Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[SieyaM]

Its interesting how people say X race is unpopular, when I see them them just fine when I play the game. Probly the only thing I dont see alot when I play the game is Female Roe's. So when people say this, is their gaming experience reflecting this, or are people just looking at Graphs and Charts? I see Plenty of Hrothgar and Elezen, are people saying they arn't popular just because the game isn't littered with them as if they need to be Everywhere to have their existence justified?
XI (11) is irrelevant in this, just because one game didnt have a playable beast race, is no reason to say XIV shouldn't have one. By that logic, literally, Male Viera shouldn't be made into a playable race, because in no past games where they ever visible, so why would they suddenly be playable now? (I dont think anybody but you would call the Galka or Roes Beastly)
Likewise, a playable beast race was wanted just like Viera, so they are listening, they are in fact doing what people are asking of them. Bluemage was also requested if I remember, and look, they eventually made it into the game.

And honestly, you can't do and listen to EVERYTHING the playerbase says, alot of people have 'good ideas' but that doesnt mean right away it will translate very well, or that everyone will agree on it. (Players and Devs) Then there is the mentioned Bluemage for example. T they did what people wanted and put them into the game, but then they had to find a way to make it work while keeping it a Blue mage, and so it lead them to taking a risk that ultimately most would say failed.
So, its a dice roll and a balancing act. Its their game, they should be able to do their own things that allign with their vision of the the game, and to protect their brand. But at the same time making a fun game and making adjustments and additions that people would like to see.
You can't just go all-in on one side or the other.

There are some informal censuses that have been done based on lodestone data where they try to count active players by achievements earned and these kinds of censuses regularly list Roes and Hrothgar as the least played races. I kind of figured in the long run that the addition of Hrothgar would just split the already low population of Roe players and that really is all it did. I think very few people changed from any of the other races to Hrothgar for any real length of time.

[Yencat]

There are some informal censuses that have been done based on lodestone data where they try to count active players by achievements earned and these kinds of censuses regularly list Roes and Hrothgar as the least played races. I kind of figured in the long run that the addition of Hrothgar would just split the already low population of Roe players and that really is all it did. I think very few people changed from any of the other races to Hrothgar for any real length of time.

You're right, in the active character census Hrothgar is above both male and female Roegadyn and male Elezen, so not dead last but relatively low. A race like Hrothgar doesn't have massive appeal to begin with, but I have to wonder how much of it is due how badly they bungled them. Everyone memes on Viera being the fan service race they really didn't want to add but did so purely because of demand and we're still in better shape in terms of customization than Hrothgar. They have 4 faces like everyone else (edit: except midlander Hyur) but then only 2 hairstyles (of varying quality, but that's a matter of taste I suppose) paired with each face that they have to pay real money to even change, it's absolutely shameless.

I think they look great and I love seeing Hrothgar out in the world and in dungeons, but if Viera was released in a similar state as Hrothgar I absolutely, 100%, no question about it would've switched to something else too no matter how good they looked. And it's a damn shame too because I complain a lot about the lack of hairstyles I have but it pales in comparison to how dirty they did Hrothgar.