Gender Locks Have Revealed the Worst in Players.

[Rivers23]

I understand people like cosmetics, but saying 'I'm not playing the game unless you give me explicitly what I want' is very, very childish. Especially considering the time and money you have put into the game so far. Honestly, if all you people left and there was only 50 000 players left, I'd be happy because of less screen clutter from people afking in cities, less ice mages, less dps that don't use aoes in dungeons, less people looking for carries in the PF. Y'all don't do any Pve content (except when you ruin people's dungeon experiences) anyway so you have 0 positive impact on my game experience.

[Kastel]

I can understand people being mad about gender locking races, especially considering the history the FF online environment had with this particular issue, BUT (and that's a big but) I just can't understand, or see, how this has anything to do with sexism, homophobia and toxic masculinity.
This was probably just a time/money-saving move by SE probably based on their user data analysis; nothing more, nothing less.
Trying to inject anything else into this issue is just silly, really.

[Fredco191]

This really caused us to bring out the worst in each other. I’m disappointed in all of us.

[Petori]

I agree to the title, but I think you're the problem OP.

I'm pretty disappointed myself as I believe lore reasoning is a lazy cop-out since they've had no problem to bend that before to their needs, especially with NieR raid coming soon. I also think genderlocked races are a dated concept in general and I thought 2.0 made that clear to the devs. Plus having the first male Viera in FF would have been huge milestone for the series and would have given tons of free marketing.

See that? That's criticism. You somehow thinking the devs are out there for your homosexuality is paranoid at best. Seriously calling the devs sexist homophobes for a disagreeable design decision has to be the most absurd thing I've seen here. Extremely selfish entitlement and another case of "everything is about me-me-me" outrage culture. Tons of assumptions to suit your own narrative of sexist homophobia.

I hope it's just salt and people upvoting the OP don't actually think the devs deserve these kind of toxic insults. Be reasonable people.

[AnnaRosa]

I didn't call the comment homophobic, I called it sexist. These are two different things, and we're fortunate enough to have google available to educate you. Use it.

"Lore" as an explanation is not valid when 1) you can have eight WHMs in a party and 2) they write the lore to their desires. In this case, they've written the lore in such a way to keep out those "weird" Viera males.

Also, we appreciate you showing your true feelings on the matter. You hate those raunchy gays, is that it? You've decided that anyone who wants male Viera is a homosexual ERPer and you don't want those people in your game.

Tell you what, we'll concede your point once you find examples of my pUbLiC hOmOsExUaL RP!?!?!

You can't, and you won't. You've decided to make up some imaginary boogeyman in your head because you have no other point to make that won't include made-up quotes and false assumptions of character. You mock, demean and disparage because your arguments are as empty as your head.

Well pulling the racist/homophobic/sexist cards in a victimization purpose won't get your point heard persons are completely different and have different personal preferences, for instance my concept on Male Viera is completely different from the concept presented in fan art so far do imagine Male Viera being strong large medium stature and middle aged wrinkled with big beer belly, with a big beard and strong mustache does that make me sexist? No.

Neither you will see me pressing a whole company to force my concept on Male Viera to feel my fetish included, on other hand totally respect that YOU have a different concept for Male Viera than me and would be indifferent to me either concept SE would choose because after all is their product in the end, not mine or yours.

Just cause persons have different personal preferences from yours doesn't make them sexists, homophobic or racists that's just a way of grooming the company to make them do what you want.

What did ask to you before and ask again please stop attacking the company workers and lets try to be heard in a different and more polite dialogue.

[Kirsten_Rev]

I didn't call the comment homophobic, I called it sexist. These are two different things, and we're fortunate enough to have google available to educate you. Use it.

In fairness, it's even harder to paint it as sexist. Sexism is prejudice based on gender; SE clearly isn't displaying any prejudices against males, because they ARE introducing a new male. If any prejudice was displayed at all, it was favouring stereotypical muscle-bound males over those dressed as playboy bunnies. That's a lot closer to homophobia than anything.

Be careful criticizing others for their education when you're making mistakes yourself.

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As to the quote in question, yeah, sure, it's possible to interpret that in a negative way. That said, I have two questions for you.

(1) Is it really that surprising to see SE make gender-locked races? It's not like SE doesn't gender-lock gear. It's not like SE didn't take forever and a year to release the bunny suit for male characters. It's not like they haven't made gender-specific appearances for things like dresses.

(2) Do you really, REALLY think that this team is homophobic or sexist? This is a dev team that has created more effeminate males than virtually any Western title on the planet. The male characters are so pretty in this game (on average) that I don't even have an interest in playing one. Every other Hildibrand sequence involves rubbing a near-naked man all over with oil. The gender balance around meaningful storyline NPCs is spectacular, featuring plenty of strong men and women taking the lead in every type of scenario imaginable. Heck, years ago, Squaresoft - before even merging with Enix to become SE - made an entire sequence in FF7 centered around a cross-dressing minigame, with the female characters intentionally poking fun at how uncomfortable Cloud was.

I have a hard time buying the sexism / homophobic arguments. It seems like you're taking a game that in most respects is extremely progressive, and excoriating it the split-second you feel it doesn't live up to the high standards it typically sets. I'm usually loathe to defend SE - I have a lot of complaints with the development team - but in this particular respect, they're doing just fine, in my opinion. And I resent the implication that holding this opinion makes me a sexist.

[Delicious-Flat-Chest]

i don't think you should mention children in any of your posts with a username like that

It's pure, Christian and household friendly. Only someone tainted by Satan would see any weird undertones with my name.

[Gula]

i don't think you should mention children in any of your posts with a username like that

First off, how dare you. Second, I guess everyone who is attracted to men must have a thing for kids because of them usually having flat chests. Call me when you complete Dun Scaith maybe the end boss will change your mind.

[Raiu]

So Viera was never a problem when they first appeared in their first game. Viera lore always being how the males are non-existent, almost mythical, and that the females are like amazon warrior playboy bunnies.

It just became a problem now, and apparently it's a sexist and homophobic problem.

Let's just disregard all the non-homophobic stuff that exists in the game that SE has made for us. All the characters that represent different types of orientations.

Nooo, noooo. It's all a damn homophobic problem right now, because they decided to not let you play a male and a female of two specific races.

Some people, I swear.

[J-Reyno]

In fairness, it's even harder to paint it as sexist. Sexism is prejudice based on gender; SE clearly isn't displaying any prejudices against males, because they ARE introducing a new male. If any prejudice was displayed at all, it was favouring stereotypical muscle-bound males over those dressed as playboy bunnies. That's a lot closer to homophobia than anything.

I am not going to call it homophobic (even though there are implications) because, frankly, I don't associate feminine traits in men specifically with homosexuality. I personal know gay men who are very masculine, and plenty of gay ladies who are the most feminine women you'd meet. It just becomes a messy argument even if I do have my own thoughts about it.

Yes, sexism is prejudice based on gender. There is definitely a prejudice against certain feminine traits in men at play, which is discriminatory. There is a reason why female characters have more options to wear styles for men than vice-versa. Sure, there are definitely options to make "skimpy" dudes and what all, but pointing that out is saying "take what you can get" instead of "hey, maybe the options should be equal". I'm not going to comment on SE as a whole because we're talking about the decisions of a particular dev team.

Also, be careful in assuming that my criticism is limited only to this particular decision. I don't think we're that familiar with each other.