The new races and gender complaints

So I think most of us have either seen the keynote or read the news by this point about the two new races coming out and the fact that they're gender locked. And it also only takes a quick browse to see the amount of salt that this announcement has created pretty much instantly across the various different platforms that people use to discuss this game. Discord servers, reddit and this forum being prime examples.

Now, no matter what I say people will still have their opinion. I'm well aware that my words won't be a salve to those that are crying out for bunny boys or hrothgar females. But let me be perhaps one voice that may be drowned out fairly quickly I imagine that rises up on the other side of your demands that these two new races not be gender locked.

You see, when making a new expansion for a game, especially a new mmorpg, there are a lot of things that have to be done. Story has to be created and worked upon, fleshed out so that can be presented to players. New area's have to be created, sometimes with new mechanics that have to be worked out. New systems are implemented, both for players and servers. And finally, the item system has to be updated. Which means adding new consumables, furniture, armor and weapons and then making sure that none of all of the above don't conflict with anything previously created in the game.

And all that, takes a huge amount of time.

Now consider, adding two new models for two new races in (even if some will no doubt compare the hrothgar models to roes). The amount of time for almost every step of the process is affected. The story has to be updated with race specific terminology and then edited and checked to make sure everything lines up straight. The work that goes into the items also increases exponentially for all the modelling that has to be done. And I haven't even mentioned animations which are a whole nother box that needs to be checked during the expansion process.


So rather than demanding and shouting at Square enix, telling them what a bad job they've done and screaming to the heavens that this is a deal breaker that you'll be cancelling your sub over, consider perhaps why they did indeed genderlock the two races.


First, it has nothing to do with lore. Or to be more specific, the choice was driven by lore but it wasn't locked by lore.

What I mean by that is, when you think Viera based off past FF's, then you instantly think of the ones we've seen in ff12. The sexy (le gasp!) female viera. Now consider the same for the hrothgar. If you were told in advance that a race based off the Ronso from ffx were going to be added to the game, what do you think of first?

~~Going to need a second post to finish this~~

~~And the continuation ^^~~

Second, by adding two races instead of one, they were able to branch out their lore and the reach of their player base. By creating two races even if they're locked to the two genders, you're able to explore both of those races when the expansion drops rather than just one. Which I personally think is a plus.


Now with all that in mind, lets consider the opposite and what would have happened if the team had decided to go with making male and females of both races. The time for the expansion would be delayed. The cost of the expansion most likely would have gone up due to how long they would have needed to work on it. And due to the long break between content, they may have lost a larger amount of players. And if they decided to just go with one race and make a male and female of them, then they may not have given us as players as much reach.

Instead, they decided to go with an option that gave us the greatest reach while keeping the expansion coming out on a rather quick schedule.


Now I'm not the most eloquent of people and I'm sure that there are others that can put into words what I'm trying to say here much better than I can. But I would urge you as always to perhaps take a moment to think of what drives a decision before tearing up a sub just because you as a player aren't happy with the direction the development team has gone. After all, odds are they have already considered much of what is already being said and weighed it appropriately against what they have time to do.



Tldr: You've been given a cake and a cookie rather than two different flavoured cookies. Be happy people.



Love all of you, even the haters <3

My future posts:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post4915647
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post4915787

Genderlocked versions of 2 races = one full single race

They didn't have to add in Hrothgar, they did. They didn't have to genderlock Hrothgar, they did. They could have used a different excuse beyond 'Lore' - such as 'Time constraints' or 'Lack of resources' - they didn't. They're not going to get slack for this.

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Originally Posted by Gwenorai

They didn't have to add in Hrothgar, they did. They didn't have to genderlock Hrothgar, they did. They could have used a different excuse beyond 'Lore' - such as 'Time constraints' or 'Lack of resources' - they didn't. They're not going to get slack for this.

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It's almost like they have their own design vision and don't need to run it past a bunch of entitled individuals that built up false expectations.

Frankly I am tired of this type of thinking from the vocal community. You are not in the position to challenge their design decisions.

https://i.imgflip.com/1ir63p.jpg


^ Basically what I'm seeing as I look at all the forums atm

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Originally Posted by Ladon

It's almost like they have their own design vision and don't need to run it past a bunch of entitled individuals that built up false expectations.

Frankly I am tired of this type of thinking from the vocal community. You are not in the position to challenge their design decisions.

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No but as paying customers they have the right to voice their opinions. Whether or not it changes anything is irrelevant. You can dislike it but thinking to put people down for having a differing opinion is no less entitled.

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Originally Posted by Ladon

It's almost like they have their own design vision and don't need to run it past a bunch of entitled individuals that built up false expectations.

Frankly I am tired of this type of thinking from the vocal community. You are not in the position to challenge their design decisions.

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No, I'm not - but it's logical to say they're not going to get slack from it. May it be by a majority, a minority or just one single person. Read my comment how you will, your opinion means nought to me just like mine should mean little to you.

