Gender locked race?

[Gwenorai]

I don't think you're considering a potential story element they could be using with that particular burning wood. Male Viera are already very rare and staunch defenders of the wood. If a significant threat were to approach the woods, it would make sense for them to gather to defend it, no? And if that so happens to gather the majority of those already rare males into one spot to defend their home? Then a sudden massive inferno would make short work of them potentially. This would be a powerful story hook that would not only give female viera a tragic element if the vast majority of their already small male population was eradicated, but would further solidify even more of an excuse to not include playable male Viera.

We know SE isn't afraid to gut punch the players with tragic stories, after all.

If that happened then Ooff, I think the females have a huge problem on their hands than isn't just the loss of the wood. They're going to end up going the way of panda - well, barring halfbreeds of course.

But even with that, it wouldn't eliminate the chance of there being a playable male. Due to the whole time bubble. The male Viera would have left the wood before the blaze and the huge destruction. I mean - come to think on it. Isn't the story of ARR to Stormblood around a year? A year is very recent and especially goes with the past tense that the dramaturge uses regarding Viera - especially with the dramaturge being Yasumi Matsuno.

And while I'm not 100 percent confident because ah, the fickleness of man, I am very much certain that the concept artists of the game as well as Yasumi Matsuno - the creator of Viera - to come up with a male image that he likes. The lion head speculation - since it was a literal lion head seems to make a lot of sense and goes with previous concept art shown.

And of course, them saying 'this is the last race' makes me wary to the idea that they'd just slap in another with zero hints of another coming. There has been zero hints of Ronso or Rev - and they're already established.

And last but not least and the big stretch question.
If Yoshida doesn't like male rabbits, why wear a Bugs bunny shirt? Why didn't he wear a Lola Bunny shirt - the female counterpart to Bugs? I mean there's bound to be shirts of her - a whole generation of young lads had a thing for Lola - space jam anyone? Heck, why didn't he wear a Tsukuyomi shirt?

xD Stupid question but you know, food for thought.

[Shippuu]

And of course, them saying 'this is the last race' makes me wary to the idea that they'd just slap in another with zero hints of another coming. There has been zero hints of Ronso or Rev - and they're already established.

And last but not least and the big stretch question.
If Yoshida doesn't like male rabbits, why wear a Bugs bunny shirt? Why didn't he wear a Lola Bunny shirt - the female counterpart to Bugs? I mean there's bound to be shirts of her - a whole generation of young lads had a thing for Lola - space jam anyone? Heck, why didn't he wear a Tsukuyomi shirt?

They're being very specific in always saying this maybe/likely/possibly the last race. They are 100% leaving themselves open to add more in the future deliberately. They rarely ever state something as being a truly "we will never do X" and it's deliberate.

As for zero hints? In an interview from yoshida at just this fanfest, when specifically asked about t shirt teases for the next job he said he doesn't always want to give hints that he feels there should be more surprises going into the fanfests instead of knowing everything ahead of time. So it really doesn't matter if theres been no official hint or any mention in game. They can incorporate new races without having to lay the ground work before hand.

As for the bugs bunny shirt, who knows, it could have been the pun that it was for a car/race, so bunny race. His shirts have never been anything but obscure or basic references/hints. It feels like you're potentially reading a bit too much meaning into the shirt. Especially when he said he recently watched Peter rabbit (who is also a male bunny) and thought about wearing something like that, but thought it was "too cute" mirroring what he has said previously about male viera technically.

[Iscah]

They're being very specific in always saying this maybe/likely/possibly the last race. They are 100% leaving themselves open to add more in the future deliberately. They rarely ever state something as being a truly "we will never do X" and it's deliberate.

I've mentioned a couple of times, I think there might be an actual hard limit of eight race options in the character creator as it currently exists. (The original choice of one-out-of-five races would be represented in data as a three-digit binary number, which can represent the standard numbers 0-7.)

If this is correct, then Viera (together with their potential male counterpart) would bring the current number to seven out of eight 'slots' filled.

They could add one more race, but that really would be the last, and in a long-term game it makes sense that they want to keep that slot open to release one more race at some later date. Certainly not now when they have plenty of other drawcards to bring in players.

I will wait till Tokyo fanfest, but i will be really disappointed if we end up with gender locked races. Such a step back without motive... That only will make ffxiv looks like a generic korean mmo. What is next? Wings?

Well they did propose "pixie wings" as a potential mount for completing that beast tribe questline...