Gender locked race?

[Shippuu]

Do you remember when YoshiP said that about a separate male race? I don't want to quote it at people without a source but that's very interesting.

I sure do. Link

Q38: In terms of new races, what kind of races are you looking into and will mixed races be introduced?

A38: I don’t think we’ll have mixed races for a while. Since it seems like Viera is popular around the world we have been proactively looking into this, but since having a rabbit male might be kind of weird, maybe we’ll look into having a separate race for the male counterpart.

One reason male viera may still be a possibility is because of the amount of work that went into viera feet and helmets. Things had to be reworked. It would be a shame to not reuse the feet and helmet adjustments for males as well. Another reason could be because of past player demand for the missing genders of roe, highlander, and miqo'te. They may be aware the player base want both genders of a race.

It's true, but at the same time, that work can also be used for some other male race that features similar feet and ear placement. We also don't fully know the extent of the accommodations they have made for the Viera feet and ears. For all we know, they could have decided to do something as extreme as simply not letting Viera show helmets they're wearing. It's an odd choice, but it would open them up to other race options that have more extreme head shapes that would have also been problematic for helmets. We'll have to wait and see when they explain whatever change it was they have made to accommodate Viera ears.

[Senn]

...

Yeah, someone mentioned the "Ronso" feet thing. They do have similar feet, so they could reuse viera feet for that. Since they mentioned a separate race in the past, this is totally possible.

[Shougun]

I sure do. Link

Q38: In terms of new races, what kind of races are you looking into and will mixed races be introduced?

A38: I don’t think we’ll have mixed races for a while. Since it seems like Viera is popular around the world we have been proactively looking into this, but since having a rabbit male might be kind of weird, maybe we’ll look into having a separate race for the male counterpart.

:O (Forgot how exact the old question was, I just thought it was like "meee..ehhh" lol).

So the question now is will he Blue Mage the Viera people lol. If Yoshi does it again then I'm going to have to reread a lot of old posts, anything he said he is going to do might just be something way down the pipe line but he will be doing XD. Of course he could change his mind too, it's not like he cant do it (but it just seems when he has a strong opinion he sticks to it).

Yeah, someone mentioned the "Ronso" feet thing. They do have similar feet, so they could reuse viera feet for that. Since they mentioned a separate race in the past, this is totally possible.

I imagine IF (not saying they are) they did something like Ronso it might not be called Ronso (just have a high inspiration from- and it would really just be "lion-like"), but yeah.. Ronso have the Viera feet and Viera hands, they also have very similar Viera hair. With their elvish like ears and tails all the systems that made Ronso-like race a pain in the booty to produce a while ago is now technically all prepared.

It's actually why I thought you could buff up a rabbit enough that it might even look like a ronso. Especially with one of the concept arts (of a Viera male) they've produced that has similar T chest hair and hair mane.

[Shippuu]

:O

So the question now is will he Blue Mage the Viera people lol. If Yoshi does it again then I'm going to have to reread a lot of old posts, anything he said he is going to do might just be something way down the pipe line but he will be doing XD.

Yeah, I mean he can certainly change his mind over 6 years. But since he was so consistent with Blue Mage, it means old comments can't be easily dismissed just for being old.

Plus, his comment was made well after they had decided to undo the 1.0 gender locks, meaning that even after they "fixed" that, he was still definitely open to a future gender locked race, with Viera especially. It's something to consider when you factor in all the other oddities that's going on with the lack of male viera being announced/shown.

[Fland]

I sure do. Link

Q38: In terms of new races, what kind of races are you looking into and will mixed races be introduced?

A38: I don’t think we’ll have mixed races for a while. Since it seems like Viera is popular around the world we have been proactively looking into this, but since having a rabbit male might be kind of weird, maybe we’ll look into having a separate race for the male counterpart.

I don't get it. Why is having male rabbit weird?

[Kupocoubo]

I don't get it. Why is having male rabbit weird?

