Gender locked race?

[Shippuu]

Viera have been teased using Fran

I do hope you realize how low of a bar this is, right? We had zero build up for Viera aside from the raid stuff being related to Ivalice. We had a single mention of the Viera race once. And then suddenly Fran was there. We had no build up to her character, it was literally all in the same patch, they introduced her, showed her, and then had a different NPC just info-dump for us on Viera.

People seem to think bringing up Fran as some kind of gotcha against Hrothgar, or any new race, when these things can easily be added to the game. Fran was shallowly added, all they'd have to do is throw in some Hrothgar NPC in 4.5 Part 2, and have some other NPC info-dump for us. That's an embarassingly low standard to meet.

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.

They absolutely aren't apples and oranges. They're all examples of content added to the game (or not added) that would upset a subsection of the playerbase. SE still decided to go those directions knowing full well they couldn't please anyone and knowing full well the repercussion of their actions. This exact thing applies to their decision to ultimately include or not include male viera.
They all show that just because it's something that might upset some players, doesn't mean SE won't do it.

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 was no limited jobs either, until there was. Just because a precedence has been set, doesn't mean it will always be the case.

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.

There is A demand for male viera, you'd be hard pressed to prove it's a huge demand. And as stated numerous times, everyone has their own headcannon version of what they look like. You don't get to count every single variation that people want as being all encompassing. Because if someone wanted tiny cute bunnies and got super big manly ones they'd be just as disappointed as if getting some genderlocked variant.

You'd have to accurately poll everyone on which version they'd prefer, and the line it up with which version SE would have gone with, to truly gauge the interest in them.

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.

And yet they still continue to release gender-locked items consistently and regularly. They release far more gender-locked gear than they do making gender-locked stuff unlocked. They've unlocked what, 2-3 outfits? Some of which weren't even full blown outfits but just a single piece?

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?

I mean, we can make a list of "player demands" that haven't been met, and continue to be avoided or not addressed, it'd be a pretty long list. They could absolutely put Male Viera on the same kind of list.

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."

Yep, sure is silly when the director himself flat out states he wants there to be surprises at the fanfests and that he doesn't always want to give away everything with teases and hints before they happen. Especially before a fanfest that's the biggest they've ever thrown in a huge venue with 15,000 people. Absolutely silly to want to surprise such a huge audience, yep.

From a business perspective, they wouldve put out small bits and pieces, jsut like they did with Viera,

Except they don't have to, in the slightest. When you have games that nobody has really heard about that just instantly drop and have become huge successes instantly (Apex Legends, for example) it shows you absolutely don't need to trickle out information beforehand.

Plus, they still have another 3 months after Fanfest to ramp up the hype and marketing of which they always do.

That sounds like brilliant marketing.

It unironically does. You have zero clue what they could be planning.

[Lacan]

People forget they've already shown art for the male viera too. It makes absolutely 0 sense not to include them. They've had them designed since Heavensward. The only reason why we're getting viera at all is because people saw that art and never stopped asking for viera. The genderlock thing is completely out of left field. No clue why anyone would support that, especially for something silly like "they couldn't design them to please everyone!" as if that is possible with any of the races in the game. Deleting the males entirely is a really stupid answer to that.

[redcurrant18]

There is A demand for male viera, you'd be hard pressed to prove it's a huge demand. And as stated numerous times, everyone has their own headcannon version of what they look like. You don't get to count every single variation that people want as being all encompassing. Because if someone wanted tiny cute bunnies and got super big manly ones they'd be just as disappointed as if getting some genderlocked variant.

We literally have a 150+ page thread of people asking for male Viera. This, combined with the other threads, constitutes a huge demand. Go look on other social media and see how much people are also talking about male Viera there. People want this so bad they go out and make fan art, photoshops, mods, whatever, to realize their dream. I feel bad for the people who will resort to using them to play as male Viera, but if they mess up Shadowbringers then I get why they would do that. It's still not something anyone should have to do to get to play the game that they deserve from the developers. Some variant of male Viera is better than no male Viera, which I'm sure we can all agree with.

Viera have been teased by Fran, by the concept art from Heavensward, and by the lore npc. If for some reason they add a random Hrothgar to patch 4.56, great, better late than never, but I'm still not interested in switching to that race when I'm already a cat boy.

[Tharne]

They said Viera was the last race they'll be doing for FFXIV, what if it's true because they've been working on Hrothgar for longer.

