SE is responsible for leading the hype-train and setting expectations

[JackHatchet]

I didn't say Square-Enix promised male viera. Nor do I have any care to play them. This isn't personal about what I want in the game. What I'm saying is that Square-Enix knows how their community base will react to spreading such information. People like hype, and Square-Enix knows that. They're a big company--of course they know that.

But shouldn't they have some more accountability is making sure they correct the course of the hype train if they see it beginning to derail? I'm not saying that Square-Enix "HAS" to correct their information when a large percentage of their player-base gets it in their head that they're getting male viera. I'm mostly saying that isn't it extremely short-sighted for them to realize this would be a train-wreck and still choose to do nothing about it. They could have easily slowed the train down, redirected it, or even came out point blank saying that the new race is gender-locked months ago.

But no--they went on full-steam ahead, and I frankly find it insulting that the player-base is attacking each other for the train being on fire. FFXIV's community is one of its greatest assets, and we should be unified in agreement that misdirected hype is bad for business instead of trashing into each other for being offended. At the very least we should demanding a legitimate answer to why male viera aren't a thing.

This is a situation where a little corporate honesty could go a long way.

[TitaniaZero]

I knew this sort of unhappiness was going to come out. The whole forum practically whipped itself in a frenzy on this hype that they practically are responsible on their own.

Honestly I didn't expect the catroes... I expect it to have been a bug or something to revealed much later (6.0) I expected boybunnies, so I'm a little shocked but not overly crushed. (To be fair only because I didn't have my heart set on these things that has everyone unhappy.) Save for DNC... I can at least play it in 8 and 24 man content when I'm not tanking for my little group. If it was healer (Like I was so certain it was going to be) I wouldn't be using it much at all. XD

That said. I'm shocked that there is not a healer replacement!

[Selova]

snip.

I really don't think you understand the magnitude of what you are asking SE to be responsible for. Gaming communities are notorious for over hyping literally everything about their favorite game based on nothing but speculation. I highly doubt SE has the time to hire community managers to peruse every single forum, reddit and discord post, then report back to the higher ups about every single thing the community speculates and then have Yoshida make a post for every single thing the community wants in the game. Do you have any idea how much work that is? I can't even fathom being in charge of having to quell the masses everytime they hype something up in the game over speculation. There is absolutely no way they could win.

[JackHatchet]

I was reading another post where someone mentioned Diablo Immortal. When did companies stop paying attention to their playerbase? People even asked about male Viera last fanfest. What are companies doing? Was Blizzard just sitting on Diablo Immortal thinking that everyone would cheer when the entire community was clamouring for Diablo 4 for months. What the heck did they think was going to happen?

And again with this. People have been talking about male viera for months now. Did Yoshi P just think everyone would forget if he didn't mention it? Did he think just blowing it off wouldn't have a reaction? Man, gaming companies are weird these days. I wish they'd just tell us what to expect and let us get hyped about confirmed things rather working us up about other things.

I don't care about the male bunny thing so much, but that Diablo announcement really burned me. Would it kill those companies to just be honest? "Like hey, we're not working on Diablo 4 for another 5 years, but we're making a mobile game!" I would have shrugged that off instead of being outraged at the "oh boy, you guys are expecting Diablo 4--I can't wait until I tell you otherwise!"

I can't fathom that gaming companies aren't aware of the public expectations of their playerbases. They can't be that short-sighted--can they?

[JackHatchet]

I really don't think you understand the magnitude of what you are asking SE to be responsible for. Gaming communities are notorious for over hyping literally everything about their favorite game based on nothing but speculation. I highly doubt SE has the time to hire community managers to peruse every single forum, reddit and discord post, then report back to the higher ups about every single thing the community speculates and then have Yoshida make a post for every single thing the community wants in the game. Do you have any idea how much work that is? I can't even fathom being in charge of having to quell the masses everytime they hype something up in the game over speculation. There is absolutely no way they could win.

Someone literally asked Yoshi P in person last fan fest if they'd get bunny boys, and he said 'we'll see.' That was a perfect opportunity for him to say "heck no!" Politician's promises are great if you don't know if you'll do something in the future. But I'm pretty sure Yoshi P knew at the EU fanfest that he wasn't going to give us male bunnies. Also, Mr. Happy literally made a video about it, and Yoshi watches Happy's videos. They flew him out to Japan these year. I can't imagine them simply 'not knowing" that the community had those expectations.

[Fukuro]

They should have immediately shot down the hype like they did for BLU. But Yoshi just kept going "maybe we'll see male Viera next fanfest wink wink nudge nudge".

this actually is what hurted me the most :,( i would‘ve taken it far better if they would have put the cards on the table right away. maybe say something like: „but we have another card down the sleeve for next japan fanfest!“ it would‘ve get some backlash but not this kind of backlash.
everybody would‘ve known it wouldn‘t be viera but something else. it wouldn‘t feel like a fist in the belly. no healer was just a second fist at the face at that point :/

[Xothic]

I don't disagree at all in respect of bait and switch, however I can't help but be annoyed when I see people whinging like the fucking sky is falling in just because they wont get a new cosmetic option that'll have literally zero impact on gameplay, even if that option was teased.

Its overshadowing potential gameplay and lore discussion (theres like what, one thread on dancer on the front page vs 15 about bunnies?) and while I think its fine to have these discussions I really truly do not see why its such a priority.

[Nihility]

SE didn't actually set any expectations of dancer.
It was from that leaker and then filled in completely by peoples imaginations.
Which in all honesty no one can release something that will satisfy those expectations

[JackHatchet]

I don't disagree at all in respect of bait and switch, however I can't help but be annoyed when I see people whinging like the fucking sky is falling in just because they wont get a new cosmetic option that'll have literally zero impact on gameplay, even if that option was teased.

Its overshadowing potential gameplay and lore discussion (theres like what, one thread on dancer on the front page vs 15 about bunnies?) and while I think its fine to have these discussions I really truly do not see why its such a priority.

I agree that it's overshadowing better discussions. And that's another reason why it's surprising that companies are willing to make gambles like this. Nothing good came out of Blizzcon, because everyone was pissed off about Diablo Immortal. And now, what should have been an exciting 'omg, we're getting TWO new races!" reveal has turned into nothing but strife. And as you said. The utter lack of dancer discussions.

I feel like gaming companies recently are losing sight of the risk/reward ratio of their reveals. They should be doing their best to squash negative hype and build up the positive. They could have easily said last fanfest "hey, no male bunnies, but we have an exciting new race to tease!" And that would have set the internet on fire with positive excitement.

But honestly. I think it's the shear disconnect and dishonest that companies are having with their playerbases that are really rubbing people the wrong way. Ultimately, it was a great reveal tonight. New job. New areas, ect. But that disconnect burned them in the end.

[Insertcoins]

I think the playerbase overhyped male bunnies to be honest. I'm not going to say not having them is the -correct- choice but I am going to say you can't blame SE cause you over hyped something. - general you by the by-. That's like me yelling at Sega cause I over hyped sonic forces and it was blargh at best. Being blargh is sega's fault. Me being over hyped for it is mine.