Letter from the Producer LXII

[Eloah]

What you're saying makes sense for the restaurant, since the main reason your going to it is to eat those dishes. But it doesn't for FFXIV case since the new races aren't the main reason people are going to play the expansion. That's the core difference between the two cases.

Exactly, that's why I said it was an oversimplification. There are definitely other factors, but it's the expectation of getting one set of options only to find out you have a slightly different set available, which seems to contradict the original set in a way.

Personally, I doubt I would change to another "given" race, but I feel bad for people who don't have the option now; especially a friend of mine who wanted to be a bunnyboi, lol. Now I'm caught up in this whole loli/shouts debacle. I would like more options for cuter males. Let me be a Ivalician moogle please, lol.

[Alleo]

What you're saying makes sense for the restaurant, since the main reason your going to it is to eat those dishes. But it doesn't for FFXIV case since the new races aren't the main reason people are going to play the expansion. That's the core difference between the two cases.

Maybe its not the main reason for most of us but it can be a big enough reason for someone that is already on the fence about the new expansion. Characters and how they look are a big part of the game, I mean we even joke about glamour being the true endgame and we have lots of glamour in the cash shop because they know it will sell. Race is another part of that and depending on how you play the game (creating your own characters story and more) it will be a big impact.

So one could say: You went to the restaurant in the past but they changed their sortiment and now you barely have any reason to still like it. Then they announce two new dishes and because they have offered such dishes in the past with different ways to cook them you believe that this is happening there too, go there and then find out that its not the case with those two. Disappointed you now realize that you have nothing that greatly left to visit the restaurant since you need to pay money to reach it. Now you might descide to either never visit it again or just go there from time to time to save money.

For me this makes perfect sense. Races are one point of the game, if they would be worth nothing then why would they introduce new ones anyway? So if you are already on the fence or dreamed about being that race for a long time, this decision can very well make you drop the game or just sub barely anymore to get to see the rest you still like (like story for example).

[Clover_Blake]

Did they expect that people would be satisfied and not ask for the missing half? They really ought to have just picked one or the other and saved themselves the headache. They definitely wouldn't be suffering the same criticism they are now if they had. I don't buy the reasoning of "there was a lot of demand for a beast race" either when past polls have shown that a mammalian beast race was by far the -least- popular choice for a new player race option.

Did you expect that people would be satisfied and not ask for the other race if just one was released? "WE DIDN'T NEED MORE CUTE RACES, WE NEEDED BEASTS! SE WASTED THE CHANCE TO MAKE THIS GAME DIFFERENT!11!", or "I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY AREN'T GIVING US VIERA BECAUSE OF A BEAST RACE THAT NO ONE WILL PLAY!!111one!!"

I know the story because there was a huge and annoying drama back when Au Ra was released. Please do not think that this wouldn't be the same. People are going to complain no matter what the outcome is, so SE's choice wasn't bad or good. It just wasn't your personal favourite.

My personal favourite would be Viera only and no beasts races, but I have enough of a brain to understand that my tastes aren't the very core of what makes the world go round. Many people wanted Viera, many people wanted beasts -or at least did create a HUGE drama back in the day because of it-, SE had resources to make just a single race -male and female-, and made the choice that would include both races. As much as I wanted male Vieras, this sounds reasonable to me.

[Agaziel]

Personally, I doubt I would change to another "given" race, but I feel bad for people who don't have the option now; especially a friend of mine who wanted to be a bunnyboi, lol. Now I'm caught up in this whole loli/shouts debacle. I would like more options for cuter males. Let me be a Ivalician moogle please, lol.

But you have cuter males already with miqo-te, elezen, Au ra all you are requesting you already have I can understand you or your friend want to play male viera and that motive is indifferent to me in game because its not that I will play but I agree the more diversity in game the better.

To add diversity doesn't imply a use of the same models would be more interesting in game concept perspective to do something from the scratch, since for males you already have Roes and Hrothgar for that difference.

[Halivel]

But you have cuter males already with miqo-te, elezen, Au ra all you are requesting you already have I can understand you or your friend want to play male viera and motive is indifferent in game because its not that I will play it but I agree the more diversity in game the better.

To add diversity doesn't imply a use of the same models would be more interesting in game concept perspective to do something from the scratch, since for males you already have Roes and Hrothgar for that difference.

Elezens and Au Ra aren't really "cute", imo (sorry, but Au Ra males have eternal "stone-macho-face", it's not cute at all). But if males have at least some options (Miqo'te, mainly, and even with them there are places for argue mostly because they aren't really elegant), those who wanted beast-looking females got nothing. They received another waifus, as if we didn't have tones of them already (upd, just to clarify: I like how female Vieras look, but... c'mon...).

[Insertcoins]

Elezens and Au Ra aren't really "cute", imo (sorry, but Au Ra males have eternal "stone-macho-face", it's not cute at all). But if males have at least some options (Miqo'te, mainly, and even with them there are places for argue mostly because they aren't really elegant), those who wanted beast-looking females got nothing. They received another waifus, as if we didn't have tones of them already (upd, just to clarify: I like how female Vieras look, but... c'mon...).