As for the entitlement comment - much eye roll I'm not touching that one. Let's put it this way, I'd be a lot less angry if their excuse wasn't 'Lore' and they simply came out with the truth. If you're tired of the vocal community then I suggest leaving the forums where the vocal community is.

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Originally Posted by Ladon

You are not in the position to challenge their design decisions.

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This is the EXACT position we're in. Do you think the change in 1.0 happened on a whim? The vocal community made it happen by expressing their discontent. YOU are not in the position to tell us that our concerns are not valid... we are part of the playerbase... it's our right to let them know about things we're not happy about -- however passionately that point may come across.

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Originally Posted by Enla

No but as paying customers they have the right to voice their opinions. Whether or not it changes anything is irrelevant. You can dislike it but thinking to put people down for having a differing opinion is no less entitled.

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You aren't stating an opinion. You just posted a list of assertions that you are not qualified to make. You don't know the designers philosophy as to why they made two races. You don't know why they gender locked them. You are not qualified to ASSERT anything you claim.

Being a paying customer does not give you a right to make a demand to the designers of the game and it's unfortunate so many are simply so self absorbed in their own worldviews to realize this.

I'm more concerned with Viera's lack of a tail, to be honest.

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Originally Posted by AkumaHomura

Genderlocked versions of 2 races = one full single race

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not really when they are completely different species lol

side note im honestly okay with it so long as they remove gender locked clothing

I'm sure there were many reasons for every single decision made in the expansion. And not all of these reasons have to be laid out. However, SE should have known gender locked races will be received poorly. They should have anticipated this reaction and have thought through a good explanation. I won't fault Yoshida for not taking 30mins in the opening keynote to explain why they gender locked, but I hope interviewers will ask the question and that he will respond honestly and completely.

The devs of course don't have to seek approval from the community when designing their game, but that doesn't mean the community has to shup up about decisions they don't like. I just want some insight into their decisions at the end of the day.

Also, then we find out later, that Hrothgar are Male Viera

And all this complaining is moot :D

I don't know how to make a car. But I do know what I want out of a car. I don't know how to make a game, but I do know what I want out of a game. If we never express what we want to the game developers then all we are going to have is a product none of us want. While I don't like how angry everyone is, expressing that you dislike the direction of a product you invest in is a very important thing to do. Feedback is the life blood of a game developer and they want to hear what we think as much as we feel the need to tell them.

tbh they shouldnt have done the bunnys shoulda went the rats or genoms from ff9 and yes there was female genomes well atleast 1

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Originally Posted by Ladon

You aren't stating an opinion. You just posted a list of assertions that you are not qualified to make. You don't know the designers philosophy as to why they made two races. You don't know why they gender locked them. You are not qualified to ASSERT anything you claim.

Being a paying customer does not give you a right to make a demand to the designers of the game and it's unfortunate so many are simply so self absorbed in their own worldviews to realize this.

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An opinion can be an assertion, the two don't cancel eachother out. That's the silliest thing I've heard today, and I've heard a lot of silly things today.

I honestly wish races werent added and Yoshi just straight up denied it. People get what they ask for, and they aren't satisfied. Give a baby a piece of candy that they didn't choose.. They cry. Same thing.

Instead, I wish they threw designers to something more productive than to sate peoples lust for bunnies. I really hope people unsub and never come back for this reason. We could definitely use much less baby rage.

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Originally Posted by Ladon

You aren't stating an opinion. You just posted a list of assertions that you are not qualified to make. You don't know the designers philosophy as to why they made two races. You don't know why they gender locked them. You are not qualified to ASSERT anything you claim.

Being a paying customer does not give you a right to make a demand to the designers of the game and it's unfortunate so many are simply so self absorbed in their own worldviews to realize this.

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The devs are also being very bad at talking about their philosophy, reasoning and the why's behind their choices, and there's really no means to have any dialogue with them outside of the few posts on the forums here and there.

Yoshida and the crew would do well from being a bit more transparent with their reasoning, and more open to have discussions with the community to where the game should go and things people want to see.
They can't make everyone happy, but they could certainly try to explain themselves better instead of citing shoddy lore reasoning. (Which is shoddy because the same could be said of other currently playable races)
My biggest issues with SE have been how they always skirt around things with terrible reasoning and almost never give in-depth or substantial answers to anything

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Originally Posted by aCrowe

I honestly wish races werent added and Yoshi just straight up denied it. People get what they ask for, and they aren't satisfied. Give a baby a piece of candy that they didn't choose.. They cry. Same thing.

Instead, I wish they threw designers to something more productive than to sate peoples lust for bunnies. I really hope people unsub and never come back for this reason. We could definitely use much less baby rage.

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There are plenty of people that are angry, not because they didn't get what they wanted, but because they despise genderlocked races in the first place. This is one of the few non-western MMOs that doesn't have that sort of reputation and it's really disappointing to see a genderlock happen, even if it might only be temporary. Me, personally, all I wanted was the female viera. Yet, finding out that they're bringing back genderlocks is just a bad thing altogether.

If they're going to do this in order to meet release, fine, but it would be nice to at least express some intent to add both genders at a later date, perhaps with an MSQ excuse.

