Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Halivel]

I don't even like the female bunny, I BOUGHT a Fantasia to change back to my AuRa, since I'd used my in-game fantasia to change to viera.

Could I ask the reason for it? There is a list of several options I can imagine people don't like but it's always better to ask.

[official_coconut]

In some recent news, it seems that Viera names are composed of Icelandic names (forename) and their village (surname). However, when they leave the forest they can adopt entirely new names (the case for my character). It seems to be this way for both genders since they didn't really specify anything special for males. There doesn't seem to be anything about Viis names though, to avoid spoilers I would think.

Source: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ng-Conventions

[reivaxe]

of course you wouldn't because that would sink your entire argument

... What?

Lets walk through this.
This is what you're saying ..

i'm pretty confident that we're going to get them as the japanese are beholden to the western audience since we are vastly more profitable than their own domestic audience. it's why we even got the hrothgar.

As in, you think that they added in Hrothgar souly because "the West" wanted it and because we're more profitable. You literally said they're "beholden" to us and apparently do what we want. So you think that w/e number of players that get vocal about this topic in the West will force them to add them?

Which is funny ... cause I have no clue what they've done that's been credited to appeasing any side of the world only. Like, wut?

And I can't know what JPN wants as I don't speak or read JPN.

Here's what I can say though. This is what they had to say about adding Hrothgar ...

"After seeing the positive reception of the Lupin characters we introduced in Stormblood, we concluded that, for the long-term health of FFXIV, it was important to implement a greater variety of character types beyond the traditionally beautiful in a future expansion. In truth, we had considered adding more beastly characters long before, and since this was possibly our last chance to do so, we decided that we should—much like we did with the Viera—in the interests of expanding the lore and the choices available to players."

(Looking at HW concept art that seems about right. They had hella beastly art for the race that would become scaley bois and gals.)

"Character creation is about providing players with options, and while there’s no telling how many people will utilize these options, we also believe that there is value simply in having them exist—in empowering people to fill the world with greater variety."

"We don’t really need any more cute or sweet looking characters because we have so many as it is.

Especially for FF14, we have many symbols of power or strength such as Highlander and Roegadyns. We wanted something more animal like. Its not that we wanted to create a wild west of characters, but we do need a good variety. So the simple answer is: Viera was sought after so we had to add those. To expand the game and its options, we also wanted to add Hrothgar.”

"We think that an MMO is a game that people with different perspectives can play it worldwide. Final Fantasy games are games that have beautiful characters, but in the same fashion as in FFX, there are races that look rather stronger. I always use “Guin Saga” as an example. Since we are making a fantasy game, we wanted to give spotlight to that aspect, as well. We thought: “Why add more handsome races… even if we do, the biggest difference will be the ears…”. This time, our motive was the voices of players talking about wanting Lupins which were based on the sketch of a “basic wolfman” and released in 4.0. "

These are the reasons we're given.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Reading through these convo and I guess I'm post the actual statement again.

"The addition of new playable races will impact more than the development cost of the items added in 5.1 and subsequent updates. Not only will we be transitioning from twelve variations (six races, two genders each) to fourteen, but we will also need to commit more resources to the development of new emotes. While FFXIV will continue to strive to maintain a regular 3.5 month major update cycle, we must also ensure that sufficient time is secured for the meticulous development of new content—or else the quality will invariably drop. This is a complex problem that can’t be solved simply by throwing more money or people at it, as it impacts both debugging and QA.

In summary, these are the circumstances which informed my previous statement that this is likely to be the last time we add new playable races; as at this point in time, it is difficult to see us maintaining our patch update schedule if we have to account for more than seven races and two genders (technically six races with two genders and two races with a single gender, but this is the functional equivalent).
----

As you play through Shadowbringers, you’ll learn that both male Viera and female Hrothgar exist. While you won’t meet any in person, if we developers can find a way to address the various problems which are preventing us from implementing them, then perhaps someday you’ll be able to see them for yourself. I want to be clear that this does not mean it will eventually happen, and that I cannot make any promises at this time. I hope you will understand and bear with us."

