Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[BunniEclair]

It wasnt a major drawback, XI had way more important issues then Genderlocking. For some reason this thread is hyperfocused on Gender.
"Unlocking the Genders" was just apart of the MANY things the game needed fixed

This thread is hyper focused on gender because it’s a thread about male viera, specifically.

Also my comment was more aimed at the transition from 1.0 to ARR. not from XI. If it wasn’t a big issue, then I don’t see why they devoted so much time to it. Yoship has mentioned over and over what a pain it is to do, and more recently said it’s not particularly enjoyable either. So it’s not like it was a passion project. It may not have been an issue to the playerbase that stuck around, but lack of variety probably wasn’t scoring them any brownie points with newer players. It was detrimental enough, they felt, to really focus on fixing.

And so it’s probably worth fixing again, at some point in the future.

[WhiteArchmage]

Well I'll admit that one certainly flew under my radar. Still, the attitude in that thread feels completely different than the one here and there's no torches and pitchforks and people threatening to quit the game. People wanted them for sure, but it wasn't the end of the world and the first 3/4 of the thread takes place in 30 days, which is probably why I missed the thread to begin with.

I did find this exchange funny, it's like looking through an archaeological dig and finding an ancient prophecy warning the future:




The reason why 1.0 was the way it was in regards to gender lock was because the director was also the director for FFXI and there were grand plans to link the games and to be able to bring your character over. I would've preferred them to start all over with brand new races or at least make an Ivalice MMO like it seems like they were originally planning, with the Ivalice Alliance design team being behind 1.0 and all.

There are many differences in the request over Male Viera/Female Hrothgar and the races back in 1.0. I think chief among them is... there were WAY fewer people interested in the game and engaging with it. Having a larger playerbase means a lot more TYPES of people get there.

There's also the precedents: 1.0 was Hiromichi Tanaka, who you correctly mention wanted to basically do FFXI-2, so the races being basically the same as FFXI (bar Highlanders) was looked at much more naturally. But when Yoshi-P came in and redid the game as 2.0 the expectations changed; the missing genders were announced and there was speculation about how they'd look (yes, this comes from the outside since I wasn't around for 1.0, just digging through the old forums), and then they were very well received. So when Viera are teased, we expect the males too, because there's that precedent that Yoshi-P makes previously gender-locked races unlocked. And even with his interview in HW (the "bunny men would be weird" one, which flew WAY under the radar at the time) was before concept art was revealed post-HW, indicating some interest in introducing them.

So, Larger playerbase + Yoshi-P's history + a tease with the concept art in an official event - an interview that most of said playerbase wasn't aware of + a budding interest in Male Viera since 1.0 = "Male Viera as a plabable character! show your support"

Plus the whole "radio silence/Males? wait until next FanFest!" thing made people increase their expectations for MONTHS. The initial reception was sure to be... divisive.

P.S. Yeah, that's why I linked the final comment there, Male Viera was still being talked about since 1.0, VERY little, but it's kinda funny.

[Bright-Flower]

If races being genderlocked wasn’t a major drawback then I doubt they would have put as much effort into unlocking them right away as they did. They were undertaking a monumental task redoing the game in such a short span of time. We have seen the effort that it apparently takes them to add a single new race/gender to the game. Doing 3 (female highlander, male miqo, and female roe) must’ve been absolutely insane.

It doesn’t make sense for them to put that kind of time and effort into something if it wasn’t important to the playerbase/attracting new players.

They likely anticipated, though perhaps underestimated, the backlash to the way viera/hrothgar were implemented. Honestly I wish they'd picked one of the two races and done both genders rather than this, as it's unlikely that they'll ever have the resources to fill in the gaps, but I can at least see where they were coming from. But I'd still rather have viera or hrothgar with both genders than one gender of each.