I think what everyone is missing is that the Viera males would've been JUST like those choices tho. So noone would've been happy either way. " Why you make them like Elezens? " why do I say this? Cause YP already said thats how he'll make them and noone is honoring that. THey keep asking for options Yoshi is never going to make. Like child PCs.

[MomomiMomi]

Did you expect that people would be satisfied and not ask for the other race if just one was released? "WE DIDN'T NEED MORE CUTE RACES, WE NEEDED BEASTS! SE WASTED THE CHANCE TO MAKE THIS GAME DIFFERENT!11!", or "I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY AREN'T GIVING US VIERA BECAUSE OF A BEAST RACE THAT NO ONE WILL PLAY!!111one!!"

I know the story because there was a huge and annoying drama back when Au Ra was released. Please do not think that this wouldn't be the same. People are going to complain no matter what the outcome is, so SE's choice wasn't bad or good. It just wasn't your personal favourite.

My personal favourite would be Viera only and no beasts races, but I have enough of a brain to understand that my tastes aren't the very core of what makes the world go round. Many people wanted Viera, many people wanted beasts -or at least did create a HUGE drama back in the day because of it-, SE had resources to make just a single race -male and female-, and made the choice that would include both races. As much as I wanted male Vieras, this sounds reasonable to me.

Only problem with that is that before, we knew about Viera for quite a long time. We didn't know about Hrothgar. The expectation, then, was that there weren't going to be any beasts, and I'd say reasonably, people expected to be able to make a male Viera.

Now we're in a situation where people want male Viera, and on top of that, people want something they didn't know they wanted: female Hrothgar. So the amount of people left wanting is more than if they had just given us Viera.

[reivaxe]

I think you are missing his point. Try thinking of it this way, lets say you go out to eat, you're a very picky eater by the way, but you go out and only have a choice between a chicken or pork dish. You are told or its hinted to you by advertisements that you can get either fried or grilled/roasted. Perfect you like both chicken and pork, but think grilled chicken is too dry and fried pork too oily, so you can just choose from the other two options. However, once you get to the restaurant you find out that they only fry their pork and grill their chicken, which baffles you because how hard could it be to do, the other method. You get told "reasons" that admittedly make sense, but ultimately if this restaurant doesn't have any options for you you're probably going to find someplace else to eat. Granted this is a bit of an oversimplification but does present a similar expectation and dilemma. The two meat options are nice, but it's better to have the one option cooked two ways over the two options cooked only one way. It's this wierd dynamic where by limiting the options, you're creating a wider variety of options.

Your example is terrible :/

Let me try to move it around ...

You're already at a joint, you enjoy it! It's got beer and whine and food and games and TV screens to watch the game on and even a karaoke stage! It's basically David Busters or Chucky Cheese. You get your favorite dish all the time (Potatoes I guess) and enjoy all the things you can do there. Now, they offer you 2 NEW dishes ... one's Shrimp and the other some kinda bird. You never came here before for shrimp because it was never offered and you don't eat that kinda bird ... you also enjoy your favorite dish and other activities here or else you would have stopped coming by now. They never promised you a shrimp dish before and when they showed the shrimp in an ad it was only shown cooked 1 way (Fried breaded shrimp). But now you're thinking of going someplace else because they don't make shrimp burgers?

Yeah, this is nonsense.

[Halivel]

I think what everyone is missing is that the Viera males would've been JUST like those choices tho. So noone would've been happy either way. " Why you make them like Elezens? " why do I say this? Cause YP already said thats how he'll make them and noone is honoring that. THey keep asking for options Yoshi is never going to make. Like child PCs.

According to what I saw in support thread, most of active people there were okay with his "slim, handsome, elegant, more like Elezen with Miqo'te face" description ("more like Elezen" doesn't mean copy, I suppose he just wanted to give an idea. And since females seems to be mix of Hyur and Elezens, males could be similar to them). There were also people who wanted to see them shorter than females (which doesn't really mean that they have to look like children. Females are quite tall). And ofc there are people who wants to see another bulky race or wanted to see child model, but I doubt that they are even 1/3 of those who askes for males at all (can't say for sure, since I'm not telepath, and a lot of people don't write anything in threads or do not specify how they want to see them).

[Insertcoins]

Your example is terrible :/

Let me try to move it around ...

You're already at a joint, you enjoy it! It's got beer and whine and food and games and TV screens to watch the game on and even a karaoke stage! It's basically David Busters or Chucky Cheese. You get your favorite dish all the time (Potatoes I guess) and enjoy all the things you can do there. Now, they offer you 2 NEW dishes ... one's Shrimp and the other some kinda bird. You never came here before for shrimp because it was never offered and you don't eat that kinda bird ... you also enjoy your favorite dish and other activities here or else you would have stopped coming by now. They never promised you a shrimp dish before and when they showed the shrimp in an ad it was only shown cooked 1 way (Fried breaded shrimp). But now you're thinking of going someplace else because they don't make shrimp burgers?

Yeah, this is nonsense.

Dav and busters? Do you live in Chicago too? And I always thoguht it was dav and busters... the more you learn....

MASSIVE EDIT. Ok.. I thought Dave and busters was only a chicago thing. MY BAD. Crap thats 2 mess ups in one day. TT.TT I'mma go cry in a corner now.