In the French files Hrothgar was listed before Viera so maybe it was added first for testing in-house and then they added Viera when they decided to make them after popular demand. When someone made a copy-paste into the live game code they made a mistake.
^Me trying to find a way to justify this theory.

Still it could be true (not the part about the files, the one about them working on Hrothgar for longer than Viera) and if that's the case, is it right to say that they should just toss the work they wanted to add in their game and just do what some players want ?

After that we still have multiple possibilities based on this theory :
-They were working on Hrothgar when they decided to add Viera but only the male H was usable, they decided to make Female Viera only because they didn't have enough time to finish Female H and Male V.
-They were finished with Hrothgar, decided to add Viera but didn't have time to make Male V.
-They were working on Hrothgar but couldn't find a good way to make the female work, they decided to make Female Viera to give a female option to players.
-They were working on both at the same time but only Male H and Female V were near completion.

In case 1,2 and 4 that's kinda good, because they could just finish them and add Female H and Male V during 5.X patches. Or they could just not add them (which is doubtful).
In case 3 though if they really don't know how to make Female H work but did a lot of work on Male H they just won't toss it aside, imo, so we're stuck with Male H and Female V only. (until they find a way to make it work or not)

Or what I wrote is just horseshit and they just didn't want to make Male V and made a Male lock race.
Or this is just them messing with us and there are no Hrothgar.

[Reinha]

God help them if they try gender locking classes next. I swear I'll delete my account if they make Dancer female only.

Playing all jobs as one character is one of the main features which sets this game apart from its competitors, so gender or race locking jobs would be a colossal mistake. I don't think we need to worry about it happening.

Restricting game play based on the look of your character is not at all the same thing as restricting players from combining some cosmetic options. Muscle sliders have always been race locked and it doesn't mean we will get a muscle locked job some day, lol. They are just not related.

[Crushnight]

Some things came to mind,
Unlocking gender locked gear which is very minor took nearly 3 years due to uncomfortableness from the devs but held a decent sized thread for awhile
Blu being limited has a big thread and many smaller threads asking for changes (this is far more impactful as content than a race's gender)
Potential for gender locked races creates one of the biggest threads in 2 weeks (bigger than Blu) while we are a minority it is very telling how well this is going to be received at Tokyo fan fest should it happen

Playing all jobs as one character is one of the main features which sets this game apart from its competitors, so gender or race locking jobs would be a colossal mistake. I don't think we need to worry about it happening.

Restricting game play based on the look of your character is not at all the same thing as restricting players from combining some cosmetic options. Muscle sliders have always been race locked and it doesn't mean we will get a muscle locked job some day, lol. They are just not related.

Limited jobs weren't a thing until they announced it
Gender locked races aren't a thing till they announce it
Gender locked jobs are the next step up and won't be a thing till they announce it
We have to as players draw the line somewhere it should've been the limited job concept, definitely needs to be gender locked races, god help them if they do gender locked jobs and they would if they keep getting away with this stuff

[xbahax92]

Actually it still would generate issues. People want Viera more than anything yes, but its also pretty clear they want male and female vieras. Theres a huge demand for it. In this scenario, ti would hurt the game more not less. The first point most would make would be "Why would you make a completely separate gender locked race to Viera, and not just give us both Male and Female Viera..

Actually, I went ahead and just took some screenshots. I think people do forget that this has been voted so many times. The majority of players want Viera. And I do think this does not exclude them wanting male Viera's as well.

We have a post that originated the request/support for Viera's to implement and the OP managed to get a whole lot likes in his thread and it still lives to this very day. Lets also not forget OP posted the artwork of Male Viera - which should be already a huge need to see male Viera's for the very first time. I mean, FFXIV is not only a MMORPG, its a Final Fantasy title and many of us came here because of that very reason!

Please add viera as the next new race.

I'd like to see viera look similar to what they look like in the concept art;


or



I like both the tall/elegant viera and the short/cute viera. I think it'd be awesome if they could include both of these designs, just like Hyurs have sub-groups of Highlanders and Midlanders. The Viera could have one short sub-group (with both male and females) and one tall sub-group (with both male and females. However, if we could only pick one (tall or short), I would be ok with either. I would also be ok if the viera race had normal hands and feet as it would be easier for the devs to design armor around that.

Please show your support for a viera race.

