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

[Reinha]

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You mean the poll about beastman / demibeastman / mammalian / reptilian? First of all the poll lacked options outside of those like avian or aquatic. Secondly, mammalian demibeastman doesn't mean Viera. People who want werewolves that can transform, a more human looking Ronso, fox people, satyrs or any beastman with some human features also have to vote for that option. Which means you can't say Viera won the poll if Viera was never an option in it.

I agree about WoW's copy paste faces but you are forgetting that applies to every WoW race, not just the beastmen.

GW2 had a pretty good character creator for all races. Charr, Sylvari and Asura all look distinct from humans and their popularity is about half of that of humans. None are as rare as Roegadyn. It's hard to estimate what amount of players would migrate to a more distinct beastman race in this game, because we actually don't have one yet. Some lump beastmen into the same category as Roegadyn (big and not cute) and claim that it would be equally rare. And yet our demibeastmen are among the most popular races of the game, and there's no doubt some players play them for the exotic features and not just the pretty faces. Who says some Miqo'te and Au Ra players wouldn't be interested in some more beastly looking options (instead of a change of ears)? They don't exactly have a choice at the moment.

There are more things to consider when it comes to the addition of new races. Variety and new players. Would I have tried GW2 if they only had humans and big humans? It's a 100% no from me. I picked the plant and cat race for my character and the alternative would have been no characters at all. I can play human IRL. There are very likely people who never even try this game because there are no interesting races for them to try like Charr, Sylvari, Tauren, Worgen or Troll. In game they would be surrounded by cat girls, lizard girls and plain girls. This is not appealing to some people, but we never really hear from that side because they never entered the game. Rabbit girls would hardly make this game appealing to any new audience. A lot of people think it was a good idea to include female Roegadyn and male Miqo'te to ARR even though the former has always been among the least played combos in the game. It may not be the most popular but it adds variety and attracts new audiences. I probably wouldn't have started the game if it wasn't for femroe because no other race "clicked" for me. Right now my game+expansion purchases and sub fees would have paid for almost 50 fantasia potions. That's how valuable new players are compared to fantasia purchases. Food for thought. :P

[Khaoticsuccubus]

You mean the poll about beastman / demibeastman / mammalian / reptilian? First of all the poll lacked options outside of those like avian or aquatic. Secondly, mammalian demibeastman doesn't mean Viera. People who want werewolves that can transform, a more human looking Ronso, fox people, satyrs or any beastman with some human features also have to vote for that option. Which means you can't say Viera won the poll if Viera was never an option in it.

Eh, the poll literally listed viera as an example. Which is why YoshiP was able to dismiss the poll results as he believed tacking viera on like that skewed the poll results in mammal demibeastmans favor. Thus Au'ra were born ;P (reptilian demibeastman were 2nd place iirc... that or hybrids, can't recall lol)

I agree about WoW's copy paste faces but you are forgetting that applies to every WoW race, not just the beastmen.

Technically, this is only true as of wow's recent upgrade from n64 to gamecube graphics ;P Ironically enough, before the upgrade most races had unique faces to choose from... ya know... for wow standards that is lol.

GW2 had a pretty good character creator for all races. Charr, Sylvari and Asura all look distinct from humans and their popularity is about half of that of humans. None are as rare as Roegadyn. It's hard to estimate what amount of players would migrate to a more distinct beastman race in this game, because we actually don't have one yet. Some lump beastmen into the same category as Roegadyn (big and not cute) and claim that it would be equally rare. And yet our demibeastmen are among the most popular races of the game, and there's no doubt some players play them for the exotic features and not just the pretty faces. Who says some Miqo'te and Au Ra players wouldn't be interested in some more beastly looking options (instead of a change of ears)? They don't exactly have a choice at the moment.

There are more things to consider when it comes to the addition of new races. Variety and new players. Would I have tried GW2 if they only had humans and big humans? It's a 100% no from me. I picked the plant and cat race for my character and the alternative would have been no characters at all. I can play human IRL. There are very likely people who never even try this game because there are no interesting races for them to try like Charr, Sylvari, Tauren, Worgen or Troll. In game they would be surrounded by cat girls, lizard girls and plain girls. This is not appealing to some people, but we never really hear from that side because they never entered the game. Rabbit girls would hardly make this game appealing to any new audience. A lot of people think it was a good idea to include female Roegadyn and male Miqo'te to ARR even though the former has always been among the least played combos in the game. It may not be the most popular but it adds variety and attracts new audiences. I probably wouldn't have started the game if it wasn't for femroe because no other race "clicked" for me. Right now my game+expansion purchases and sub fees would have paid for almost 50 fantasia potions. That's how valuable new players are compared to fantasia purchases. Food for thought. :P

Unfortunately, these players are purely hypothetical at this time. Until they emerge from the shadows to let others hear their voice and have their presence know in polls and the like we have to go with the data we have. That data states, especially in this game, that beastman type races just aren't appreciated. As you said they might make up a number of the Au'ra and Miqo races however, I just can't see that number being anything significant. More likely, most who enjoy that sorta look have stuck to roes as you have. Roes who are the least played race in the game.

And I say this as one who does prefer the more exotic appeal of a race... within reason ofc. Roe's make my eyes bleed 90% of the time after all ;P but, I did prefer the concept art of the more demonic looking Au'ra than what we ended up with. But, from a company perspective I understand why and at the very least they, as a race, helped diversify things by converting a number of the miqo population lol.