Gender locked race?

[AnnaRosa]

So not only are you agreeing with someone who is posting a 100% spiteful post, you are saying people that don't want male Viera have a mental disorder? Some people in this thread blow my mind lol.

No sir his comment isn't spiteful that person mentioned a fact by saying that the reaction doesn't need to be that dramatic for a situation players know SE fixes by request as did in the past.

Even if male viera appereance doesn't fit everyone taste sure they'll find a solution, since on the past they had to deal with other big issues successfully.

[Nestama]

Their approach to adding in-game races is partly to blame there. Most of the beast tribes look entirely homogeneous and you can't tell the difference between male or female in most cases. They would have to do a better job differentiating the race's NPCs to make it easy to add it later, but doing that could give away the surprise given the precedent they've set, unless they did it on a broader scale, which would be costlier... adding differentiation later, meanwhile, would be jarring. TBH, I think their way of adding new races leaves a lot to be desired, and I hope they learn from this (and WoW's approach) going forward for their next MMO.

Well if WoW could do it with Tauren, Pandaren and Worgen and GW2 with their Charr, then I'm sure FFXIV could as well... so long as it's the WoW and GW2 way and not the way Tera or any MMO that makes the males look monstrous in appearance and the females sexy lady/waifus with animal bits. It's so stupid when MMO's do that.

[Lauront]

Yes, the difference with WoW, GW2 and TES:O is that they explicitly intended for the races to be playable. Whereas in XIV, most new races added come in the form of beast tribes, and since their playability is not a consideration, they design them with cost-saving in mind. To move to the model WoW etc. use, they'd need to adapt how they approach the addition of new races altogether. It's probably too late at this point to do such a thing, since even if the game goes all the way to 8.0, at the very most I'd expect one more race following whatever is added in 5.0.

It's just a shame because it means that new playable races have to be completely new, given their current approach, but there's also no real equivalent to the racial storylines you get in other MMOs, which enable the new races to be seamlessly integrated into the main story (all the way from level 1), so it all feels somewhat disconnected and out of the blue.

I'm in agreement about Tera.

[Wolfyboy]

Honestly, I think this situation is simply a nightmare. It obviously makes people who want male Viera feel bad, and it personally makes me feel bad in the other camp. Their losing hype and I'm tempering mine simply to try and not get burnt (which is making me feel exhausted waiting for the next fanfest). I can't wait to get off this break and just go back to work and let the days fly so I can either be like, "OMG OMG!" or "Well, it is male Viera as expected."

[Ayer2015]

Because there doesn't always have to be a race with both genders. The next race could be male only, who cares?

Clearly a lot of people care, otherwise this thread would not exist.

[Rokke]

A discussion develops the more information that comes along. This discussion isn't solely about male Viera anymore because we've gotten a whole lot of new information (whenever it is true or not) to work with. If the OP wanted it to keep it fully about male Viera it should honestly be called, "Is Viera a gender locked race?" since Hrothgar would easily fit in the current title too since it would be a gender locked race.

I don't think we can change thread titles on these forums and I don't think OP expected a 200 page thread.

You pointed out that theres people in this thread (and other forums) that see the new race as the unwanted alternative to male Viera. Their reasoning should be apparent even after all the tangents, arguments, and leaks: this new race is likely going to be presented as the alternative to male Viera. The issue Hrothgar face is that they're apparently a new unique race and they're coming in with no buildup. We're a few weeks out of the last fanfest and its years of hype vs. a coding error. Even if Hrothgar were drawn out first first, even if they were modeled first, even if they were fully completed and ready to be plugged into the game first - Viera females were implemented due to player demand and said player demand bites the team (and unfortunate Hrothgar supporters caught in the crossfire) in the butt when half of what was asked for is left out for one reason or another.

[Lauront]

Honestly, I think this situation is simply a nightmare. It obviously makes people who want male Viera feel bad, and it personally makes me feel bad in the other camp. Their losing hype and I'm tempering mine simply to try and not get burnt (which is making me feel exhausted waiting for the next fanfest). I can't wait to get off this break and just go back to work and let the days fly so I can either be like, "OMG OMG!" or "Well, it is male Viera as expected."

