they would actually use. With so many other more prominent and popular hairstyles, it is a total mystery as to why the Karen cut was prioritized over them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IdowhatIwant

But yeah I am not sure where they are getting some of this feedback. When did beast tribe become controversial enough for it to be changed? They made this sound like it was a complaint for some time. Where did the whole adventure plates idea come from? These are things I don't see here or in game so I guess reddit and twitter.

---

I'd tentatively suggest it can be laid at the feet of the new localisation lead who took over some of the work from Koji back in Shadowbringers after he was moved to go and work on FFXVI:

https://twitter.com/fabulafatua

I suspect such influence due to this statement made during an interview a while back:

https://i.imgur.com/kcUQncm.png

Square Enix would probably do well with diversifying their localisation team to include people who pay attention to and gather feedback from a wider sample of players rather than those who simply flock to Twitter and are often far removed from regular players and their desires/opinions.

Having witnessed WoW devolve into a strange purity spiral based on Twitter sphere 'logic' and 'necessary additions to the game' I must confess to being rather wary of a repeat where FFXIV is concerned.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IdowhatIwant

I beg to differ, I think the community as a whole has been taking that phrase way out of context.
Honestly I personally think it came off to a lazy answer to a question.

---

Lazy? can you please inform me which answer you are talking about by it's full context, just so i know we are talking about the same answer?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

This does nothing to remedy the fact that resources were wasted on a hair that is universally shunned by many male (and female) player characters instead of a style they would actually use. With so many other more prominent and popular hairstyles, it is a total mystery as to why the Karen cut was prioritized over them.

---

But thats not what Theo was mewling about at all? If you're going to complain about vocal minorities strong-arming the devs into [checks notes] hairstyles you don't like, at least complain about the correct ones lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rokke

But thats not what Theo was mewling about at all? If you're going to complain about vocal minorities strong-arming the devs into [checks notes] hairstyles you don't like, at least complain about the correct ones lol

---

I mean it’s one of many examples though. Look at the influx of “gender neutral” hairstyles that are incredibly feminine. It’s not just the karen hair, there’s so many hairs now that have curls or bows etc. It’s pretty bad that it took this long just to get some facial hair lmao.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KizuyaKatogami

It’s pretty bad that it took this long just to get some facial hair lmao.

---

I still cannot BELIEVE that they just slapped stubble on copy of the midlander face, and then told people to fanta. Incredible.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LisSquid

I still cannot BELIEVE that they just slapped stubble on copy of the midlander face, and then told people to fanta. Incredible.

---

Given that back in 2019 it was acceptable to release a race that had to pay $10 to change their hairstyle, midlanders having to pay for their beards came as no surprise.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KizuyaKatogami

I mean it’s one of many examples though. Look at the influx of “gender neutral” hairstyles that are incredibly feminine. It’s not just the karen hair, there’s so many hairs now that have curls or bows etc. It’s pretty bad that it took this long just to get some facial hair lmao.

---

And that is, again, a different complaint. The recent hairstyles have been pulled from the winners and runner ups of that old hair style contest. They have nothing to do with a vocal minority getting their way.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

Given that back in 2019 it was acceptable to release a race that had to pay $10 to change their hairstyle, midlanders having to pay for their beards came as no surprise.

---

I know, but when I saw that preview video I had thought someone was having a laugh. Surely after the feedback from Hrothgar SE would see this is a poor decision, right? Right..? :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rokke

And that is, again, a different complaint. The recent hairstyles have been pulled from the winners and runner ups of that old hair style contest. They have nothing to do with a vocal minority getting their way.

---

They kind of do though. The “gender neutral” hairstyle winners could easily be solved by choosing one masculine and one feminine hairstyle for each winner. Those terms aren’t very flexible, it’s obvious which is which. Considering these are coming out at the same time the devs are choosing to start remove genderlocks and yeah, don’t think that’s a coinkydink

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KizuyaKatogami

I mean it’s one of many examples though. Look at the influx of “gender neutral” hairstyles that are incredibly feminine. It’s not just the karen hair, there’s so many hairs now that have curls or bows etc. It’s pretty bad that it took this long just to get some facial hair lmao.

---

Frankly, I think the majority of released hairstyles SUCK. If we are going to get feminine hairs, at least give us stuff that looks good. I want some longer hairs, for example. I'd rather they just release hairs that look great for males, and others that look great for females - and by the way, both can still, often times, look good on either. Instead of looking 'meh' on both.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LisSquid

I still cannot BELIEVE that they just slapped stubble on copy of the midlander face, and then told people to fanta. Incredible.

