A letter to the Devs, Producers, and whoever else has a say

[manickitty]

I sincerely hope someone from SE sees this thread. I'm tired of being restricted to hypermasculine races for men. Please, please reconsider giving us male viera.

Yeah even the miqo are ridiculously buff. Does SE think that that's the only thing anyone wants? I want something between miqo and lala.

[Saefinn]

"We can't do male Viera because of lore"
"Hey look it's the Regalia from FFXV, say hi to Noctis for us"
"We lazily gave a reason for Lightning to appear in this universe to promote Lightning Returns"
"Is that a set of raids where we come up with an excuse to fight bosses from different Final Fantasy games? Making up a lore excuse in Dissidia worked, so lets do that here"
"Oh hey look, we can fight a Rathalos"
"Is that a Yokai watch?"
"What if...now hear me out. We do a Nier* raid, you know a game completely unrelated to this world."

But in reality, a writer has the power to make anything happen. A good writer can make it plausible. FFXIV's writing has rarely made lorebreaking stuff feel plausible, but they've gone with it anyway.

Male viera isn't my only disappointment. Stormblood was mostly "meh" for me with some great story moments and the trial fights were great, I just didn't like any other content. Though Pyros and Hydratos appeal to me still, Anemos and Pagos are a massive wall I don't want to go through. I loved Blue Mage as a job, but am concerned for its future given how short lived its content was.

As a healer main I was holding out for a new healer who could help balance out the current set up. Dancer could have been a cool and fairly unique healer. I understand the need for more non-magical range DPS but I don't like the decision to make dancer ranged. The game already had Dancer lore available to them, "Ala Mhigan Blade Dancers" from 1.0. On a similar note I don't like they didn't properly flesh out the Ala Mhigan plot & lore in Stormblood.

The only thing keeping me subbed is the fact I run a roleplay group on here and I now have members talking of unsubbing, because nothing about the Shadowbringers announcements excites them beyond the hook the trailer gives and this is after Stormblood was a string of disappointments with some good stuff in there, when Heavensward was amazing, which we loved dearly.

*Don't get me wrong, I love Nier and I am somewhat intrigued by the idea, but you can't in one breath add Nier to the game and then say you can't do something because of lore.

[Baithin]

I love the idea of both Hrothgar and Viera but please remove the gender lock.

I have a feeling we can keep asking all we want but this won’t reach the JP devs and they won’t do anything about it because that isn’t what the JP player base wants.

[Lapisluzili]

I second OP's opinion.

While I personally don't mind female characters looking cute and/or sexy, and male characters being buff/very masculine, I don't like it when that's the only things we get.

Some woman are very feminine, cute, and/or sexy.
Some are not.

Some man are very buff and masculine.
Some are not.

And some people are in the middle somewhere.
And all of that is okay! Everyone should be able to present themselves however they want to regardless of gender and sex. Everyone should be able to be themselves without being ridiculed for it.

Not every woman/girl wants to be sexy or cute. Not every man/boy wants to be buff and tough.
However, some woman want to be that. And some men, too. And again, that's totally fine.

Because we have the choice to be whoever and whatever we want to be.

Now, I get it. It's a videogame. And I'm not gonna start a rant on how bad various gender stereotypes can be; That should be obvious.
Again, I know, it's just a game. And again, I, as a woman, do not mind sexy and cute female characters. Some of mine are just that, too. It's fine.

What bothers me is that we don't have the choice. If we want to play Viera, we're forced to be a sexy bunny girl. And while some people like that (which is, again, totally fine), some people don't, and are thus upset. And they have all right to be.

I know guys who don't like to be bulky males. I know guys who are super bulky and ripped in RL that don't like playing bulky males. And I know guys who do.
Again, all of that is fine. What is not fine is taking the choice away from people.

People have a right to be upset. I am upset too.
Not enough to quit the game, but that doesn't mean I think this isn't a valid reason to quit. Because it is.

In all honesty I don't care about promises Square may have made, or may not have made, or whatever the truck. What I care about is them forcing certain gender roles onto people worldwide, completely disregarding how damaging it can be.

I understand that Japan has a different culture. That's all fine and dandy. You can't please everyone, and trying to do so will always fail because everyone wants different things and yadda yadda yahoo. But different culture or not, certain things just can't be excused by that. That doesn't mean I think Square is full of horrible people, but I still think they've made a mistake.

Genderlocked races are just outdated? It's 2019. Like, come on. I'm not even offended by it at this point, I'm just terribly confused.

