Gender locked race?

[Crushnight]

But the lore does exist and was a hefty portion of what we were told about the race onboard the airship. They could've just as easily spewed something about them needing males from other races to mate instead of explain that there are, in fact, male Viera out there, and go on about their habits and customs.
Honestly, we're at the point where there's enough pointing either way. It's Schrudinger's Male Viera - Viera are both genderlocked and not genderlocked until Yoshi-P opens the box at fanfest

This reminded me of this:


Now to wait 5 weeks instead of a few seconds to find out what is inside >_<

[Xeno85]

Customer: I liked my previous [thing] that I purchased. Can I have this other kind of [thing]?
Company: No, because I think your kind is a bit weird.
Customer: Then I'll take my money elsewhere. (Then proceeds to talk to friends and people on the internet about it.)

Don't you see how logical this is? If you can't, you're probably a White Knight.

... it really says a lot when you think a company is basing their decisions solely on the opinions of you that more than likely does not exist to begin with. That's what I mean though, some good things are not good enough, you need all the good things to be satisfied. It's manic.

And sad to say I am not invested enough in this MMO to white knight it. I like it. But I am not going to get zealous about it. Pointing out asinine behavior and white knighting are two very different pieces of pie.

[Seraphor]

But the lore does exist and was a hefty portion of what we were told about the race onboard the airship. They could've just as easily spewed something about them needing males from other races to mate instead of explain that there are, in fact, male Viera out there, and go on about their habits and customs.
Honestly, we're at the point where there's enough pointing either way. It's Schrudinger's Male Viera - Viera are both genderlocked and not genderlocked until Yoshi-P opens the box at fanfest

Except that male Viera have existed in Ivalice lore for some time, and its the Ivalice creator, Matsuno, who was brought on board to write the plot for Return to Ivalice, and Yoshi P confirmed Matsuno wrote that Viera lore.

It's Matsuno's baby, to put it simply, it was left up to him.
So I wouldn't say thats a point in favour of us getting male Viera at all. It was Matsuno's creative decision to build on his existing Viera lore, which he's not likely to have changed to reflect the presence of male Viera in FFXIV.

That said, the line "they simply do not exist for us" is a strong indicator against it.

[BillyKaplan]

That said, the line "they simply do not exist for us" is a strong indicator against it.

Said a male Keeper, if the name is lore abiding.

But see that line in and of itself is like catch 22. They sure went and told us a lot about people who might as well 'not exist for us'. If they really didn't want to draw attention to male Viera, that is not how one goes about it.

I'm going to throw another example that seems to tie in with this. In-game Shinobi. They're supposed to be a secret society and one could be standing right next to you and you wouldn't even know. But once you become a ninja or get to a specific point in the game where they matter, they're suddenly everywhere. Because they decided to show them, and now they're important.

[Tabbs]

Hey guys I'm just here to say I can't wait until they inevitably reveal male Viera at JP Fanfest!

[Mansion]

If we get out of Lore and anything not that relevant in this respect, what bothers me the most is their radio silence actually.

Scenario 1 : Viera Male exists, and we also have non-genderlocked Hrothgar all announced in Tokyo.
M'ok, they were just stirring us and it worked. But that's a lot to offer... We're speaking about the team that offered us limited jobs here.

Scenario 2 : Viera is female only and Hrothgar is male only, "suprisingly" announced in Tokyo
I don't see why they could not have said "there are no male vieras, but who knows, we still have a fan fest..." or something cheeky like this.

Scenario 3 : Viera is female only, and Hrothgar is just a mistake (ake does not happen).
Same as above. Why let people simmer about "maybe there's a male Viera" when they could have flat out said "Viera is female only, please look forward to it!" ?

But here they are, not saying anything about anything more than "there is still one fan fest!". Well, t sure kept the forums busy.

[BillyKaplan]

You forgot the most likely scenario where Hrothgar was a mistake and Viera is not gender-locked, with the males not shown in Paris due to them not being ready yet. It's a concerning state to be at given how not-far off the expansion is, but given how the females were all basically identical, the males not even being ready isn't such an inconceivable possibility.

The question at this point really is how much of a "mistake" was the Hrothgar bug in the first place.

[Nestama]

But the lore does exist and was a hefty portion of what we were told about the race onboard the airship. They could've just as easily spewed something about them needing males from other races to mate instead of explain that there are, in fact, male Viera out there, and go on about their habits and customs.
Honestly, we're at the point where there's enough pointing either way. It's Schrudinger's Male Viera - Viera are both genderlocked and not genderlocked until Yoshi-P opens the box at fanfest

What I meant is that FFXIV is the only game to go in depth with male Viera's, even giving them a reason for why we probably never saw them in the games Viera are from. I don't recall them being mentioned in FFXII, FFTA and FFTA2. Never played FFXII:RW.
All we really knew about them prior to XIV is: they exist.

[Anyan]

... it really says a lot when you think a company is basing their decisions solely on the opinions of you that more than likely does not exist to begin with. That's what I mean though, some good things are not good enough, you need all the good things to be satisfied. It's manic.

And sad to say I am not invested enough in this MMO to white knight it. I like it. But I am not going to get zealous about it. Pointing out asinine behavior and white knighting are two very different pieces of pie.

One of the main reasons as to why the worry about a genderlock exists in the first place is specifically because of Yoshi's opinions on masculinity and waifus. That's the point I was trying to make.
I don't need all the good things. But give me too many of the bad things, and I'll pay someone else for my entertainment. How is that manic? It's simple business. In this case it might be the finally straw that breaks the camel's back for me. SE and Yoshi has disappointed and angered me on many occasions.

[Anvaire]

Assuming they are planning to gender lock both and they purposely put the error in there to try and lessen the impact at Tokyo Fan fest when its announced. I think they are either very short sighted and this is likely to blow up in their faces.

The problem is, I can't see why they would even want to purposely leak info in this way, unless its a red herring, similar to how some of the lines in the Viera lore regarding males could potentially be a red herring. At this point, i think all we can do is conjecture until JP fan fest. That said, if they do intend to Gender-lock both Viera and Hrothgar (If indeed Hrothgar is a thing and not simply a placeholder name) then they aren't lessening the backlash from not adding male Viera they are simply doubling it. For a team that has learned the hard way from 1.0 in not losing credibility with its player base, i do not think that this is something Yoshi P would do. Over the years there have been countless posts across many mediums around viera and always there has been a strong desire for males. This thread itself is testimony to how much appetite there is for Male Viera.

Personally, if they weren't going to add them why go to the effort of saying so much about them? Equally, where is the lore around Hrothgar? I cannot see them tacking it on in the final arc of the 4.5 story patch. Equally, every time they have added a race there have been breadcrumbs to follow to suggest they are being added. Unless i have missed something, these are not present. Though it does bring to mind some dialogue that was around during the Ridorana Lighthouse that listed the Ivilician races - I do not recall Hrothgar being among them. There is an argument to be made that the Hrothgar could be unrelated to Ivalice but, given the direction the expansion appears to be headed, there is little evidence to suggest any other plausible source. This of course, could change come JP Fan Fest.

Regardless, i personally hope we do not get any Gender-locked race. There is a lot of appetite for the male Viera and this will not be satisfied by adding a male of any other race. All that does is double the disappointment for those that want the counterparts that were not added. End of the day, there is little reason NOT to add them. Lore after all, is seldom set in stone and can be changed with very little effort, or indeed changed to fit a new situation.