Gender locked race?

[DevilsDontFly]

Is Viera a female only race in FF12? Yes, they are. Is there a problem with that at time FF12 release? No, there is none. Why are we bend over for social justice warrior now?

Because there is a difference between you seeing the story from the perspective of a pre-estabilished character you have no control over (Fran) versus having the freedom to fully customize your character and playing it according to your judgement.
A lot of people are using the whole "But Final Fantasy XII don't have male Viera" argument and forgetting that the only reason that's the case is because apart from Bangaa, every other race that isn't a human on XII is close to not existing. We haven't seen female Garifs or Revs just as much as we haven't seen male Vieras, and that's because the stry telling of the game didn't find it necessary to introduce them just because.
However that is the complete opposite of an implementetion of the race on a multiplayer create-your-own-character fantasy game. Yes, we had Mithra and Galka being gender locked, but please take into consideration that there's a difference between a game that is already designed to have that feature from day 0 and a game that started with the idea of every race being able to have both genders.
I wouldn't classify this as "social justice warrior", and I'm curious to know if all the people with those arguments -weirdly enough all coming from female character players- would still be all "that's how's supposed to be" if there was only a male race option to be talked about on the matter.

[Jaywalker]

Is Viera a female only race in FF12? Yes, they are. Is there a problem with that at time FF12 release? No, there is none. Why are we bend over for social justice warrior now?

Look. I get you're worried. This reaction, even when people are commenting that double standards are dumb and we shouldn't have them, is seriously nowhere near SJW stuff. Part of why I'm here is because it's next level bad in other fandoms to the point that extremists are threatening peoples lives and livelihoods over fiction. Japan does not care about the extremist moralizing stuff that happens and is not giving power to those people, thank god. Fans being frustrated and wanting equal opportunity is within the realm of normal.

FFXII was showing a narrative that followed a limited cast with fixed playable characters and party members. Locations you had access to were also limited by storylines. FFXIV has a character creator that allows you to make in theory any humanoid race, so exceptions would stand out like sore thumbs. I know that I explained in another post before seeing this so not going to go over the whole "people want creative freedom" bit again, but I really do want to stress that this conversation people are having is small stuff.

To folks in the forum in general also, even if you get annoyed at each other or think someone's being a jerk--the fact that you can argue with someone on the internet about a game and not live in fear that you'll lose your job, your ability to finish school, your entire social circle... that's a luxury. I'm not kidding. I've seen multiple people attempt or get pushed to the edge of suicide over it. That's what's going on outside JRPG, anime, and some additional videogame fandoms. It's literally dangerous to speak right now in other circles. So if you want to argue back and forth that's fine and all but please try to remember that you're incredibly lucky to be able to do that.

It's why when I see someone making comments like "oh I hope you don't get what you want" or "SQUARE ENIX IS GOING TO SCREW US ALL" it reads as very childish to me. You can actually make conventionally beautiful characters in this game and not get accused of hating anyone not conventionally beautiful for it. You can have fanservice and not get accused of enabling rape.

...I'm actually getting upset typing about this, because FFXIV is the fandom I came to specifically to escape and try to find something that's still positive. I've seen a lot of innocent people hurt over this, and honestly I still get scared to talk sometimes even here.

So argue if you want to, but when you start accusing anyone with any kind of social criticism of being an SJW it makes you look naive. You're very, very lucky you haven't experienced that kind of terror.

[Kupocoubo]

What is wrong with gender locked race in a “fantasy” world? People were fine with Mithra being female only and Galla being male only on FF11. Is this another social justice warrior thing?

Some people like me wanted to play male vieras since a long time, and don't understand why this race would be female only when we know the males exist too. No male vieras, less fantasia potions for square enix.

[SigilBaram]

I hope SE sees that there is a 40+ page long forum thread about this issue and, if they were planning to make it gender locked, that they rethink their plan. Considering that they backed out of gender locking Mi'quote and Roegadyn and that they haven't explicitly said it's female only yet as far as I've seen or heard, they might just be milking the attention and suspense that this issue is generating.

As for the lore "excuse" people keep throwing around, that male Viera are rare and reclusive so players shouldn't be able to play them? The WoL is exceptional. Cultural norms shouldn't limit the WoL's race. Any lore reasoning for gender locking a player race is just an excuse by developers who don't wanting to bother making two models and animation sets. Having one male viera who has the power to change the world leave the Great Wood doesn't break lore. Because remember, lore wise there is only one player character with other players being refereed to, if at all, as adventurers (as in generic members of the adventurer's guild) that help the WoL, not other Warriors of Light.

(Sorry if these things have been said before, but this thread is 40 pages long... @.@)

[Satarn]

I don't even care a whole lot, but I just find the argument of "they should be locked because of the lore" so incredibly ironic. That is given the fact that this lore has clearly been originally written for Viera/Mithra/Miqo'te, for the exact purpose of excusing the female-only cat/bunny-girl races, without it being seen as weird.

[DamianFatale]

In a recent interview, male viera were hinted for the next fanfest.

[Final-Fantasy]

Remember when they showed Viera and Au Ra concept art and said they wouldn't have female only Viera and showed concept art including Male Viera.
Either they are holding back showing the male version because they haven't even created them yet, but do intend on showing them later, or they're holding back showing them because they want to see the communities reaction and possibly skip them if they think you'll let it fly because someone doesn't like male rabbits... !

[Balipu]

I'll just add that whatever we will end up having, Final Fantasy XIV is still probably among the most progressive when it comes for equal opportunity fan service. I mean remember the early leveling gear that looked like some weird S&M bikini on females? Guess what, it looks like a weird S&M bikini on males as well.

[SomeRandomHuman]

Assuming SE is any kind of moderately efficient at modeling and such, then the male Viera model is done and they're just withholding it for the sake of drawing out announcement fodder for JP fanfest and the assorted minor live letters.

Otherwise they made a bold move and put off making the model until now. I just hope they go the route of a small build for them. Like alphinaud. We have 3 large build races as is so no need for another.(Roegadyn, Highlander, and Au'ra despite their dumb proportions) We have 3 medium/light builds(Midlander, Miqo'te, and Elezen). Then potato is the only small build.

Then for those that argue the placement of the races, miqo'te are pretty damn muscular and decently built. Elezen are the most twink-style male in the game. Don't believe me? Go look at their models. Miqo'te is about the same size as midlanders in terms of musculature(they're locked at around 50 on the muscle tone slider)

[Zied]

White knights are the worst