Bunny outfits for men, not a cryptid!

[Vidu]

So basically, understand NA culture or you’re unprofessional.

Understand that you're working on a global scale and that that might require you to do things differently than you would when staying in your own little bubble or you're unprofessional.

Final Fantasy XIV is a product for the western market as much as for the japanese - so its their job (to an extend) to research that market and they're customers and understand them.

Specially in this context the problem - at least to me - seems also to be that in a sense the western world can relate to them being uncomfortable by putting men in such sexy clothes (or in female clothes for that matter) because not to long ago our culuture wasnt to different in that context. But we're slowly coming to a point where we're cool with that. We're "evolving" in a sense.
So the japanese saying "No, we're uncomfortable with this because thats our culuture" it sounds kinda backwards to me. Something your granddad would say when hes refusing change, while the next generation is "embracing" it (for a lack of a better word right now).
With this excuse SE is looking like a bitter old granddad, when they should try to be a modern, professional buisness man, ready to play on the global market.

Culture can change, you know? Ours did in that regard, slowly but steadly over the past years.
I can understand that process taking time - I cant respect a refusal to engage in the process. Luckly, the devs sort of did in this case. Took them long enough though.

But both sides need to understand something here - the western customers that it might take them time to make those changes... and the devs that those are changes that have to happen if they want to be viewed as professional global players by the western audience - and not like bitter old granddads clinging to traditions that have been disgarded as not fit for modern times anymore.

[Sigma-Astra]

But they didn't make 'sexy male' gear they just ported the female gear on to the male frames which should not need you to bring in some female staff to do.

If I remember correctly, Yoshi stated that all of the gear designers are female, not that the genders of the designers should really matter honestly in my opinion.

[Sigma-Astra]

snip

I don't know, I think that they've been fairly cordial and professional with us thus far. If they were truly unprofessional about this, then they would have figured out a way to insult the Western players that wanted this in order to curb more requests that might be similar in the future. They would have made some PR declaration that they are against this sort of thing from the getgo and will deny any and all future requests like this. But, they didn't. They tried to understand, even if it's not perfect. The global scaling of an MMO really doesn't matter in this kind of situation, because at the end of the day, it's their product and their set of rules. We just have the privilege of playing this game, but we do not always call the shots at the end of the day. It's possible that they wanted to stay extremely neutral on the topic since what one cultures finds acceptable, many others may not, and then you're potentially turning away more people from the game than just a small minority of people who wanted a "sexy, male outfit". WoW is another global MMO with a large and diverse playerbase from all different walks of life. They either don't cater to those sorts of requests or they just don't get them nearly as often. The likelihood of running into these kinds of requests have only been seen by a select minority within the NA (mostly all requests were from Balmung at fanfests). We could argue it becoming a more global thing if there were people in the EU and JP requesting it as well.

And to also be fair, it's not as if people were very specific. "I want a male bunny outfit!" does not translates to "I want it to be sexy and not just the female version!" to the devs. You can't bite the hand that gives you want you'd ask, but then complain it wasn't what you wanted when people didn't elaborate enough on just exactly what they wanted. No one can read minds sadly.

Male cross-dressing isn't just a cultural difference in Japan, but many other parts of the world that are still on the fence about accepting it or go into heated discussions about it. There's no way to please everyone over the subject. Some other places in Europe are iffy about it, some places in the Middle East, India, Asia, etc....

It's not as widely accepted as other people would be led to believe and still a work in progress.

[BillyKaplan]

They would have made some PR declaration that they are against this sort of thing from the getgo

And had to deal with the PR disaster that would've followed and the split in the audience between people who'd be rightly insulted by them rejecting it and those who'd tell these people to shut up. The second the question came up and Yoshi-P didn't outright turned it down (which he had no reason to do given that male exclusive -> unisex transitions have happened) their hands were tied. I dare say them taking as long as they did WAS them telling us all those things you say they should've told us in the only way they could've - through silence and inaction. But as people persisted they had no choice but to deliver. Eventually.

