Gender locked race?

[ArcaneCarbuncle]

Personally I choose to be cautiously optimistic about getting male Viera (and female Lionladies); there are so many variables at play that I'm not willing to get all negative about it (yet).

That said, if there are genderlocks, not getting male Viera is the least of my worries.

I heavily dislike genderlocked races in MMOs, and usually I'd rather not play a Game then (indirectly) support a concept I don't like. Now, I wouldn't quit FFXIV over this, I'm way to in the narrative at this point, but It'd still put a damper on my excitement for the expansion and the game as a whole. And thats the last thing I need right now since I'm already not the biggest fan of some of SEs recent decisions.
(In case someone cares about why I dislike racial genderlocks - I prefer to choose for myself which aesthetic I like to play as rather then the devs shoehorning me into whatever they want me to play. It's just principle, I guess; doubly so in games that are heavy on aesthetics like FFXIV)

And then there's the way how they went about telling us the news. Dangling the potential for male Viera in front of the people who asked for them only to tell them six months later that there aren't actually male Viera and they're getting something they might not care for seems a bit harsh. Especially seeing as they also told us that they're adding Viera specifically because people asked.
I appreciate the Devs trying to surprise us more, but with things that are bound to disappoint a good number of people I'd prefer they give it to us straight, so people can start to pick up the pieces and move on intead of fighting on the Forums about it. Just sours the mood.
They could easily have told us Viera are female only and they have another option for males while still keeping the nature of the male option a secret.
(I mean sure, it might be that they're just messing with us, but still...)


And because someone asked, I'm a big fan of the Ivalice setting and Viera is one of my favourite races in FF history ever since I've seen them first in FFTA when I was little (which was one of the fist FFs I've ever played and the first one I bought myself). I just love their Lore and aesthetic, and their inclusion in FFXII catapulted it immediatly into my top 3 FF-Games. And I've definitely always been curious about how a male Viera would look like.
The reason I'd love them in FFXIV however isn't simply because I like them, but because they seemed to be an easy way to get a look that is otherwise hard to replicate in FFXIV. I usually play the typical Elf-type Races, both for lore and the aesthetic. Tall-ish, slender, young-looking, long lived, A-Grade mages; all that. Some might scream now: "But ELEZEN!", well, Elezen might have elf ears, but are also a bit too tall, have odd proportions and lorewise strike me more as the typical "high human" rather then elves. The Viera on the other hand fit perfectly. (Somehow people tend to forget that Viera, outside of being great hunters, are also the second best mages in FFTA/2)
So, aesthetically for male Viera I'd actually love somewhat of a cross between the tall, and cute options, especially if we're already getting another bulky option in the Hrothgar. Lithe Assassin-types essentially. This would also align well with how I read their lore - I know some people read the whole Training part as some sort of brutal Army-survival-drill, but I took it more as Greek-Hero-Training (or a Jedi and their Padawan, lol); the training entailing not only suviving and fighting, but also mysticism, magic, listening to the Green Word, How-to-kill-efficiently-without-being-seen etc.