Character Creation Has A Race Problem

[cougarel]

I thought the planet was called Hydelyn and the continent was Eorzea?

My bad, you are correct . Thumbs up
Also funny how the old avatar was cached when i started to reply.

[Pomelo]

I would have thought someone so concerned with diversity being represented in-game would choose to play something other than a pink haired miqo'te female.

Jesus Theo xD

[Vidu]

Gotta say though, some of you seemed to take having characters with Hebrew or black features negatively.

Thats not the impression I got?
I dont think anyone would mind that - or even less the addition of more (curly) hairstyles.

What I personally minded however was the underlying tone of suggesting that there is a racism-issue here because you cant make a midlander girl look like an african person, when the truth is that you can actually create good looking black (or asian) characters, if you just pick the right race for them.
We have the diversity in the game - its just spread out over our ingame races to make them more diverse and also to correspond with their lore and where the race in question lives.

Asking for more hairstyles is probably always getting you likes and agreement - asking for new hairstyles while claiming racial bias of the dev-team is a bit... meh.

(Also, for the OP asking me where all the grey skinned characters are... may I refer to my FemRoe whos got light grey-blue-ish skin?)

[cougarel]

Thats not the impression I got?
I dont think anyone would mind that - or even less the addition of more (curly) hairstyles.

What I personally minded however was the underlying tone of suggesting that there is a racism-issue here because you cant make a midlander girl look like an african person, when the truth is that you can actually create good looking black (or asian) characters, if you just pick the right race for them.
We have the diversity in the game - its just spread out over our ingame races to make them more diverse and also to correspond with their lore and where the race in question lives.

Asking for more hairstyles is probably always getting you likes and agreement - asking for new hairstyles while claiming racial bias of the dev-team is a bit... meh.

(Also, for the OP asking me where all the grey skinned characters are... may I refer to my FemRoe whos got light grey-blue-ish skin?)

Thank you ! Couldn't have said it better .

[Nandina]

Thats not the impression I got?
I dont think anyone would mind that - or even less the addition of more (curly) hairstyles.

What I personally minded however was the underlying tone of suggesting that there is a racism-issue here because you cant make a midlander girl look like an african person, when the truth is that you can actually create good looking black (or asian) characters, if you just pick the right race for them.
We have the diversity in the game - its just spread out over our ingame races to make them more diverse and also to correspond with their lore and where the race in question lives.

Asking for more hairstyles is probably always getting you likes and agreement - asking for new hairstyles while claiming racial bias of the dev-team is a bit... meh.

(Also, for the OP asking me where all the grey skinned characters are... may I refer to my FemRoe whos got light grey-blue-ish skin?)

Again, I'm not talking about Roes. Your argument is that the game doesn't reflect real life, but when I asked earlier why then aren't there any blue, red, or green Hyurs; you're going to talk to me about Roes. . . yet again. They are not human. I can walk outside and see a Hyur equivalent in real life, not the same for a Roe. So, the fact you're adamant that's analogous to my point is baffling.

I suppose this is our yearly dose of tumblr idiocy. Last year the New World outfit apparently was cultural appropriation and the year before that we had Shark Fin stew.

While I'm all for more character creation options. Claiming FFXIV has a "race" problem is simply look for something to be offended by.

Every time someone speaks out about something, the hive-mind always has to mention tumblr as if these conversations hadn’t existed before tumblr, lol. And pointing out where the game could do better and asking for more inclusivity is apparently idiocy. That’s not me being offended, that’s me informing SE to step it up. And if SE has a problem with that, they should let everyone know that and offer to refund our coins.

Well aren't you rude. I was just poking in jest, but ya really gotta insinuate we're stupid and you're not.

Most people are on board with wanting more natural and wavy hair. That would be really nice. Almost all of my characters are black and I would kill for some curls to go with them. But, you made it into some sort of weird pseudo-race war thing. That's where you've lost people, including myself.

Don't get pissy when a single fictional race in a fictional world doesn't conform to real life. You can make beautiful dark skinned people from almost all the races in this game. Different faces have different structures, just like there is one Miqo'te face that has full lips that is very nice. If you wanna cry about diversity, try not being a pasty white moon cat and play in character creation a little longer.