Yup, it's really dragging. I'm not even that torn over it, since I will probably continue playing male au ra and midlanders regardless - unless the new race is really fantastic - but I just want to see what decision they're going to make at this point and I'm really hoping it's not going to be permanent gender locks. And all this is in addition to all the other surprises the fanfest will bring with it.

I don't think we can change thread titles on these forums and I don't think OP expected a 200 page thread.

You pointed out that theres people in this thread (and other forums) that see the new race as the unwanted alternative to male Viera. Their reasoning should be apparent even after all the tangents, arguments, and leaks: this new race is likely going to be presented as the alternative to male Viera. The issue Hrothgar face is that they're apparently a new unique race and they're coming in with no buildup. We're a few weeks out of the last fanfest and its years of hype vs. a coding error. Even if they were drawn out first first, even if they were modeled first, even if they were fully completed and ready to be plugged into the game first - Viera females were implemented due to player demand and said player demand bites the team (and unfortunate supporters caught in the crossfire) in the butt when half of what was asked for is left out for one reason or another.

This is also what I am getting at that when I say such a race would not be a foolproof lure to WoW refugees seeking a "beastly" option (if it even is one.) You're competing against an MMO which has pretty well established in-setting lore for these races, built up from prior games, against... nothing but the appearance of one, if that. The same holds true for Khajit in TES:O - it's a classic TES race. Even GW2 had considerable build up for the new races it put in.

Maybe it'd work, who knows, but I am sceptical, on the basis of what I said in earlier posts, and on top of that, I'd be rather annoyed (at SE, not those asking for such an option) if they use it as an excuse to block male Viera.

[AnnaRosa]

Viera females were implemented due to player demand and said player demand bites the team (and unfortunate supporters caught in the crossfire) in the butt when half of what was asked for is left out for one reason or another.

Believe the requests were to Viera as a complete race with both male and female not just for female.
There is also alot of fan art for male best way to give developers ideas, best way to protest via art.

[linay]

Yes, the difference with WoW, GW2 and TES:O is that they explicitly intended for the races to be playable. Whereas in XIV, most new races added come in the form of beast tribes, and since their playability is not a consideration, they design them with cost-saving in mind. To move to the model WoW etc. use, they'd need to adapt how they approach the addition of new races altogether. It's probably too late at this point to do such a thing, since even if the game goes all the way to 8.0, at the very most I'd expect one more race following whatever is added in 5.0.

To be fair, most humans probably can't tell male and female apart for many (if not all) animals. It would make sense that beast tribes would be like that. The idea that a nonhuman (especially beast) race should be familiar enough that humans can tell their sex just seems counterproductive.

It's just a shame because it means that new playable races have to be completely new, given their current approach, but there's also no real equivalent to the racial storylines you get in other MMOs, which enable the new races to be seamlessly integrated into the main story (all the way from level 1), so it all feels somewhat disconnected and out of the blue.

I'm in agreement about Tera.

I prefer FFXIV's approach about being the individual adventurer rather than his or her race.

One bad example of having racial storyline being forced is WoW's current implementation of Allied Race where you somehow have to gain reputation and complete significant portion of their storyline just to unlock the race because of "lore reason" when the race could already be acting as your ally in game even without you unlocking them. This problem is then compounded because WoW doesn't enforce continuity in story between expansions and the fact that a new Allied Race character, while leveling, would then have to deal with story quests that happened before their race supposedly became your ally.

[Lauront]

You're correct in the sense that sex differences for such non-human races would not realistically manifest in the same way, but at the same time it also means they're not particularly suitable for addition as playable races. I brought it up because people were discussing Lupin, where the differentiation between NPCs is extremely limited... it is obvious why this poses a problem when adding a new race, as customisation and a range of options are important.

As for WoW, I did not mean the Allied Races, as I'm not hugely fond of how they were implemented, but I do like the racial starting zones and storylines much better as an approach. It's not the only MMO which did this, either.