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

[Einnecy]

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.

FFXIV is a story-based game which centers around your character. I think it is fine to feel upset over something which you've come to love change so much practically overnight. Yes, take a step back if you feel severely unwell, but nobody here has said anything which would warrant such a response. This is a genuine critique.

I am happy you are happy with your character, but that has nothing to do with wanting more customization options. I suspect you've been on the forums too much and should call it a day, enjoy the early-access period maybe?

[ZephyrMenodora]

FFXIV is a story-based game which centers around your character. I think it is fine to feel upset over something which you've come to love change so much practically overnight. Yes, take a step back if you feel severely unwell, but nobody here has said anything which would warrant such a response. This is a genuine critique.

I am happy you are happy with your character, but that has nothing to do with wanting more customization options. I suspect you've been on the forums too much and should call it a day, enjoy the early-access period maybe?

She told me to leave a forum I’ve been on 8 years longer than her. I find her ridiculous. If you cry for an entire night over your mmo character looking different you have issues.

[Rolder50]

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.

[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!

[CaptainLagbeard]

Miqo'te appearance didn't really change much with the update...

Although I do have an alt that is an Au'Ra, and their face looks a lot softer than before and Face 4 went from somewhat angry looking to pouting.



Edit: Also, they added the Derplander hairstyle from the DT trailer to the aesthetician, on a Miqo'te the hairstyle looks rather bad as the ears look like they were just glued onto the hair rather than being a part of the character... On older hairstyles, the Miqo'te ears do sort of blend into the hair newer ones they're not really taken into consideration...

[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.

[Aurelle_Deresnels]

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.

Support. SE has tied their own hands by delivering the graphics update in this state.

If the new faces and features had been delivered as new customization options, rather than overwriting existing ones without adding options that stay true to the original features, we wouldn't have this problem!

[Granyala]

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

I've been where you are.
I was deeply in love with my Draenei's looks and then Blizzard changed her personality completely. They effectively killed my character and severed my connection. It didn't take long for me to quit WoW. It was suddenly very easy.

So I know how shitty this can feel.

Still, you need to realize something: if the overwhelming majority of the players like the update, then it has served it's purpose. Changing [X] that you dislike now risks changing something a lot of people are fond of.

This round, I was lucky. My Keeper did get changed yes, but not in a defining way. (Still think her green irises could use a bit more shimmer, though)

I hope you will come to appreciate the update in time, because I would not hold my breath for any crass changes at this point.
If all else fails, there is always the ToS breaking option.

As a life lesson: I recommend not getting too attached to a character in a videogame. Changes are inevitable. That is life.

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

Well, he'll certainly have less financial worries then.

Not sure about a diminishing number of life and death situations though. Groupies can be rough.

[DBriggs304]

The graphics are basically the same. They shouldn't have wasted the time.

[Granyala]

The graphics are basically the same. They shouldn't have wasted the time.

If you think the GFX are the same, you need to have your eyes examined or stop playing on a potato.