Sure you can argue "if you want a bulky female, play Roe" or "if you want a feminine male, play Lala"
Yes, sure, I could go do that. But you know what? Only one choice for each isn't going to cut it. I don't want all my bulky female charas to be Roe.

Just give us the choice, Square. I'm not saying "Make it when it launches" but maybe, somewhere along the way. Maybe add it with a later patch.

[BigTough]

They might as well throw out all the lore for Male Viera while they're at it, don't give me that male miqote business either, they're at least seen here and there, male Viera are NEVER seen.

[manickitty]

[QUOTE=Lapisluzili;4918209]I second OP\\'s opinion.

Wish I could like a post more than once. Seconding everything you’ve said.

[Saefinn]

To add. A very simple lore fix for male Viera.

A fringe tribe of Viera sought to help repopulate the male population isolated themselves or just a fringe tribe of males. It's not great writing, but it's plausible writing.
We also usually have 2 flavours of each race. Feol is an option, where there isn't a clash between males & females.

Also, whilst we're at it...genderlock clothing less. I sometimes try to put my character in a dress...come on...it'd be fun.

I'm not saying "Make it when it launches" but maybe, somewhere along the way. Maybe add it with a later patch.

Fair point. I think if SE turn around and say "okay, this is what you want, we'll commit to it, but we can't fit it in at launch due to the logistics of it" and do it for what the community has found disappointing (not just Viera) and I think people will be okay with that, because we can't expect them to be an infallible lot.

[Ceridwenae]

Posted this in one of the other threads, but this is an appropriate place too. Entirely agree with OP.

Meh, might as well add my ramble to this thread as any of them.

Oh, SE, you have done a very, very silly thing if indeed you are genderlocking new races. It doesn't matter what your lore is, because you write it and you can adapt it to a modern era (yeah, that thing we're living in now). Don't be backwards over this. I've often had concerns with how you handle genders in this game, but by and large can roll with it and be forgiving, because as players we're generally able to express ourselves any way we want (although you really need to stop with the genderlocked gear too), and I'm very open with discussing this sort of thing with my teenage daughter, who recently started playing. I can say I'm rather disappointed if this is indeed the road you've taken; I've never been entirely comfortable with the inference a female character can't kick backside and do what's right unless she has thigh-gap, tight booty shorts or runs about it her occasionally metal underwear, for example, but at least I have falconer's trousers, and sometimes male characters run around partially dressed too, right?

However, by genderlocking two new races, who are being presented in a worryingly regressive light, are you really saying you don't care about your myriad players? That you only care about a group of them? That your fantasy is so restrictive and this narrow-view is the only one that matters? Screw anyone who's different, there's only one way round here, sorry you thought differently?

How can I support that if so? How can I tell my kid that's okay when such a mindset clearly damages her future prospects if it is espoused? How can I happily cough up cash for something so damaging? You might say this is only a game, it doesn't matter, but I say that's cop-out non-thinking BS. A game is art. Art both reacts to and informs society. Just what is it you're telling society by genderlocking these races who are clearly designed as "manly men" and "(women are only) sex bunnies"? It almost doesn't matter what the lore is when you know what the visual design infers, but to leave out opposite-gender counterparts (not to say anything about other genders) shamefully compounds the issue indeed.

I could wax very political on this, but most here I hope have some sense of what is going on in the world. Instead, I will tell you I cannot support your vision if this persists. I cannot purchase this expansion (x3) or anything further from you until you give confirmation there has been some kind of oversight that will be corrected, or that we players have got it all wrong, and male bunnies and female lions really are a thing for us too. Oh, and also, you're doing away with stupidly genderlocking all the gear because you've realised that more people than just one group play your game and it's sensible to cater to all as a good business model.

Give us male viera and female hrothgar, SE - it's good business sense if nothing else.

[Leomoon]

I really don't care but really saying the made them for some fetish reasons isn't winning you points considering Viera were a fan favorite in FFXII and in that one there was mention of males but not much.

As well calling the Devs sexist (not pointed at OP but it can be) isn't proving any of your points as well it honestly makes you seem like the childish kind of players who throw fits when they don't get what they want. This is honestly turning into the WoW general forums.

[NeroV1]

As much as I love the Viera and Hrothgar/Ronso, I'm going to go ahead and say that I full heartedly agree with the OP. Gender-locking races were one of the reasons 1.0x went through what it did, to turn around and decide to return to the same method that caused problems in the first place is nothing more than repeating the same practice, and proving that nothing was learned the first time around. While there are some plays who want male Viera there are quite possibly some players who want female Ronso. I understand that you can not cater to everyone, this is a known fact, but doing so in a fashion that you already know gave negative feedback once is not all that great either.