Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Alleo]

Still genderlocked, still no Viera males or Hroth females, but all things considered, I think showcasing Hroth males first and then female Viera would've given them not as bad a playerbase explosion.

It would imo also make more sense if his answer is correct and they somehow decided on Hroth first and Viera later...I mean wouldnt that mean that they would work on that first? Honestly I am really not sure if some of those answers are just a bit of PR speak to keep the anger down. Because if that was the reason, why not talk about this in the liveletter? Why say that in an interview that might not be read that much?

In the end if this was already meant to happen for quite some time, I find it bad to not just be open about this from the start too..why hint at maybe more Viera news after the second fanfest? Why not outright state that there is no male Viera at that one but hint at something else?

It really feels like they are so out of tune with the community..it should have been crystal clear that such a decision will only lead to even more anger.

[BillyKaplan]

It would imo also make more sense if his answer is correct and they somehow decided on Hroth first and Viera later...I mean wouldnt that mean that they would work on that first?

I suppose some work already went into Viera models because they needed it for Fran who was already in the game. But strictly speaking about the interviews, I keep getting different impressions depending on what interview I read and it comes off contradictory.

why hint at maybe more Viera news after the second fanfest? Why not outright state that there is no male Viera at that one but hint at something else?

Because then people would've cancelled their preorders when they were still eligible for it, and had less chances to use their pre-order bonus items... is sadly what it starts to look like. They should've outright told us no male Viera, and then created an air of mystery around what was coming in its stead, instead of it being read as them building more hype for male Viera. Because it also made sense that's what they were getting at - male Viera were never shown before, so they wanted to reveal them in Tokyo, maybe even bring Matsuno over, which would've made more sense in Japan instead of anywhere else...
Instead what we got can be seen as really scammy, and intentionally leading on. People can use the in-game lines like "they might as well not exist to us" all they want, but as has been established repeatedly, that is also the case regarding Keeper of the Moon males and Duskwight Elezen of both genders. You're going to be hard pressed to find them as NPCs in the game, and that makes sense. No one cares how many player characters like that are out there because the only character that matters to the lore is the one you play at that particular moment. So no, nothing that was said in-game was proof we wouldn't be getting male Viera. If anything, the abundance of lore and attention they gave them really implied otherwise!
And when they inevitably remove the locks because I have a hard time believing they won't at this point, question is when - those lines would still remain in the game, equally valid then as they are now, and with the appropriate lack of importance regarding the existence of male Viera as playable.

[Alleo]

Because then people would've cancelled their preorders when they were still eligible for it, and had less chances to use their pre-order bonus items... is sadly what it starts to look like. They should've outright told us no male Viera, and then created an air of mystery around what was coming in its stead, instead of it being read as them building more hype for male Viera. Because it also made sense that's what they were getting at - male Viera were never shown before, so they wanted to reveal them in Tokyo, maybe even bring Matsuno over, which would've made more sense in Japan instead of anywhere else...

Sadly I also believe that this might be one of the reasons...and yes all the hints seems to have been about male viera reveal at the japanese fanfest because they had nothing else to show and wanted some hype. I mean without the leaks we would not have known that we could get a beastial male race, so that as a surprise with no hints ingame just feel off. But hey new patch is here and still no hints on them..all of that just feels like they were an afterthought and not somehow the ones that should have come first.

So in the end I have a hard time feeling sorry for them for the backlash they received (of course as long as it remains civil). They brought this onto themselves.

I still think some people overreacted, like they always do. This happened with Eureka too. Bluemage. But imo, asking in a friendly manner, supportive and patiently way will help much more than canceling subs and posting it in the OF. The mog station is actually asking for the reason when canceling the sub, which should be viewed as feedback.

The thing is, that they dont ask for deep reasons when you cancel your sub so they will never get to know why someone truly left. Also if people only post about this but everyone still stays subbed, then why should they change something? Seemingly people then forgive and forget it anyway thus they still get their money and might not even need to change something. Bad press, posts with lots of likes and comments on this and them losing money might do something. But look at bluemage or Eureka. Sometimes it just feels that only the danger of losing too many people might bring change. (And theoretically they would already lose money if someone that stayed subbed all the time, decreases that, which is something I am doing right now, and I am honestly not sure if I am going to buy the expansion at all)

[Laphael]

So in the end I have a hard time feeling sorry for them for the backlash they received (of course as long as it remains civil). They brought this onto themselves.

I feel very sorry for them.

They had a hard decision to make. They wanted to do a beastlike race (hrothgar) because many players where asking for that. But there where also many players who wanted viera more than anything.

So SE decided to give the players both most asked races. But of course there is only 2 years developement time till shadowbringers and they had to make cuts.

I think it was the right thing to make both races rather then only one with both genders.

And honestly, the community should maybe take a step back in the future about unconfirmed assumtions. Male Viera was never being hinted at!

[BillyKaplan]

And honestly, the community should maybe take a step back in the future about unconfirmed assumtions

1.0 -> 2.0: remove genderlocks from Highlanders, Miqo'te, and Roegadyns
3.0: introduce a two-gendered race
4.x: Fran introduced. Male Viera lore established by NPCs. Not a sliver of a mention of Hrothgar in the game.

It's not a mystery why people assumed we'd be getting male Viera. Also

Male Viera was never being hinted at!

I won't mention again that's arguably false, as the game gave us male Viera lore. Instead, I'll say:
Neither were Hroths.

[Laphael]

Neither were Hroths.

For ppl reading forum and reddit there was a big leak basically confirming a lion-race.
Many ppl pointed that out when the discussion after paris fanfest startet and where met with deaf ears.

Don´t get me wrong, im not against male-viera. I acutally expect them next expansion or the on after.

[Alleo]

And honestly, the community should maybe take a step back in the future about unconfirmed assumtions. Male Viera was never being hinted at!

Yet since SE did away with genderlocks and we never got even one glimpse of the Hrothgar in the story line it was perfectly fine to believe that the Viera would be like any other race, which means two genders. And honestly they would probably be less work than a beastly race. if we just got one race without the hint of the other then some people might be disappointed that we got that race and not what they wanted but we would not be having such a huge backlash like we are having now. Most people would probably be happy and some of us that wanted something else could still clutch onto his sentence that its probably the last race, thus theoretically more could come.

Now we have a huge side of the playerbase that did not get their Viera male and another side that got no female beast race..while there are those that might even be disappointed in the lower quality look of the male Hrothgar...

SE writes the lore. If they never wanted a male Viera they could have simply given us the lore that this version of the Viera only exists as females and reproduce different. Not tell us that males exist but then not giving them to us.

For ppl reading forum and reddit there was a big leak basically confirming a lion-race.
Many ppl pointed that out when the discussion after paris fanfest startet and where met with deaf ears.

Don´t get me wrong, im not against male-viera. I acutally expect them next expansion or the on after.

The only thing that has hinted at Hrothgar was the french leak. That still did not mean that no male Vieras would be coming. Heck since FF14 is a very successful MMO and money maker for SE I hoped that this would mean that we will get two full races. And again, people asked Yoshida after the fanfest about the male Viera and yet instead of telling the truth they hinted at more that would come at the fanfest...making it sound like they will just reveal them there..he could have stopped any hype there instead he chose to let it go on.