New hrothgar hairstyles are really bad.

[LaylaTsarra]

the general sentiment has been extremely negative and outraged. i don't know of a single person who said "oooh! earless cats! what a novel idea! 2B Hair on a Hrothgar? Sign me up!" What worries me however is the absolute silence on their part. usually they'd come out with a statement, an apology, or something. Also i noticed a very distinct absence of any sort of mention of the Hrothgar hairstyles on the Twitter official page which was releasing information on everything that was covered in the LL. So it definitely stood out that it got no mention whatsoever.

Oh I agree with you about reception. I don't think I've seen one person in this thread who likes it. My point though is that it's easier to pull something that hasn't been released than to pull something that has been and where some users in the player base are actually using the content. They should pony up and simply delay it based on it's reception. April 12th isn't here yet and I'm sure that delaying the content is very possible.

Edit: If I'm not mistaken there are NPC's in game and in Borza who have different styles. Why not simply implement these as custom hairstyles to increase the variety and give Hroths' a pass on having to pay for hairstyle changes.

[CipherAres]

What has me questioning it is that this is the first live letter that did air on April 1st, on April Fools' Day, so we can't make the claim that this is an "out of season April Fools' joke". There's nothing to reference this exact scenario, and I wouldn't put it past him to aim for the long game of a joke to make us think that it is real when it's not. Also that the ears connected to the hair is a provable lie for the current heads, and a new head with toggle-able ears would have to be made in order to make this happen. Why discard the current head for that? There are too many factors that has me questioning that presentation. It's painfully obvious that it is bad, too obvious...

Don't get the wrong idea though, it's not that I'm excusing it, but rather it makes no sense to be mad about it now. Rather, I would use this time to think about what to do when 6.1 is released. What would I do if it was a joke and what would I do if was real? I do have an idea of what to do if it turns out to be real, but I'd want to think it through if I really want to do it, because it will be self-destructive on both sides. If it is a joke though, I will throw away those plans, and just laugh so hard that my neighbors will think that I've lost my mind.

I sincerely doubt it'd be an April Fools' joke, as much as I wish it were. It's been two days since the liveletter now and we've had no ''SIKE!!!!! Here's the real hairs you'll be getting'' yet. If they WERE doing this as a joke and are aware that these hairs aren't up to par with the community's expectations, then I'm pretty sure they also already must have had some idea that they'd be receiving backlash for it, meaning they'd probably want to dismiss it as a prank as soon as possible, instead of what we have now where there's LOADS of negativity from basically all of the community.

The reason we don't see the hairs mentioned anywhere such as on the FFXIV socials or patch 6.1 site is probably moreso because they either already predicted the backlash and decided to omit the information on purpose in hopes it'd slide under the radar as much as possible for people who didn't watch the PLL or because, in real-time, they saw the backlash and decided NOT to make posts about it.

I get that that's quite a pessimistic perspective but it just feels like the most realistic outcome to me right now.
Of course, if it IS an April Fools' joke, I will first of all be happy that THANK THE TWELVE, WE'RE NOT ACTUALLY STUCK WITH THESE!
But also disappointed that they thought this was somehow a good prank to pull without dismissing it as such ASAP, especially since it's something Hrothgar players have been waiting on for years now.

[Minali]

Not defending anything, I'm a Hrothgar player myself and I already stated my feedback yesterday. But I feel the need to remind you that the announcement has been at a Friday and fairly late for Japanese time zone. It is week-end. And considering how the FFXIV studio at least tries to treat their workers properly and respect their health and free time, I could imagine that they won't work right now. For us internet forum people Monday is ages ahead, always has been the thing with forums and social media in my experience, but for many other people in this world it's one or two days of not working. This includes press statements, apology letters and maybe providing actual game footage, should this have been a big horrible prank.

Obviously, would this have been an actual prank, it is really poor taste to keep it up over the week-end in the first place. My most optimistic guess is that they wanted to wait for a reaction from a community before making further decisions about the hairstyles, but without saying "we want to wait for your reaction." That would also explain why it is not on Twitter or the website yet. My most pessimistic guess, which I sadly consider more likely, is that they just don't really care anymore and don't want to give it any sort of priority, no matter if they have the budget to get more manpower or not. (And I am pretty certain they do have this.) But as said, those are just guesses. I don't have any actual insights, so I rather wait to Monday or even Tuesday, if they are going to address this in any way.

[reivaxe]

Are you all actually entertaining the notion that this was an "April Fools' joke"? I thought you all were just meeming ...

Oh I agree with you about reception. I don't think I've seen one person in this thread who likes it.

I'm fine with it and happy that I get to look forward to Female Hrothgar with w/e shared hair Viera have. Plus, I called it (That Hrothgar would just get the same hairstyles Viera get) a long time ago.
But, TBH, I thought they would just use the Miqote versions of these hairstyles so that they would actually have visible ears. That, or try to add lil tuffs with a set of lil cat ears at the top of the forehead. I'm certainly not beside my with disappointment at the prospect of playing a female Hrothgar who wears an ear-covering-wig though.

[SherlottaEryut]

I've already posted my opinion in regards to the matter, but all I can say is I wish content creators for FFXIV would speak up about the situation more. It's time SE stop stalling and actually do real work for these races, starting with Hrothgar. Halt production entirely for Female Hrothgar, ignore the people who'll start crying "sexist and homophobic" and god knows what else, I'm sure they can wait for an extra 2+ years to see what F-Hrothgar look like in 2b boots.

[Lubu_Mykono]

The state of the Hrothgar hair made me go back to miqote after 2 years.

[CipherAres]

Are you all actually entertaining the notion that this was an "April Fools' joke"? I thought you all were just meeming ...

for me personally not as much actually thinking it COULD be an April Fools' joke (for reasons already stated in my previous posts) as much as copium-fueled ''well if it WAS one, then...''
Given what we know I'm still sure that this is, unfortunately, genuinely what we'll be getting.

[Yencat]

I've already posted my opinion in regards to the matter, but all I can say is I wish content creators for FFXIV would speak up about the situation more. It's time SE stop stalling and actually do real work for these races, starting with Hrothgar. Halt production entirely for Female Hrothgar, ignore the people who'll start crying "sexist and homophobic" and god knows what else, I'm sure they can wait for an extra 2+ years to see what F-Hrothgar look like in 2b boots.

Considering they said they hadn't even decided on a final design for them yet I don't think they actually are in production yet.

[reivaxe]

Considering they said they hadn't even decided on a final design for them yet I don't think they actually are in production yet.

That actually means they're in production.

He was saying that they have 2 designs that they settled on (Did he mean full body designs or 2 face designs? Who knows, I don't) and started testing how they look in game already, meaning they have models made of Female Hrothgar by now and are actively doing the process of testing/ making them.

[Yencat]

That actually means they're in production.

He was saying that they have 2 designs that they settled on (Did he mean full body designs or 2 face designs? Who knows, I don't) and started testing how they look in game already, meaning they have models made of Female Hrothgar by now and are actively doing the process of testing/ making them.

Really? You got all that from "we've narrowed it down to two designs" ?

You really must be a fortune teller.

As it stands, the art team has drawn a plethora of concepts, and two have been selected. However, Yoshida stated that it will be some time before the female Hrothgar will be playable in FFXIV.

Says otherwise.