Gender locked race?

[Melichoir]

It doesnt matter who reads what, you can skip the entire MSQ if you want.
Yoshi P specifically drew attention to this lore as important information pertaining to the status of male Viera in hydaelyn.

As poitned out by others, they say theyre rare to see, not non-existent. What Yoshi-P says actually doesnt give you either way and it depends wholly on your perspective.

Perspective A:Male Viera are incredibly rare - Means we wont see them other than maybe an NPC here or there.
Perspective B: Male Viera are incredibly rare, but theyre in the game and possibly a player race.

This brings up the question: If we cant play as them, why not just say so? Why not say were keeping true to old lore and youll only really see female viera and play as such. Why not be upfront. Cause you know whats going to happen if they dont: People will have expecations (which they do) and those expectations are going to be thrown out the window, and whatever they put in Male Viera's place will likely get lambasted broadly. It would be better for them not to play the ambiguous card and let people know that its not goign to happen so people, while disappointed, will shift their attention and speculation to what is coming. Thus far, thats not happening (as this thread demonstrates). This would be a bit of a PR misstep for ShB if the plan was to be ambiguous and then reveal "Sorry guys! No Male Viera. Have this Hrothgar instead! Hes cool right!?"

Also consider this from an outside point of view:

You think people arent going to start saying "Why are they having girl play bunnies in the game, but no boy ones?" SJ stuff aside, people were asking and demanding for there to be male versions of hte GoldSaucer Bunny costume. The demand was there enough that SE actually did it. Now that was a glamour. What makes anyone think that argument wont get cranked up when it comes to a playable race? I keep bringing this stuff up because we should take into accoutn what SE would choose to do as a business. Avoiding PR missteps and fan backlash over really foolish design aesthetics, not being clear about something fans clearly want and addressing it, pulling what will amount to many people seeing as a bait and switch...yeah, these are things SE would consider, regardless of YoshiPs feelings. If he felt strongly enough about not having them, SE would tell him to just verify they wont be a part of it.

[Seraphor]

Because its Yoshi P, he likes to tease these things.

He wants people to be on edge going into Tokyo fan fest.
If they're going to announce a new race, when people are already expecting 'something', then keeping 'male viera' as a possible option gives us doubt as to what to expect.
Eliminate male Viera before announcing the new race, and people are already on the defensive and already forming negative opinions on what is obviously a new race before its even announced, which is exactly what's going on due to this leak.
They need the new race to soften the blow of no male viera, and they need to save something big for Tokyo fan fest.

[Lauront]

Actually considering how this type of reproduction works, and the extended lifespan of the viera, it would have an impact, but not a large one, and here's why:

While one female in mammalian species can only have offspring with one male at a time, one male can father offspring with several females at once. This is why the 80-20 sex split in the viera isn't an issue. One male could mate with four females and the population would remain stable or grow whereas if the roles were reversed and there were four males to every one female, the population would die off.

Add to that the viera have very long lifespans, and it's safe to assume that females remain able to carry children for many more years of their lives than humans do, and this makes it less of an issue. You'd potentially have males in the village ranging from embryo to the verge of sexual maturity, so the real difference where would be the ratios. The males coming of age in the village would no longer have to compete with mature males in the wild for partners, and the male to female ratio for a time would change, but it would mean that each male would likely increase the number of females he has children with rather than have some females go without having children.

The real impact here would be cultural. With no males in the while to teach young males the skills they need to survive, you might see a change where males stay in the villages with the females rather than venture off on their own. That would in turn have other impacts on viera society that might leave them more open to explorers from other races coming across their settlements and either forcing them to open up to the outside, or the outside influences would overrun the viera, potentially wiping most of them out.

That's all true, however given their longer lifespans it will also take longer to reach their former population of mature adults, and as you say, there's some considerable risks as well as changes it could force upon them. Still, it's one avenue SE could take, without consigning the race to oblivion. I hope they avoid this.

[Gwenorai]

Because its Yoshi P, he likes to tease these things.

He wants people to be on edge going into Tokyo fan fest.
If they're going to announce a new race, when people are already expecting 'something', then keeping 'male viera' as a possible option gives us doubt as to what to expect.
Eliminate male Viera before announcing the new race, and people are already on the defensive and already forming negative opinions on what is obviously a new race before its even announced, which is exactly what's going on due to this leak.
They need the new race to soften the blow of no male viera, and they need to save something big for Tokyo fan fest.

People will be on the defensive regardless, the only thing that folks would be the least defensive about is if they came out with two races - if Hrothgar is legit - that isn't gender locked.

I can't even imagine male Viera being locked due to the where we're going and the plot of the burning of the wood - I just can't imagine how the writers are going to have it be without it being half-arsed.

With Hrothgar they can just throw it in there, but lame writing is lame writing.