Maybe some people kind of fetishize rabbit ? Is that a thing in Japan ? If I remember well, Dragon Quest and Bravely Default (both from Square Enix) have also some kind of "sexy rabbit". Is it related to Playboy ?
It would also implies that fetishize girls is ok but to fetishize boys is "kind of weird"

[Jaywalker]

Also, that thing I mentioned on tones? Super, super important imo. When I look at stuff I'm reading into the different impressions various races make as well as body types and facial features. Elegant is different from cute or tough or cool and so forth. Part of why I'm :// about the animal thing is because I think it falls into repeating tones by evoking closer to nature, bestial, etc. At least with rabbits, cats, and reptiles you have herbivores vs carnivores, mammals versus non-mammals, all that. It's more similar than I'd like, but I can kind of deal. If you have two mammal carnivores and they're literally both in the cat family, lions are pretty hulky so it would be more muscle when we already have a lot of big beefy characters, and Hellsguard can literally give the impression of big cats ANYWAY? To me that seems like a tremendous waste.

On silhouettes, I disagree that FFXIV is poor in that regard and would argue instead that it depends on where you look and what you're looking for. It is a thing that biological men and women build muscle differently and have fat deposits in different places. Usually (not universally, but usually) there is a more dramatic range in terms of how big or small a man's body might be compared to a woman's.

I'm also conscious looking at FFXIV that in Asia certain body types are more or less common as well. Have you noticed that a western plus size tends to be dramatically different from an Asian one? It's not because of being mean, it's because there's less demand for larger sizes in Asia.

I've already said I think female miqo'te and female au ra are too similar. I feel a bit on the fence with Roegadyn frankly, because while I like the female frames more than the male ones I think the sheer size of the male roes stands out in a good way. Part of me would like them to be a bit less dimorphic there. Similar kind of thing with highlanders. I think part of why I'm not bothered is because frankly bodies like that are not shown much, if at all, in some of the places I'm coming from. I'm used to femininity, conventional beauty standards, and biologically female bodies being absolutely demonized so my overwhelming sense here is relief.

A very tall, thin, willowy frame is one thing I wanted to help set female figures apart. I don't really expect and am not looking for female races to have the same level of height and bulky musculature as male races both because of Asian beauty standards and because biologically male and female bodies do have some differences in that respect. It's possible to be like "oh but what about the most extreme female body builders" here but those are not functional but show muscles and frankly there's an unhealthily low level of body fat for women on some of them that looks pretty steroid-y.

[Jaywalker]

I would have liked playable dwarves as taller than lalafells, shorter than miqo'te and female au ra. I would have liked to see a short, somewhat fuller frame from SE there and I'd still be interested in seeing how they might approach a body type like that with more definition than lalafells. With Viera having been hit, that's what I'd like to see from them next if Viera have both males and females available.

I'm squinting at you a little on the elezen versus viera thing though. Shoulders, hips, chest/bust, neck, those are all really big proportional differences. I mention the shoulders specifically since it's SUPER noticeable. Legs are different as well, and facial features/facial tone is huuuuugely different. Stuff like eye size/shape, nose size/shape, mouths and particularly mouth definition... I'm looking very, very closely at that. From where I'm standing they're substantially different.

I absolutely do not think a lion race would only need more narrow shoulders and different ears. The reason I mentioned ears for Viera is because they help emphasize height and bring the eye in a vertical direction to a degree other races have not matched the same way. Like I said the redundancy in feline features is a major issue for me, but so is having yet ANOTHER tall, buff race.

You think I'm applying a double standard. I've just explained in great detail and using a perspective you may not have considered (by virtue of not being psychic) why I'm not. To me, it looks a little like you're being disingenuous and neglecting a lot of major elements that to me are givens. I'd like to give you a benefit of the doubt, but I'm mentioning this because sometimes communicating through text can be tricky. If we are just coming at this from different perspectives, I'd rather take this as an opportunity for further understanding than some kind of confrontation.

[Jaywalker]

I think some of it is because rabbits tend to be seen as soft and cutesy and super gentle, and that's at odds with traditional masculinity. Also the stuff Kupocoubo said.

I'm willing to cut a little slack on the comment because it reminds me of how say, unicorns have a specific overly light and sweet connotation now but they didn't used to. Guy bunnies could be like Watership Down or could be taken in the vein of hares or jackrabbits where there's nothing jarring. At a certain point just gotta get over it imo.

[Kupocoubo]

I find it weird to associate some animals with "masculinity" and "feminity"... meh. Humans are weird