New hrothgar hairstyles are really bad.

[Raskbuck]

well, if you see them wearing a helmet, that is usually a dead giveaway it's not a Hrothgar..... yes, I am still salty about equipment, why do you ask?

And the few full helms we can wear, shrink our heads and replaces it with the Roegadyn one, lol.

[Pip_Chick]

That is what a Hrothgar is, and if people enjoy that, they have every right to without being called stuff they're not.

This. When Hrothgar was just released I made a brand new character to be a Hrothgar (I didn't know how Fantasia worked). I took him from ARR to SHB, I formed a connection with him. I like what they represent, the lore, the undying perseverance to create a better future for themselves and their children, going to war even if they are outnumbered for their safety and equality. But more than that, they look cool! I always played beast races because seeing them in-game was cool, from character models to animations, lore and behaviour. I find beast races to be awesome, so I play them cause that is my "race fantasy", even though I am a woman IRL and would love to play as a female Hrothgar to see the Queens in action, I love my boy, and I want what's best for him. This whole thing threw me into an emotional loop. I know this race is just a 3D model with a rig and a few strings of code, but I am emotionally invested in it, and I can't help it. So when I see what they did to them, cutting the ears and super-glueing wigs on, I can't help but get upset. As a person with a bachelor's in game design, their excuses measure to "it will take time and effort and we have no sacrificial lamb to do it, cause we sure don't want to". I specialise in 3D models, animations and VFX, so I saw a few problems from the start but kept hoping that they will solve them in time, 3 years later and their "solutions" are akin to slapping a band-aid on a broken dam (the poor thing it's holding for dear life). And to put salt on the wound, the silence, that one stings! Especially with the recent housing fiasco, in which they released 3 statements in less than 3 days, while our problem went unaddressed until the last minute and even then it was STILL brushed off. I am tired and upset, I want to be treated equally to the other races, and I want to see Hrothgar get some love. I don't want to change my race cause that would mean giving them money and cause the small number that we are to get even smaller and perpetuate the " you are 2% of the population so you don't matter" bull!

[Denji]

"Oh hey Yoshi-P released a statm--oh it's just about PvP. :|"

[Midareyukki]

snippy

It's alright to be emotionally invested in it. Is that not what Square Enix wanted us to do? They make so many speeches about wanting people to "live" in their game, that they want people to enjoy their characters. How else would we describe crying over fictional characters in the MSQ as many people have in Shadowbringers if not "emotional investment"? It's fine, it's natural, but more importantly it's encouraged.

And a player character is the most intimate the player will ever get in this game. It's the first thing they make and it's what represents them.

That said, Hrothgar have an opressing lore to them. Yes, the Au Ra used to be murdered in Ishgard, but only a handful left and note the past tense. The Hrothgar identity is so defined at the moment by Garlean events that much of what we think is "Hrothgar lore" is actually Sharlayan misinterpretations. Sharlayan itself didn't even bother to properly document things. And they call themselves the bastion of knowledge... Worse still, Bozja is horrifying. We've had war before in Stormblood, and we've had shocking scenes where people are transfigurated into grotesque creatures. But just reading about what happened to Dabog feels like it was too far.

And this bleeds into our characters. Either we choose to ignore it, or we engage with it. But it's heavy, and a lore that heavy, carved out by death and war is emotional. We go through Bozja and the Gunbreaker job quests to engage with what little lore we have, and it's impactful because of how much an emotional punch it has. That punch is left on our characters, because the avatars we made and represent us have that meaning now. And given current events here in Europe, that punch is hitting a little close to some people despite it being fictional.

So we don't hide that we care for our characters. We don't hide that we want to be treated equally as players. And we don't hide that Square Enix has been doing a horrible job addressing this.

I don't care if the dev team's feathers are ruffled by me saying that. They've known what they were doing from the start. I get that Housing is a much larger system. But they can fix it easily; it's just a few lines of code. Hrothgar requires effort, we asked for so long for effort, and they feed us the same answer.