---

It's "hard" to include more customization options apparently. :rolleyes: I mean, it took them almost three years to fix the hrothgar fantasia issue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

Given that back in 2019 it was acceptable to release a race that had to pay $10 to change their hairstyle, midlanders having to pay for their beards came as no surprise.

---

"back in 2019"? xD It only stopped being that way a month ago. Worse still, it only works for one native hairstyle.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LisSquid

I know, but when I saw that preview video I had thought someone was having a laugh. Surely after the feedback from Hrothgar SE would see this is a poor decision, right? Right..? :(

---

We were told twice in a row "It's too hard, we don't have time and your models are too weird" ....meanwhile, modders.

Ok I know that's a poor excuse to present, but it's still true :o A lot of the stuff that modders have made proved that it really wasn't. And many tech-savvy people came out against that statement by showing Square Enix exactly how the process could work, and how the models are done. Nothing since then because to SE the topic "was addressed". People even say that Yoshida's reply felt like scorn more than anything, which already doesn't really bode well for the future.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SturmChurro

Frankly, I think the majority of released hairstyles SUCK. If we are going to get feminine hairs, at least give us stuff that looks good. I want some longer hairs, for example. I'd rather they just release hairs that look great for males, and others that look great for females - and by the way, both can still, often times, look good on either. Instead of looking 'meh' on both.

---

Have you seen Hrothgar modded with the Styled For Hire hairstyle? They look surprisingly good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SturmChurro

Frankly, I think the majority of released hairstyles SUCK. If we are going to get feminine hairs, at least give us stuff that looks good. I want some longer hairs, for example. I'd rather they just release hairs that look great for males, and others that look great for females - and by the way, both can still, often times, look good on either. Instead of looking 'meh' on both.

It's "hard" to include more customization options apparently. :rolleyes: I mean, it took them almost three years to fix the hrothgar fantasia issue.

---

Oh i absolutely agree. The “gender neutral” hairs look pretty bad on both males AND females so it’s like….what exactly is the point of their implementation? Personally i’d like a bit more longer hair options for males like for example, Elidibus’ hair in SoS. Male viera have a good selection so far thankfully, but i think there needs to be a major change in how they do hairstyles because with as infrequent as they come, it doesn’t look like there’s much quality attached to them.

Also….if it’s a creativity issue where they can’t think of any, it’s not like they don’t have an entire series of games they could pull hair from. Give ladies rikku,lulu, or ultimecia’s hair. Give males Jecht,Kuja,Gladio hair etc.

I've been waiting on Rikku's FFX-2 hair ever since they released the Tidus and Yuna costumes. :(

I'm tired of the same scruffy mop of hair they keep trying to pass as a different haircut.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KizuyaKatogami

They kind of do though. The “gender neutral” hairstyle winners could easily be solved by choosing one masculine and one feminine hairstyle for each winner.

---

the contest had 2 winners + 10 finalists
7 were male styles that won
5 were female styles that won
1 runner up was added later

so, as of today we're at
7 male winners
6 female winners
2 on each side are gender locked, the remaining are all open to both genders

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KizuyaKatogami

Oh i absolutely agree. The “gender neutral” hairs look pretty bad on both males AND females so it’s like….what exactly is the point of their implementation? Personally i’d like a bit more longer hair options for males like for example, Elidibus’ hair in SoS. Male viera have a good selection so far thankfully, but i think there needs to be a major change in how they do hairstyles because with as infrequent as they come, it doesn’t look like there’s much quality attached to them.

Also….if it’s a creativity issue where they can’t think of any, it’s not like they don’t have an entire series of games they could pull hair from. Give ladies rikku,lulu, or ultimecia’s hair. Give males Jecht,Kuja,Gladio hair etc.

---

Yeah, if they are going to do another hairstyle contest, I think they should do it like how I think they might have done the weapon design contest (?). Having one for each (male and female, and/or masculine/feminine styles). I don't think they want to put in the work for this either though. Much easier to just do a single more gender neutral hairstyle, and release it for both. :rolleyes:

I'm a bit hesitant to even mention a hairstyle design contest though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rokke

the contest had 2 winners + 10 finalists
7 were male styles that won
5 were female styles that won
1 runner up was added later

so, as of today we're at
7 male winners
6 female winners
2 on each side are gender locked, the remaining are all open to both genders

---

Yes and the ones considered male are usually gender neutral for both genders but lean towards the feminine side i believe. Same for the gender neutral feminine hair.

The problem with the original contest is that players voted for it. It was all based on art style when the entries were whittled down, and surprise the generic anime cuts got picked because people who play the Japanese styled MMO liked that art the most.

