DT WoL Updates: Players want the diversity of features we once had

[NailBach]

So Dawntrail is out, the graphics update is here, and many MANY people are posting feedback that their WoL is now unrecognizable, like an uncanny doppelganger.

The devs had stated both that they would try to stay as true to the original face as possible and that there would be significant changes to our appearance, thus the offer of a free Fantasia.

We can be certain that they are aware of how upset people are and exactly the manner in which every face has changed. And as much as we'd like to see our characters look closer to how they did in 6.58, when it comes to actually adjusting the faces as they are in 7.0, their hands are tied: Anyone who uses a fantasia now, especially to go to another race, will pick out all the features as they currently appear. This means that a face which is unacceptably different to you will be a face that others will specifically gun for in the character creator. As such we need to assume that our appearance is "locked in" for the indefinite future.

However, there is one factor of the graphical update that is objectively a regression from before, and needs to be put front and center of the criticism of the graphical update:

There has been excessive homogenization of specific features across races, reducing their diversity and unique appeal.

This is a much stronger argument and criticism than saying your specific WoL changed given their offer of a Fantasia and the repeated statements that your WoL would look different.

Since they can't really go in and change everyone's faces to look how they did before without alienating those who use the Fantasia, there will have to be a different solution.

They will have to add new customization options to restore character diversity and the lost unique features.

They should already in internal discussions to consider options, but this change will make the character creator a much more powerful tool in the long run. This is what we need to be asking for now. Given the scale of the graphical update and the time they've spent working on it, they should have made under-the-hood changes to make adding new customizations easier -- at least, that would have been the responsible goal to work toward for this update.

Keep posting about how your WoLs and even NPCs changed drastically, but remember: The goal now is not to demand a revert of your WoL's appearance, but to make it clear how important it is to you that the unique features you fell in love with years ago make their return in the future.

100 of 30 Millions aren‘t many.

[ZephyrMenodora]

100 of 30 Millions aren‘t many.

As usual, all the happy people are elsewhere and not here. Seeing tons of happy people on Twitter posting their updates.

I love my update.

[noumen0nn]

100 of 30 Millions aren‘t many.

As usual, all the happy people are elsewhere and not here. Seeing tons of happy people on Twitter posting their updates.

I love my update.

So happy for both of you. How about you go hang out there and stop wasting our time here with useless, dismissive platitudes?

[ZephyrMenodora]

So happy for both of you. How about you go hang out there and stop wasting our time here with useless, dismissive platitudes?

I hope you got over the hours of sobbing you claimed when you saw your character the last time. If this resulted in hours of crying I’d suggest getting help.

[noumen0nn]

I hope you got over the hours of sobbing you claimed when you saw your character the last time. If this resulted in hours of crying I’d suggest getting help.

I'd suggest you keep it to yourself. Spare me your concern trolling, you creep.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I'd suggest you keep it to yourself. Spare me your concern trolling, you creep.

You got me. I actually laughed when I read you cried all through the night.

[sindriiisgaming]

I'm really getting tired of being told to just accept it. No way in the seven hells am I accepting what they did to my beautiful creation.

He went from adventuring to becoming the lead singer of kiss!

[KisaiTenshi]

I've noticed that most if not all of the posts are about female aura, yet I'm over here perfectly fine. People goin on about a lip being slightly different confuse me.

Because the Au Ra were not 2.0 races, so they were the first "new race" added to the game (male miqo'te and female roe do not count, as they were added with 2.0) and a lot of people were super excited to play them. Meanwhile we had the hundreds-of-pages-long threat about miqote butt's about the loss of the unique miqote shape that I think lasted for 8 years.

I mean, to be fair, the forums have leaned into the negative for as far back as I can remember. It's just not a place meant for genuine positivity imo outside of small doses. The same can be said in reverse for other platforms like Reddit or X where the community leans to the positive and doesn't really want to engage with the negative outside of small doses either. It's just two different communities and both have their issues.

Personally though, I'm starting to see why people in the actual game say they don't want much to do with this forum and would rather visit other social media platforms.

Where have you been. Twitter and Reddit are bastions of trolling and negativity, and then people from other trolling and loosely-moderated sites come here and behave the same and get their posts deleted or get banned from the forum entirely. You are on the Square-Enix property, behave or you will be shown the door very quickly.

When people are negative here, it's often because they have a passion for some aspect of the game that they either don't want changed, or disagree with the direction of said change. That does not mean the players should never talk about it.

Meanwhile outside of the company's control, there are sites players visit that are incredibly toxic and insular. If you want to be on a fair footing you have to post to the official forum. No third party site is going respect your opinion or passion for the game, because they're not moderated by people who have an interest in the game's long term viability. If Square Enix decided to shut down 14 because "the player base hate the game too much" these third party sites would have a brief celebration and then they would implode a month later as their reason to dunk on 14 disappears.