Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

It's a consistent thing. I don't mean to single you out in particular and it may not even be intentional but...let's not beat around the bush, a significant number of your posts throughout the thread are you insisting that the status quo is fine. A trend, I note, that is alarmingly common with posters with female avatars. It isn't just about this thread, either. Any thread involving suggestions or issues related to male characters is usually subjected to people playing female characters emerging to downplay any and all concerns even when they're being voiced in a respectable and constructive manner.

It grows even more frustrating when there's threads involving hysteria and screeching from people playing female characters, such as the 2B outfit 'controversy', who are graced with an immediate response and an assurance from the development team that the issue will be reversed as soon as possible.

That's just touching on the surface, though. I've stated many times throughout this thread why I believe that male characters are treated as second class citizens. Something we'd best agree to disagree on, I suspect, rather than go through the same song and dance all over again.

....so just because I have a Female Avatar, you think Im trying to downplay concerns over male avatar options?....Bloody REALLY!? C'mon man, whats with this crap?
I play a Male Hrothgar ALT, I actually haven't touched my Main Avatar in several weeks (besides for the weekly Gold Saucer Raffle) so I have and play both a Male and a Female character at length. This is just stupid.
All my post was talking about is how there is this Mentality that SE isn't addressing Male Viera because they want people to forget/grow disillusioned to it happening - thus they can get away with never doing it. That to me just needs to stop. Because it was addressed, and it was already stated that Male Viera are not completely off the Table. I dont wanna sit here and repeat myself, because based on the types of responses I get sometimes, I get the feeling that some of my posts just get ignored; like I get skimmed, and anytime I may try to say something rational, or even agree with the person, they sidestep it to yell at me and put words in my mouth.

The 2B butt situation is just as stupid, if not worse because it was addressed live. It didnt need to be, nor was it such an issue that needed all these threads and conversation, especially because it was an accident. Butt Im sure somebody is gonna talk my ear off (hypothetically speaking) on how they said that to save face.

I don't believe males are treated as such. The game just doesn't have an expansive amount of customization for males. This Facial hair, these tattoos, butt sliders that people egg on about, or a bulge slider. Its just not a thing. Maybe in the future we might see some of these things. But right now, its just not.
So besides the stupid 2B butt, what do female Avis have that males dont?
The bust slider?

[Theodric]

There's most definitely a bias that exists. People have been asking for many things in relation to male characters over the years and yet in the rare circumstances where those requests are addressed it's usually in a dismissive manner. Viera men were outright stated to be 'weird' and I don't doubt that such played into the decision to pursue Hrothgar instead, even if it dressed up 'nicely' with the PR of it being a compromise. When people asked for a male version of the bunny outfit to be added the requests for it to be made conventionally attractive and suited to the male form (like something out of Magic Mike) were ignored in favour of it being a straight up copy of the female outfit. When requests for the stubble used in the promotional footage were made it was dismissed as 'too hard'.

When requests for access to outfits and hairstyles used by male antagonists were made, they were dismissed. Yet Yoshi-P enthusiastically pursued adding Edda's outfit which threw the excuse of 'not adding antagonist outfits' out of the window. When Minfilia's and Y'shtola's outfits were added to the Mog Station they came with their hairstyles. When Cid and Hien's outfits were added to the Mog Station...they didn't, even though the threads requesting them highlighted such desires.

It's a lot of little things that add up over time - and it isn't even that there's a small amount of people playing male characters in this game since the overall population is a pretty even split. Many other games have proven that plenty of people play male characters and actively buy outfits and stuff for their male characters - so the financial argument doesn't really stand when it comes to FFXIV.

All of which has been pointed out already throughout the thread, of course - and as stated earlier, I'm not really interested in going through the exact same song and dance that exists. As I said, it's a trend for concerns for issues related to male characters to be downplayed and such makes up the bulk of some posters' post history within this thread. I'm not going to stay silent on the matter because it's quite honestly reaching a point where I'm growing tired of how much 'waifu' pandering there is within this game in general. It's only gotten worse over time.

[Duskane]

I only really see it in their legs tbh, but the similarities are there I guess. It was just masked well enough in my opinion. Female Viera also share a body/skeleton with female elezen, with some alterations obviously.

I believe vieras are just bigger midlanders
but its pretty much what they have been doing with most the races
they have a base and build around it Hrothgar and Viera are no different only real unique ones are Au ra

but to say its lazy is a bit much,its really not as simple as copy paste a roegadyn and stretch it into a lion man there is way more to it.

[Vahlnir]

I believe vieras are just bigger midlanders
but its pretty much what they have been doing with most the races
they have a base and build around it Hrothgar and Viera are no different only real unique ones are Au ra

but to say its lazy is a bit much,its really not as simple as copy paste a roegadyn and stretch it into a lion man there is way more to it.

