Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Amnmaat]

Thats not what I said, I said we've never seen them. Thats just been a consistent thing in every final Fantasy game. Ive never suggested they never exist like Viera are an all Female race or something.
Why would they need to explain why they made a beastal race "Like the Hrothgar"? Would they need to explain in detail or something why they Made Bangaa as well? It was explained that it was agreed that adding a Beast Race would give a more Diverse Option, which is true. Is, that somehow not a good reason to add a beast race?

That just sounds silly, why would anybody or any company ever think any playerbase would 'Prefer' 2 'incomplete' races as suppose to a "Complete" one?
Roegadyn and Male Au ra arn't exactly what people would call 'Ugly'. Now a Beast on the other hand would be seen as Ugly. In my mindset I can see a 'Beauty & the Beast' idea going here.
And no man, lol Roegadyn do not have Cat-like Features. A weird gravity Defying Haircut, facial hair and stuff is not a detail of a Cat. You can make those eyes with any of the races, just change pupil size, add black eyeshadow, and change colors.
I will admit the Sea Wolves have Weird Noses.



Its not in-game yet. So its not Official.
Lupin are in the game though, so they are official.



Thats concept art. You make concepts to build an idea, You hash out those ideas based on a concept.
They are often unrefined because the artist is still exploring ideas and building. And they are often not representative of the final product.

Concept are is not infinitely concept though, it eventually becomes official. Notice that the final concept of Lupin ended up being what we got

Also notice the level of detail is similar to that of the "last" male Viera concept


It's not in those random unfinished "bust" versions.
The detailed version is what would get approved into the game, as that Lupin slide shows.

As for the rest of your statement; I clearly explained why the company would craft a carefully crafted written letter to present to the community. It went through PR, Marketing, and corporate before being put out; so that it would be vetted. If the decision to add hrothgar was so clear it wouldn't have taken them 2 months to craft a reasoning, much less having to present it in written form.

The reasoning they give didn't even make much sense, they talk about adding variety, but wasn't Au ra that variety already? It was the dev's chance to add whatever kind of race they ever wanted. To sacrifice the male side of Viera like that was no accident, it was an opportunity which presented itself starting with the Blizzcon debacle and terrible expansion, the closing of Guild wars 2, and the stagnation of Elders scrolls.

If you don't see the holes in their reasoning then that's on you, I see them clearly.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Concept are is not infinitely concept though, it eventually becomes official. Notice that the final concept of Lupin ended up being what we got

Also notice the level of detail is similar to that of the "last" male Viera concept


It's not in those random unfinished "bust" versions.
The detailed version is what would get approved into the game, as that Lupin slide shows.

As for the rest of your statement; I clearly explained why the company would craft a carefully crafted written letter to present to the community. It went through PR, Marketing, and corporate before being put out; so that it would be vetted. If the decision to add hrothgar was so clear it wouldn't have taken them 2 months to craft a reasoning, much less having to present it in written form.

The reasoning they give didn't even make much sense, they talk about adding variety, but wasn't Au ra that variety already? It was the dev's chance to add whatever kind of race they ever wanted. To sacrifice the male side of Viera like that was no accident, it was an opportunity which presented itself starting with the Blizzcon debacle and terrible expansion, the closing of Guild wars 2, and the stagnation of Elders scrolls.

If you don't see the holes in their reasoning then that's on you, I see them clearly.

I said " they are often not representative of the final product." Often does not mean Always.
But also, unless I missed it and you can show me a screenshot, the Lupin did not come out that Muscular, so thats one design choice that got altered. That or just covered up. Also in game they were given taller ears.

Your still looking at Concept art, these are rough sketches that were sketched up, and still to this day, un-used. If they were still gonna pursue Male Viera, I bet they would look much different then these Conceptual Sketches. And if you didnt know, a more detailed sketch or a Fullbody vs a Bust sketch, is still a sketch. Your drawing a conclusion that because the bigger more detailed Lupin Sketch Mostly made it into the game, that the final slightly more detailed sketch of the Male Viera would make it into the game. Just because it might look more detailed, doesn't mean its the final or even decided concept. Nothing your seeing there is definitive, if it was, then it would already be in the game instead of Au-ra, or even back in SB.

