Gender locked race?

[Keeric]

Two factions have been screaming for races: Viera and people who wanted bestial. I think they chose to go with this because they had time to program one or one gender of each, so they took the middle ground and pissed off gender divides rather than style divides.

They were probably trying to be kinda smart, by pissing off the smallest segments of each clamoring section for a race.
Cause it would be like 1% Female buffcat and probably more male Viera, but like the same miqo ratio.
I'd be willing to wager on introducing the opposite genders next expac and this is why they made this decision. Keep screaming though, I'm sure they weren't already aware this would make people scream harder or something.

[Thefates]

Two factions have been screaming for races: Viera and people who wanted bestial. I think they chose to go with this because they had time to program one or one gender of each, so they took the middle ground and pissed of gender divides rather than style divides.

They were probably trying to be kinda smart, by pissing off the smallest segments of each clamoring section for a race.
Cause it would be like 1% Female buffcat and probably more male Viera, but like the same miqo ratio.
I'd be willing to wager on introducing the opposite genders next expac and this is why they made this decision. Keep screaming though, I'm sure they weren't already aware this would make people scream harder or something.

If they honestly said they wanted to introduce the other genders later that would be another thing but right now it feels like the only real reason for them to do so would be the community backlash. If people weren't vocally upset they'd have no reason to go through the effort.

[Novak_04]

Two factions have been screaming for races: Viera and people who wanted bestial. I think they chose to go with this because they had time to program one or one gender of each, so they took the middle ground and pissed of gender divides rather than style divides.

Do you really think they started designing Viera in November? This expansion has been in the work for years... Viera is one of the main features, in fact. They intended for the gender-lock on day one. It's possible that the Hrothgar were created as an afterthought to appease the masses (or so they thought). This would also explain why there aren't any in the trailer. This was a poorly made, and executed, decision.

[PangTong]

I was already pretty much certain that this would be the outcome all the way back during Paris fanfest when they were so clearly avoidant about mentioning male Viera, but I wanted to wait until it was officially confirmed to make my statement about it.

Obviously, this is a massive and frustrating disappointment. I had no personal stake in male Viera, I wasn't interested in playing one. However, I'm not so blind that I cannot recognize when something is an obviously good decision. When you run a business, selling a product, the feedback you receive from customers about that product is a valuable asset. When customers overwhelmingly give you direct, earnest, specific and voluminous feedback about specific changes they want to see, you should be thanking the gods for your luck. An obvious choice, a clear path on which to direct your work, that you know for certain will please your customers, drawing praise and attention to your product and business.

Square Enix did not do that.

In a game that secured its entire existence and success on the concept of correcting past mistakes and humbly listening to your customers, it feels like nothing less than a total betrayal for them to fly in the face of such overwhelming feedback. The customers and community, in this instance, were patently ignored. There's no other way to slice it, the fans were totally ignored. Square knew what the fans wanted, but ignored them. For what reason? Nothing but the whims and caprice of the producer and director? This decision appeases (effectively) no one, and does nothing but attract criticism and bad press to your game. Yet they went ahead and did it anyway.

It is so frustrating that my only route for feedback is this insignificant, impotent little post that will simply be buried and ignored under thousands of posts just like it. What I really want to do is grab Yoshida by the shoulders and shake vigorously while yelling "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Can you actually give satisfying reasoning for your business decision, or was it purely a flight of fancy? To not only deny the choice that your users are asking for, but to go with something that has never been introduced, mentioned, or even hinted at, in a style (big beefy dudes) that both historical polls and in-game data suggest is not at all popular or desired?

Based on previous interviews on the topic of Viera, this whole thing reeks of something Yoshida did on his own, against the advice of his co-workers, which only makes it all the more baffling. After building the game this far, carried by the good will of the users and an honest intention to correct the mistakes of the past and deliver something that people want to play, it's nothing short of shocking and depressing to see this team repeat the mistakes of 1.0.

If Yoshida and the dev team have any respect left for their players, they must offer the following: A formal apology for introducing genderlocked races against the will and wishes of the community, and a promise that the missing genders will be introduced and implemented into the game before 6.0. Obviously they will not do this, so I can only hope instead that a large number of people cancel their subscriptions and their Shadowbringers preorders. I hope that Yoshida is made to see the rewards that pride and arrogance earn him.

