Player Poll, The Viera Movement.

[Andrien]

I'd agree if it weren't for two things:

1. They aren't the same races, just heavily inspired by them. (Though I'm sure bunny girls will be different too should they be added anyway. But that brings me to my next point.)

2. FFXIV is the spiritual sequel to FFXI. The fact that they use similar races is totally understandable. It reflects on our expectations brought on by the other Final Fantasy MMO. Taking a race from a different game is not the same, they don't have the same connotations that FFXI set for us as a Final Fantasy MMO.

What? FFXIV is not a sequel to FFXI in any form, because the world we play in is not Vana'diel. Yet we have counterparts from it because Tanaka hoped to appeal to the FFXI fanbase with similar races from FFXI. It is the same deal with other Final Fantasy titles. We all have Humans and moogles in that sense.

Here is the key points that I want to make.
The big difference between both games is only the names of the races.

Roegadyn and Galka has one difference. The tail.
Miqo'te and Mithra = same
Hyur and Hume = same
Elezen and Elveen = same
Lalafell and Tarutaru = same

If you think they are not the same then may the 12 have mercy on your soul.

I'm for Viera, and other races. Don't like it then deal with it.

[Gramul]

What? FFXIV is not a sequel to FFXI in any form, because the world we play in is not Vana'diel. Yet we have counterparts from it because Tanaka hoped to appeal to the FFXI fanbase with similar races from FFXI. It is the same deal with other Final Fantasy titles. We all have Humans and moogles in that sense.

Here is the key points that I want to make.
The big difference between both games is only the names of the races.

Roegadyn and Galka has one difference. The tail.
Miqo'te and Mithra = same
Hyur and Hume = same
Elezen and Elveen = same
Lalafell and Tarutaru = same

If you think they are not the same then may the 12 have mercy on your soul.

I'm for Viera, and other races. Don't like it then deal with it.

So have you not heard of the phrase "spiritual sequel" or what? This game borrows a lot more than character designs from XI, the biggest of which besides the simple fact that it's a Final Fantasy MMO, is the focus on multi job characters.

And there's more to the races than simple physical appearances.
-Roegadyn are not indentured servants to Humes and originate from the frozen north and volcanoes rather than the dessert.
-Lalafell are agriculturally savvy financial geniuses to the point of being kings. Much more politically focused and mature than the childlike Tarutaru.
-Elezen are nomads of the caves and forests, Elvaan where the the proud citizens of a monarchy.
-Miquo'te live in clan based society and want little to do with other races, while the Mithra consider Tarutaru extended family.
-Humes where industrial and lived in a republic. Hyur...well...They don't live in a republic...oh and there's the Highlanders. But yeah, you never get much variety with human races.

Borrowing the designs from XI works only because XI was the MMO before it. If XI was a single player game, I'd be kinda weirded out by the fact that XIV would be taking inspiration from it.

[Vaen]

What? FFXIV is not a sequel to FFXI in any form, because the world we play in is not Vana'diel. Yet we have counterparts from it because Tanaka hoped to appeal to the FFXI fanbase with similar races from FFXI. It is the same deal with other Final Fantasy titles. We all have Humans and moogles in that sense.

Here is the key points that I want to make.
The big difference between both games is only the names of the races.

Roegadyn and Galka has one difference. The tail.
Miqo'te and Mithra = same
Hyur and Hume = same
Elezen and Elveen = same
Lalafell and Tarutaru = same

If you think they are not the same then may the 12 have mercy on your soul.

I'm for Viera, and other races. Don't like it then deal with it.

As Gramul said, you clearly don't understand the meaning of "spiritual sequel"

Anyway, there are more changes between the races of FFXI and FFXIV than you give credit for. Aside from all the lore differences that Gramul mentioned, the Miqo'te and Lalafell especially have very significant changes in their design compared to their FFXI counterparts.

Anyway, regardless of how similar or different the FFXI and FFXIV races are, there's something iconic about the 5 playable races and adding a totally new playable race messes with that. Also, since so many people already play Miqo'te, if they added Viera with a similar design as they were in FF12, it'd make the imbalance of "sexy" mammal-humans even worse.

But really, I wouldn't be totally against them adding the Viera eventually. It could be kind of cool. But they definitely should not add a new race until they make the customization better for all the playable races. It's pretty pointless to add new race where everyone looks like a version of seven different people instead of working on customization so every player can look unique.

[JDR388]

I am concerned that the use of the Vierra as an example may have artificially tilted the scale in their favor as none of the other potential races offered anything in the way of connections to races that exist in previous final fantasy games and therefore did not leave us with a strong image to associate with the idea. People tend to gravitate toward things that they are familiar with and since to many in this game the Vierra are something people have encountered in other games before, thier inclusion as an example may have artificially tilted the scales a bit.

When I voted I choose mamillian beastmen and noted in the write-in that I specifically wanted Qiqirn to be a new playable race. I believe that the Qiqirn represent an archetype that is unexplored with the current five races; that being the shifty eyed, untrustworthy type that's just as likely to steal all your possessions as they are to help you out of a bind. Additionally they already exist within the world of Eorzea (and Vana'diel for those of you who are purists), making their inclusion as a playable race far less dissonant. Furthermore, Their deigns are already established which means the art team would not have to waste valuable time developing entirely new races from scratch (although knowing how many artists SE has working for them, and the scale of the task at hand I would imagine this is not as big a concern).

[Dragonheart]

[Dibria]

@Dragonheart

[Rousseau]

Every single Final Fantasy game is a "spiritual successor" to the previous ones. That argument is invalid. :P

[Andrien]

*snip*

*Snip*

Not going to debate or comment on speculations.

[Mrfox0707]

I voted for seeing mixed races, but really I would have liked to picked all the race from the list they gave. they were all really great ideas.

[MikkoAkure]

I'm fine with the current races, so I voted for more versions of what we have now. We've got the bases covered: Beastly strong guy (roe), beefy human (highlander), average joe (hyur), elegant/regal/elf (elezen), magical/midget (lala), "sexy" (miqo). What else could be added that isn't already there?

A new playable race, as long as it's an original idea that works and would fit in somewhere without feeling forced, would still be really cool. Maybe something viera-like but not a viera? A mechanical, magitek race? Something maybe with four arms like the mystics from The Dark Crystal? (Think four armed Nu Mou) There's plenty of ideas out there besides shoehorning in a race that's only ever existed in one world because a lot of players want more sexy animal girls.

Bringing moogles and chocobos, which are in almost every Final Fantasy is one thing, but bringing one from another already established world just feels wrong unless we had the more human-like moogles, bangaa, seeq, etc. If they made an Ivalice MMO, I'd be all over that, and it would probably be a lot better than what we have now, but you have to work with what you've got.