Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Theodric]

Oh boy. If I explained it here, I will likely get ganged upon. Can I just send it to you through a PM?

There isn't a PM function on the forum, sadly.

I think this is a little silly.
Higher-Ups or "Investors" wouldn't force the Dev team to undergo such a task. Not like the game is new and YoshiP is trying to convince anybody to give them money to develop, then the devs are making them do stuff in return.
This was something the Dev team talked over about doing, and they decided on their own: no corporate suit told them to do it. So the Devs decided to put in Viera, but then decided to split resources and also address the idea of a Beast race, due to users liking the Lupin.
I don't wanna sit here and waste time to repeat Verbatim what YoshiP already said about the genderlocks.

Silly in what manner? As I said, it was but speculation on my part - though Square Enix does have a track record of forcing the development teams to do things they may not want to do. It's why Vaan rather than Basch served as the point of view character in FFXII.

[Lauront]

I think this is a little silly.
Higher-Ups or "Investors" wouldn't force the Dev team to undergo such a task. Not like the game is new and YoshiP is trying to convince anybody to give them money to develop, then the devs are making them do stuff in return.
This was something the Dev team talked over about doing, and they decided on their own: no corporate suit told them to do it. So the Devs decided to put in Viera, but then decided to split resources and also address the idea of a Beast race, due to users liking the Lupin.
I don't wanna sit here and waste time to repeat Verbatim what YoshiP already said about the genderlocks.

The game is one of SE's biggest sources of revenue and Yoshi is part of the senior management. I think it's a little silly to believe that they don't exercise control, where required, in terms of how the game is utilising its resources. So yes, simply repeating, verbatim, what Yoshi said is not going to convince anyone in and of itself.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Silly in what manner? As I said, it was but speculation on my part - though Square Enix does have a track record of forcing the development teams to do things they may not want to do. It's why Vaan rather than Basch served as the point of view character in FFXII.

Silly in the Manner that a Corporate suit would just come up and say "Make a Viera/Hrothgar Race for the game" and that Yoshi and the Dev team were forced into developing a race or 2 for the game and they originally didnt want to. Considering the amount of time and Money & resources it takes to make, animate, model, write etc a whole race for such a game.
This means that the Corporate Suit would be aware and be taking the risk of hurting development of the actual game and its content for an aesthetic. Even though it would make some happy, it will make Alot more people Unhappy to see and know that Quality and content of the MMO was sacrificed just to make a new race: which we all know, is just for looks, the race you play doesn't actually effect or enhance the game in any way.
Im sure no sound investor for a game would risk a games quality like that. IF they had such power over the project.

Don't mean to go on a big rant here, but Ive seen the "Investor" thing go on abit in this thread.
Makes me think people believe that Yoshi and his team don't make their own game, that they think the games is influenced completely by outside forces.

I think it's a little silly to believe that they don't exercise control, where required, in terms of how the game is utilising its resources.

Sure. But to just force development of a race itself and put less resources into Games Content, is VERY silly

[Theodric]

Nobody is stating that the development team's hands are tied in full. Just in regards to certain matters. It was simply speculation at any rate - though I'd consider there to be some grains of truth in it simply because of how rushed the two new races have been.

I'm also not convinced that there was truly that much demand for Hrothgar and Viera in the first place. Especially when compared to the demand for the existing playable races to be touched up.

Both new races feel to me as though they were largely added to draw in new players, hence my pondering of executive decisions coming into play. The game has made a huge push for marketing lately as well.

[Corue]

Oh boy. If I explained it here, it may derail the thread, and likely get ganged upon on top of it. Can I just send it to you through a PM?

Are you trying to imply that this thread has any sort of coherent topic? Just post it here.

[zeylos]

Given certain events that happened during the development of Heavensward and since, I would say this is less about lack of want and more about how a string of arguably poor decisions from devs and higher ups drove them into this corner. And now we all have to take a ticket, and wait patiently in the waiting room for this little mess to straighten itself out. No other choice but to do so.