But, they didn't. They tried to understand, even if it's not perfect.

You're confusing giving in to demands with understanding where these demands come from. Them giving it to us, as big as it is, doesn't necessarily mean anything else positive.

we do not always call the shots at the end of the day.

No, but they decided to give it to us, they decided to even communicate about it with us, but feels like they only went the half-way, did the absolute minimum and even then came up short. Which is where the complaints about lack of professionalism come from. Alongside it taking them years, you know, that's also a thing.

We could argue it becoming a more global thing if there were people in the EU and JP requesting it as well.

You're assuming people's nationalities based on their servers. I am from the middle east, but I'm on Balmung.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I don't remember this much outrage from the female character side when the Noct Lorica made them flat chested with giant abs. And that was before glamours were even a thing.

Why are people taking the male bunny suit not being specifically designed for them as a personal slight against them? Imagining what things are going to be does not equal what they said things were going to be. Stop taking this personally.

[RoseBnargin]

I can't wait to twirl around Limsa with this on.

[Sigma-Astra]

How does them allowing the outfit to no longer be gender-locked nothing short of positive reinforcement that they're trying to understand the requests of their playerbase? I feel as if a lot of people are just being ungrateful because it's not their vision of what it should be when you could have gotten nothing at all.

As for the nationalities based on servers, yes, I was assuming it. My apologies, however, that still doesn't dispute that majority of the requests came from Balmung which is on the NA side and you hardly saw those requests come from the EU and JP fanfests in cooperation with the requests from the NA side. By that feedback alone, the devs could only see that people from the NA datacenters wanted this and not the datacenters from EU or JP. When we talk about a global thing, I'd like to assume an idea collaborated by all three datacenters entirely such as the All Greed for 24 Alliance raids where there's negative feedback from many users across all of the datacenters that don't agree with this implementation.

I feel like all of this outrage over something not even clearly expressed by the fans either will just make them less likely to ever cater towards these kinds of requests ever again.

[BillyKaplan]

Balmung

And maybe because those things are so prevalent on Balmung, anyone who could got into that server because they knew they wouldn't be able to do those things anywhere else. I'm aware of my server's reputation but there's kind of a reason so many people keep trying to flock into it. Chicken and egg sort of situation.

I feel like all of this outrage over something not even clearly expressed by the fans either will just make them less likely to ever cater towards these kinds of requests ever again.

If they don't, it'll be because some Japanese players want to hide glamour as a result. You really can't say that it's been only negative feedback, a lot of people are happy about this, myself included, while I do hope they'll eventually add something more along the lines of what I originally hoped for (small tight vest, or even just suspenders without a top underneath)

[Sigma-Astra]

And maybe because those things are so prevalent on Balmung, anyone who could get into that server because they knew they wouldn't be able to do those things anywhere else. I'm aware of my server's reputation but there's kind of a reason so many people keep trying to flock into it. Chicken and egg sort of situation.

Eh, I see those kinds of things on Sarg too, though few in numbers, I think the problem is people keep cementing that only places like Balmung are acceptable to do those things and be that way when, in reality, the server shouldn't matter and people should just pick a place they like and be who they want to be. The mindset that everyone has to flock to Balmung for specific things like that is the reason it's over-populated instead of people saying anywhere is fine and spreading it out.

[Rokke]

I feel like all of this outrage over something not even clearly expressed by the fans either will just make them less likely to ever cater towards these kinds of requests ever again.

15 or so people unhappy on the forums does not an outrage make. Im fairly confident that the crowd at PAX gave them the reaction they wanted (cheers and laughter).


Yoshi and co are adults working in a creative industry, if they cannot deal with critique one they wouldn't be involved in a multimillion dollar global video game, a video game that more than half of its players are from outside JP. The devs get feedback all the time, good and bad. Wanna watch feedback live? Catch one of the JP in-game Q&As. Yoshi does not burst into tears or ragequit when people say they don't like X aspect of Y. To assume he would declare that his team would never make another unisex outfit due to a small portion of people on the forums is ridiculous.