No one really shot down their ideas. Everyone seems to be on board with better character creation and more hairstyles, including those that are woefully under represented like wavy and curly. What people do not like the is the unnecessary aggression (see their response to my original post) and holier-than-thou WOKE AF attitude. There has been tons of threads simply asking for better black hairstyles and customization that weren't dripping with superiority that got very good responses.

Girl, bye. For starters, I can’t determine whether you’re genuinely joking or trying to be a smart-ass on the internet. When multiple people keep telling me about another playable race in the game that I’m not referring to, and you go along and mention it for a third time, I start to question whether or not people are having difficulties staying on topic—or even understanding the topic. But I don’t see how you can sit here and say no one shot down my ideas, when people literally did just that by saying that the game shouldn’t and doesn’t reflect the real world without a justifiable reason why it can’t (unless you’re white). Disagree all you want, fine, but when people sit here and counter arguments I’m not making, and I have to repeatedly correct them that’s irritating. I will not bend to your respectability politics.

It’s not about being holier-than-thou or woke AF. It’s about fairness. People mentioned that all the character creation options (like the Afro) are not available from the onset. Fine. I didn’t say anything in response to that, because it was something I was wondering, and they informed me. Cool. But it begs the question why someone doesn’t have access to more than two kinkier hair types from the get-go but over a dozen straight ones? And I guess the afro, will make it three. So you’re saying that I have to buy a Fantasia, then use the Crystal Bell to find hair styles that may or may not (they aren’t) be there? But when people question it, you’re saying that to get the experience we want, black people have to be hulking beasts. Yes I say beasts, cause there’s nothing human about a Roegadyn or any of the other races. Sure they may be humanoid, but they aren’t human. As for the highlanders, I don’t want to look like a weight lifter, and many other black girls don’t either. What if a black or brown boy wants be toned and slim and not massive and aggressive looking, but doesn’t want to be an Elezen or Miqo’te (which doesn’t have his features anyway)?

And you are really working hard for those butter biscuits, insinuating that I’m making this some sort of “race war”. I haven’t attacked or downed anyone based on skin-tone, ethnicity, facial features, etc. You really tried it that with that one, yet when your ability to comprehend is questioned, you get mad. Have several seats in a dark corner facing the wall. This is the type of stuff right here that has me being very snippy, but then everyone wants to play stupid and wonder why I’m responding the way I am. Again gaslighting. I honestly believe you were trying to be a smart-ass, but when you were subsequently gathered, you changed your tune and claimed you were “poking fun in jest”. If I have a group of people saying some problematic stuff—and yes shooting down my ideas with no legitimate reasoning—and then you are “poking fun in jest” and also responding to my response to someone else who said something problematic with irrelevant commentary about playable races that weren’t mentioned, yes I’m liable to get snippy. If your poking fun had at least been on topic I more than likely would’ve responded differently. I have a low tolerance for BS.

[KaivaC]

Because it does lean toward Caucasian aesthetics. So, stating facts are a problem now? I shouldn’t have to sugarcoat and lie to spare feelings. It is what it is. As it pertains to Valkyrie, you responded to my responses to them, but took issue with my responses to them, yet not their comments which made me respond that way in the first place. Therefor it’s safe to assume you didn’t see anything wrong with what they were saying.

When I first jumped into this thread, I stated my disagreement with the original post. You responded to me, so I started addressing my issue with your postings directly. Before you continue to try to redirect this towards what valkyrie said, do note that I only quoted valkyrie because of a side debate I was having with Magic-Mal. Why you want me to address this with you, when you were not even directly involved in that conversation that I was having with them, I don't know. If I have an opinion to give about a subject or a person, I will state it - I very rarely sugarcoat anything on the forums.

Since you want to keep bringing that up, I'll address it with you. Your response...the part where you said 'you were sure that they were well-represented', yes, I took a bit of an issue with that because at that point, there was nothing in valkyrie's post that warranted that kind of response, nor do you even know what gender/ethnicity valkyrie is (I don't know if they've shared that information since the first page).

