FFXIV 2nd expansion: Viera-like race still a possibility?

[Ghastly]

I bet if you made the poll again viera would still win. They're loved here and in japan, yoshi listen to us. Half of FFXIV is already FFXII anyway (Garleans are Archadians, the armory system, link lines, casting animations, even the half medieval half sci-fi art is shared).

If you copied so much, copy their best race.

[Pomelo]

I bet if you made the poll again viera would still win. They're loved here and in japan, yoshi listen to us. Half of FFXIV is already FFXII anyway (Garleans are Archadians, the armory system, link lines, casting animations, even the half medieval half sci-fi art is shared).

If you copied so much, copy their best race.

I want them to do the bolded bit so much, they asked 1.0 players what they want, now can you ask 2.0/3.0 players? The community has changed/expanded!

[Roegadyn_Bear]

That is problematic because of a Catch-22.

People want fierce races, but many will not play females unless they are cute.
A race with cute females is not a fierce race.

This is how we ended up with the Au'Ra fierce male/cute female sexual dimorphism.

That is quite the dilemma, isn't it? People talk a big game but back down when it comes to putting their money where there mouth is.

Why do females have to be cute? If all females of all new races are exclusively cute, then... people are going to get very bored/annoyed with this VERY fast.

Human nature is to blame for this, not to mention the current standards of beauty.

Let's face it, humans are generally very shallow creatures.

If I put up two flyers, one to donate money for kittens and plaster it with pictures of adorable kittens with sad faces... while the other asks for donations for a creature that's not nearly as attractive to the eyes or even ugly to most people but is highly important to the survival of our world's ecosystem, along with information stating why such a creature's survival is crucial to our world... which one do you think is going to generate the most revenue?

We don't have to have many people playing the race. Just enough to make the game world actually feel diverse sometimes. A diverse game world will attract players more, which means more money for SE, regardless of whether or not they choose to play a fierce race themselves.

I find the homogeneity of the game's races to be an unattractive quality. I'm not sure if I'd play a fierce race myself (they're usually hit or miss for me depending on design), but I'd still love to see them in game, even if only occasionally. I like diversity, it spices the game up. I'm sure others feel the same, even if they wouldn't play fierce races themselves.

Then you find yourself with the "Troll" quandary World of Warcraft had for the longest time. They were a fierce, exotic race everyone talked highly about and were considered quite awesome within their community... but no one would play due to many issues people had with their appearance. Their toes especially.

If designed well, it can still be popular.

There are plenty of WoW players playing female undead and female tauren. They're not "cute" but they are very well animated and have a lot of personality. But... the vast majority of players get hungup over this and only play 'cute' choices.

Female Forsaken characters had some of the best animations by far, and back in the early days of World of Warcraft they were plentiful due to an overpowered racial. Female Tauren are not exactly popular, their male counterpart making up over 80% of their population due to the gay and furry community. I'm not joking either. They're the Roegadyn of the Horde.

Found that concept art I was talkin about

I'm not going to lie, I would play that race despite the fact it would most likely bring in a large influx of furries.

Not exactly a bad business move either, as seen by the popularity of Worgen in World of Warcraft and the sudden faction and race changes that briefly followed with their implementation.

But people still play as them. If SE only make what is popular, every single female is going to be obnoxiously cute/adorable, while males will be given special treatment (new unique look).

Doesn't that sound, I dunno... a little sexist?

It's not sexist. It's called business.

I'm trying to explain the problem that SE is caught in. When around only 2%* (and likely less) of PCs are using a character model creating options for that percentage of the player base has less priority than pleasing the larger groups of the total population.

This is the unfortunate truth.

[Samcaesar]

Snip

Agreed. Honestly at this point, I'd kill if they just made it so the heights of men and women of each race were the same and you could just pick whatever animation set you wanted on the fly.. And then maybe added a few more masculine/feminine facial options for the girls and guys respectively. It'd you have that 7ft Badass looking girl without the disappointing process of "Hey here's this tall woman, but she also looks like a 7' tween/Sexed up to the point where she looks like she ought to be on the runway and not the battlefield".. Like I just want some legitimate looking badass women without having to either make Roegadyn (Even though I love em <3) or a highlander. Gimme the option to have a girl Au Ra, Miqo'te, Midlander, or Elezen look badass while also not covered head to toe in steel and then I could care less what the next race is.

Snip

Transsexual is a bit of an outdated term for transgender people so that's a bit rude. Even then you'd have to be a bit daft to see that as a problem, plenty of masculine looking women exist irl, why can't they have the ability to exist in game worlds too?

Because oversaturation of the same thing doesn't pull in new audiences. Plus, you can't argue for a "younger looking race" when the girls of each race that we already have are already high in neotony. If they're going to introduce a race that's cute by default, can they please put in a way to have them look tough as well, that is, without slapping on chunks of metal or making a guy of the race.

Snip

I'd be game for a race where the men are pretty effeminate to be honest. Something like the waistlines of boy Au Ra, but keep the thin shoulders and make the face feminine. Only issue I'd have is the girls would be even more "cute" if that were the case :\

Snip

They can work on different things and people have different expectations and wants from this game. It's a bit rude to come into the thread and talk about how this unrelated topic is more important than the topic on hand.

Snip

Eeeh, just because they can have priorities it doesn't mean they have to burn every bridge to the ground that isn't the priority. Like.. There's little reason to why they'd locked the girl Au Ras at 5'3 and gave them only super feminine faces other than self-made narrative reasons (i.e. the Lore) and just the lack of will to make any masculine/feminine options for the women and men respectively (Arguably time restraints as well.. But if they just made one face for the women masculine instead of all four faces feminine, then the issue wouldn't occur). When every additional race (Even girl Roegadyn and highlander's when compared to their boy counterparts this still remains true) are so overtly feminine, it gets kinda off-putting to women and puts out this idea that the dev team simply doesn't want to make masculine women, that's arguably both bad business and sexist.