If they didn't want the male Viera they should have written that in the lore to the point that Viera's reproduce asexually or thy wood magic. They really didn't need to add a male. Just like all of the other games didn't need to have males in their lore - I honestly never understood the point of it unless you wanted to expand upon that in the future.

[Rokke]

The text says they kill anyone that enters the woods that isn't viera that goes way beyond fierce, the whole veria race is made out to be violently isolationist.

It is the literal definition of the word fierce.

The theme from 2.0 on has been us assembling a force strong enough to attempt war with a comically overpowered nation, if we had a means to have some of their famed warriors batting for us all the better.

One might even question if the recent changes to the Terms of Service are intended to mitigate the disappointment and backlash that would arise from a gender lock...

At least from what I quickly skimmed, the bulk of (if not all?) the updated rules are for player/player interactions in-game. They wouldn’t really change people’s interactions here, on reddit, twitter, conventions, etc. Excluding people arguing in area chat, I don't really see the overlap...

[redcurrant18]

Because its Yoshi P, he likes to tease these things.

He wants people to be on edge going into Tokyo fan fest.
If they're going to announce a new race, when people are already expecting 'something', then keeping 'male viera' as a possible option gives us doubt as to what to expect.
Eliminate male Viera before announcing the new race, and people are already on the defensive and already forming negative opinions on what is obviously a new race before its even announced, which is exactly what's going on due to this leak.
They need the new race to soften the blow of no male viera, and they need to save something big for Tokyo fan fest.

Or they could have just skipped the insane amount of drama this has generated and given players what we specifically have been asking for instead of throwing us a curveball. If he comes onstage and presents Hrothgar instead of male Viera all hell will probably break loose and we'd have our own version of the Diablo Immortals announcement but for FFXIV. I don't care about how Tactics and FF12's lore was-this is FFXIV-and if they removed the genderlock for Galka/Roegadyn and Mithra/Miqote then they better not gender lock whatever other races they add next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJy6bJ_RxXg

[Seraphor]

People will be on the defensive regardless, the only thing that folks would be the least defensive about is if they came out with two races - if Hrothgar is legit - that isn't gender locked.

I can't even imagine male Viera being locked due to the where we're going and the plot of the burning of the wood - I just can't imagine how the writers are going to have it be without it being half-arsed.

With Hrothgar they can just throw it in there, but lame writing is lame writing.

If they didn't want the male Viera they should have written that in the lore to the point that Viera's reproduce asexually or thy wood magic. They really didn't need to add a male. Just like all of the other games didn't need to have males in their lore - I honestly never understood the point of it unless you wanted to expand upon that in the future.

Male Viera were already in Ivalice lore is pretty much the same context as this, the only new stuff is a bit of flavour on their mating practices.
Male Viera were always meant to be a mystery.

And we still know jack all about the circumstances and extent of the Rak'tika greatwood being burned, or the Viera's place in that wood.
You seem to have already concocted your own headcanon.

[Seraphor]

Or they could have just skipped the insane amount of drama this has generated and given players what we specifically have been asking for instead of throwing us a curveball. If he comes onstage and presents Hrothgar instead of male Viera all hell will probably break loose and we'd have our own version of the Diablo Immortals announcement but for FFXIV. I don't care about how Tactics and FF12's lore was-this is FFXIV-and if they removed the genderlock for Galka/Roegadyn and Mithra/Miqote then they better not gender lock whatever other races they add next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJy6bJ_RxXg

I think you're so deep into this male Viera 'movement' if we can call it that, that you've lost perspective.
There won't be as big of an outcry as you've implied, some, but in no way comparable to Diablo Immortal.

[redcurrant18]

Male Viera were already in Ivalice lore is pretty much the same context as this, the only new stuff is a bit of flavour on their mating practices.
Male Viera were always meant to be a mystery.

And we still know jack all about the circumstances and extent of the Rak'tika greatwood being burned, or the Viera's place in that wood.
You seem to have already concocted your own headcanon.

((The fact that I'm having to argue about lore friendliness with another male cat is so absurd considering this race/gender combo wasn't playable until they finally decided to listen to what people wanted.))

This is not anyone's head canon. Go look at the Viera trailer and you can see that their native area is the Greatwood, which is implied to be a subsection of the Golmore Jungle. If you have so much respect for lore from previous games why are you playing a male cat? Go change into Roegadyn or something because if we follow your way of thinking then you're breaking everyone else's game experience. Go on and stay true to your word.

[ShinShimon]

Keep in mind that the reasons we know Yoshida wouldn't add male Viera is specifically down to him not liking the 'cuteness' and how 'weird' it would be to have rabbit men. This isn't a lore issue, this is one person's vision being the driving force.

90+% of the playerbase will be fine as long as there is one new male and female option with the expansion. Making two different one-gender races is a perfectly legitimate use of their limited resources.