It's not a singular issue or problem, it's various problems which prevent them from doing it. And even if they were to over come these problems down the line there's no promise that they would bother going through with it.

Many people read this as the most "no without saying no" you can get from a JPN company where as the child Player character stuff is more along the lines of "Never happening, stop asking for it (you sick fs)" as it, in so many words, tells people that they will not do that from a moral stand point. Seems to me some people see the hard NO on kids as reason to think less of not-a-hard-no statement when in actuality that's prob the most nope they can give as it gives them freedom to make them if they so please some day but makes it clear that they aren't doing it for a number of reasons and even if those problems that keep them from doing it are resolved they don't promise it will happen.

No matter how many times these Facts are stated, people will ignore them and pretend to know what YoshiP secretly means.
So many times people talk about Budget and Hiring more people, even after Yoshi stated the issue isn't solved by Money and Man-power. But hey....everyone else seems to think they know better.

[Lauront]

so then by that logic nobody wants male viera since some people in this thread do not want them

He’s just saying he doesn’t buy that it’s true that only western audiences have an interest in more muscular male physiques and masculine aesthetic. All we have to suggest otherwise is anecdote, usually from players claiming some special insight because they speak Japanese, as if it matters - you’d need to take a slightly more statistically sound approach to it than that to infer such a finding.

I don’t doubt that there is a divergence between what is seen as more desirable in western cultures and Japan but at the same time I doubt it’s the yawning chasm some claim it is.

[Lauront]

No matter how many times these Facts are stated, people will ignore them and pretend to know what YoshiP secretly means.
So many times people talk about Budget and Hiring more people, even after Yoshi stated the issue isn't solved by Money and Man-power. But hey....everyone else seems to think they know better.

Because it amounts to little more than tea leaf reading. The ‘multiple problems’ they specify all resolve to resource issues. It is a maybe as much as some would like to stamp their feet and insist otherwise. There is no commitment to adding them and that is all there is to it at this point.

Also please don’t pretend as if people who work within the industry itself have not given their input on the comments. I can link these when I’m at my PC in case you want to pretend it didn’t happen.

[Evergrey]

In some recent news, it seems that Viera names are composed of Icelandic names (forename) and their village (surname). However, when they leave the forest they can adopt entirely new names (the case for my character). It seems to be this way for both genders since they didn't really specify anything special for males. There doesn't seem to be anything about Viis names though, to avoid spoilers I would think.

Source: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ng-Conventions

I just think they didn't say anything about the males since there aren't any males to begin with.
I can guess it's the same thing with Hrothgar woman.

[Duskane]

In some recent news, it seems that Viera names are composed of Icelandic names (forename) and their village (surname). However, when they leave the forest they can adopt entirely new names (the case for my character). It seems to be this way for both genders since they didn't really specify anything special for males. There doesn't seem to be anything about Viis names though, to avoid spoilers I would think.

Source: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ng-Conventions

they will probably avoid mentioning the other gender not to get peoples hopes up
and male viera probably have slightly different naming conventions to females

as of this point they don't really leave the forest to adopt a new name

[Dualblade]

I just think they didn't say anything about the males since there aren't any males to begin with.
I can guess it's the same thing with Hrothgar woman.

Given what Viera female naming conventions are like it doesn't seem like the males ones would be too different, just that the "forest" name would use masculine Icelandic names instead.

Hrothgar females names meanwhile seem like there would be more differences. The Clan names are based on the females for males, but this doesn't seem to indicate whether its the females first or last name and of course what a female who isn't queen's name would be.

[Evergrey]

Given what Viera female naming conventions are like it doesn't seem like the males ones would be too different, just that the "forest" name would use masculine Icelandic names instead.

Hrothgar females names meanwhile seem like there would be more differences. The Clan names are based on the females for males, but this doesn't seem to indicate whether its the females first or last name and of course what a female who isn't queen's name would be.

"Female Hellsguard names follow the same rules as those for male names."

If they have been clear about this earlier when genders share the same rules, why wouldn't they do it now aswell?
But as of now no one is either right or wrong.
It could be because there's no males so why even add them to the naming convention.
Or it could be that they do share the same naming convention.