[KizuyaKatogami]

It wasnt a major drawback, XI had way more important issues then Genderlocking. For some reason this thread is hyperfocused on Gender.
"Unlocking the Genders" was just apart of the MANY things the game needed fixed

Because gender is a major part of character creation. This thread is literally about male viera lmao. I’m a guy, i like playing guys l, not a female. If there’s a race i really like but end up finding out it’s genderlocked, and i don’t like any of the other races it may put me off of a game because i like to immerse myself in the game. I’m not going to play something i don’t like. And typically when there are things like genderlocks, there are a lot of other problems with the game as well so they go hand in hand.

[Alacran]

People asked for Viera, the expectation was that ment to make both male & female. This was after the precedent of correcting the genderlocks of 1.0 female Roegadyn, male Miqo' te & female Highlander.

No one asked for a second cat race. Even those that wanted bestial races wanted something more than a limited race.

Why are there no warnings against picking Hrothgar limiting one from game features like the use of the in game Aesthetician & limited use of items bought from the cash shop? Those items that cost real world money should be given priority at very least when considering the race it's self needs a fantasia to even change hair options to one of the other 3...

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

This thread is hyper focused on gender because it’s a thread about male viera, specifically.

Also my comment was more aimed at the transition from 1.0 to ARR. not from XI. If it wasn’t a big issue, then I don’t see why they devoted so much time to it. Yoship has mentioned over and over what a pain it is to do, and more recently said it’s not particularly enjoyable either. So it’s not like it was a passion project. It may not have been an issue to the playerbase that stuck around, but lack of variety probably wasn’t scoring them any brownie points with newer players. It was detrimental enough, they felt, to really focus on fixing.

And so it’s probably worth fixing again, at some point in the future.

Fair enough point, but my point is that whenever people bring up 1.0, they always specifically point at "missing Genders" for being why the game didnt do well, which is a small reason for the game to fail. There were more important factors.
I might have not been clear on some level, but yes, I was talking about 1.0. (I might have flubbed)

Because gender is a major part of character creation. This thread is literally about male viera lmao. I’m a guy, i like playing guys l, not a female. If there’s a race i really like but end up finding out it’s genderlocked, and i don’t like any of the other races it may put me off of a game because i like to immerse myself in the game. I’m not going to play something i don’t like. And typically when there are things like genderlocks, there are a lot of other problems with the game as well so they go hand in hand.

I know dude, just like I told the other person; my point is that whenever people bring up 1.0, they always specifically point at "missing Genders"
And lets not forget, as much as people hate hearing it....its not like we ever saw a Male Viera beforehand. So it is interesting for people to think that was going to change in an MMO; when their own games we have yet to see a Male Viera.
Not saying its the reason; most if not all of us by now should know why the races are "Gender Locked"
(inb4 somebody is going to bring up the old HW concept art)

[Theodric]

Nobody here is claiming that 1.0 failed solely due to the missing genders. They stated that, alongside other factors, the missing genders were something that served to turn them away from the game.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Nobody here is claiming that 1.0 failed solely due to the missing genders. They stated that, alongside other factors, the missing genders were something that served to turn them away from the game.

Id understand, if the missing genders weren't the only thing mentioned

[MikkoAkure]

Nobody here is claiming that 1.0 failed solely due to the missing genders. They stated that, alongside other factors, the missing genders were something that served to turn them away from the game.

My whole point was that the unavailable genders in 1.0 was a small ripple in the pond compared to everything else and that bringing it up over and over is making it sound like a bigger deal than it really was.

The game isn't going to succeed or fail based on missing genders. The additions were very good to have and gave a sense of completion as well as more character options, but they didn't save the game. Neither did the absence of male viera or female hrotgar sink Shadowbringers. They may be important to you personally, but it doesn't mean that everyone feels that way.

[KizuyaKatogami]

My whole point was that the unavailable genders in 1.0 was a small ripple in the pond compared to everything else and that bringing it up over and over is making it sound like a bigger deal than it really was.

I wouldn’t call it a small ripple. More like a big part in the overall scheme of 1.0 being clarified as bad. So much so that yoshi p himself said he wouldn’t genderlock future races because of it.