Can we get normal manly males ?

[KizuyaKatogami]

So your problem is actually with healers getting feminine glamours and you want masculine glamour, not that the entire expansion has catered to feminine style glamours. I understand. Healers do get quite a few feminine options and I agree more neutral healing gear should be added. Maybe Sage will help with that.

Eh i will admit the whole 2b set thing did also leave a poor taste in my mouth as i’m sure it’s obvious. Between that, the healer and caster glams being feminine yes, and the androgynous/feminine hairstyles being abundant, it’s left me quite annoyed with this expansion in that regard. There just seems to be an apparent bias in regards to it, which makes sense considering what i mentioned earlier about the main dev playing a female character . I just hope they add more masculine option across the board in 6.0, both in hairstyles, facial hair, glamours and so on.

[BaconBits]

I think the type 51 casting top for males was nice enough, gave more of a battle priest feel to it and wasn't quite as feminine as the caster/healer sets from the later raids.

[CherryCola]

i know i might be reaching here, but over the time i have been playing this game, its been mostly dudes that play female characters being opposed to it (personal experience i made through friends and strangers ingame)- which i find even weirder. whenever i complained because we were repeatedly getting andro or feminine hairstyles it always went like: „go play another game, if you don‘t like it or just switch to fem miqo“.

Late response, but I finally had time to post it:

If it matters, I don't think you're reaching. I remember years ago when "switch to a female character" was the common response to someone who asked for more unique anything for male characters here. Female characters would get new stuff but Males got lazy recolors, a noticeably lesser alternative or nothing at all. I remember being really happy to read JPN complaining about it too, because it meant it would be taken more seriously. Seemed to have worked that time and things got better gradually.

I've been a bit frustrated I'm having trouble finding NEW things to use that fit my characters aesthetic again. If you main a Male character whose aesthetic is masculine over androgynous or feminine, the last few patches have felt pretty awful.

[Vyrerus]

unga bunga lore

I laughed pretty hard at this, and I still am. It's true though lmao.

Also realize I left Elezen out of my hierarchy... whoops! I guess I'd put them at even, maybe slightly lower than Midlander. They're so skinny.

Understandable about Hrothgar, really. For me... one of the faces they have kind of reminds me of my dad, especially if it's wearing glasses. My brain since then views most Hrothgars as, "Cat Dads." or "Panther Fathers."

Maybe I place too much importance on musculature, but a lot of old games did too for sex differentiation. Like Mystic Ark where you could play as a guy or a gal, and their main differences were that the guy had a tunic and the woman has a long dress. The guy has insanely broad shoulders with Schwarzeneggeresque arms. But if you look at their art, they're so similar that if it weren't for the dress and the girl's side braid... they're basically both women in appearance lol.

[Vyrerus]

Tbh i can’t really see many highlander’s as masculine unless it’s like...Raubahn. All the other ones i see just look like smushed up clay faces and it doesn’t help that their actual body features aren’t that different from every other race so it just results in a weird contrast and because of not many facial hair options it looks really disjointed. Roe’s kind of fit in that same boat of they just look like someone put a smushed up face on a green body lol. They look like a less intimidating Hulk.

TFW you walk up to Raubahn in the quests leading up to Castrum Meridianum, and he's shorter than you...

To me your perception sounds like you look at Roe and Highlander faces for maybe all of half a second, before not wanting to look at them any more. For the most part, Highlander guys get faces that are chiseled up and meant to look "rugged," tough, and serious. A lot of them equate to ugly without adding the facial hair, sadly. Sad but true.

Roes are just Galkas where they tried redoing the faces to make them less bestial. Ultimately they succeeded, but I think Galkas looked better on average. Professor Hulk is an apt comparison, as they are just people. Goliath Weeb edition. Although, I guess, Galkas are older than 3rd Edition so... Goliath is Western edition Galkas :O

[KizuyaKatogami]

TFW you walk up to Raubahn in the quests leading up to Castrum Meridianum, and he's shorter than you...

To me your perception sounds like you look at Roe and Highlander faces for maybe all of half a second, before not wanting to look at them any more. For the most part, Highlander guys get faces that are chiseled up and meant to look "rugged," tough, and serious. A lot of them equate to ugly without adding the facial hair, sadly. Sad but true.

Roes are just Galkas where they tried redoing the faces to make them less bestial. Ultimately they succeeded, but I think Galkas looked better on average. Professor Hulk is an apt comparison, as they are just people. Goliath Weeb edition. Although, I guess, Galkas are older than 3rd Edition so... Goliath is Western edition Galkas :O

Okay tbf...i don’t see Sado as very masculine either so it’s probably just me xD. I don’t really think many highlanders are ugly persay. A lot of them have a sort of charm to them, i just think if anything they’re the ones that need more customization options the most. Between eye brows, more facial structure options(hopefully a facelift), but yeah with facial hair they’d look much better and i say that as someone who doesn’t even like facial hair.