What do you mean it took them 2 months to craft a reasoning? Wasn't it explained in his 1st interview? Which was shortly after the fanfest?
Poor Yoshi had to do Back to Back Interviews, ALL of which asked about the 'Locked Genders"

How does adding a Beast race for Diversity make no sense? Do you not see how Au-ra, or even Viera are not really a Diverse option compared to the Hrothgar? Those are still Humanoids; they look like humans, they have familiar human faces. Only thing that really sets them apart from an External perspective is skin tone; which you can change to different colors and shades, and a few features like Horns and a tail or tall ears. Meanwhile the Hrothgar are a full-fledged Beast Race. They do Not have Human faces, they have Animal Muzzles, which is 100% different and diverse from another Humanoid. Looking at their roster of choices, they had nothing But Human Faced Humanoids, nothing outside of that in terms of Character Creation. Nothing Alien, nothing outside of a Familiar looking Human Face. Even Guild Wars and WoW had Non-traditional Humanoids, and they also had Beastmen.
Yes...it WAS no Accident. They already "explained" why they did what they did. Im not gonna waste my time retyping common knowledge that some people choose to ignore.
Also, what is this about Guild Wars 2 closing? Its still going. So what are you talking about?

No, I see no holes currently. You haven't presented a sound enough explanation or argument to make me see it. All Im getting is what you Think you see and understand, and how it doesn't work for you personally. Which has not provided a good thought provoking mindset. They said adding Hrothgar presents a More Diverse Option. Which is does, thats a hardcore fact. So Im not seeing your issue here.
And Concept art is not always a representation of the final Product. Just because an image is bigger and has more detail to it, and is a fullbody drawing, doesn't mean they will for sure go with that idea.

[Amnmaat]

I said " they are often not representative of the final product." Often does not mean Always.
But also, unless I missed it and you can show me a screenshot, the Lupin did not come out that Muscular, so thats one design choice that got altered. That or just covered up. Also in game they were given taller ears.

Your still looking at Concept art, these are rough sketches that were sketched up, and still to this day, un-used. If they were still gonna pursue Male Viera, I bet they would look much different then these Conceptual Sketches. And if you didnt know, a more detailed sketch or a Fullbody vs a Bust sketch, is still a sketch. Your drawing a conclusion that because the bigger more detailed Lupin Sketch Mostly made it into the game, that the final slightly more detailed sketch of the Male Viera would make it into the game. Just because it might look more detailed, doesn't mean its the final or even decided concept. Nothing your seeing there is definitive, if it was, then it would already be in the game instead of Au-ra, or even back in SB.

Again picking at straws, that Lupin concept turned out looking the same way.
Just like Elezen's official art turned out the same. Art and 3D don't always turn out 100% the same, they're always very close approximations with slight differences



Mind sourcing or quoting those interviews, they were either very brief or without any real details other than "some people wanted beast race."
As for your Au ra point, no, the point is if they really wanted variety in the races Au ra was their opportunity to do so. That's why they got the backlash they got with hrothgar because everyone and their grandmother knew it was NA and EU's chance to get the race they've been asking for for over 6 years: Viera. Why didn't they listen to the minority of Japanese who wanted an Oni race when deciding to add Au ra? It's just a really messed up decision, and they know it. That's the part you don't understand, they know it's a messed up decision with a lot of backlash. You can't ignore the fact that a wave of Guild wars 2, world of warcraft, and Elder scrolls players were leaving those games in 2019 with their failures. The coincidence is no coincidence, it was planned around those events; forced on the devs by corporate.

Didn't Yoshi P say that he imagines a male Viera to have a Elezen body with a Miqo'te head? Excluding the chest hair that concept art does kind of look like how he imagine them to be

No, I don't think he said Miqo'te.

And if we imply they can tell sex but just allowed to live in villages before reaching puberty, then there's no any real issues with naming, and boys and girls can be named as in any other race (though I personally like non-gendered names concept). In this case the name question would be just what names sound like, without the deep need to consider other factors.

I don't like that idea, Viera already feels like a half-assed/lazy race. The last thing we need is the same name for male/female, getting dangerously close to catering to LGBT. Not that I'm against LGBT, but that's a decision people make individually, not something pushed on a race to appease/fit said crowd.