It probably saved them some time and resources, but I wouldn't call it lazy either. Smart? Probably, yeah. It definitely wasn't as simple as <insert skeleton here>, they had to create a model to go with that skeleton, not to mention alter the skeleton just a tad to give Hrothgar a hunch. I'm no expert in programming, but I know that much. Something can use the same skeleton but use an altered model. I saw it all the time in WoW with the 23910245125125 drake mounts as one example.

[Vahlnir]

And nobody is even trying to silence you. For some reason you just have a hatred of people with an opposite Opinion.

Nope. They can go on about this all day if they want to. I don't care! Truly. I just don't happen to agree with some of their opinions, and since they are posting on a public forum for all to see, I can tell them why. It's nothing personal though. That's just how it goes sometimes living with the rest of the human race. People will not always agree with each other.

[Duskane]

There's most definitely a bias that exists.

honestly this is pretty much most games that have customization
but with FF14 i at least feel they listen you know.
sure it might seem hard to believe when we get female cash shop item one after another (i think that's more a bad thing for female characters while male players can save a buck)
but they also said they are working on the stubble for midlanders and converting alot of clothes for both genders.

[Alacran]

I believe vieras are just bigger midlanders
but its pretty much what they have been doing with most the races
they have a base and build around it Hrothgar and Viera are no different only real unique ones are Au ra

but to say its lazy is a bit much,its really not as simple as copy paste a roegadyn and stretch it into a lion man there is way more to it.

They did the same with Aura female using Miqote bodies, male Elezen for male Aura. I hazard female Midlander bodies were used for female Viera, point being, they have never had issue with reusing assets before, why believe it would be different now?

Make no mistake, i truly do dislike Hrothgar, vehemently so, i felt then as i do now, they don't belong here and were a waste of time. If i wanted their ilk, i would have stayed in WoW. That being said, they need to be fixed.

It's not fair to the player base that chooses to play them to have to pay for a fantasia to change basic looks (hair style/ color options), nor is it fair that there is only limited head ware available to them. The fact that real money/ time is used to buy/ earn some of these items is not just a Viera issue, it is one that needs correction immediately.

The same goes for the missing genders. I never wanted Female Hrothgar... but we need them. A race being gender locked is unacceptable by all metrics, not in a game where among the first changed in 2.0 ARR was the introduction of Male Miqote, Female Highlander, and Female Roegadyn. We came to expect a certain level of polish from SE when we stuck around during 1.0, 2.0 showed us that they took that seriously, this offering? This was proof of being taken for granted again.

The genders need to be completed, both the Female Hrothgar and the Male Viera, all gear needs to work with them or the mog station price for fantasia and glamour gear needs to be reduced, after all, if it can't be used by all races, characters, and retainers/ squadron members, why should you pay full price for a Limited option?

I understand i don't have to like something to champion it's inclusion, i can be a fan of a company and still call them out on what i perceive as lazy.

[Theodric]

but they also said they are working on the stubble for midlanders and converting alot of clothes for both genders.

Have they commented on the subject of stubble recently? Last I heard, they weren't going ahead with it because it would be 'too hard'. As for clothing being unlocked for both genders, as someone who is into guys and prefers masculine/handsome men that does nothing for me as I don't have any interest in kitting out my character in a dress quite obviously designed with the female model in mind. It's a bit of a controversial subject so I won't touch on it too much but it's just another way in which people who want more masculine options for male characters are forced to sit in the queue and feel like second class citizens. Especially when the development team decided to put more effort into the outfits worn by female NPC's compared to those worn by male NPC's.

Hien's outfit looks very low texture compared to Lyse's and Yotsuyu's outfit. Alma had a unique outfit but her brother, Ramza, did not - her outfit is on the Mog Station, his isn't - but it shouldn't be anyway because it's just an existing dungeon set tweaked for his character model. Again, it's all the little things that add up and bring about a frustrating situation.

I enjoy the game for the most part, though when it comes to some aspects it's lagging behind quite a bit. Particularly when it comes to elements such as options for male characters (particularly the sort that will appeal to the typical guy/fan of the male form) and also with elements like player housing. That bit isn't really relevant to this thread, though it's still a key issue.

[Halivel]

only real unique ones are Au ra

I have bad news for you.
Hrothgar and Roe share one base model.
Huyr, Miqo'te, Elezen, Au Ra, Viera share one base model.
The only unique one is Lalafell model.

[SturmChurro]

Luckily that actually is the only answer we actually need. They don't ever have the resources to do anything. So male viera is a no.

I was just making a joke.