To addend: This is bigger than just some genderlocked races. It's a decision that shows without a doubt that this dev team does not care, and will not listen. It shatters the good will and confidence of the users they had built up over so many years. Even if it's not something that bothers you personally, your faith in the game should be shaken. Yesterday it was limited jobs, today it's genderlocked races. Tomorrow, who knows? Certainly nothing good.

[AriesMouse]

I was already pretty much certain that this would be the outcome all the way back during Paris fanfest when they were so clearly avoidant about mentioning male Viera, but I wanted to wait until it was officially confirmed to make my statement about it.

Obviously, this is a massive and frustrating disappointment. I had no personal stake in male Viera, I wasn't interested in playing one. However, I'm not so blind that I cannot recognize when something is an obviously good decision. When you run a business, selling a product, the feedback you receive from customers about that product is a valuable asset. When customers overwhelmingly give you direct, earnest, specific and voluminous feedback about specific changes they want to see, you should be thanking the gods for your luck. An obvious choice, a clear path on which to direct your work, that you know for certain will please your customers, drawing praise and attention to your product and business.

Square Enix did not do that.

In a game that secured its entire existence and success on the concept of correcting past mistakes and humbly listening to your customers, it feels like nothing less than a total betrayal for them to fly in the face of such overwhelming feedback. The customers and community, in this instance, were patently ignored. There's no other way to slice it, the fans were totally ignored. Square knew what the fans wanted, but ignored them. For what reason? Nothing but the whims and caprice of the producer and director? This decision appeases (effectively) no one, and does nothing but attract criticism and bad press to your game. Yet they went ahead and did it anyway.

It is so frustrating that my only route for feedback is this insignificant, impotent little post that will simply be buried and ignored under thousands of posts just like it. What I really want to do is grab Yoshida by the shoulders and shake vigorously while yelling "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Can you actually give satisfying reasoning for your business decision, or was it purely a flight of fancy? To not only deny the choice that your users are asking for, but to go with something that has never been introduced, mentioned, or even hinted at, in a style (big beefy dudes) that both historical polls and in-game data suggest is not at all popular or desired?

Based on previous interviews on the topic of Viera, this whole thing reeks of something Yoshida did on his own, against the advice of his co-workers, which only makes it all the more baffling. After building the game this far, carried by the good will of the users and an honest intention to correct the mistakes of the past and deliver something that people want to play, it's nothing short of shocking and depressing to see this team repeat the mistakes of 1.0.

If Yoshida and the dev team have any respect left for their players, they must offer the following: A formal apology for introducing genderlocked races against the will and wishes of the community, and a promise that the missing genders will be introduced and implemented into the game before 6.0. Obviously they will not do this, so I can only hope instead that a large number of people cancel their subscriptions and their Shadowbringers preorders. I hope that Yoshida is made to see the rewards that pride and arrogance earn him.

To addend: This is bigger than just some genderlocked races. It's a decision that shows without a doubt that this dev team does not care, and will not listen. It shatters the good will and confidence of the users they had built up over so many years. Even if it's not something that bothers you personally, your faith in the game should be shaken. Yesterday it was limited jobs, today it's genderlocked races. Tomorrow, who knows? Certainly nothing good.

This more or less sums of the feeling of this decision. It's a bad move, and not a small one by any means.

I just hope they fix it in the future, or at least announce it will change with time. Even if it's a "Soon™" kind of deal, just knowing it is something that won't be forever would be nice.

[Hunky]

I was already pretty much certain that this would be the outcome all the way back during Paris fanfest when they were so clearly avoidant about mentioning male Viera, but I wanted to wait until it was officially confirmed to make my statement about it.

Obviously, this is a massive and frustrating disappointment. I had no personal stake in male Viera, I wasn't interested in playing one. However, I'm not so blind that I cannot recognize when something is an obviously good decision. When you run a business, selling a product, the feedback you receive from customers about that product is a valuable asset. When customers overwhelmingly give you direct, earnest, specific and voluminous feedback about specific changes they want to see, you should be thanking the gods for your luck. An obvious choice, a clear path on which to direct your work, that you know for certain will please your customers, drawing praise and attention to your product and business.

Square Enix did not do that.

