Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[SomeRandomHuman]

Unlikely, the modding community already fixed the problems pretty quickly, so I don't think there's much of an excuse for it not being resolved. When the modding community has this stuff down to a science, it's time to take notes and apply what you've learned from them.

The modding community really picks us the slack. I just wish Yoshi P and the dev team could get more manpower since XIV was their saving grace for a solid 2-4 years.

Demand for stuff in the game has increased yet the XIV team has gotten nothing passed the occasional more than earned paid week of vacation after big crunch times.

[EtherRose]

Of note, the number of Likes in the OP has been rising, at a glacial pace, but considering it's already at 1933, it's saying something.

Granted, I don't have the tools to say how big a % of the active forum population it is, but it still sends a message (provided the forum team has been paying attention).

Unfortunately the "Forum Population" doesn't represent the actual population of the game itself. And 1933 "Likes" is basically an ant beneath a giants foot.

You fail to take into account the japanese population as well. Also, the japanese aren't all torch fires and pitch forks over it like the NA/EU population.

The gritty reality is that regardless of this thread and the supposed high number of likes from one side isn't enough to garner any significant "Change". If everyone (NA/JP/EU) was all over SE like a fat kid loves cake we would have gotten things faster and not 2+ years later. Granted, we have heard nothing yet other than "Hairstyles" but there is still hope in May.

[Yuletide]

What I dislike about this thread are all the naysayers who turn this discussion onto the topic of delayed updates. The progress of FFXIV has basically been on slow-mode for the past 12 months because of the pandemic. Having to move the entire workplace into developers' homes wasn't easy and all the while working on patches 5.x.

The truth is they haven't entirely gotten into the swing of working at home and it'll be a lot slower than what we're used to. I have no doubt they will eventually add male Viera because of the direction they are going. Ever since Stormblood, the director has been painfully aware of what might happen to the game if they lost him. That's why he's worked towards writing Shadowbringers and Endwalker, because ultimately, it will be so easy to implement a new director once WoL starts crossing over into other dimensions on the norm. Absolutely, they will be able to implement male Viera in another dimension, just as they are called Viis in the first.

[WhiteArchmage]

Unfortunately the "Forum Population" doesn't represent the actual population of the game itself. And 1933 "Likes" is basically an ant beneath a giants foot.

You fail to take into account the japanese population as well. Also, the japanese aren't all torch fires and pitch forks over it like the NA/EU population.

The gritty reality is that regardless of this thread and the supposed high number of likes from one side isn't enough to garner any significant "Change". If everyone (NA/JP/EU) was all over SE like a fat kid loves cake we would have gotten things faster and not 2+ years later. Granted, we have heard nothing yet other than "Hairstyles" but there is still hope in May.

Except, Yoshi-P's been upfront that they DO listen to the Forums/reddit. And even if the Forum population is a very small amount of the playerbase in general, it's a rough sample size of the game's population. Someone over a hundred pages ago did the math of how many "likes" you'd need to show actual interest, comparing to sample sizes used in census, and we were way above it. And the JP forums is also pro-missing genders, even if their approach is different... because that's how the JP fanbase operates, and it doesn't take away that it's the highest liked OP in the OF. I never said it's a guarantee of anything, but that it's got enough support that it's hard to ignore.

Heck, as I've mentioned before, Yoshi-P is still being asked about the races, and is still taking the question in good faith. The thread has, in a way, fulfilled its purpose: bring the request to Yosih-P's attention. Everything after that is just following what he says about it (which has not strayed from corpo-speak: "It's very hard to do but if we can overcome the challenge, we'd like to do it.")

[SturmChurro]

SE is spammed about "male viera" constantly every time I click on their streams, well really just in general. I am pretty positive with or without this thread they would know there was an interest. Considering his answer to the missing genders, or new races, question hasn't changed since ShB launch, this has all done nothing.

[Awha]

First of all moding community onmy has to deal with the client side so they get to ignore a massive amount of technical debt that comes with dealing with server communication. Modders generally have it easier it is just one part of the pie.

