Gender locked race?

[Melichoir]

Not if people redeemed their early access items that come out March 1st, a month before any male Viera announcement. Redeeming that code waives getting a refund lol.

Guarantee you not everyone has done that, nor has everyone who is considering pre-order done so yet.

Did implementing Au Ra go against what the fans wanted? It certainly wasn't Viera. Where was the backlash there? Did implementing no new race in Stormblood go against what fans wanted? What about adding only 2 DPS jobs in Stormblood, sure didn't give what 50% of the players of the game wanted there. Just because a subgroup of players don't get catered specifically to doesn't mean it's some huge affront to the mass fanbase of the game. Are there people who would be upset at no male Viera? Absolutely. But there's plenty of players who were already upset that it's Viera in the first place and would have rather seen something else.

Yes, people did complain, but accepted it begrudgingly along the lines "Well its FFXIV, maybe no viera." No new race in SB is a non-point because its been never stated that they would implement a new race every xpac. DPS point is also a non point. Theres no argument saying they need 3 every xpac. These are all apples youre arguing with in a situation of oranges. And, to a point, there were people upset at every single one of these things.

The trouble you run into with your points is this: There are no gender locked races in FFXIV. In 2.0, they gender unlocked two races. This sets player precedent and expectation going forward. There is no solid lore in the game currently that says no male Viera ever. None of hte devs, including Yoshi P, have not said definitively no male Viera when they are fully 100% aware there is a huge demand for this. This creates ambiguity regarding something that the player base is showing heavy interest in. SE has already demonstrated quite readily to gender unlock or make gender neutral things if there is a demand (glamours/hairstyles/etc), again setting player expectations. These are but a few points that illustrate that this situation is nothing like the examples you set forward which make those poitns moot.

As I pointed out before, if they made the bunny costume available for males over player demand, what do you think is going to happen with a player race if they gender lock Viera?

As for plenty of players upset over Viera? Im sure there are. But theyre not being all that vocal over it, even before the Viera reveal. Yeah, you are right that some people are upset, but I would hazard more people will be upset over them pulling a switch on expectations at the final fan fest.

It's almost like they wanted it to be a surprise....so of course there isn't going to be any hype. And there's already a lot of hype for them despite us knowing almost nothing about them.

This is pretty much silly nonsense. "Were gonna keep somethign absolutely secret. I mean so secret the only way people will know about it is if something bugs out and despite doing this will actually impact presales negatively by shortening enthusiasm period for a part of our product while throwing a larger hype train of players under the bus."

From a business perspective, they wouldve put out small bits and pieces, jsut like they did with Viera, to start drumming up hype and speculation. But surprise surprise, theyre not doing that with Hrothgar. This gets even more peculiar since there is a growing expectation among players for male Viera. So what was there plan? Just let that expectation and demand build up more and more all the while sitting on what they really want to give us and not giving any clues r context or etc so when they reveal it, it comes out of left field? That sounds like brilliant marketing.