SE definitely picked the ones that were the most workable, sure, but there was no control over making sure the winners weren't too similar.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LisSquid

The problem with the original contest is that players voted for it. It was all based on art style when the entries were whittled down, and surprise the generic anime cuts got picked because people who play the Japanese styled MMO liked that art the most.

SE definitely picked the ones that were the most workable, sure, but there was no control over making sure the winners weren't too similar.

---

https://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/t/3f...8e2284b7_4.jpg

Don't mind me, I am still eternally malding that I was waiting for this hair to make it into the game only for it to be pointed out to me that it did, but Squeenix completely butchered it, removing the bell hairties and all the bangs except one. Why. My mind was just one long balloon-deflating noise in that moment. Why? The only longer hairstyles for males all have gigantic five-heads.... and the only decent ponytail with bangs is locked to male ras.

Don't remind me that we got cheated out of the best hairstyle.

https://i.imgur.com/YH6kaMF.png

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KizuyaKatogami

yeah, don’t think that’s a coinkydink

---

So lets go down the list here

First, those twitter people are demanding SE make hairstyles we don't like unisex (even when they were always unisex to start with) and this is a recent thing that somehow coincides with the unisexing of certain clothing (despite unisex contest winners first being implemented back in HW) and that SE should have pulled more runner ups from the male side of the contest but male entries are also way too feminine/unisex ...so ...we'd still be mad at the end of the day?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LisSquid

The problem with the original contest is that players voted for it. It was all based on art style when the entries were whittled down, and surprise the generic anime cuts got picked because people who play the Japanese styled MMO liked that art the most.

---

everyone want to point at everyone/everything but fellow forum users for the contest results lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rokke

everyone want to point at everyone/everything but fellow forum users for the contest results lol

---

To be fair, I don't think most people were playing or even remember the contest. A lot of people think these hairstyles are brand new. Which isn't surprising as it has taken literal years to see them rolled out.

Can't wait to see the winners of the weapon design contest in 2025!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rokke

So lets go down the list here

First, those twitter people are demanding SE make hairstyles we don't like unisex (even when they were always unisex to start with) and this is a recent thing that somehow coincides with the unisexing of certain clothing (despite unisex contest winners first being implemented back in HW) and that SE should have pulled more runner ups from the male side of the contest but male entries are also way too feminine/unisex ...so ...we'd still be mad at the end of the day?



everyone want to point at everyone/everything but fellow forum users for the contest results lol

---

The point is, the ones they choose don’t really follow the standard masculine/feminine ones. They’re typically horrible altered from their original design(like the one posted above). What SE should do is make polls more known to the playerbase. I don’t think i’ve seen in the 4/5 years i’ve been playing the option to take part in a poll.

I really loved EW's story very much. :3

In general I think, that they maybe try to do too much in too less time. So they are working hard for quantity but have less time for quality.
And it feels like their focus is not optimal, because they do much for new players, but the longtime players get not much during the last times.
But aren't we the people they should think of to support and make a nice game? : )
Why stuff like new Gold Saucer thingis, Deep Dungeon or Island Sanctuary gets pushed back so much? And things for new players or a really small amount of players gets priority? (ARR rework, Ultimate)
Yes I love that they do this things for us. But..., many people I know would wish a different order to release things.
And that they would spent more for making glamour system nice. This is a problem for suuuch a long time.

All in all it's a good game and I really love it. But of course it has it's issues. Maybe people complain a lil bit too much about very personal opinions or feelings.
I think all members of the dev team are working really hard to make good stuff for us. They are also just humans. We should never forget that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KizuyaKatogami

The point is, the ones they choose don’t really follow the standard masculine/feminine ones. They’re typically horrible altered from their original design(like the one posted above). What SE should do is make polls more known to the playerbase. I don’t think i’ve seen in the 4/5 years i’ve been playing the option to take part in a poll.

---

Aren't jingle bells and bangs feminine features ?

I agree that it'd be nice to have more interaction involving feedback tho.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skyborne

https://img.finalfantasyxiv.com/t/3f...8e2284b7_4.jpg

Don't mind me, I am still eternally malding that I was waiting for this hair to make it into the game only for it to be pointed out to me that it did, but Squeenix completely butchered it, removing the bell hairties and all the bangs except one. Why. My mind was just one long balloon-deflating noise in that moment. Why? The only longer hairstyles for males all have gigantic five-heads.... and the only decent ponytail with bangs is locked to male ras.

