Here is what the next playable Race should be...

[Galaktica]

I feel a lot of players forget that Viera are 7 foot tall Amazons with stilettos as much as they are rabbits. Like, these woman can be hardasses, and could legitimately have a far more feral feel to them.

I want that, too.

I can only speak for myself and what I've seen around the forums, but I don't think many people would disagree with you when it comes to what's possible with the Viera. When it comes to the women, I think people, myself included, are just worried that SE is gonna take the "easy road" again and give us another mostly-hyur, petite, cutesy race that tries to go for the largest amount of appeal. Viera in particular seem especially susceptible to that possibility given that certain incarnations of the race (e.g. FF Tactics Advance) are already exactly that: petite and cutesy.

Now, again, I can only speak for myself, but specifically when it comes to the females, I'm not opposed to more cute races being added to the game. My worry is that SE will fall into the trap of "if you wanna be a cute, little beast-girl, here are a bunch of options for you!...but for the rest of you, meh, here's one race that should suit your preferences. Now go sit in a corner."

I don't want to keep comparing this game to WoW, but hey, they did a good job of catering to all sorta of tastes. It you wanted something "cute," you had Dranei, Night elves, and Blood elves. If you wanted something tiny and funny, you got Dwarves, Goblins, and Gnomes. If you wanted something fierce, you got Tauren, Orcs, Trolls, and Worgen. Not sure where Humans, Undead, and Pandaren would fit, but hey, you had those as choices too.

I understand that due to the way FFXIV is made, including such a wide breadth of races would be nigh impossible, but the fact remains that they could have tried to branch out with Au Ra and in my opinion, they played it completely safe which ultimately makes them disappointing. Hey, judging by all the Au Ra running around, I doubt anyone at SE feels like they dropped the ball, but due to the limitations of the game and what's popular with the plyaerbase, it bums me out to think that it's very possible that they're just going to repeat themselves with whatever the next race may be.

[LineageRazor]

i'm more suprised you don't find Auri's weebo magnets tbh... They pretty much just are with everything about them.

This, exactly. If I recall correctly, Yoshi P announced that Au Ra females were EXPLICITLY designed to be "moe", which is pretty much the ultimate expression of pandering to Otaku (and by extension, to weeaboo). For those not in the know (which is probably a minority of folks here, considering this is a Japanese game), "moe", while having no exact translation in English, has connotations of being small, cute, and in need of being protected and nurtured. In other words, perfect little waifus to take home with you and cuddle.

I find it pretty irritating, to be honest. I wish Au Ra females were as fierce and badass as their male counterparts. I have my own reasons for playing Au Ra female, and they have nothing to do with them being moe. But it's certainly the case that Au Ra are at least as pandering toward weeaboo as Mi'qote are, if not moreso!

I understand that due to the way FFXIV is made, including such a wide breadth of races would be nigh impossible, but the fact remains that they could have tried to branch out with Au Ra and in my opinion, they played it completely safe which ultimately makes them disappointing. Hey, judging by all the Au Ra running around, I doubt anyone at SE feels like they dropped the ball, but due to the limitations of the game and what's popular with the plyaerbase, it bums me out to think that it's very possible that they're just going to repeat themselves with whatever the next race may be.

I'm hoping, perhaps optimistically, that with Au Ra, they will feel satisfied that they've given the playerbase what they wanted and can now move on to more experimental races rather than just crank out otakubait race after otakubait race. Again, I don't think they'll go outright bestial given the whole Spoken-vs-Beastmen thing that's pretty central to the plot of FFXIV, but there's still a lot of niches that could be filled or expanded on. Dwarves have been a Final Fantasy staple in many games, so I can see room for a Dwarven race in this game, to give one example.