Quote Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams View Post
I am not interested in playing as a hunchback woman, in this or any game. I have an alt that I *could* potentially fantasia to female Hrothgar if they actually look decent. But if they're some weird amalgamation of hunchbackness, super huge muscles, and mangled faces? That's a hard pass from me, and pretty much 95% of the playerbase that plays female characters.

There is nothing substantial to gain from catering to "diversity" if the so called "diversity" in question is so niche it turns off the overwhelming majority of people. I still think that the concept art of the Queen from the recent artbook looks good enough for me to drop the cash on. Doubtless a decent chunk of other people agree, but instead of naturally wanting a female model that is well-designed we're supposed to support this idea that they should be "different" for the sake of being so.

This isn't a hard thing to get right. Give them a straight back, decent hair options, better faces than the males, and a natural build. That's all they have to do. If instead we get monster-women whose design is such a turn off that they're about as unpopular as WoW's mecha gnomes, then that is objectively a waste of resources that won't make back the money that was spent to create them.
It's a bold move playing a female Elezen whilst also complaining about about niche races. Elezen are quite low on the totem pole as far as played races goes, especially the females. There have been countless threads/posts with people asking SE to "fix" how they look, give them a more mainstream style. But then on the flip side you have your staunch defenders who love their elongated necks, sloped shoulders, angular features, etc and want absolutely nothing to change. Had they been designed in the more traditional 'MMO-elf' way, e.g. the sexy option, they'd be far more popular. Variety is nice though, and not every race has to be designed in a way to appeal to the majority of players.

But anyway, opinions are fun. I love Hrothgar as they are, and I really hope the females feel like they match. Add some feminine touches, sure, but I'm going to be super disappointed if they end up going the Au Ra route (although I strongly doubt they will).