Viera can be different from Miqo'te.

[Ghastly]

.

No one said life or death. Read again, there are ingredients that add a lot of value to things. Adding female roegadyn was one of these values. It's not hard to see the difference between ARR and what FFXIV was before that. Viera adds the same kind of value that I don't see any other race adding. Any value you add to anything extends the life of the product. It's not rocket science, it's just how the world works. More value extends the product's shelf life into more years. Passing on them again is a negative (more than you realize). After next expansion they lose the chance to ever add them in any meaningful way.

[Leogun]

No, FFXIV is not in Vana'diel, entirely separate. They made the current races similar to FFXI races to make it easier for FFXI players to transition over to a new game, while having a sense of familiarity. That's a legitimate reason for it, Viera on the other hand would serve no purpose but to appeal to those who want to turn FFXIV into Final Fanservice Online.

I don't find that a satisfactory answer. Maybe for the reason SE used the same old races but not a satisfactory reason NOT to borrow from their own company's work when that's all that FFXIV is...a bunch of throwbacks to older FF games.

[Leogun]

My point that if it's already decided, and talking about it won't change that. Besides, the only discussion going on in here is "I don't want it", "I want it", "How can you want it?" and "How can you not want it?". Not that I'm helping to change that.

How about discussion of "How can they be made unique?" or "What kind of lore would they be involved with?" There's things people can talk about but people tend to get sidetracked by dismissive arguments that try to illicit confrontational posts.

[Colorful]

No one said life or death. Read again, there are ingredients that add a lot of value to things. Adding female roegadyn was one of these values. It's not hard to see the difference between ARR and what FFXIV was before that. Viera adds the same kind of value that I don't see any other race adding. Any value you add to anything extends the life of the product. It's not rocket science, it's just how the world works. More value extends the product's shelf life into more years. Passing on them again is a negative (more than you realize). After next expansion they lose the chance to ever add them in any meaningful way.

Of course it adds value, in the same manner a new minion adds value to the game, but it a few races will not affect the overall health of the game. Adding Viera won't add a year or two into the game, meaningful content will but we all know that. A prime example being, again (I know how people hate the mention of it, but w/e) WoW. It has 3 "cute" races, 4 if you find Pandaren cute (I know some do) and yet it's 11 years old. What does it have? Variety. From Worgen, Pandaren, Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, and even Draenei, they have a lot of variety.

How about discussion of "How can they be made unique?" or "What kind of lore would they be involved with?" There's things people can talk about but people tend to get sidetracked by dismissive arguments that try to illicit confrontational posts.

Ghastly, who's been a rather active poster in this thread seem like s/he doesn't want them to be unique, and that goes for quite a lot of people here. I did suggest what I'd like to see, but they are no longer the "Viera" that people requested once you change them so drastically. As for how they can be introduced lore wise, WoW does it incredibly well, they centered the expansion around the new race's continent along with their own starting zones (talking specifically about Pandaren) but FFXIV's dev team just slaps them on with little regard to the lore, but this isn't the first time they've messed with lore nor will it be the last.

[Leogun]

Please do tell me how a single race is going to be the life or death of FFXIV? FFXI didn't have Viera, but it lasted over a decade. Why? Because it built up a loyal fanbase, not due to excessive fanservice, but because they built a great world, great lore, great environments, not because they pandered to the crowd that would claim the game would not last if they didn't add their favourite Final Fantasy race. Genuine question, how did you even make the connection? Unless I'm reading into your post too much, in which case I apologize.

Eh, SE seemed to create a precedence when it comes to fanservice now...I'd even go so far as to say the creation of it is basically to upgrade FFXI itself for fanservice to cater to a fanbase. I really don't see adding more races like Viera as any different a decision than keeping Hume, Elvaan, Galka, Tarutaru and Mithra. It's fanservice. If they weren't relying on fanservice with that decision, they'd have made a group of new races instead (keeping only the human-trope).

Honestly don't blame SE though...had they decided to go with Ivalice races for FFXIV, I'd have bought the game on release day (I'd choose Mog and Bangaa!). It's the same result just aimed at a different audience. That being said, I hope any future endeavors to add new races, SE puts more effort into them...

[Nestama]

I don't find that a satisfactory answer. Maybe for the reason SE used the same old races but not a satisfactory reason NOT to borrow from their own company's work when that's all that FFXIV is...a bunch of throwbacks to older FF games.

I've got nothing to say about why the races are similar in design to FFXI's (though it was during a time when Tanaka was the head of FFXIV's team. It's also realistic to believe the reason why they look similar to FFXI's races is exactly as Colorful said. Familiarity... however familiarity clearly didn't do anything to keep the game afloat back then), however it has been confirmed that Vana'diel and Ivalice are not found on Hydaelyn.

[Dree-Elle]

Nothing is fully decided with SE. An april fools joke was minion battles and guess what, we have it now.

Guess what? The Viangaa were an "April Fools" joke too, yet they have actually been referenced in-game. Different enough from both Viera and Bangaa (as are Galka/Roegadyn, Mithra/Mi'qote, and Tarutaru/Lalafell), I think their actual implementation would serve as a magnet for those who want to play/would have played 1) Viera, 2) Bangaa, 3) an easily-identifiable "non-human" race, and possibly even 4) Burmecian (if implemented as-is).

Alas, current racial design policies against having to redesign gear around snouts and digitigrade feet would mean that they could only be implemented "as-is" as yet another non-playable "beastman" race.

I will continue to hold out hope, however.

[Freyyy]

Holy mother of god this is so disgusting

[BrokenFox]

Elezen has the emotes that I would expect, but they're just so weirdly designed/ proportioned. Even 11's Elvaan's seemed better proportioned:

They remind me of giraffes

[Norna]

Another way that Viera distinguish themselves are their height; excluding player-made characters, Fran is the tallest playable female character in the Final Fantasy series without her ears. If we include her ears and player-made characters, she's still the tallest (without her ears, she's slightly smaller than female Elezen with the slider set to 50). If Fran is the height Viera would be with the slider set at 50, she would be around 30ish cm taller than Miqo'te and Au Ra females. With her ears, it's something like 60-70ish cm taller than the other two little-bit-beastly races, which would explain why they don't quite fill the Viera-niche.