Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Naria]

Indeed. All they need to do is review the feedback and work up some concept arts. I think a better idea might be a survey by email for their customers, to gain wider reach, but it's not a problem that is difficult to resolve. And possibly consider giving one of the subraces a muscle slider and bigger height range than the other. Not sure how easy it is to accomplish, but there's been a desire for subrace dimorphism anyway and that seems easier than making the subraces diverge as much as midlander and highlander.

I'd be a bit concerned about an email survey missing people who don't regularly check their email or have changed it and haven't updated it (judging by how often people don't realize their house is going to be demolished, this seems to be more common than might be realized). I was thinking they could hold a vote on the lodestone or a separate site that is linked from the lodestone that requires you to log in to your account to vote like they did in 1.0 or for the recent "the Best" CD. They could send out emails or post a link the launcher as well to let people know about it.

[Lauront]

I'd be a bit concerned about an email survey missing people who don't regularly check their email or have changed it and haven't updated it (judging by how often people don't realize their house is going to be demolished, this seems to be more common than might be realized). I was thinking they could hold a vote on the lodestone or a separate site that is linked from the lodestone that requires you to log in to your account to vote like they did in 1.0 or for the recent "the Best" CD. They could send out emails or post a link the launcher as well to let people know about it.

Yeah, such an approach would probably work better, especially the link on the launcher. Good thinking.

I just saw the Mr Happy interview, and while I can understand where Yoshi-P is coming from, I don't agree with it. His answer basically made it that the community pressured him into doing Viera, but they weren't pressured into Hrothgar, that just sounds dumb. Look the gender-lock itself is infuriating, but one of my biggest gripes is the gender bias. Of course the Viera are cute sexy bunny girls, and the Hrothgar are big hulking beasts. I know a lot of people are tired of these stereotypes. Some people wanna play tall amazonian brutish woman, and others small meek adorable men, why can't those be a thing.

I like being a lala, I feel its true to myself over irl me, but more options for shorter, cuter, meeker males would be appreciated.

You know what give us male only Padjal, problem solved, lol. But not really.

My impression of it was that they wanted a race that would enable them to target a demographic that exists which prefers bestial races, possibly a senior management expectation to help capitalise on players from other MMOs who are not considering this game due to the lack of such an option. I don't really think this is that large a demographic, as from what I've seen there's other issues putting players from other MMOs off this game, which take precedence (and which the devs have an awareness of, so we'll see what the job changes bring with them), but putting that aside, it seems like it was a question of adding a race the management (and perhaps some of the dev) team think will boost sales, and one which there is already strong existing demand for. Not so much that they begrudgingly had their hand forced by the playerbase. In any event, there is a big positive here in that all this means they appear open to adding the other gender when they figure out how to go about it.


Also just a reminder to all, please contribute your opinion on the gender-lock here if you've not done so already.

[interacti]

Please reconcider. I really wanted to play a male viera character.

[Kage_kun]

Although i dont have plans to play a male Viera, I think that males should be added because it give people more options to the players of FF14. For me, i was a big fan of FF11 but always wanted to play a male Mithra. While i never got to play FF14 in 1.0, i was sad to hear that males were still unplayable because of lore reasons, males are super rare in lore. When i heard that FF14 was relaunching with male Miqote, i jumped at the chance to give FF14 a try. After getting a taste of FF14 2.0 beta, i fell in love with the game and have been playing it since. I think male Viera should be added because it can draw more people to the game, but also because i want them to experience the same joy i did.

[Doomfish]

Many of my friends were showing hope for Male Viera, and while they've come to accept that it might not be a possibility, there just as many more players who would be thrilled to see them introduced. Even if they come in at a later point in the game, when the resources can be allocated, I think that would be a fine thing to do. Please, consider making Male Viera.

[Quizotic]

throwing in my support, I've wanted to see what the male Viera look like.........love the concept art on the first page........since playing 12.


Also to say you won't do something again and then to go back and do it anyways after hyping the community up is a pretty low blow
(and is the reason so many have left the titan in the industry that is wow, to play other games including this one)

[Malindachan]

+1 for male Viera please! <3

[Haliblossom]

Adding my voice. Male Viera and female Hrothgar please! Stop catering to old sexist fantasy tropes/stereotypes and fragile masculinity. Let people play what they want.

[Whimsical_Moose]

I would probably resub if SE just apologized for not realizing how gender-locking races would make their female fans feel and promised to release those genders in the next expansion (not necessarily Shadowbringers, just a promise for the expansion after that). I can't guarantee that the 5 friends who unsubbed with me would rejoin (although they quit because of lack of guild leadership without me and not because of game play or the implications of the gender-locks) but I have two friends who agreed to join when they heard about a male viera race (before the disappointing gender-lock announcement) who might still join once male viera are released.

[Lazariah]

To the Dev team: I may not fully understand why you did not make male and female of both races, but I wont question your decision. You made a call you clearly felt you needed to make and I respect that. However, I would like for you to consider adding in male Viera and female Hrothgar in the future. I have always been against gender locking races since I started playing MMOs. Here are a few reasons why:

1: It is to a degree unfair to the playerbase. Here is this wonderful race, fresh out of the design box, new animations and hairstyles and...oh wait you can only play it as female (just for example). If you only feel comfortable playing male characters, this is a huge disappointment. You've been marketed a new race. The devs show promotional materials and get you excited only for you to not be able to play it due to gender. It feels wrong and disheartening. The next question is why? Why can't I be this race? Then frustration sets in. Now what should be an exciting reveal for everyone is unfortunately tainted. I know I felt my hype deflate when I found out this news.

2: Variety. I have and always will be a huge fan of variety. It is the spice of life and in MMOs it's what sets one game apart from the next. What are the first two things people want to know when they look to play an MMO? What classes can I play and what races. If any of those are hindered based upon gender, you end up alienating a huge portion of the fanbase. When we first learned about Viera and there were speculations on Hrothgar, I knew what I wanted most of all in the next expansion was to be torn between playing a female Viera, male Viera, or a female Hrothgar. I wanted to have to make those decisions so badly. To me, the mark of a great game is having so many good options you almost don't know where to start. FFXIV does that well in so many aspects that I hope we will eventually see male Viera and female Hrothgar.

3: Personal Fantasy. MMOs for many are about creating your own personal fantasy. Whether your character is an extension of yourself or your own hero you like to see succeed everyone wants their character to look a certain way. Hrothgar for instance gives a great option for people who want to be cat people but more burly then Miqo'te. Viera is perfect for people who want to be tall and lean and beautiful but not Elezen. I understand that one would think more common fantasies would be the tall beautiful bunny woman and the large muscular lion man but we all know how varied the FFXIV fanbase is. There are many who want to be tall pretty bunny men and muscular lionesses. Of course I have no data on such things but perhaps it is a good idea for SE to gather data on it.

Thank you for your time. I do want to thank you very much for Viera and Hrothgar. I think they look wonderful and cannot wait to see them in game. Take care and make sure Yosh-P gets some sleep.