Gender locked race?

[Lacan]

I don't have issues with both; however, I'm in the odd camp of being pro gender lock short term. I feel that Au'ra weren't made as bestial as they could have been because they thought about the female's design first due to the quote, "players are prioritizing cuteness" (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/46936). When a race is female focused it feels it is more confined to a certain mold where males will be played despite more difference between them. Now, they can simply make a new race first focusing on the male design, however, I feel that in the back of their minds they'd be like, "Well this feature wouldn't look good on the female counterpart!"

Think about it, despite not wanting to do Viera in Heavensward was due to wanting something more bestial ("they didn't look beastly enough, they were just a little too cute" Reason for not wanting male Viera). The first character they put out to introduce Au'ra was a cute female, and now the first thing we see of Viera is the female too, which makes sense in this case. (The "infamous" interview about Viera being to cute https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the...n-sense/.91021)

I rather they focus on Hrothgar, if they do exist, as a male race so that they don't have to feel the restrictions about worrying about making a female version that will be popular with the majority of the female character players. That way they can make them as bestial, rugged, hairy and scared as they want them to, and that they don't have to worry about restricting their creative freedom by wanting to make a mass appeal female version which would dumb down the males due to possible complaints about sexual dimorphism.

Yea, that does make a lot of sense. Sadly, I don't think they're going to be willing to make the race very bestial regardless, just because of the expectations of the male playerbase. If they're being offered as a substitute to male viera, I imagine they want the race to be as appealing to a large number of people as possible. I think they tend to design the males with consideration of what women find attractive as well, that's why most the races are slim and conventionally good looking.

I think the furthest they'd go with Hrothgar would be giving them fangs and manes, and maybe a thin coat of fur. Anymore than that and they stand to lose too much of the audience with them. I could be completely wrong though!