Gender Locks Have Revealed the Worst in Players.

[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.)

[ScarboroughFairy]

I am a lesbian and I still think its terrible. °~° Pro-male Viera people arent a hivemind of people who lust over men.

I'm lesbian as well and I'd like for the exceedingly vocal minority to understand that the demand for Viera isn't limited to men. I've wanted Viera for years and not for ERP purposes as few would imply. My personal demand for it stems from recreating an FF-tabletop character I had to retire some half a decade ago.

Nice little bit of wish fulfillment for me, personally and they're hella easy on the ass--I mean eyes.

[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.

[VirusOnline]

I'm lesbian as well and I'd like for the exceedingly vocal minority to understand that the demand for Viera isn't limited to men. I've wanted Viera for years and not for ERP purposes as few would imply. My personal demand for it stems from recreating an FF-tabletop character I had to retire some half a decade ago.

Nice little bit of wish fulfillment for me, personally and they're hella easy on the ass--I mean eyes.

It'd be incredibly silly to think that male or female viera would be for any one's gender IRL.
Men and women, regardless of sexuality, play what gender they wish to play in game.

We'd all also be silly to not remind ourselves that sexy sells and sells well.

[Insertcoins]

uuhhhh....

Lets be honest with ourselves. The people who come on these forums and announce their mass exodus is not doing it for SE to see, and probably don't even think it would trigger a response from SE anyway. No, they're doing it for us, the people that they know will read their posts, and will reply to it. They want us to read their post so they can,

A) validate their feelings by seeing others reply to their posts with the same thoughts and opinions.
B) Baiting responses from dissenting people to have the same, tired discussions that are had everyday (someone like me for instance).

See, whenever there's something happening that people don't like, they start these unsub trains, the whole vote with your wallet thing. But how often do these posts EVER result in the change the unsubbers are hoping for?

When we saw the initial SB trailer, and everybody just KNEW that lyse (still Yda at the time, you know that person that was always clearly a monk) was a dancer. They begged for dancer to be released (not as a healer btw). When we found out that (obviously) she was indeed a monk, unsubscribes train sparks. She's still a monk though right?

When the god forsaken jump potions were announced. You couldn't log in and not see at least 20 DIFFERENT & NEW forum posts every single day talking about how people are quitting, unsubbing, deleting chars, canceling accounts. it was massive, and yet, we still have them. There's even a very well timed sale going on for them right now.

same thing happened just recently when we found out BLU was going to be a limited job. The unsubscribes posts were nonstop, yet BLU happened the way they wanted it to all the same.

So it begs the question. Is the purpose of these unsub posts truly for SE's sake? I don't think so. They are for the people who frequent these forums.

but you know what would REALLY make SE pay attention to the people that Unsub? If all the people that threatened to unsub actually just unsubbed.

Ah those was crazy times. So much salt for unheard and reaching dreams. She literally did snap punch in the movie yet dancer. :c

[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.

[reivaxe]

So... Every player who voted for a Viera race wanted bun girls only for ERP? Look how they ended up. They do not look mysterious and like fierce warriors of the wood (based on the trailer). Its kinda harsh implying these things on male Viera, while the same can be said about female Viera.

I can't speak for others when it comes to viera as I've not walked in anyone's shoes other than my own. But here's why I wanted them ...

1- I have a deep personal connection to rabbits. Had 2 rabbits growing up and Bugs Bunny had a major impact on my child hood and career goals.

2. This is the first and only ff game I've ever played ... And Fran is 1 of like 4 ff characters I recognized. Viera were the only race other than humans that I knew of before this game and of course I like em cause they're bunnies.

3- I play female toons.

That being said it's clear to me that they have a long history of sexual appeal so it wouldn't shock me to find out that many people wanna erp as or with them. I mean, like I said, its clear as day that people who play females in this game greatly prefer cute/ attractive over the 2 least played female races so maybe its just that and nothing about erp?

They look about as mysterious and like fierce warrior like as the new wonder woman to me. But then again I look at animations to tell me about their character and apply that to how things gotta be in game.

Likely gonna have more than one reply if I find anyone else addressing me cause I'm on my phone and can't edit post.
Sorry.

[Windwalker]

bye bye, nobody will miss you. a few hundred players can cry all they want. Theres millions playing this game.

[Cilia]

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.

The Viera themselves weren't promised. If you want to be technical they weren't even revealed to be extant in the game world until 4.5, and even if they were put into the game, there was no promise they'd be made playable. People were hyping themselves up for Viera and clamoring for them to be playable for years beforehand.

The gender lock, while indeed reneging on a promise, is understandable (to me) given the circumstances. I'm not happy they did that, but considering everything... I can't really fault them for it either. If you can, consider their resources are limited and that this is the last time they intend to introduce new PC races due to the work necessary to do so rising exponentially as the game goes on. You'd have to sacrifice one of the two - which and why? (A final decision it is. Creative vision or fanservice, which shall win? LET'S GO!)

... [I]ts clear as day that people who play females in this game greatly prefer cute/ attractive over the 2 least played female races...

I can't speak for anyone else, but for the record, I originally played a Highlander female. I only changed over to an Au Ra due to wanting to play a more fantastic race, desire to support more original content, and a Xaela specifically because they're the more "tough / rugged" of the two Auri tribes. I'm none too pleased that they have the exact same demure emotes / body language as the Raen females, but you can't have everything.