Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Lauront]

They just aren't the money makes they used to be. They still make profit, like FFXIV, but they don't make all of the profit. I think SE wants a hit, and most publishers try to copy stuff like Fortnite, etc. Publsihers work off the idea of not just making a lot of money, ALL of the money. Making ridiculous expectations each and every following year. Greed is what is destroying the industry; a lack of passion

Granted, Yoshida might just be done with this game, and wants to try something new. I do think SE is taking too much from this game and not putting enough back in though.

They seem to think their consumers have moved on. Both here and here.

I think the overall strategy is continue to build on XIV for as long as it's profitable by doing the minimum necessary. Hopefully I am wrong or they may review their strategy if doing that begins to threaten a stable source of cash, but it's the definite impression I get from all their commentary and their recent actions.

[Theodric]

My issue with mobile games is that they're often designed from the ground up to be addictive and predatory - with harsh grinds and very little story. They're hyped up as being super convenient due to being easy to play on the go, but that isn't anything new or groundbreaking since we already saw that play out with handheld devices.

I think a lot of it is investors pushing for such things and spreading doubt among consumers when it comes to what is successful and what isn't. There was a controversy about single player games being 'dead' not too long ago, yet sales numbers for single player titles proved that statement to be incorrect. I think it was to do with the latest God of War game?

[SturmChurro]

My issue with mobile games is that they're often designed from the ground up to be addictive and predatory - with harsh grinds and very little story. They're hyped up as being super convenient due to being easy to play on the go, but that isn't anything new or groundbreaking since we already saw that play out with handheld devices.

I think a lot of it is investors pushing for such things and spreading doubt among consumers when it comes to what is successful and what isn't. There was a controversy about single player games being 'dead' not too long ago, yet sales numbers for single player titles proved that statement to be incorrect. I think it was to do with the latest God of War game?

That is exactly what they are designed for. There is this infamous mobile game design video going over how to squeeze the most money out of it's consumers on YouTube somewhere.

Yeah, it's funny. EA is the one who said that I think, and their singleplayer releases like Fallen Order prove them wrong, with the disappointments of their online games. I don't know what's going on with publishers and the like, an echo chamber?

[WhiteArchmage]

That is exactly what they are designed for. There is this infamous mobile game design video going over how to squeeze the most money out of it's consumers on YouTube somewhere.

Yeah, it's funny. EA is the one who said that I think, and their singleplayer releases like Fallen Order prove them wrong, with the disappointments of their online games. I don't know what's going on with publishers and the like, an echo chamber?

I still hold that EA is one of the WORST companies in that aspect (although Bethesda has been getting close with their approach to F76): The whole Star Wars Battfront II fiasco which actually forced them to stop microtransactions in that game. The Sims 3 Store "exclusive content", and gutting of many fan-loved features from the base Sims 4 game. The "always online" fiasco with SimCity which actually killed the series...

[SieyaM]

There was definitely a shift in focus since my last post but I can roll with this. There seems to be the urge among developers to try and copy the latest trend. So when a sandbox game did phenomenal suddenly everyone wanted to put out a sandbox game, and open world games, and then with the popularity of Destiny game what I think has been called "games as service" or whatever a persistent online game can be called that doesn't quite make the MMO threshold. We are seeing the persistent online model die out though and maybe single player complete stories can make a return, or the next new thing will take hold of the market and major developers will all try to emulate that one as well. I do enjoy mobile games though, even though I get frustrated by the gatcha mechanics of Brave Exvius. I have been wanting to draw Ashe for months now and just never get her, and I am not spending any real money on it so I will just have to exercise patience.

[wereotter]

Lore also says that male Miqo'te are isolationists who rarely leave their tribe. Go take a walk through any given city and see how many you spot. Of course, this goes into the question of the canonical status of other players.....

It's not just that they rarely leave their tribe, but that they're rare even within their tribe. Go to Forgotten Springs or The Peering Stones and tell me how many male cat NPCs you see. I believe between both settlements you should see three males to forty-something females.

