Gender locked race?

[wereotter]

The same dialogue from the Dramaturge nips that in the bud a bit though. It heavily implies that no male ventures outside of the woods. He says he's never seen, nor known anyone who has, seen a male Viera in the largest city hub nearest to their territory. We know females who venture out wind up there enough to make up a percentage of the population, but he states none of them are males.

Anything is possible but they're definitely laying groundwork to explain why we probably won't see any male Viera. No NPC's or anything. There's little reason for them to paint the absence of male viera in such adamant language that states they are never seen outside of the woods, and even if you go looking for them in the woods you won't find them either. They're that rare/elusive.

That same NPC, however, explained how things are changing within the Viera culture, laying the groundwork as to why we will start seeing them now when we never have before. Consider that if you take the lore 100% at face value, we should have already been seeing them in the world, yet Fran is the first one we're run into. If things are changing for the females, if they're starting to abandon their villages, then the males will follow. There will be less of a reason to protect the jungle if the people they were there to protect are gone.

Some will stay to protect the actual jungle viewing that as their cause, others will leave to be with the females who left and/or to protect them specifically. It's not entirely unlike the colonization of the Americas. Initially it was just the men venturing out into the unknown, but the women soon followed after. If the roles were reversed and the women started to settle in a new area, the men would follow suit as well. Societies need both to survive, and it's not strange to think that if the female viera are starting to branch off of their path that they won't also peel off some males with them.

Until the developers say that it's confirmed not happening, it's too soon for any of us to be so certain it's not as well. I can see why they wouldn't, but I also think it's better that they do introduce it, and obviously am in the camp of those who think it will happen.

Edit: also as a bit of a teaser, Yoshi was asked directly at one of the EU interviews "how are you going to introduce male Viera into FFXIV?" and he didn't state then that they weren't, but that the question would be answered in Japan. Granted that answer might be "we're not" but it seems more of a hint as to they are to me.

[cicatriz313]

Edit: also as a bit of a teaser, Yoshi was asked directly at one of the EU interviews "how are you going to introduce male Viera into FFXIV?" and he didn't state then that they weren't, but that the question would be answered in Japan. Granted that answer might be "we're not" but it seems more of a hint as to they are to me.

To accurately quote... here's directly from the thread. Q12: Fans are very excited that Viera is a new race but I think that fans are hoping that we’ll also get the male Viera as a playable character. Can you comment on that? Or even if they’re going to be NPCs if not, or if we have to wait until Tokyo Fan Fest? A12: That’s true we do still have the Tokyo Fan Fest ahead of us. zips mouth

Seems to me that the question was a leading question and Yoshi ran with it and gave a non-answer. aka he was given the "out" of JP fanfest and used it. Not that he specifically said "that will be answered in Japan"

[Alesone]

Edit: also as a bit of a teaser, Yoshi was asked directly at one of the EU interviews "how are you going to introduce male Viera into FFXIV?" and he didn't state then that they weren't, but that the question would be answered in Japan. Granted that answer might be "we're not" but it seems more of a hint as to they are to me.

You seem to be misremembering or willfully ignoring what he actually said in that interview.

Q: The question everyone got the most excited for at yesterday's press Q&A was the male vieras. Since it's you, Yoshida, we think there'll be male vieras. But in FFXII, male vieras are extremely rare and never appear. How are you going to introduce them into FFXIV?

A: Who knows? I'm a contrarian, so when you say "Yoshida would definitely do this", it makes me not want to answer *laughs* Actually, in the Return to Ivalice story that concluded the other day, there's a ton of lore about vieras in FFXIV. We coordinated with Matsuno-san to include most of the hints there, so please check that. Matsuno-san wrote wonderful texts for us.

From this interview

The fact he stated he is a contrarian (when most often, he absolutely is not a contrarian when it comes to how he's come off and what he does) when the interviewer said they felt yoshida was certainly going to give players male Viera should raise plenty of red flags. For those who may not know, contrarian is defined as "opposing or rejecting popular opinion; going against current practice." So if Yoshida says he's a contrarian when it comes to male viera, and the popular opinion is that male viera are coming, this leads one to believe he's going to go against the grain regarding male viera. Backed up with his history of being averse to concept of male viera, it's actually further evidence they probably aren't coming. He also said nothing about answering that in Japan fanfest in that interview and diverted to the lore, which we've established paints male viera in a light that they won't even be encountered in NPC form.