Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Saix027]

FYI...The Viera are from Ivalice. Yes XII (12) is set in Ivalice, but its not the only game in this setting. We also have Tactics, so the Viera Lore has existed for quite a while, and still 'currently' we have yet to see an In-Canon Male Viera Visually illustrated. Its not really an 'excuse' when its been a consistent thing through the series, and yes they can change it if they so wanted to, but IF they didn't and the Viera remain Gender-Locked, its at least consistent to their lore. And it just means they decided to keep that consistent for the brand.
Again, Im not saying they won't put in Male Viera, thats not my call, and Im not part of the dev team so I have no backing or a source of proof.

They explained why their is no Female Hrothgar model yet. They didnt have time. Call it lazy if you want, if just doesn't exist yet. If they even plan to make them.

False, Hrothgar was not some Emergency Plan, no idea where you got this idea. They wanted to make a beast race, and Im not gonna sit here and repeat common knowledge why they are; at least currently, Male Only. Nobody will disagree that it sucks they have such limited options at the moment though.

If the Tauren and Dranei didnt have visible footwear, it would at least make sense. Hooves can't wear shoes XD
And note, I dont know what they do for that, I dont play WoW. Dont have a PC that can actually run games, plus XIV is a cheaper Subscription last I looked.

So are the other races tho, they only have different names, Shantotto as example is also just a Lalafell and such, Hyuran are jsut any Human, Elezen are Elves, they al lstayed conssitent mostly aswell, yet on Viera they stayed called Viera and got copy pasted 1 to 1 here without any adjsutments. It is lazy and i blame Square as company refusing to give Yoshi and his team more thigns to work with. It still feels cheap and Hrotghar, not having a model or not not changes how it feels for people how they forced this due they "had ot make a male countepart to Viera" in the first place.

Listening to community can be good but lately it feelsl ike more about fanservice then actual world building. Bluemage and the two races are the best examples, followed by the Nier Raid. They listen to much at times yet somehow also ignore the other side demanding male Viera and Female Hrotghar as seen here. Again, i hate Square as company for this, wanting to see income but not wantign to invest like any other company, guess was more important to milk FFVII even more with a remake which isn't even a remake and more like a reboot, while other projects and games suffer under it.

[MikkoAkure]

That is actually the point that pisses me off here the most about this subject, this "lore" is only canon due from the game they are YET, everything else we goten so far, races, content, everything literally based on every other game was fitted to fit in the lore of FFXIV, this is NOT FFIIX, they can change the lore as they want, yet due there own screwup they use this as excuse, stop kidding yourself with this. For god sake, we got a Nier Automata Raid, they can fit anything in basically, so why not male Viera?

There's a reason why viera are mostly unchanged lore-wise. The original writer for all of the Ivalice games was invited to create a new raid series (Return to Ivalice) and he brought a bunch of the Ivalice races over with the same names and appearances and everything. Back then, viera were not planned to be an additional player race. Viera were only added because of the players asking to play one from the first race polls, and then Fran being added to the game pushed it even more when the devs were already planning on something else. With only 1 race left to add, they made the decision to split the difference between what the fans want and what was originally planned as the last race (hrothgar). The reason we don't have male viera is not because of lore. Lore is used to reason why things are they way they are, but it was either having just one new race or 1 gender of each. We don't see the other gender in the game because they don't have models for them. It's that simple.

People asking for male viera and female hrothgar aren't being ignored. Yoshi-P has already addressed this and explained why it is the way it is. And he said that it will stay the way it is unless they can address their own development problems that are preventing them from adding these. Hastily typing frustrated accusations that aren't even true isn't helping "the cause". Plus, the game has ALWAYS been about fanservice from the very beginning of Yoshi's reign in 1.0 when he added jobs, and it has continued and expanded ever since. The whole point of this MMO is a "Final Fantasy theme park". Yeah, the NieR stuff is kind of strange to randomly be here, but considering NieR has crossed over with every other Japanese IP and the story fell flat during the only time they made an original Alliance Raid story with no connections to another game, I'm OK with it.

[Saix027]

There's a reason why viera are mostly unchanged lore-wise. The original writer for all of the Ivalice games was invited to create a new raid series (Return to Ivalice) and he brought a bunch of the Ivalice races over with the same names and appearances and everything. Back then, viera were not planned to be an additional player race. Viera were only added because of the players asking to play one from the first race polls, and then Fran being added to the game pushed it even more when the devs were already planning on something else. With only 1 race left to add, they made the decision to split the difference between what the fans want and what was originally planned as the last race (hrothgar). The reason we don't have male viera is not because of lore. Lore is used to reason why things are they way they are, but it was either having just one new race or 1 gender of each. We don't see the other gender in the game because they don't have models for them. It's that simple.