My biggest issue is that SE probably will continue to make only these super feminine girl halves of the races with no possible way of making a masculine variant of them. Would it kill them to give a few of the current races options so that the girls can be kinda masculine looking and the guys can be kinda feminine looking? I honestly don't think so, and I dearly wish they would, it's one of my personal pet peeves in the game.

[Roegadyn_Bear]

But if they just made one face for the women masculine instead of all four faces feminine, then the issue wouldn't occur). When every additional race (Even girl Roegadyn and highlander's when compared to their boy counterparts this still remains true) are so overtly feminine, it gets kinda off-putting to women and puts out this idea that the dev team simply doesn't want to make masculine women, that's arguably both bad business and sexist.

The problem you run across is that it unfortunately sells and that their playerbase, for the most part, eats that kind of thing up and even wants more of it within the game.

It may subjectively seem like bad business and sexist, but the results are that it inevitably sells and makes them more money.

[Soralis]

elezen girls are for me masculine , roegadyn females as well, and highlanders, i do like them, and i still see a lot more miqote and au ra females, which is sad but it is true. SE is making them for people not for themselves. Now i do like my females feminine but a bit of animalistic aspect is good as well, my fav race being a draenei and a female draenei for that matter from world of warcraft, they are, sexy, look amazing , 2 to 3m tall, and have hoofs, much better than plain human body as a base, i am amazed by that race, so when they announced au ra a horned race i was praying to gods they will add weird horse or goat legs or something. basically i am saying that draenei race worked perfectly, different from a human a lot yet sill containing their own beautiful aspect. ...

Viera's can do much better here, 2m tall females, not elezen type but more slender and defined with some cute faces and some scary amazing ones, that would be a perfect balance, we wouldn't have this conversation if they added xaela differently than raen, like if u want small petite female go raen, if u want a warrior type of a female tall and tough u can go xaela, similar to what they did with hyur race, u have something for all

[VitalSuit]

Elezen? Masculine? I think you're misunderstanding what Masculine means. Elezen females are far from Masculine lol. Highlanders and Roegadyn definitely are masculine though.
The problem is though that Viera really aren't fierce looking. How are you going to make a bunny race fierce looking?

[Shurrikhan]

Wolfmen, Robots, something like Burmencians, Bangaa, or Viera... all attractive option imo. But, I'd also be sold on just an extra body model option for the main races...

Older FFXIV concept art Viera pics, male and female

Honestly, something a bit less with the ears, more with the body shape, probably leading the males a bit more towards the 'wolfmen' concept art posted before would probably be nice.

Could go more the way of the old Au'ra 'fierce'-ish female concept art with that race as well...




Edit: All these hairstyle cross-overs... But when can I get a female Hyur/Au'ra with miqo'te running animations?...

[Samcaesar]

Snip

Again, just because your priority demographic exists it doesn't mean all other demographics must either starve or get scraps at best. There was likely nothing stopping SE from making the Xaela women into a more masculine variant of the girl Au Ra, but they chose not too. The main demographic would have been well sated by the existence of the Raen, but nothing was given to any other demographic.

Plus that doesn't address the very clear issue with the problem that Auri men don't look very similar to Midlanders or Miqo'te men (The most popular races with the men as well). They're tall, have massive shoulders, and their beast-like features are more prominent than the ones on the girls (Horn size is larger, more scale patches that cover more area, et cetera). There's a bit of a disagreement with the idea that SE makes things to appeal to the largest demographic and yet.. Auri men look nothing close to that.

Snip

See points above about "SE is making them for people not for themselves", the aesthetics of the male Au Ra doesn't line up with that thought process. Plus the issue is adding more and more feminine women to the game does nothing but pander to pre-existing groups, while that does generate money, it doesn't provide itself for introducing more people to the game (And arguably giving something drastically different for players to mess around with for a while and spend money on fantasias) who may want such things like "Girl + Beast like + As Badass looking as the guys of their race". Though I definitely agree that this conversation wouldn't be happening if the Xaela would've just had warrior-like, big, and more masculine looking women, but SE really seemed adamant about sating only the main demographic (i.e. people who want cute girl races) and I wish they wouldn't.

Also I really don't see how you could see the Viera as very different than the Elezen, they're both very slender races with major differences coming from the incredibly minor additions that the Viera have to make them "demi" beast men, but such minor additions things like the feet (Which seem to just have long nails and weird heeled shoes) and fingers would have to be dropped because of SE's general standard when creating new races (I.E. They kinda have to fit in the standard mold for gear and what not).

While this isn't a comment towards you, more towards what I've seen in both the OF and other FFXIV discussion boards, I find it really odd that so many people go "Japanese doesn't like real demi-beastmen races" then do a 180 and try to parade the Viera as somehow within the Japanese standards of a satisfactory "demi-beastman" race and the demographic that wants a real demi-beastman race.

[Soralis]

i understand what u mean by 180 i don't like a bestman race like werewolfs and such i hate them, i mostly like something in regards to a draenei, beastlike but gorgeous , i somehow find viera and draenei similar in that regard, the thing here is people saying u have your elezen, it's like saying u have your hyur what's the point in au ra and miqo'te races? i don't see any similarity at all between elezen and a viera except the tall part that is it, what do u all see different in au ra vs mioqte vs midlander hyur? i myself see only tails.... i see a lot more difference in elezen vs viera