Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Greven]

Naturally, if you aren't happy with product, you don't pay for one. I've simply not purchased plenty of games over the years since I either don't like it, or their "business" model.

Few years back when I left World of Warcraft, I went to their website, cancel'd my subscription and wrote my reason in this box that you can write reasoning as why you are leaving. I didn't go and make thread on general discussion about it, I was done and left. But I take it I should follow up "community example" and write 17 micro-threads about everything that I'm currently unhappy with, maybe threaten and call names while at it.

Indeed someone can be too harsh and a polite way of writing should be the way but complaining about what you don't like is giving a feedback that the producers of an evolving product do need. Unsubscribing is the last extreme option and the opposite of what the devs wants: they want to sell their product.

In 1.0 only female miqo'tes were playable, community requested males and they added it in 2.0 and it's the most popular race up to now.
Raiders disliked trash mobs in Bahamut Coil, they removed them.
At the beginning of HW players complained about AST, and they buffed it.
People complained hard about "bow mage" and they modified it deeply.

Devs are people too, they want to do what people want but it's not that easy and they might have some ideas that don't really reflect the community and feedbacks are the more visible way to notice the disappointment and proceed accordingly.

[Greven]

+1 for male Viera!!

[Anzaman]

Indeed someone can be too harsh and a polite way of writing should be the way but complaining about what you don't like is giving a feedback that the producers of an evolving product do need. Unsubscribing is the last extreme option and the opposite of what the devs wants: they want to sell their product.

Aye, tho I'd just prefer to have forums neat and certain threads "compiled". Currently it just looks clustered and honestly (in my opinion), having large mega-thread would be more usable and more impactful for future development.

Starting to get difficult to follow what I've said and where when we've multitude of threads about same topic. And answering to potential replies is, well.. Especially with our limited daily post caps of 20.

[9mileshigh]

+1 for male Viera too. Pretty please?

[EnigMatt]

I think what disappoints me about this situation the most is that by choosing to go the way they did, the dev team are essentially offering us nothing that feels fresh or unique to FFXIV in and of itself.

In regards to the Viera, introducing male character models would be something that could hook fans new and old alike. For those familiar with FFXII, it would be an opportunity to see a side of Viera society that remained hidden to them for the entirety of that game and feel like a pay-off for their continued investment. For those who are new they get a new character model with unique proportions and animations, and people who were looking to Fantasia as a couple could see how male and female Viera play against each-other in terms of attitude. From a lore perspective, they've even given themselves an out by introducing the First Reflection, where they could just say that Viera (or rather Viis) society operates differently than on the Source and you can have the male and female population equally present, or flip things and have the females be the reclusive ones on the First.

For the Hrothgar, it's hard for me to view them as much more than an amalgamation of traits that are already present in other playable races. In terms of general build there have already been many comparisons to male Roegadyn, who in the case of Hellsguard can already have an animal-like darkened nose tip meant to evoke lions and they are already seen broadly as the stalwart bruiser archetype. Miqo'te are more obviously feline-inspired with their tails, teeth, and ears. So combining the two doesn't seem like we're getting something new. And to bring in the lore once again, the fact that Lalafells have a unique Dwarven society on the First opens up the opportunity to do the same with other races; perhaps the Qiqirn became the Burmecians on the First and you would have another association to the Dancer class from the iconic scene in FFIX where Freya dances at Cleyra.

So considering what we will be getting in terms of the new races at the start of the expansion, barring anything they may add down the line, I just can't take the argument of "the devs worked really hard to give us this much, guys" at face value. It's obvious that they've done a great deal of work in creating the new areas, composing awesome music, and making tweaks to the battle system that we haven't even seen yet. But for this specific facet of the game it seems like they threw this together with the outdated mindset of gender-locked races and a shrugging, "well, it worked in XI, they'll like it again."

[seapark]

All of us pay a monthly fee to be entertained. Those who are displeased will take their money elsewhere. Loyalty doesn't factor into this. Subscription loss is not a "threat" but a mere fact of business.

I respect the work that goes into this game, but this response was to be expected. If they are genuinely surprised by any backlash about the lack of male Viera, it only proves that they have listened only to what they want to hear.

Francel went IN. But for real, to frame this in terms of loyalty and gratitude is disengenuous. Square is a massive, multi-million dollar company at the top of its game, making money off of our continued interest in the product it creates.

People dissatisfied with that product have the right to say so, and to offer suggestions to improve it. They don’t have to justify why that’s important or more worthy of attention than any other cause. Don’t “what about” me, don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t be focused on. I’ve been permanently subbed to this game since day-1, I’ve never let it lapse, and yet I’m now reaching that point of asking myself, “how much longer do I really see myself playing this game?”

This is stupid. I’ve shown up for this company and this game since the start. I belong here. Our opinions ARE valid and should be heard fairly. If they’re going to reap profits off our hype and our anticipation, they should’ve been up front with us from the start.

[Andavar]

Completely disappointed on their decision with this. The males from the Heavensward artwork look fantastic!

[Ronove]

+ 1 for male viera! With how the dev team got rid of the gender lock on Roegadyn and Miqo'te when 2.0 hit, the idea to gender lock a race now baffles me. I'm sure the dev team has their reasons, but I hope we can get male viera and female hrothgar down the line (I'm sure by now at launch won't happen, but that would equally be nice).

[Azebra]

i already replied to this thread earlier, and i’ve been lurking since then, but i still can’t wrap my head around why they would make this decision. They had to be aware that many people were looking forward to male viera, no one was really expecting the hrothgar at all and there was no significant backlash when they said viera would be the last race. To go back on the promise that there would be no genderlocking after 1.0 seems so foolish. Even if some of the devs didnt want to make viera men because like how yoshi p said in that one interview, it would “be weird” or whatever, was the amount of inevitable backlash really worth it? I’m hearing so many say this is the last straw and that they’re unsubbing. Additionally, the amount of money generated from fantasia purchases would likely be significantly higher for male viera (i even bought one in advance) compared to hrothgar, especially looking at the race demographics now.

This whole thing felt like some SE higher up said no to male viera, despite the dev team knowing that there would be backlash. Maybe that “last race” thing will become a loophole for them to add the other genders later? I’m just holding out hope, and wondering why they weren’t up front about this in the first place, perhaps it was a last minute thing? The hrothgar certainly look unpolished enough for it to be.

[Corue]

My main problem is that Yoshi made the most half-assed excuse he possibly he could. He could have said something mildly plausible; budget, time-restraints, or even just they wanted to reach a new market. But out of any option he could have chosen he just went with a mumbled "it might ruin the lore" That's the worst possible excuse you could have made. The devs write the lore. The players break the lore on a daily basis. If they're going with that then they should only allow one player ever to be a WHM or a DRK and retroactively remove all male Miqo'te, female Roes and Duskwight Elezen. And while they're at it remove all Viera from The First because that breaks their lore too.