People asking for male viera and female hrothgar aren't being ignored. Yoshi-P has already addressed this and explained why it is the way it is. And he said that it will stay the way it is unless they can address their own development problems that are preventing them from adding these. Hastily typing frustrated accusations that aren't even true isn't helping "the cause". Plus, the game has ALWAYS been about fanservice from the very beginning of Yoshi's reign in 1.0 when he added jobs, and it has continued and expanded ever since. The whole point of this MMO is a "Final Fantasy theme park". Yeah, the NieR stuff is kind of strange to randomly be here, but considering NieR has crossed over with every other Japanese IP and the story fell flat during the only time they made an original Alliance Raid story with no connections to another game, I'm OK with it.

Why i also said that listening to the community to often can also be bad, it became to much fanservice for its own good and it shows now. Trying to compensate it somehow with Hrothgarand maked the mess even bigger this way, they need to focus on the future of the game not just current demands, gameplay suffers under it after all aswell, look at healers playing all the same now due the gutting they goten, they need to invest time in such aswell simply, instead of keep jumping around and promise things to generate hype.

They have there reasons yes but as often i blame Square as company here, not Yoshi and his team since they are limited due how stubborn SE is with other projects and as any company, wantign to see money yet not want to invest any to support it properly, who knows what game this could had been today if SE had supported it right from the start again.

[Amnmaat]

They already had unpopular races in the game (Roegadyn/Elezen); I don't understand why the game needed another one with hrothgar. They really didn't need to sacrifice Viera, it has no precedence, FFXI never had a beastly race (Galka is as beastly as male Au ra, so don't come to me with that BS). Beastly races are ok in single player FF games because it's not an mmo, in an mmo it's a service expanding many years where you need to listen what your stakeholders (customers/subscribers) want first and foremost; your own preferences coming second; when it comes to core systems: races, battle system, accessibility of content.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

They already had unpopular races in the game (Roegadyn/Elezen); I don't understand why the game needed another one with hrothgar. They really didn't need to sacrifice Viera, it has no precedence, FFXI never had a beastly race (Galka is as beastly as male Au ra, so don't come to me with that BS). Beastly races are ok in single player FF games because it's not an mmo, in an mmo it's a service expanding many years where you need to listen what your stakeholders (customers/subscribers) want first and foremost; your own preferences coming second; when it comes to core systems: races, battle system, accessibility of content.

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.

[Allegor]

I rarely see other Hroths or Roes - in dungeons/alliances - but they're everywhere in the overworld, just like any other race. Also I agree, just because it's not the most popular race ingame (which neither is Viera, for that matter) doesn't mean it was a failure/waste to make them. I truly believe if it wasn't because of their limitations, specially Hroths, both races would be much more popular, but it is what it is - maybe if/when SE makes another MMO there won't be an outdated engine or spaghetti coding in the way.

[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.

[Lihtleita]

im just gonna say it, SE wouldnt have had to add a beastly race if they werent so conservative with miqote, roegadyn and au ra. I like hrothgar, but part of me just thinks they look redundant.

[AxelBranford]

im just gonna say it, SE wouldnt have had to add a beastly race if they werent so conservative with miqote, roegadyn and au ra. I like hrothgar, but part of me just thinks they look redundant.

Lady Lihtleita, elabore please, why do you think they are conservative?

I'm and odd egg here, as I love each race and used to play with one of each race and gender.
Popularity is a thing... that I care less.
Fun factor shouts louder.
I think that must be some chemical in the brain, that when a person dislike something, their brain can't capture that on a scanning scene.
There will be always one Roe standing tall and powerful. There will be always a migo amongst the many that has a different Collor more lovely... and so it goes.
Hroths are more strong and still lovely beastboys.
Beauty in diversity is there to everyone to gaze. Free.
The issue is when we open our mouths to doom...

[Allegor]

My guess is their models are "too human" ? like, I never played XI but from what Google shows me Mithra looked a lot more like cat people (a la Thundercats) than literally humans that just happen to have cat ears, and Galka are more like...hairless gorillas...? while Roes are just Hulk humans. Au Ra are an original race but even from concept art to ingame model you can see how they went from genuine dragon/demon humanoids to...humans with scale patterns that might as well just be tattoos, and horns. Even Viera were altered in a similar fashion - no long nails, more human noses, less overbite, human feet, just a human with bunny ears. 4 races that could embrace a more 'feral' look, but are kept conventionally "normal".

That said, it's arguable all those are due to engine and/or time limitations, rather than intentional "humanification". If all fantasy races were "a human but with..." then the point of having different races at all would be redundant.