Gender Locks Have Revealed the Worst in Players.

[LordTiberiusRex]

I think Flat Chest had the right of it earlier in the thread.

A lot of the fiasco is resulting around one subculture getting more attention than the other subculture, and the "unrepresented" subculture is lashing out. There was even an earlier 2013 (?) interview that stated that Male viera weren't really planned anyway: https://i.redd.it/ca1q5hg9ntn21.png

Don't think devs are sexist, or even homophobic. If anything, based on what the in-game world has set up, it's mainly racism that's an issue among the IN-GAME (keynote: IN-GAME) characters. For example:

Gay marriage? A-OK.
Having multiple relationships at once? Go right ahead.
Interracial relationships? Looked down upon.
A combination of two or three of these? Probably ok, honestly.

[Halivel]

There was even an earlier 2013 (?) interview that stated that Male viera weren't really planned anyway: https://i.redd.it/ca1q5hg9ntn21.png

Well, considering last Q&A inteviews, they thought about male Vieras for recent expansion, planned (since Yoshi has an idea how they would look if they would do them) but just didn't have enough time for two full races. People asked for beastful race, but asked about Vieras too (and even longer) so recent decision was kind of "win win". Also, implementing missing gender can be easier in terms of adjusting headgears (cause I'm sure they are going to work on them for male Hrothgars and female Vieras, just we will be unable to use them at start of expansion), because they most likely will be similar to their counterparts in proportions.

[Cilia]

Well, considering last Q&A inteviews, they thought about male Vieras for recent expansion, planned (since Yoshi has an idea how they would look if they would do them) but just didn't have enough time for two full races. People asked for beastful race, but asked about Vieras too (and even longer) so recent decision was kind of "win win". Also, implementing missing gender can be easier in terms of adjusting headgears (cause I'm sure they are going to work on them for male Hrothgars and female Vieras, just we will be unable to use them at start of expansion), because they most likely will be similar to their counterparts in proportions.

It's a very complicated matter, not just a lack of time and resources.

• The developers wanted to implement Hrothgar, but felt obligated to put Viera in by fan demand.
• There was no frame of reference for male Viera, and they didn't want to disappoint anyone. (You'll notice on this board some people want them to have a similar physique to the females, while others want them to be short and cute in an inversion of the Au Ra sexual dimorphism dynamic.)
• While the fan demand for something like the Hrothgar was far lower in volume than Viera (see: the thread requesting male Viera has over six times the views the one requesting female Hrothgar... because it's about gender equity, right?), the devs wanted to put them in for the sake of diversity.
• Given it's already a massive undertaking to implement new races and will only get harder as time goes on, they considered this a last chance moment.

So. It was intended to be a compromise between their creative vision and fan demand. Unfortunately, people had hyped themselves up way too much over the Viera... leading to this unfortunate outcome. (It's true that there is likely a silent majority who are understanding and accepting of this, but as the OP said, this has brought out the worst in [some] people.)

[Halivel]

see: the thread requesting male Viera has over six times the views the one requesting female Hrothgar...

Well, one of the reason is that females thread was started later, when male had about 50k views already, if I remember correct. Also, as I noticed, female Hrorthgars thread is more originized, so it's smaller and calmer, while the main actual discussion (and fights between "pro" and "against" teams) are placed in Vieras thread. But yeah, if look just at views amount then it's looks somehow... wrong.

There was no frame of reference for male Viera, and they didn't want to disappoint anyone.

Yoshi described Vieras as "elegant, slim, handsome" and majority of people in thread seems to be good with this concept. Main question is height, though... I think it's okay to see shorter guys, but not 50 cm difference. Female Auri have quite common height (especially for Asian countries) and look mature, but guys are just huge in comparison with them. ;_;

people had hyped themselves up way too much over the Viera

Well, true, but can't say that there were not reasons for this. There is still a possibility to work on this situation, I suppose that's why SE checks feedback now. But implementing races after 7.0 will be an absolute nightmare, so if they will say "yes", their real last chance will be 5.x - 6.x period, I suspect.

[Cilia]

Well, one of the reason is that females thread was started later, when male had about 50k views already, if I remember correct. Also, as I noticed, female Hrorthgars thread is more originized, so it's smaller and calmer, while the main actual discussion (and fights between "pro" and "against" teams) are placed in Vieras thread. But yeah, if look just at views amount then it's looks somehow... wrong.

Even taking that into account, it's still unbelievably lopsided. There's a thread devoted solely to complaining over the lack of male Viera with hundreds of replies and thousands of views. On the other side of the spectrum? Nothing...

Yoshi described Vieras as "elegant, slim, handsome" and majority of people in thread seems to be good with this concept. Main question is height, though... I think it's okay to see shorter guys, but not 50 cm difference. Female Auri have quite common height (especially for Asian countries) and look mature, but guys are just huge in comparison with them. ;_;

That's how Yoshi-P envisions them - not everyone. The demand and expectations for [male] Viera were so high they were afraid of getting it wrong and disappointing / upsetting anyone. Since we already knew what female Viera look like, using their previous appearances was a safe bet. The males had nothing to draw from.

Well, true, but can't say that there were not reasons for this.

There are only two reasons this happened: Viera existing, and XIV's "theme park" paradigm.

A lot of people (I'd argue the majority) want the Viera for the sake of sex appeal fanservice. Being so popular because of their sex appeal, people request / demand they put in any game with a great deal of racial diversity following XII. (If XVI goes back to the traditional fantasy route, expect it!) However, their matriarchal societies and the males living hermetic lives means that only one side gets their fanservice.

Now, XIV is described by the producer as a "Final Fantasy theme park." Consequently that means there's a lot of franchise fanservice, which means the possible (if not probable) inclusion of popular races from the past. Being its own setting, however, lets it play around with the exact details - such as maybe making male Viera more prevalent. So, players hopeful they'd finally get the male bunnies they'd been fantasizing about for over a decade hyped themselves up - and, whether that was his intention or not, Yoshi-P threw fuel on the fire by telling people to wait for JP FanFest to see what their plans were did not help. (It should also be noted that players have been begging for playable Viera since 2.0 if not sooner.)

So really, it's just a matter of people hyping themselves up over something they were never promised for way too long... only to be let down in the end and look for somebody to blame.

[VirusOnline]

So really, it's just a matter of people hyping themselves up over something they were never promised for way too long... only to be let down in the end and look for somebody to blame.

Yes people were hyped up for good reason - genderlocks were promised never ever to be a thing again. Thus, we expected males.
It wasn't "hyped". It was expected.

There was a reason that they in turn expected blowback before even having announced it.

[Arcari]

That's how Yoshi-P envisions them - not everyone. The demand and expectations for [male] Viera were so high they were afraid of getting it wrong and disappointing / upsetting anyone. Since we already knew what female Viera look like, using their previous appearances was a safe bet. The males had nothing to draw from.

I kinda wonder... wouldn't Yoshida just have to ask Matsuno what male Viera look like? After all, the Viera are Matsuno's creation; if Matsuno had a vision on the appearance of male Viera, well, no one would be able to say otherwise IMO.