Gender Locks Have Revealed the Worst in Players.

[CarnivalNights]

That people should be expected to care about any and every class is reaching, I believe.

By now most people know what class they want to play, already have it at 70 and their first priority come ShB will be to level 70>80.

People more interested in Dancers/Gunbreaker (and perhaps interested in avoiding overcrowded 70+ leveling areas) will be the minority* going against the grain.

(As a former WoW player some years ago, that is my take on how launch will go. I haven't been around for a FFXIV expansion launch to date.)

That being said, people are placing their stakes where their interests lie. Don't presume to tell others what they should care about, or degrade their opinion. It's beyond petty, and it's gas lighting to boot.

This isn't WoW where you make a brand new character from scratch when you get a new class.

A new class adds lore, adds quests, story, different gameplay options, new party compositions, new characters and adds a brand new market for crafters to create items for.

A new race/gender adds...uhm...it fills the world's races out I guess?

A new class, whether you like it or not, whether you are playing it or not affects you in many ways whether you notice them or not.

Someone playing as a male or female viera adds absolutely nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. Doesn't affect your raid composition, whether you craft items for that race, story, etc.

If your interests lie solely in the races available in this game, you weren't going to last long anyway since this game, although doesn't have the same weight as WoW, contains a huge amount of content to go through and for some reason the races/genders available is what happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back for some people. Now that is petty.

[niteypants]

It's core gameplay in the design sense of the word -- it's quite literally the first choice players are met with when they start the game, and everything you do in the game involves your character's avatar.

It spans every other aspect of the game, therefore it's core. Plus, characterization is always primary feature of any MMO. Characterization sets the tone of the story, also. Playing the MSQ as a Lala has a much different (and funnier) vibe than playing the MSQ as a Hyur. It's important.

Cosmetic add-ons can be a subset of the character, but picking your character is core, and the dismissive usage of the term cosmetics is improper in this context.

[Zenpaikun]

It's core gameplay in the design sense of the word -- it's quite literally the first choice players are met with when they start the game, and everything you do in the game involves your character's avatar.

It spans every other aspect of the game, therefore it's core. Plus, characterization is always primary feature of any MMO. Characterization sets the tone of the story, also. Playing the MSQ as a Lala has a much different (and funnier) vibe than playing the MSQ as a Hyur. It's important.

Cosmetic add-ons can be a subset of the character, but picking your character is core, and the dismissive usage of the term cosmetics is improper in this context.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then-- it's completely valid for you to have these beliefs, I just personally don't share them in terms of regarding them as core gameplay. It's still important to me, though. Just on a different level, I suppose.

Edit: I do share the sentiment that it's improper to disregard them as purely cosmetic, though.

[Duskane]

Someone playing as a male or female viera adds absolutely nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. Doesn't affect your raid composition, whether you craft items for that race, story, etc.

i think that's wrong imo a lot of people do make alts just to RP and play the story differently around said race might not be a major change to you but it is for someone else.
Also two of your points dont make much sense since you mention classes add lore and characters but a male viera or female hrothgar wouldn't?

[Alucard135]

It's core gameplay in the design sense of the word -- it's quite literally the first choice players are met with when they start the game, and everything you do in the game involves your character's avatar.

It spans every other aspect of the game, therefore it's core. Plus, characterization is always primary feature of any MMO. Characterization sets the tone of the story, also. Playing the MSQ as a Lala has a much different (and funnier) vibe than playing the MSQ as a Hyur. It's important.

Cosmetic add-ons can be a subset of the character, but picking your character is core, and the dismissive usage of the term cosmetics is improper in this context.

Picking your character is core gameplay in a design sense, since that's what you meant, but customizing it is not. You can easily skip that and go by the default option given, which makes it completely optional if you want to change any of the settings there.

[niteypants]

Picking your character is core gameplay in a design sense, since that's what you meant, but customizing it is not. You can easily skip that and go by the default option given, which makes it completely optional if you want to change any of the settings there.

Oh wowee, you can skip picking your gender?

Let me know when you become the missing Unpicked Gender, I'd love to see it.

[Alucard135]

Oh wowee, you can skip picking your gender?

Let me know when you become the missing Unpicked Gender, I'd love to see it.

Picking is a core gameplay as I stated above. But customizing it is optional. If you PICKED the default option, you'll get a gladiator male midlander Hyur.

[Leomoon]

[Floortank]

I do not have my heart set on playing a Viera or a Hrothgar of either gender, but I'll tell you one thing.

It's utterly unacceptable that SE is being allowed to skate by the community with incomplete crap. They should be held to higher standards than this, regardless of whether you wanted to play a Viera or a Hrothgar.

Cutting corners and launching half-finished features are why the Realm had to be Reborn in the first place. Why are we, collectively, as a community, letting them get away with this? Why are we falling down on our end of the responsibility of keeping the developers in check?

Put aside your own personal politics and biases long enough to see that we're all being screwed.

[Dualgunner]

I do not have my heart set on playing a Viera or a Hrothgar of either gender, but I'll tell you one thing.

It's utterly unacceptable that SE is being allowed to skate by the community with incomplete crap. They should be held to higher standards than this, regardless of whether you wanted to play a Viera or a Hrothgar.

Cutting corners and launching half-finished features are why the Realm had to be Reborn in the first place. Why are we, collectively, as a community, letting them get away with this? Why are we falling down on our end of the responsibility of keeping the developers in check?

Put aside your own personal politics and biases long enough to see that we're all being screwed.

I don't consider this to be a big enough slight that I'd drop my sub over it. Besides that I'm not aware of any other way to not "let them get away with this."