[Rilifane]

It might not be easy for you to see since you play a female character, but playing a male character and trying to find good glams this expansion that work as a healer and aren’t inherently feminine were pretty difficult. I was hoping we’d get a male coffer from Nier that i could work with but alas nothing. Weird too because while nier is dominantly women, there’s a fair amount of male glams they could’ve given us but i guess they thought it wasn’t worth it in the end.

The only glamour I can think of right off the bat was he AST 80 AF gear. It looks like a desert prince outfit on a male and while not strictly masculin it was one of the few outfits that worked for all males, even the bulkiest, most rugged highlanders. The rest of the dedicated healer clothes usually were robes in light colors with frisky details, usually a simple white and they dyed in a way that made darker colors look pretty bad.
Healers definitely have it worst by far when it comes to glamours on male characters.

Given that FFXIV is an MMO with multiple playable races, there's even less of an excuse for limitations. It's been a common request for years though - and mysteriously it's often people playing and posting on female characters who seek to downplay the demand and likelihood of male characters getting some attention for a change.

Strange, that.

It's something I've noticed over the years as someone who has repeatedly requested more customisation, glamour and hairstyles made with male characters in mind first and foremost.

I've noticed the same. I've played a female character for a long time after I saw the lack of options for pretty much everything on a male character but it was often with gritted teeth. It's frustrating that the game has strongly leaned towards feminine/ androgynous characters from the start and the few times someone speaks up and requests more options for male characters or something more masculin gets added, it gets shot down.
It's fine if people prefer to play female but "just go fem" isn't an option for everyone. They already have a ton of options that are clearly tailored to them, having at least some options that are clearly for male characters isn't asking too much.

[VirusOnline]

I lol’d at the “irl female players” part. Look, I’m all for people having options because they like certain things, but the more manly appearance stuff like facial hair and more muscles is, IMO, a guy obsession. Irl, as a woman, I hate beards. I don’t know any woman who is like omg hot beard guy. Most guys look better without them, beards scratch faces when you get kissed, beards get food in them, not attractive. I also think the obsession with muscles is definitely a guy thing. That’s completely fine, but I think it’s funny guys think most women like these things.

I wanted to also mention that I agree healer sets can be feminine a lot of the time. The fending sets are definitely masculine or neutral though. I think I have about 5 options in about 80 levels worth of fending gear that’s actually feminine for my PLD. I think there is a gender bias going on with the healing/tanking roles. I saw the new WHM set and it does look like in the artwork that it may have ruffles in back. I don’t know if there will be a male version that’s different, but I definitely get why guy characters are upset by their lack of options.

A guy obsession ?
Oof.
I was about to start, but I cannot.
Y'all catch me if I fall.

[Juzjuzz]

I lol’d at the “irl female players” part. Look, I’m all for people having options because they like certain things, but the more manly appearance stuff like facial hair and more muscles is, IMO, a guy obsession. Irl, as a woman, I hate beards. I don’t know any woman who is like omg hot beard guy. Most guys look better without them, beards scratch faces when you get kissed, beards get food in them, not attractive. I also think the obsession with muscles is definitely a guy thing. That’s completely fine, but I think it’s funny guys think most women like these things.

I wanted to also mention that I agree healer sets can be feminine a lot of the time. The fending sets are definitely masculine or neutral though. I think I have about 5 options in about 80 levels worth of fending gear that’s actually feminine for my PLD. I think there is a gender bias going on with the healing/tanking roles. I saw the new WHM set and it does look like in the artwork that it may have ruffles in back. I don’t know if there will be a male version that’s different, but I definitely get why guy characters are upset by their lack of options.

For beards i have seen everything, some girls love the stubble look and some don't. For the muscle think it's the same, some like a little and others prefer the most bulcky dudes they can find. Only the extremes are rare imo and it depends on where you live and who you encounter. So no it's not only a guy obsession.

Most healer gear looks bad on a masculine male and the most masculine you go the worse it gets. A lot of tank gear looks masculine/neutral but it's really rare to see something completly weird or ugly for females or show me. When females are put 1rst the poor masculine males loose almost always xD. At least the females can look cool even if it's tomboyish, but hey i like girls with a tomboyish look so yeah ...

Same thing for the femboys, even if you don't have your dream super feminine look. You won't look ugly.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

We need manly men- manly Manderville men. Shadowbringers?