"for every bunny boy dream that was shattered, the dream of ronso boy came true
you just can't hear ronso boy's happiness because bunny boy is being to vocal"

Quoting from a friend on a discord of mine.

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Originally Posted by Bellsong

The devs are also being very bad at talking about their philosophy, reasoning and the why's behind their choices, and there's really no means to have any dialogue with them outside of the few posts on the forums here and there.

Yoshida and the crew would do well from being a bit more transparent with their reasoning, and more open to have discussions with the community to where the game should go and things people want to see.
They can't make everyone happy, but they could certainly try to explain themselves better instead of citing shoddy lore reasoning. (Which is shoddy because the same could be said of other currently playable races)
My biggest issues with SE have been how they always skirt around things with terrible reasoning and almost never give in-depth or substantial answers to anything

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They don't need to be vocal about their game. They can decide what they want and how they want it. If you don't like it, you're free to say you don't like it. But I've literally see people call SE sexists because of this decision.

However, they fail to realize this.. SE does not want to make more races. Races does not mean genders. That means, that potentially they will add the other genders in the future. It's nice to see these races for what they were dominant in from both their original lores, and later see the least common... But nope people will be unreasonable and un-accepting because as I said before.. baby rage.

I'd much rather would've taken another healer over the two races, because man, cosmetics is cool and all but jobs are what makes this game, not races lmao.

One day aCrowe. One day we will have a fourth healer. And it will be glorious <3

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Originally Posted by Thefates

An opinion can be an assertion, the two don't cancel eachother out. That's the silliest thing I've heard today, and I've heard a lot of silly things today.

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Actually, you want to know what is silly? Playing semantics instead of arguing an actual point.

Want to play semantics? An opinion can be an assertion, but it also may not. And in this case it was an attempt to assert facts, not an opinion.

There isn't a single "I think, I feel, I believe" in the entire post to qualify it as an objective statement. They were assertions of facts.

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Originally Posted by aCrowe

They don't need to be vocal about their game. They can decide what they want and how they want it. If you don't like it, you're free to say you don't like it. But I've literally see people call SE sexists because of this decision.

However, they fail to realize this.. SE does not want to make more races. Races does not mean genders. That means, that potentially they will add the other genders in the future. It's nice to see these races for what they were dominant in from both their original lores, and later see the least common... But nope people will be unreasonable and un-accepting because as I said before.. baby rage.

I'd much rather would've taken another healer over the two races, because man, cosmetics is cool and all but jobs are what makes this game, not races lmao.

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And, we're going to "First" aka another dimension.... what happens when we go to "Second" or maybe next will be "Sixth"? Who even knows? (Yeah the devs but...) Maybe there are no female Viera's in "Sixth" and just male ones etc... People are missing that we have a real beast player race with a Lala (Dwarf) as a beast tribe. What else is going to be flipped in other dimensions? This is a wonderful set up for all sorts of juxtapositions down the road. It's wonderful! And, it's the type of hinting that SE always does.

Just wait till we see the lalafell primal. Always knew they were evil.

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Originally Posted by Ladon

Actually, you want to know what is silly? Playing semantics instead of arguing an actual point.

Want to play semantics? An opinion can be an assertion, but it also may not. And in this case it was an attempt to assert facts, not an opinion.

There isn't a single "I think, I feel, I believe" in the entire post to qualify it as an objective statement. They were assertions of facts.

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You were arguing semantics first. You were putting down other people's opinions for no real reason

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Originally Posted by Aliha

Just wait till we see the lalafell primal. Always knew they were evil.

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i mean we already saw a human primal.. just didnt get 2 fight it that was the worst idea ever

I'm hoping they intend to just add male Viera and female Ronso in the future.

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Originally Posted by Ladon

it's unfortunate so many are simply so self absorbed in their own worldviews to realize this.

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This so much - the pure vitriol coming from some because they feel that not being able to play as a Male bunny somehow is an attack on their sexuality or somehow proof the dev team are basically sexist bigots is blowing my God damn mind right now.

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Originally Posted by Crysten

This so much - the pure vitriol coming from some because they feel that not being able to play as a Male bunny somehow is an attack on their sexuality or somehow proof the dev team are basically sexist bigots is blowing my God damn mind right now.

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Gender locks are just bad period, there's no defending them and there's no real reason to white knight for SE. I pay them money and the same way I'd complain about some employee spitting in my food I'll complain about this too.

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Originally Posted by GEARx

You were arguing semantics first. You were putting down other people's opinions for no real reason

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What opinions?

Seriously.

Throwing a tantrum because your expectations were not met and demanding it be fixed, or else, isn't an opinion! It's spoiled child logic.

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Originally Posted by Awkward

Gender locks are just bad period, there's no defending them and there's no real reason to white knight for SE. I pay them money and the same way I'd complain about some employee spitting in my food I'll complain about this too.

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Yup. This is 2019. They've made this EXACT mistake before with Miqo and Roe. Did they not see this coming?