Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[SoloWingMetatron]

Since there have been a number of people claiming "valid" arguments are not being put forth for the male Viera I have included a couple below, which have been formed from SE's own written lore.

Below is a quote of Viera lore taken directly from the Shadowbringers mini-site:

Of tall stature and slender frame, the Viera's physical appearance is strikingly similar to that of the Hyur and Elezen, save for their distinctive long ears. Adhering to a strict code known as the Green Word, they are prohibited from contact with the outside world under threat of exile. Their society is purely matriarchal, and males of age are seldom, if ever, found within the bounds of any village. They instead serve as protectors of the wood from the shadows, that no evil may ever encroach on their sacred lands.

This lore provides support for male Viera on two counts:

Count 1 - The lore states that all Viera live life in accordance to the Green Word. Any Viera who leaves their homeland has broken the Green Word and is therefore sent into exile.....therefore from this section of the lore NO Viera should be playable including females...so for those who are adamant SE stays true to lore, then the Viera should never have really been a playable race to begin with...yet these same people very much support female Viera. This shows that there is a double standard with those who oppose male Viera based on the grounds of lore...

Count 2 - The more vital part of the Viera lore is that it states only the males live OUTSIDE Viera settlements and do so to protect their homeland from outside threats....such as Primals, Ascians, Garleans, and whatever else...Exactly like the WoL in that respect. So the official Viera lore actually supports males being playable more so than females because it's clear the males are the ones who will be the most likely to encounter said threats and outside influence.

[Lauront]

Since there have been a number of people claiming "valid" arguments are not being put forth for the male Viera I have included a couple below, which have been formed from SE's own written lore.

Below is a quote of Viera lore taken directly from the Shadowbringers mini-site:



This lore provides support for male Viera on two counts:

Count 1 - The lore states that all Viera live life in accordance to the Green Word. Any Viera who leaves their homeland has broken the Green Word and is therefore sent into exile.....therefore from this section of the lore NO Viera should be playable including females...so for those who are adamant SE stays true to lore, then the Viera should never have really been a playable race to begin with...yet these same people very much support female Viera. This shows that there is a double standard with those who oppose male Viera based on the grounds of lore...

Count 2 - The more vital part of the Viera lore is that it states only the males live OUTSIDE Viera settlements and do so to protect their homeland from outside threats....such as Primals, Ascians, Garleans, and whatever else...Exactly like the WoL in that respect. So the official Viera lore actually supports males being playable more so than females because it's clear the males are the ones who will be the most likely to encounter said threats and outside influence.

Well, on a lore basis, the WoL is allowed to be exceptional things - and Viera males, whilst somewhat low in numbers and not prone to leaving their forests, are not as rare as WHM, for example, presently are. It also proved to be no hindrance to the addition of male Keepers.

On a commercial basis, going off played race statistics from other MMOs, beast men are still not particularly great in numbers. Even in WoW, where they comprise some 30% of the total, there is a great variety in their body types, so it is not like adding Hrothgar will appeal to the entirety of that 30%, and that's assuming their reason for not picking up the game is the lack of a beast race and nothing else. Meanwhile, within XIV, any body type besides Roegadyn males is more popular, and when you look at ones with more fluid builds and animations, like Hyur or Miqo'te, they vastly outnumber them. So they're taking a pretty uncertain gamble here if they're just after "refugees" from other MMOs, who if anything are probably put off by the game for other reasons, e.g. the pace of combat below 50, content output strategy, and so on.

Which isn't to say I don't think Hrothgar won't prove to be more successful than Roegadyn, just that in terms of commercial viability, there is greater potential demand for male Viera than them.

It's why I think that far from being motivated purely by the lore or commercial reasons, the dev team is trying to get another race in whilst it still can and then add the missing part later on.

Lastly, on the topic of no one knowing what they might look like - the same issue could have been said about any of the 1.0 gender-locked races. There's ways you can circumvent such issues, though, for example by researching what is popular in the playerbase, assuming the devs don't already have something in mind, which by all indications, they do. Implementing female Viera was not hindered by the fact that some people wanted FFXIV to remain fairly true to their "amazonian" aesthetic, nevermind some other desired aesthetics, and yet they've added them and softened that aesthetic somewhat anyway.

I guess some people just want them to remain "mysterious" by never being added, but I'm not sure what manner of mystery this is really adding.

[Roda]

Since there have been a number of people claiming "valid" arguments are not being put forth for the male Viera I have included a couple below, which have been formed from SE's own written lore.

Below is a quote of Viera lore taken directly from the Shadowbringers mini-site:



This lore provides support for male Viera on two counts:

Count 1 - The lore states that all Viera live life in accordance to the Green Word. Any Viera who leaves their homeland has broken the Green Word and is therefore sent into exile.....therefore from this section of the lore NO Viera should be playable including females...so for those who are adamant SE stays true to lore, then the Viera should never have really been a playable race to begin with...yet these same people very much support female Viera. This shows that there is a double standard with those who oppose male Viera based on the grounds of lore...

Count 2 - The more vital part of the Viera lore is that it states only the males live OUTSIDE Viera settlements and do so to protect their homeland from outside threats....such as Primals, Ascians, Garleans, and whatever else...Exactly like the WoL in that respect. So the official Viera lore actually supports males being playable more so than females because it's clear the males are the ones who will be the most likely to encounter said threats and outside influence.

Count 1, is why I say they should've finished hrothgar (females, helmets) and made viera a beast tribe and released them for 6.0 (See, square enix, a tease is good when you go "uh-oh looks like you're not getting them! SIKE! Their entire story line this expansion is justification for you seeing tons of them as players next expansion!" Not, "Oh well if you're interested in this specific thing, you'll have to look behind this curtain!" *pulls curtain to reveal a giant middle finger*)

And count 2, is justification for why they (both male and females) would be starting the game in 6.0 in ARR story.