Here are some arguments people will probably post against viera:

-They are hyur's (or insert whatever race lul) with fake cloth-textured rabbit ears from the gold saucer.
*This argument has been debated several times already and always falls flat.

-We need to expand customization.
*I agree, but adding viera does not mean we also cannot expand current character customization. Why not both?

-I want another race.
*Go make your own thread. :^)

(398)

Additionally:

Do you guys remember the vote for the new race in HW?

This were the results and I am also confident when people voted for Mammalian demi-beastmen, they definetly did not think of genderlocked female Races.



http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post711060

[Nestama]

We literally have a 150+ page thread of people asking for male Viera. This, combined with the other threads, constitutes a huge demand.

Number of pages doesn't really prove anything if it's the same few people doing the back-n-forth argument dance. I know I've probably said it's silly to gender-lock in this thread somewhere (while throwing shade at Vieras overall because of how bland/boring they are), but that doesn't mean I want male Viera... or Viera in general (because of how bland/boring they are).

They said Viera was the last race they'll be doing for FFXIV, what if it's true because they've been working on Hrothgar for longer.

They said likely/probably the last race. Not is/will be the last race.

[Lauront]

I don't really see gender-locked gear as bad as gender-locking an entire race - in fact, for the most part I have little issue with it, provided both genders get good gear and it's limited in scope.

Still, if the idea of "cute male Viera" is off-putting to them, simple solution... stick to the concept art and don't make them cutesy. There is a lot of art out there that illustrates how it could be done just fine. At the same time, there's a lot of dubious outfits in the game, in use e.g. by catboys, which doesn't seem to be an issue. So I don't buy that excuse at all. It relates to comments made in 2013, and since that time, a lot has changed. I wouldn't stop playing the game if they don't add male Viera, but it will leave a very sour impression of the devs in my mind, as I think there's already enough waifu pandering in this game. And yet, male midlanders outnumber the females, and catboys as well as male au ra, though outnumbered by the females, form a decent chunk of the played characters. So look there for design inspiration. E.g.

The point was: Knowing SE they won't step outside of the box too much with character design. They like consistency, hence why so many people say that all the races are just Hyur with blank.

Which is fine by me. I think there's still plenty of differentiation between each race. I have my criticisms of how they handled au ra, but they still look visually distinct from every other race and, IMO, the males look great (except that one face...)

They said Viera was the last race they'll be doing for FFXIV, what if it's true because they've been working on Hrothgar for longer.

Don't forget the all important "probably" and "most likely". Those are developer weasel words for leaving a foot in the door, should they want to do more races... and also a great way of taking players by surprise.

[Mikki]

We literally have a 150+ page thread of people asking for male Viera. This, combined with the other threads, constitutes a huge demand. Go look on other social media and see how much people are also talking about male Viera there.

I honestly don't see how someone can see a thread less than a month old with over 150 pages and think it isn't a "huge demand". This is more pages than the Blue Mage thread! Plus, I saw a post over on reddit with over 1,000 responses and it was only from a few days ago. People DO want this. It IS a huge demand.

I don't even understand people who are arguing against the lore. Someone crunched the numbers (all provided from lore books and the game) and determined that male moon cats are more rare than male bunnies. But regardless of all of that - PCs should have little to no bearing on the world. As far as I'm concerned, they should be treated as if they don't exist to you. If they did, it must be pretty hard to explain why there were 50+ people clamoring around Alisaie outside Matoya's cave. Or if you played in early ARR days why there were literally hordes of people inside Minfilia's office which was supposed to be hidden away. Or people around an NPC that's supposed to be meeting you in a "secret spot". What happens then, though? Usually a cutscene and they all disappear. Because they aren't supposed to be there. Stop letting PCs ruin your "lore experience".

If we should let lore dictate what we can and cannot play, how about we have a lottery system??? Most people should be playing Hyur but I'm pretty sure miqote and aura get played much more often. What if we could only have a certain % chance to play a specific race? Hyur is the default of course. Maybe have only 5 moon keeper males on the entire server at once? It's ridiculous. Player characters have no bearing and they shouldn't. I realize that it can be hard to ignore them and many like to think of them as just other adventurers. But as it stands our current distribution is out of whack with the actual lore. We just have to let it go.

You know what IS in proportion though??? The NPCS. How many moon keeper males have you seen as NPCs? Not many, I'd wager.