Second I would not day new hairstyles are new info didn't they mention before these interviews that they planned to release new hairstyles anyways?

Pretty sure if it were up to him and he could magic wand them into the game he would. Everything is a give and take, and it is not just a one off adding the missing genders it permanently adds to the development cost in terms of manpower and money.

As many have said they know the demand exists but just because demand is present does not mean it is a smart use of dev budget be it time or money.

[BunniEclair]

First of all moding community onmy has to deal with the client side so they get to ignore a massive amount of technical debt that comes with dealing with server communication. Modders generally have it easier it is just one part of the pie.
.

On top of the technical debt is also the approval process. Modders don’t have anyone to answer to, and can just throw whatever out into the world regardless of how poorly it is done or how well it fits into the game. The dev team can’t just be like “oh today I have some extra time so I’m going to make a viera hair with twin buns and when I’m finished I’ll put it in the game”. The person who designs the hair is different from the team that creates the models, and I’m sure there’s a lot of back and forth before they can even get started.

I do wish they’d consider prioritizing the engine upgrade he mentioned they were looking into. If they move to an engine where it’s not so labor intensive to do bare bones things, it’ll be a lot easier for them to work with these races and add the missing genders. I don’t think that would be a poor use of dev time and resources since it would improve QoL for all players and the dev team.

[Awha]

On top of the technical debt is also the approval process. Modders don’t have anyone to answer to, and can just throw whatever out into the world regardless of how poorly it is done or how well it fits into the game. The dev team can’t just be like “oh today I have some extra time so I’m going to make a viera hair with twin buns and when I’m finished I’ll put it in the game”. The person who designs the hair is different from the team that creates the models, and I’m sure there’s a lot of back and forth before they can even get started.

I do wish they’d consider prioritizing the engine upgrade he mentioned they were looking into. If they move to an engine where it’s not so labor intensive to do bare bones things, it’ll be a lot easier for them to work with these races and add the missing genders. I don’t think that would be a poor use of dev time and resources since it would improve QoL for all players and the dev team.

Personally that is why I think we will only get the missing genders if they ever do an engine swap.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Except, Yoshi-P's been upfront that they DO listen to the Forums/reddit. And even if the Forum population is a very small amount of the playerbase in general, it's a rough sample size of the game's population. Someone over a hundred pages ago did the math of how many "likes" you'd need to show actual interest, comparing to sample sizes used in census, and we were way above it. And the JP forums is also pro-missing genders, even if their approach is different... because that's how the JP fanbase operates, and it doesn't take away that it's the highest liked OP in the OF. I never said it's a guarantee of anything, but that it's got enough support that it's hard to ignore.

Heck, as I've mentioned before, Yoshi-P is still being asked about the races, and is still taking the question in good faith. The thread has, in a way, fulfilled its purpose: bring the request to Yosih-P's attention. Everything after that is just following what he says about it (which has not strayed from corpo-speak: "It's very hard to do but if we can overcome the challenge, we'd like to do it.")

When has he actually been upfront about it recently? I just remember him giving people false hope before ShB launch and then not delivering, and now in recent interviews he just seems to dodge the question.

[WhiteArchmage]

When has he actually been upfront about it recently? I just remember him giving people false hope before ShB launch and then not delivering, and now in recent interviews he just seems to dodge the question.

I said, (which has not strayed from corpo-speak: "It's very hard to do but if we can overcome the challenge, we'd like to do it.") Or do you mean "upfront about listening to the Forums/reddit"? which is what I said. Because he HAS mentioned that the community team WILL bring stuff to his attention if it garners enough interest (like the Rainmaker hairstyle, the emotes thread, and the absolute <kupo>show that was the 2B pants.

From his first interview with Mr. Happy after the Hrothgar reveal until the latest interview (that I linked maybe 6 pages back), he's been taking the question about the missing genders and new player races (which the missing genders ARE, from a development point of view) and responding with the same not-really-an-answer.

I've said before the fact that he's still taking the question in good faith and answering in vague but hopeful terms (see above), and that fact is commendable because if he really wanted to shut the door on it he'd ask interviewers to stop asking him that question, which he can do.