In a game that secured its entire existence and success on the concept of correcting past mistakes and humbly listening to your customers, it feels like nothing less than a total betrayal for them to fly in the face of such overwhelming feedback. The customers and community, in this instance, were patently ignored. There's no other way to slice it, the fans were totally ignored. Square knew what the fans wanted, but ignored them. For what reason? Nothing but the whims and caprice of the producer and director? This decision appeases (effectively) no one, and does nothing but attract criticism and bad press to your game. Yet they went ahead and did it anyway.

It is so frustrating that my only route for feedback is this insignificant, impotent little post that will simply be buried and ignored under thousands of posts just like it. What I really want to do is grab Yoshida by the shoulders and shake vigorously while yelling "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Can you actually give satisfying reasoning for your business decision, or was it purely a flight of fancy? To not only deny the choice that your users are asking for, but to go with something that has never been introduced, mentioned, or even hinted at, in a style (big beefy dudes) that both historical polls and in-game data suggest is not at all popular or desired?

Based on previous interviews on the topic of Viera, this whole thing reeks of something Yoshida did on his own, against the advice of his co-workers, which only makes it all the more baffling. After building the game this far, carried by the good will of the users and an honest intention to correct the mistakes of the past and deliver something that people want to play, it's nothing short of shocking and depressing to see this team repeat the mistakes of 1.0.

If Yoshida and the dev team have any respect left for their players, they must offer the following: A formal apology for introducing genderlocked races against the will and wishes of the community, and a promise that the missing genders will be introduced and implemented into the game before 6.0. Obviously they will not do this, so I can only hope instead that a large number of people cancel their subscriptions and their Shadowbringers preorders. I hope that Yoshida is made to see the rewards that pride and arrogance earn him.

To addend: This is bigger than just some genderlocked races. It's a decision that shows without a doubt that this dev team does not care, and will not listen. It shatters the good will and confidence of the users they had built up over so many years. Even if it's not something that bothers you personally, your faith in the game should be shaken. Yesterday it was limited jobs, today it's genderlocked races. Tomorrow, who knows? Certainly nothing good.

I agree 100%! It was clear that people were asking for Viera, both female and male. I get the feeling that choosing to not have male Viera was really Matsuno and Yoshida's choice. Because of their own personal hangups about how males should be designed, we didn't get male Viera.

[Anzaman]

Two factions have been screaming for races: Viera and people who wanted bestial. I think they chose to go with this because they had time to program one or one gender of each, so they took the middle ground and pissed of gender divides rather than style divides.

Two races, both having two clans. And some people demanding to have both genders available as well.

As someone who's been working with some 3D modeling, I've funny feeling that some people don't understand the amount of work needed. It'd be all nice and good if you could just launch Blender, snap fingers and have perfect model, skeleton and it's bones adjusted - along with every single emote and piece of equipment done.

It's just a bit odd watching stats; for example Roegadyn female sitting at all-time low - and then people would want another burly female race.

[Baranobeefdip]

Count me in as another person dissapointed... gender locking in 2019 is just gross

[seros]

I understand that is hard to develop a race, but I think more of the community would have been happy than one full race with two genders instead of the two races one gender we're getting right now.

[van_arn]

I understand that is hard to develop a race, but I think more of the community would have been happy than one full race with two genders instead of the two races one gender we're getting right now.

With this community? There would be a riot either way. Yoship went with what he wanted to, and this reaction pretty much makes sure "final race" is more final than what the forum might want to believe.

I cancelled my preoder and my subscription. I thought SE wouldn't make this gender-lock mistake after they fixed it post-1.0. If the issue is that male developers won't work on male viera (the reason why it took so long to get male bunny outfits in Golden Saucer) then fix the antiquated hiring practices at SE and hire more female developers. If SE can't be bothered to hire a diverse developer team and cater to the 40% female player-base who just want cute bunny boys then I regret the hundreds of dollars I already spent at SE's store and will happily move on to another franchise that does care about its fans. My issue with the lack of male viera isn't that I particularly wanted to play as one (although I had 5 fantasia saved up for playing around with male viera), but that the choice to not give the player-base male viera is just the developers once again ignoring what the female player-base wants and trying to cater to the straight, male player-base. Since companies only care about money, this is my only way to tell SE that their behavior is unacceptable.

One post, account created in 2019. Please don't lecture us on 1.0.