Quote Originally Posted by Melichoir View Post
What I and others have pointed out, though, that the thing holding them back is the antiquated engine for characters. If they were to just sink the energy and resources into updating it to be on par with more modern MMOs, theyd be killing a flock of birds with a stick of dynamite. Itd give the people who want more customization what they want, help insulate the game against showing its age, fix a lot of the issues associated with adding races, and correct issues with Hrothgar and Viera that exist. Considering the lack of updates on Hrothgar and Viera along with other things, there is a ok possibility that this is what theyre intending to do. No guarentees though, just cross your fingers.
Yoshi-P already addressed this years ago and said that the level of effort to go back and fix everything wouldn't be worth the result. He said that at that point, they might as well make a new game. Even if Yoshi-P wanted to overhaul the code, it's SE that would make the call and provide him the budget and other resources in order to make that a reality and I don't think that's ever going to happen. I don't believe there is a reason for SE to think that would make sense and lead to them getting more paying customers or higher retention rates that could cover all of the costs required for this.

Also, I think the state of viera and hrothgar is due to rushing, compromising, and believing that the players would accept their decisions for having 1 gender per race and no hats. It doesn't make sense for them to have any secret objective.