Gender locked race?

[Theodric]

Until they are repeatedly hammered at until they eventually give in. Even if it's not for male Viera then certainly for female Hrothgar; unless they're going to make the lore for them 'Females don't exist; they sprout from the ground.'

If it doesn't fit their vision for the game, they simply won't do it no matter how often they receive requests. I don't doubt that the recent change in the Terms of Service is, to some degree, intended to mitigate such things. Especially given how many chose to react to Eureka and BLU.

[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.

[Lacan]

I really think he was just playing around with that contrarian comment. He was just making fun of the question since it was such a big assumption. I seriously doubt he would go against what the playerbase wants just to avoid doing something they expect him to. That would just be silly. Yoshi does care about the playerbase even if he goofs up occasionally. He wouldn't do something out of spite like that.


And when asked about male Viera directly, he said to wait for Japan fanfest. That could mean a lot of things. He didn't dismiss the idea. I think if we weren't getting them he would have clarified it right then. He has to know an open ended answer like that would make people get their hopes up. I think there is more to the situation than we're seeing.

[Alesone]

I think if we weren't getting them he would have clarified it right then.

Except if he wants to do a surprise reveal of a new race? If he confirmed male viera aren't coming then people would be expecting something as a substitute. He would obviously try to avoid spoiling something that would have been a pretty big surprise if it weren't for leaks.

[Lacan]

Except if he wants to do a surprise reveal of a new race? If he confirmed male viera aren't coming then people would be expecting something as a substitute. He would obviously try to avoid spoiling something that would have been a pretty big surprise if it weren't for leaks.

Would he want to set people up with misplaced expectations though? I just find it hard to believe he didn't realize how risky it would be letting the playerbase think "oh, cool we're probably getting male Viera!" just to be told at the next fanfest, "oh hey, guess what? You're not getting male Viera. But you can have this entirely different race we thought up that you didn't ask for and didn't know anything about till right this moment instead. Please look forward to it."


Sounds like a recipe for disaster. I know SE fumbles a lot, but I'd think Yoshi himself would know better than to pull something like that. :v I could be wrong though, he could have done an oppsie. I just find it hard to believe.

[JamiaHaab]

He just deflected the question with a cutesy vague answer so he wouldn't upset the audience since gender is a super hot button topic in the west right now. He also said BLU would be unbalanced since they could use LVL 5 Death on bosses even though everyone of them is immune to status effects and that Eureka was made for a small group of hardcore nostalgic players only when it was sold as a defining feature shown at the 2017 fanfests so yeah, he says silly things in interviews.

Love the optimism tho but maybe you should act like you hate male viera since he's a "contrarian".

[Theodric]

The only misplaced expectations are from those who picture Viera men as being completely different to how they're described. Furthermore, although this thread is very active it isn't at all a reflection of the overall community. From what I've seen elsewhere, most people don't feel strongly about the subject. Viera were always presented as a female only race and whilst it would be nice to see the men in FFXIV, there's no guarantee that it'll happen.

Furthermore, if Hrothgar are added then they'll serve as a counterpart to Viera. They may not be to everybody's tastes, though they'll have their fans. They may even end up being better than Viera men - which isn't a hard feat given how some players are picturing them...

Ultimately, so long as they're not child-like I'll be content.

[Lacan]

He just deflected the question with a cutesy vague answer so he wouldn't upset the audience since gender is a super hot button topic in the west right now. He also said BLU would be unbalanced since they could use LVL 5 Death on bosses even though everyone of them is immune to status effects and that Eureka was made for a small group of hardcore nostalgic players only when it was sold as a defining feature shown at the 2017 fanfests so yeah, he says silly things in interviews.

Love the optimism tho but maybe you should act like you hate male viera since he's a "contrarian".

I really don't think gender being a hot topic in the west has anything at all to do with his answer. If they cared about hot topics in the west they wouldn't have introduced the female Viera with a video of them giggling in armor lingerie. :v

[cicatriz313]

I really don't think gender being a hot topic in the west has anything at all to do with his answer. If they cared about hot topics in the west they wouldn't have introduced the female Viera with a video of them giggling in armor lingerie. :v

Lol, come on man. It's literally Fran's outfit. Like Fran is the reason Viera are popular, and they gave Viera her outfit as their starter outfit because it's a homage FF game.