Gender locked race?

[Lauront]

The main issue is that when asked about male Viera, Yoshi P said to look at the lore that was in the game.
SE might ignore the lore in some cases, but in others they don't, it's pretty hit and miss, but here we have an indication that the lore is being followed.

I doubt they actively ignore it in any case. It's simply that in most scenarios where a job or, say, a gender/race combination is rare, other players are not taken canonically as existing for the purposes of this. Just a few of those adventurers you meet will actually exist but because it's an MMO they can't be more specific than that.

Although oddly enough, Sidurgu himself is able to stay in the city, and even have a confrontation with a Halonic priestess without being slain on sight.

Unless it's explained at some point in the 60-70 quests, it seems at odds with the rest of his story. Not saying there's something suspicious about it, just maybe an oversight by the writers.


Generally though, I would have to imagine an Auri Warrior of Light having a harder time fitting into Ishgard than the others. (But then nobody in Gridania showed their usual prejudice regarding Duskwights towards my alt character, either.)

The joys of generic script writing....

Indeed. It is a shame.

[jameseoakes]

The main issue is that when asked about male Viera, Yoshi P said to look at the lore that was in the game.
SE might ignore the lore in some cases, but in others they don't, it's pretty hit and miss, but here we have an indication that the lore is being followed.

But why write the lore in that way to begin with?

[Lacan]

But why write the lore in that way to begin with?

Well, for Miqote and Viera, those are just carry overs from 11 and 12 respectively. That's how the races worked in those games.

[Bright-Flower]

I think people are just saying that using the lore as justification for excluding the race isn't a good excuse. You're supposed to be the only white mage of your generation when you can't walk down the street in Kugane without bumping into 6 others. Male miqote are supposed to be several times rarer than the females because of a lower birth rate, and yet you'll find numerous shirtless ones afk in every zone in the game.


So them trying to tell us, "oh, we didn't want to make male Viera playable because it conflicts with the lore" is a lie. :v They must have their reasons, no doubt, but no one is going to buy that one if they try to spin it that way. I won't at least.

This. As I've said before, they might try to use lore as an EXCUSE for why they don't make male Viera.

But the actual REASON for it will be something else. Whether that ends up being 'we haven't seen them before and want to keep that mystery' or 'Yoshi P thinks male bunnies look weird and said no' or 'we want to make two different races to appeal to differing demographics and can't do that without gender locking' the actual reason will not be the lore. The write the lore, they could have written the lore differently if they wanted male Viera in. And the lore we HAVE doesn't even explain it when we have male Keepers and all these white mages running around.

[cicatriz313]

Hey look, the exact same two posts came up again.

[Lacan]

Hey look, the exact same two posts came up again.

Just 10 more days to go. XD

[Lacan]

I really think he was just playing around with that contrarian comment. He was just making fun of the question since it was such a big assumption. I seriously doubt he would go against what the playerbase wants just to avoid doing something they expect him to. That would just be silly. Yoshi does care about the playerbase even if he goofs up occasionally. He wouldn't do something out of spite like that.


And when asked about male Viera directly, he said to wait for Japan fanfest. That could mean a lot of things. He didn't dismiss the idea. I think if we weren't getting them he would have clarified it right then. He has to know an open ended answer like that would make people get their hopes up. I think there is more to the situation than we're seeing.

[Alesone]

I think if we weren't getting them he would have clarified it right then.

Except if he wants to do a surprise reveal of a new race? If he confirmed male viera aren't coming then people would be expecting something as a substitute. He would obviously try to avoid spoiling something that would have been a pretty big surprise if it weren't for leaks.

[Lacan]

Except if he wants to do a surprise reveal of a new race? If he confirmed male viera aren't coming then people would be expecting something as a substitute. He would obviously try to avoid spoiling something that would have been a pretty big surprise if it weren't for leaks.

Would he want to set people up with misplaced expectations though? I just find it hard to believe he didn't realize how risky it would be letting the playerbase think "oh, cool we're probably getting male Viera!" just to be told at the next fanfest, "oh hey, guess what? You're not getting male Viera. But you can have this entirely different race we thought up that you didn't ask for and didn't know anything about till right this moment instead. Please look forward to it."


Sounds like a recipe for disaster. I know SE fumbles a lot, but I'd think Yoshi himself would know better than to pull something like that. :v I could be wrong though, he could have done an oppsie. I just find it hard to believe.

[Alesone]

Would he want to set people up with misplaced expectations though? I just find it hard to believe he didn't realize how risky it would be letting the playerbase think "oh, cool we're probably getting male Viera!" just to be told at the next fanfest, "oh hey, guess what? You're not getting male Viera. But you can have this entirely different race we thought up that you didn't ask for and didn't know anything about till right this moment instead. Please look forward to it."


Sounds like a recipe for disaster. I know SE fumbles a lot, but I'd think Yoshi himself would know better than to pull something like that. :v I could be wrong though, he could have done an oppsie. I just find it hard to believe.

He isn't setting people up for misplaced expectations, he's deliberately not dropped any hints that they're actually coming. He's either avoided answering all together, or pointed to lore that if anything, points to them not coming more so then them actually coming. If people are expecting male viera after everything then that's really not his fault, and I have a hard time finding the choice to be risky at all, it's no more risky than how they implemented Blue Mage or any other kind of questionable design decisions for other content.

Just because some people will be upset by the decision doesn't mean it's actually a risky business move.

Nobody asked for Au Ra either yet they're one of the most played races, so saying something like "here's a race you didn't ask for" doesn't really hold any weight. We didn't know anything of substance about the Au Ra either until april right before Heavensward launched either, all we knew was their name and what they looked like, a pretty low bar if you ask me.