Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[AbyssalPearl]

I agree that both the Viera and Hrothgar/Ronso shouldn't be gender locked, sadly I didn't play the game during the time Roe's and Miqo's were gender locked but I can understand how players would react if they couldn't play the opposite sex. To use the race lore as some form of excuse to not make the opposite sex is downright wrong - they should know better to repeat the same mistake or else they'll end up with angry players from 1.0 and up. If Square knew making two new races would take a lot of time and resources (along with two new classes) then what they could have done is just work on one race with both sexes, that way they have more time on fitting the gear for it AND have time to work on the two classes. Actually now that I think about it, what Square could have also done is make the Garleans as a playable race, and yes I know that seems pointless and I'm sure others will say "No that's not possible because of the story/lore or they are the bad guys ". But I think that would have been in my opinion a better option for 5.0. I mean if you really think about it the devs could use the Hyur's models and just alter it so it can be a Garlean - it won't take much time nor resources to make sure the gear fits them (that and make some hairstyles as well). I just wanted to put my two cents in but also think that the devs should remove the gender lock for Viera and Hrothgar race.

[MikkoAkure]

snip.

The lore is not what is stopping people from being able to play the unplayable genders. The lore is used as an in-game explanation. We don't have them because the devs made a conscious decision to release two limited races because people wanted viera and they wanted a beast race, and there was only dev resources for one. Looking back at it now, I'm sure that it must have come up in some meeting somewhere that there's negative reaction due to this, but they can't go back and change it now and delete one of them for the sake of a completed other.

Garleans are a different story that would be way too complex to introduce. First off, Garleans the main bad guys that everyone in every single place we go to is either scared of or wants to kill. It would take a lot of willing disbelief to allow a WoL Garlean to be OK to everyone, especially before you become the WoL. Secondly, in the lore they have no capability to use aether at all, and every single class in the game from machinists to mages to culinarians use aether. Though this is just background lore and can be rewritten, it is much more hardcoded into the game than viera or hrothgar lore and the fact they can't use aether is ultimately responsible for a lot of what happens in the story and why they are the way they are. Thirdly, there is no Garlean race according to the game models. Except for notable exceptions, who in-universe are notable exceptions, pure-blooded Garleans in-game are either elezen or midlander hyur bodies with a unique face if they're important, or an existing face with a 3rd eye slapped on if they're not. A new Garlean race would fix the disconnect between Garlean body shapes and sizes being all over the place, but I don't see them going back and changing that. And lastly, there is nothing to be gained from having a Garlean race. Unless you RP, there is no difference except they can't use aether and they have a 3rd eye. Not really worth a whole race addition.