Quote Originally Posted by Alacran View Post
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I agree with some of the things in your post. I had little, if any confidence that they could somehow do a beast race in this game. They did, and did it badly. Given the overwhelming preference of FFXIV's target population favoring attractive, anime-beauty standards for lack of a better description, both genders of Viera was objectively the correct choice to add rather than chasing after niche things only to do them badly.

It is said that during the fanfest when Hrothgar were revealed that the audience booed the stage. Now in 2022, everyone is collectively upset at how poorly done these new hairstyles are, nevermind that they are coming 3 years too late. Should Hrothgar players be receiving more than they currently are getting? Absolutely. But should Hrothgar have been implemented as a gender-locked, limited race at the cost of taking male Viera's spot back then? Absolutely not.

I'm not interested in entertaining conversations about what race was decided to be included first whether it was Hrothgar or Viera, what is clear is that from concept artists to 3d modelers that there is clear bias in favor of Viera. They may have decided to add Hrothgar in Stormblood, but it was Viera who was nearly added back in Heavensward. Male Viera are also the result of individual passion that was likely shared with fans-they took everything from the first post of that thread and made it reality.

Viera are the result of what these concept artists and modelers wanted to do.

Hrothgar are the result of what these concept artists and modelers were instructed to do.

However, I cannot stress this enough, there were so many people who shunned the supporters of causes like male Viera/female Hrothgar all while arguing with others to "just be patient!" in terms of waiting on new hairstyles and hat options. It is your responsibility as a customer to keep the producer of a product in check, and not argue against people who feel as if they were given an inferior product. This situation could have been avoided early on if the playerbase had made it clear that limited races with hardly any hair or hat options wasn't acceptable, and this is the result of what happens when things like that are let to slide.