---

That looks really nice. Is it what became lex? The original would have been really cool. :3

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skiros

Yoshi P has spent so much time lately asking for players to give "calm" feedback and states that he personally shields his devs from feedback and absorb the blunt of the criticism.

---

He should be clearer about what is prompting it, tbh. If some guy in Japan mailed them knives, or whatever, it has diddly squat to do with feedback on the forum (and elsewhere), which is how it tends to be misconstrued by some. Otherwise it just gives the impression that he's being deliberately vague and could be talking about anything. I'm not holding off on criticism because of a vague "pwease stop being nasty" which gets contorted into some weird gatekeeping of how a complaint or criticism needs to be phrased. We can all recognise ones that go a bit overboard, but given how flippant he's been in recent times, I can't say I blame e.g. healers for getting a bit less patient when it comes to delivering constructive feedback if it's just going to get dismissed. At this point he needs to give examples of what he means.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lauront

He should be clearer about what is prompting it, tbh. If some guy in Japan mailed them knives, or whatever, it has diddly squat to do with feedback on the forum (and elsewhere), which is how it tends to be misconstrued by some. Otherwise it just gives the impression that he's being deliberately vague and could be talking about anything. I'm not holding off on criticism because of a vague "pwease stop being nasty" which gets contorted into some weird gatekeeping of how a complaint or criticism needs to be phrased. We can all recognise ones that go a bit overboard, but given how flippant he's been in recent times, I can't say I blame e.g. healers for getting a bit less patient when it comes to delivering constructive feedback if it's just going to get dismissed. At this point he needs to give examples of what he means.

---

Honestly like what someone else said in the thread, it's more than likely just an excuse to ignore certain criticisms.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lauront

If some guy in Japan mailed them knives, or whatever

---

imagine thinking this is some kind of healthy towards another person even in the realms of imagination.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skiros

Honestly like what someone else said in the thread, it's more than likely just an excuse to ignore certain criticisms.

---

It wouldn't surprise me if he's actually using it that way.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AmpelioB

imagine thinking this is some kind of healthy towards another person even in the realms of imagination.

---

Did you read his post in full? He didn't suggest it was 'healthy'.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Theodric

Did you read his post in full? He didn't suggest it was 'healthy'.

---

yes I did, he didn't suggest anything he just layed out the idea :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AmpelioB

Lazy? can you please inform me which answer you are talking about by it's full context, just so i know we are talking about the same answer?

---

When Yoshi P was asked in 3.3, about staying motivated to play the game due to lack of content. Yoshi P essentially said it's good to take breaks and come back when there is content you want to do.
That what people take way out of context, and that is what I consider a lazy answer to question about lack of content.

I see our reading comprehension needs some work still.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IdowhatIwant

When Yoshi P was asked in 3.3, about staying motivated to play the game due to lack of content. Yoshi P essentially said it's good to take breaks and come back when there is content you want to do.
That what people take way out of context, and that is what I consider a lazy answer to question about lack of content.

---

But that'd how they go about running their game. Call it what you will but it seems an accurate answer

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IkaraGreydancer

But that'd how they go about running their game. Call it what you will but it seems an accurate answer

---

An answer that is used like a Swiss knife to dispel one and all criticisms of the game. I'm almost convinced he answered that to intentionally inject this argument into the community for use so that fans can do his job in allaying community concerns for him.

No game director of an mmo would tell it’s playerbase to “go play other games” if it had any effect on their profit margin. He must know that there’s a core playerbase (housing, (e)rp, crafting) that remain subbed constantly and these people are keeping the profits up. Imo it’s also the reason they don’t deviate from the predictable content releases, which obviously meet the development budget given to them. E.g, they don’t need to do anything as it’s obvious the playerbase is happy with what it gets. :)

Honestly? I like Yoshi-P but salvaging 1.0 into something playable wasn't that impressive a feat and neither was it something accomplished by a single person. Many of the same people who praise him for it have nothing but contempt for the ARR era these days which is to me an admission that actually things weren't all that great after all.

To a large degree, I'd say it's more so the 'Final Fantasy' name that caused many people to give the game a second chance. Coincidentally, many of the other MMO's that are still chugging along these days also lean heavily on player nostalgia. GW2 has GW1 to tap into, ESO has the various Elder Scrolls games to work with and WoW did very well for itself whenever it referenced the Warcraft games.

But, yeah, the whole 'go play other games' never sat well with me because many of us do that already. It doesn't change the fact that when someone is up to date with FFXIV's patch cycle then there's often a lack of things to actually do that aren't just a tedious grind for the sake of a tedious grind. More content like Crystal Conflict that is easy to just jump right into with no setup would be wonderful.