Honestly, with the way your going on about underrepresentation, this feels so much like you're wanting to be offended by something. You're going about this and complaining, but the issue is that the character creator is limited as it is. Minus the exemption of hairstyles added over the years, the character creator is generic as hell. The things you are asking for are just not going to happen. Not because the devs are "out of touch" for the minorities of the west...the character creator literally is generic as all hell. That's it. Again, this is a non-issue, insofar as ethnicity goes. What you're asking the devs to do is not possible due to limitations on a code built on the back of a sketchy 1.0. Again, this is a moot point.

But any event, a Roe is not a human. Why do I have to be some beastly creature to get representation? I’m not sure if this is your intent, but saying that I have to be a Roe to be a decent looking black person in the game sounds kinda fucked.

Neither are Hyurs, if you really want to be technical about it. Dunno why you cherry picked me and singled out Roes, but it's whatever. I'll repeat this again - I've managed to do it with BOTH and Hyur and a Hellsguard Roe with the default 3.55 character creation before ultimately settling on Au RA.

[Nandina]

In Eorzea and with the other races...that point is moot. We don't know the intensity of ultraviolet radiation, or even whether it's needed. They may be producing vitamid D through the use of a different chemical reaction, they may get more of it from food or they may just not even need it to begin with.

Appeal to ignorance fallacy. You can't use what you don't know to justify why something can or can't happen, because it literally proves nothing. Using your logic, I could say that the ultraviolet radiation could be the same as ours in real life to justify why we should get more differences, but that's a weak argument.

[Theodric]

-snip-

You can't claim that this is about 'fairness' when you've called for the game not to be released outside of Japan because it doesn't bend over backwards to give you exactly what you want. Multiple players have given you advice in regards to designing a character to your specifications and whenever it is pointed out you seem to immediately move the goalposts elsewhere.

[Vidu]

Again, I'm not talking about Roes. Your argument is that the game doesn't reflect real life, but when I asked earlier why then aren't there any blue, red, or green Hyurs; you're going to talk to me about Roes. . . yet again. They are not human. I can walk outside and see a Hyur equivalent in real life, not the same for a Roe. So, the fact you're adamant that's analogous to my point is baffling.

No, they are not human, but that does not make them less of an eorzean race and legitim choice in this game. Honestly, right now you sound a bit like you're thinking less of all non-hyur races in the game based on the fact that they dont look like humans...

But again: This is a game, not real life. Not even second life. Its a fantasy world in which I would say you should consider all races before you make claims like you did - not just the humans.
You can have a person with red, grey or blue skin in this game - and even a Hyur with black skin, if you're so set on staying "human". Dismissing those options because you cant walk into a green-skined Roegadyn in real life seems pretty strange to me indeed.

Yes to more hairstyle-options - no to your claim that "Character Creation has a race problem" when you have options to give your character basically any skintone, if you just pick the race that fits that skintone lore- or character creation-wise.

You can create a good looking character with a dark-skintone - the most fitting races here would probably be highlander, Mi'qote (my bf plays a beautiful black Mi'qote) and hellsguard (maybe some Au Ra or lalafell). That even includes a "human"-race for you. Not every race needs to represent everything and we have lots of representation here.

[micropanther7]

I checked both and the problem was the same. I don’t want to be a Highlander cause I find them far too burly, but the issues I’m talking about apply all the same. Like I can go dark, very dark actually, but I can’t really be in the middle. When I went very dark, there was still only either red tones or blue tones; no yellow or olive, which I’m pretty certain is why the skin looks funny. Like in real life, if I put a foundation on that matches my skin color, but has the wrong undertone, it looks funny. There too many duplicates of the same color and undertone. What is Reshade though, and where do I find it? I play on PS4 and came back to the game like a week or so ago, so I’m not sure if that’s on there or just PC only.

Reshade is for pc only I'm afraid :/ https://reshade.me/, if you want to have a look at what it does. I totally get what you're saying about the undertone, agree completely, but alas I doubt we will get that level of skin tone customisation for our characters.. ideally I'd like a RGB palette selector, where you could input RGB values til you get the exact tone you want