And this treatment is really spoiling the game for me. I know I'm only one player so why should they care. But it really is spoiling it. I don't want to play this game anymore knowing how they chose to single us out. How they choose to answer us. It's not the end of the game, but it's still not a good thing to experience. I'm not burnt out, the game was soured by this mess.

Our race just doesn't work and they openly and shamelessly don't care about it. Other people going on about SAM losing buttons? THAT'S whining. People wanting their races to be treated with respect isn't. And if it seems emotional, take two seconds to figure out why.

[Allegor]

Ask a Roegadyn, a Viera or a Hrothgar if they feel the acceptance in the air.

As someone who mains both a Roe and a Hroth, I'm lowkey used to being the butt of the joke that's excluded from any and all considerations when designing gear sets, glamours or even hairstyles - "grab a Hyur model, stretch it out, that should do" ...no, it really doesn't, that's why a lot of mods revolve around making gear and glamours fit the Roe/Hroth head or body type better, I guess because the bottom of the barrel races "aren't worth giving attention to" and when calling out on it, there's never lack of a Lala or Miqo to give responses on the lines of "be glad your kind is getting anything at all" ....gee, thanks?

[SherlottaEryut]

At this stage, my fear is they're going to focus all their attention on PVP & the housing issue... I can just hear it now "There are other priorities, Hrothgars need to wait even longer". Anyone would think SE would have released a statement and gathered plenty of feedback by now.

[GrimGale]

well, if you see them wearing a helmet, that is usually a dead giveaway it's not a Hrothgar..... yes, I am still salty about equipment, why do you ask?

It doesn't really help that most Job sets have such significant and iconic hats. I can't wear a Mortarboard as a SCH, I can't wear the AST hat, I can't wear the BLM iconic hat either. At least I get the Summoner dong. And its a problem that keeps repeating with the new Job gear sets. Red Mage cap? Not for you. New PVP sets that are a recolor of old Job gear? Nope.

[SturmChurro]

At this stage, my fear is they're going to focus all their attention on PVP & the housing issue... I can just hear it now "There are other priorities, Hrothgars need to wait even longer". Anyone would think SE would have released a statement and gathered plenty of feedback by now.

That would require them acknowledging hrothgar, and they already stated it would take far longer to release hairstyles if people want proper hairs - which feedback largely indicates.

[Midareyukki]

At this stage, my fear is they're going to focus all their attention on PVP & the housing issue... I can just hear it now "There are other priorities, Hrothgars need to wait even longer". Anyone would think SE would have released a statement and gathered plenty of feedback by now.

It's become obvious that they won't. They see this as a minor problem. A view likely exacerbated by how little people discuss Hrothgar and how often people come to their defence on the matter. A defence they frankly do not deserve as it's been made abundantly clear by the people who've examined their work and pointed out the flaws and solutions.

To me, it doesn't matter what SE says anymore. They've shown exactly who they prefer to listen. So I know there will be no statement being released about this. Question is how much until the bubble bursts.

That would require them acknowledging hrothgar, and they already stated it would take far longer to release hairstyles if people want proper hairs - which feedback largely indicates.

It's still work only they should be doing and that they need to do. It's not something that's optional; either they do it or they admit these races are meant to forever be incomplete. Our feedback so far has been clear, and proper character customization should have become a priority by now. Because other, far less used and less impactful aspects of gameplay have been categorized as a "priority" above fixing their stuff.

[Allegor]

It doesn't really help that most Job sets have such significant and iconic hats. I can't wear a Mortarboard as a SCH, I can't wear the AST hat, I can't wear the BLM iconic hat either. At least I get the Summoner dong. And its a problem that keeps repeating with the new Job gear sets. Red Mage cap? Not for you. New PVP sets that are a recolor of old Job gear? Nope.

At the very least, job gear should always have working hats. They made them work for WAR and RPR, dunno why they just say nope to BRD or RDM, jobs that are far more iconic for their hats.