It was a very, very bad decision for all sides. Female vieras dont have a finished product, male hrotgars dont have a finished product, male vieras wont be able to play as their esired race until (hopefully) 6.0, same for female hrotgar. Had they done 1, whichever, of the 2 races, and we wouldnt have any of the problems. I hope SE learns from this and dosent genderlock anything again

[SturmChurro]

Im sure no sound investor for a game would risk a games quality like that. IF they had such power over the project.

Right, games nowadays aren't focusing on "just aesthetics" over "quality".



How much money is fortnite making on skins?

.
I'm also not convinced that there was truly that much demand for Hrothgar and Viera in the first place. Especially when compared to the demand for the existing playable races to be touched up.

I think you are inserting personal bias here. I think there is more demand for the whole game to be touched up; updated graphically, rather than current playable races prior to Viera/hrothgar. Clarification, gamewide updates including playable races.

Viera according to those unofficial statistics jumped up to third most played female race in the game, there was definitly demand. Even if players switch off of viera, they potentially have cashed in on at least 2 sales of fantasia. Not to mention Hrothgar according to those same statistics turned out to beat out the lesser popular male races, and female races. Remember those statistics take into account, active players, and a lot of the older races might have been inflated slightly.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Nobody is stating that the development team's hands are tied in full. Just in regards to certain matters. It was simply speculation at any rate - though I'd consider there to be some grains of truth in it simply because of how rushed the two new races have been.

I'm also not convinced that there was truly that much demand for Hrothgar and Viera in the first place. Especially when compared to the demand for the existing playable races to be touched up.

Both new races feel to me as though they were largely added to draw in new players, hence my pondering of executive decisions coming into play. The game has made a huge push for marketing lately as well.

Viera are a popular race in the FF Franchise. And you bet people wanted Viera Especially because of the Concept art tease way back in Heavensward. Yoshi himself even said they were considering it, but decided to do something new instead with the Au Ra.
And no, Hrothgar themselves were not in demand, but a Beast Race was. The Bangaa are also pretty Popular in FF. The Lupin were very well liked in Stormblood. A beast race was a good idea in general, not just because some Corporate suit said: They will bring in new people and will make us more Money.
Also REMEMBER, they might not make anymore races because of the Resources it takes to make them...so this to them was the best time to not only make the Viera, but also include a Beast Race. So the unfinished state was because of their decision to split resources and develop 2 races instead of 1.

And then Marketing is normal. You always wanna grow, you always wanna try to bring in new people. And with WoW in its current state, I could believe SE suits knew about this and tried to capitalize on it. Like how Sony dunked on Microsoft when they originally advertised the XBO as digital only and you couldn't share your games.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

How much money is fortnite making on skins?

I had no idea Fornite was an MMO RPG.
I guess Thancred was Base Jumping out of a flying Bus onto the Eorzea Map picking up all the things he could and get the biggest killstreak to win the Battle Royal.

Guess his looks over the years were just new skins that SE sold on the MOG store that he bought with his Gill and Season Tier EXP. The Gunblade is just an aesthetic to his original Knife

[SturmChurro]

I had no idea Fornite was an MMO RPG.
I guess Thancred was Base Jumping out of a flying Bus onto the Eorzea Map picking up all the things he could and get the biggest killstreak to win the Battle Royal.

Guess his looks over the years were just new skins that SE sold on the MOG store that he bought with his Gill and Season Tier EXP. The Gunblade is just an aesthetic to his original Knife

Okay then take WoW as an example. Do you think they are focusing on what you deem "quality", or do you think they are focusing on "aesthetics"? What about Black Desert? ESO?

I think investors are happy industry wide, including mmorpgs, to focus on what you deem "just aesthetics".

Believe it or not, "just aesthetics" are a major selling point for an mmorpg. Graphical quality can be included in this as well. Playable races specifically, are being heavily advertised, again, industry wide. Across MMORPGS. I'd like to know what you deem "quality"? We have the same patch cycle even with Viera/hrothgar, what could they have focused on and improved? This is another argument that viera/hrothgar have somehow taken something from players, rather than an addition for players.

The truth is, they took nothing from players, and didn't focus on these new races at the expense of the quality of the game, rather they focused on the quality of the game over the new races. That is why they are so limited.