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

[Fukuro]

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.

customizability in games, especially in mmos has allways played a huge part by a vast majority of players. look at overwatch - lootboxes were bought crazy by people for upcoming skins. look at cs-go and the weapon skins. everything that makes your heroe/character more unique is highly requested. for you it may have no impact on gameplay. for others it has, as you stated above, a huge impact ingame

[Twinsoul]

I really like this thread. OP's post is smart and insightful. It's providing a new angle on the discourse happening. SE should have foreseen this. Did Yoshida really think that everyone wanting male Viera would see Hrothgar as a perfect substitute and celebrate his wisdom? Like, they have PR people who should've seen this coming. If they didn't see it coming, then it's their own fault, and they share the responsibility for what's going on.

[JackHatchet]

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.

While I agree with you on the principle that players should be held accountable for their own expectations--we both know that holding people in general accountable rarely works like that.

So think of it like this. Knowing that people would react exactly as they did--do you think Square-Enix should have acted differently. Or do you think they anticipated the reaction they got, and just plan to let it blow over?

[Nihility]

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.

The thing that confuses me about the 'quitting over male viera' crowd is the thing they imagined it would be seems grossly different than any possible outcome.
I mean the concept art for them was basically hrothgar -mane +ears
And the other concept art which was even stated as "not serious" when they showed it was basically just lalafel with bunny ears.

And the posts complaining seem to all have been expecting basically underage hentai based characters and claiming it's homophobic

It just doesn't seem to add up outside of "you didn't do the thing I fabricated in my own imagination"

[Insertcoins]

While I agree with you on the principle that players should be held accountable for their own expectations--we both know that holding people in general accountable rarely works like that.

So think of it like this. Knowing that people would react exactly as they did--do you think Square-Enix should have acted differently. Or do you think they anticipated the reaction they got, and just plan to let it blow over?

I'mma be real, I don't know what SE should've done. If they had said -no- to male bunnies in EU it'll been Blizzard - do you not have phones- all over again and EVERYONE knows it. I think they choose the Business safe option and tried to lessen the blow as much as possible. And on one hand I can't blame them for that, but they were in a no win bar no matter what they did. Cause from the get go, male bunnies wasn't on their table for who knows why. My guess is it's something between the creators of FFT and FF12. Cause think about it. None of those games shown a male bunny either, so this would've been BIG news. I think for reasons unknown - NOT lore- SE didn't want XIV to be the game to show them. But that's my in the shadows I creep theory. >.>

[Insertcoins]

The thing that confuses me about the 'quitting over male viera' crowd is the thing they imagined it would be seems grossly different than any possible outcome.
I mean the concept art for them was basically hrothgar -mane +ears
And the other concept art which was even stated as "not serious" when they showed it was basically just lalafel with bunny ears.

And the posts complaining seem to all have been expecting basically underage hentai based characters and claiming it's homophobic

It just doesn't seem to add up outside of "you didn't do the thing I fabricated in my own imagination"

Yeah I don't even have an opinion on any of that my friend. I like to think of it as this.... even if they DID give us male bunnies it'll be boring hyur with bunny ears like au ras are and miqos are. And people would complain about THAT. Cause lets be honest... those fan arts people posted all over the place.. none of those was going to be the design.

[KaijinRhada]

I'mma be real, I don't know what SE should've done. If they had said -no- to male bunnies in EU it'll been Blizzard - do you not have phones- all over again

I don't like the genderlock, but the whole thing with Diablo and the latest Blizzcon is on a different order of magnitude. With Blizzcon, they were announcing to their majority-PC-based playerbase that the next major development for the Diablo franchise would be a mobile game; no expansion, no series installment for the PC platform, not even a PC version of the mobile game. Not everyone playing FFXIV cared about the races, but people playing Diablo wanted something to look forward to in the capacity that past games have given them (myself included).

SE would have been better served ripping off the band-aid, rather than leaving the fanbase speculating and hoping (for nothing) for more than a month.

[Barraind]

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.

They more than "know that", they schedule bi-annual fanfest events based specifically around releasing that information and getting people as hyped as possible at specific times.

They even answer questions at other "have some information" events with "ATTEND OUR NEXT FANFEST, WE MIGHT TELL YOU THEN!" Please to be looking forward to it!

They answered "are you gender-locking vierra?" with "WATCH OUR NEXT FANFEST" AT THE LAST FANFEST. The entirety of the ensuing shitstorm falls directly on top of them.

I have no plans to play bunny or unikitty, but holy jesus, how did they not expect this exact reaction from people?

Theyve been aware people have been asking about new healers for the last few years as well.

[Insertcoins]

I don't like the genderlock, but the whole thing with Diablo and the latest Blizzcon is on a different order of magnitude. With Blizzcon, they were announcing to their majority-PC-based playerbase that the next major development for the Diablo franchise would be a mobile game; no expansion, no series installment for the PC platform, not even a PC version of the mobile game. Not everyone playing FFXIV cared about the races, but people playing Diablo wanted something to look forward to in the capacity that past games have given them (myself included).

SE would have been better served ripping off the band-aid, rather than leaving the fanbase speculating and hoping (for nothing) for more than a month.

Fair enough when you put it like that, yeah you're right. It's not a 1 to 1 like I worded it. But I think we both agree there was going to be rage no matter what they did, if they said no then - insert fan rage here- vs them doing what they did now. Again I'm not saying it was the -RIGHT- choice... but seeing as how I'm looking at this as there was no plans for male bun buns from the get go. They were bucked no matter when they said no. This is one of those things where you're going to get burned and while I hear you saying it should've been sooner, I don't think the suits wanted that backlash there at EU so close to - do you not have phones- and - you can play on tablets too- So I think they purposely waited so they would look good next to blizzcon.

[Seraphor]

They more than "know that", they schedule bi-annual fanfest events based specifically around releasing that information and getting people as hyped as possible at specific times.

They even answer questions at other "have some information" events with "ATTEND OUR NEXT FANFEST, WE MIGHT TELL YOU THEN!" Please to be looking forward to it!

They answered "are you gender-locking vierra?" with "WATCH OUR NEXT FANFEST" AT THE LAST FANFEST. The entirety of the ensuing shitstorm falls directly on top of them.

I have no plans to play bunny or unikitty, but holy jesus, how did they not expect this exact reaction from people?

Theyve been aware people have been asking about new healers for the last few years as well.

Most likely, they've been looking at different suggestions over the years, and the two biggest fanservice race suggestions were Viera and Ronso.
They wanted to do both, but only had plans for one more race.
They can't just keep adding races, the biggest resource drain with new races is remodelling all of the existing equipment, and all of the future equipment requiring an additional variant, it's an exponentially increasing workload.

Could there have been less backlash if they just went with Viera and never even mentioned anything remotely like Ronso? Probably.
That doesn't mean this decision was made out of spite against male Viera fans.