[TheCount]

Sure, I support it as long as they are more fully realized and not restricted on headgear

[MrKusakabe]

"Mobile" gaming means two things:

The term in itself means bad hardware. And it's easy to create games for outdated or low profile hardware; you can find easy excuses for this. A big junk of the experience is nonetheless the graphic fidelity, and how is a passively cooled system that throttles down do 20% of their (already low) computing power to deliver that? The result are mediocre games often, because the low effort on the technical specs also often results in general lack of passion. Who wants to renovate a Ford Mustang with a Trabant 600 engine undernath? Anyone? No? Why?

The other reason is being "mobile". Who plays "mobile"? What kind of quality do you get out of that? In the loud train, or on the toilet stall at the disco? What is mobile gaming? With this in mind, the developers can make up quick (and boring) tasks. Fast games, low quality and shallow because you have to eat it in 5-15 minute brackets. How is the dedication from both players and developers supposed to come from? When I sit down to play a video game, I do that on proper hardware, with proper audio sorce, in a proper seat investing the upcoming 2 hours into it. Not on a rambling bus with earbuds when I have to leave in the next 2 stops anyways.


"Mobile" "gaming" is what used to be Tetris and Snake - real quick games supposed to be shallow. But if they try to squeeze Diablo or Final Fantasy into such an environment, there will be cuts and losses to quality and emphasis left and right, and I would never invest a monthly fee or 30/40€ for those half-baked software titles at all.

[SieyaM]

"Mobile" gaming means two things:

The term in itself means bad hardware. And it's easy to create games for outdated or low profile hardware; you can find easy excuses for this. A big junk of the experience is nonetheless the graphic fidelity, and how is a passively cooled system that throttles down do 20% of their (already low) computing power to deliver that? The result are mediocre games often, because the low effort on the technical specs also often results in general lack of passion. Who wants to renovate a Ford Mustang with a Trabant 600 engine undernath? Anyone? No? Why?

The other reason is being "mobile". Who plays "mobile"? What kind of quality do you get out of that? In the loud train, or on the toilet stall at the disco? What is mobile gaming? With this in mind, the developers can make up quick (and boring) tasks. Fast games, low quality and shallow because you have to eat it in 5-15 minute brackets. How is the dedication from both players and developers supposed to come from? When I sit down to play a video game, I do that on proper hardware, with proper audio sorce, in a proper seat investing the upcoming 2 hours into it. Not on a rambling bus with earbuds when I have to leave in the next 2 stops anyways.


"Mobile" "gaming" is what used to be Tetris and Snake - real quick games supposed to be shallow. But if they try to squeeze Diablo or Final Fantasy into such an environment, there will be cuts and losses to quality and emphasis left and right, and I would never invest a monthly fee or 30/40€ for those half-baked software titles at all.

Some previous FF titles have been released on the mobile market, as well as some other well developed games. I think you're confusing mobile and freemium, or games that are made to get money from its users. There are games on mobile platforms that are well developed, despite not having the latest or greatest in graphic design. I should also remind you that FF14 also doesn't have what would be considered a high graphic fidelity in comparison to most recently released games, so using that as a primary metric for measuring quality is not a good practice.

[Theodric]

Sure, I support it as long as they are more fully realized and not restricted on headgear

The limited headgear would be frustrating, though if they looked good overall I'd be willing to stomach it so long as we saw male viera added to the game. I rarely use headgear on my character anyway so I can see his face - and the only reason I'm using a circlet is because it's a good stand in for a Garlean third eye.

It's a shame that it's apparently so difficult to adjust headgear to fit Hrothgar and Viera. Which begs the question as to why they were added in the first place over enhanced customisation for the existing playable races...but we're past that point for now. Either way, I hope the headgear situation won't be exploited as a convenient excuse not to add the missing genders.

My primary hope is that alongside more customisation for Hrothgar and Viera we'll be seeing more stuff added for the older races. It'd be bizarre for the development team to ignore the Highlander eyebrow situation and strong desire for the stubble used by the Warrior of Darkness. Especially when Blizzard are planning to enhance customisation across the board for their playable races in WoW.