Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[SoloWingMetatron]

I never made the claim that I was in the industry. I have an issue with people calling the guy a liar, no matter what he says. I don't agree with everything the team does, but they have no reason to lie in that letter

You're right, they have no reason to lie...but the fact is he did for the reasons mentioned in my previous posts. He ain't a saint, he's a regular flawed individual, just like the rest of us...so yes they are very capable of lying...when I say lying, I don't mean that in the malicious sense...what I mean is that his statement was his attempt to hold back the tide by throwing out rhetoric and technical games dev jargon in an attempt to bolster his reasoning in the previous interviews.

The majority of his statement is just misdirection, for example the claim of having to edit 10k assets, which is technically inaccurate due to some assets sharing the same mesh....but 10k sounds a lot more daunting than a lower number...it's called marketing, the gift of the gab and misdirection. The only straight up lie is the one about QA and manpower....there's no two ways about that one. Money and manpower is exactly how that particular part of the statement is solved.

[MikkoAkure]

We the consumer are partly to blame for this though...because we keep on buying these unfinished games, keep on placing those pre-orders, keep on engaging with the micro transaction business model....all this is doing is feeding the beast and ultimately it's the devs and consumer that will get screwed over (devs because they will be out of a job if the studio continuously fails to meet fiscal targets...consumer because we are are now paying premium prices for unfinished games)

...

Another thing to consider would be to just edit gear sets that are crucial and/or unique such as AF, Raid, Dungeon, and so on....there is plenty of gear that just exists as mere padding for leveling and once it's serves it's purpose is not seen/used again...these pieces also tend to be glamoured over anyways....so the devs could just edit a handful of these and replace them with pieces that they feel don't need to be edited at this time....although it is a shout cut, it would help lower the number of assets that need editing.

So unfinished is bad, but you're suggesting they release something unfinished that you want?

Regardless of how many suggestions you could make for the dev team, you're still asking a company to take the time and money to hire a group of people just to get through something they already made the decision not to do and don't have in their development schedule that in the end is just something cosmetic. I'm sure that the amount of money spent to get this in a time frame that would satisfy half the thread would cost more than the potential lost subs from people leaving just because they can't be a bunny boy. I myself was a bit bummed by the decision not to have male viera and I would have played one had they existed, but I'm not going to dwell on it and I've moved on and I'm still 110% looking forward to the expansion. But armchair game developers arguing for cutting of other content or increase in patch spacing just to get missing genders is a little immature.

[SoloWingMetatron]

So unfinished is bad, but you're suggesting they release something unfinished that you want?

Regardless of how many suggestions you could make for the dev team, you're still asking a company to take the time and money to hire a group of people just to get through something they already made the decision not to do and don't have in their development schedule that in the end is just something cosmetic. I'm sure that the amount of money spent to get this in a time frame that would satisfy half the thread would cost more than the potential lost subs from people leaving just because they can't be a bunny boy. I myself was a bit bummed by the decision not to have male viera and I would have played one had they existed, but I'm not going to dwell on it and I've moved on and I'm still 110% looking forward to the expansion. But armchair game developers arguing for cutting of other content or increase in patch spacing just to get missing genders is a little immature.

That was a mere suggestion of how they could follow their trend of shortcuts by cutting some gear meshes for the new genders...however this was my last suggestion and one that I would only ever want to see occur as a compromise, rather than the ideal....that's the way problem solving works...so yes unfinished is bad and no I don't wan't the gear edit's to be unfinished....

Exactly, as I said in a previous reply the real reason behind this is time and money....none of the work required to implement the missing genders is impossible, it's actually very possible....the real issue is how much time and money is SE willing to invest into their development. Yoshi will have little to no control over the budget he's allocated, so it all comes down to how much leeway the higher ups are willing to give him....of course he can't outright say that because it put's SE's business practices in a bad light, so instead we get the statement we got.

Actually I too can live without Viera....of course I love for them to appear, but if not I'm happy with my Au Ra or possibly a Hrothgar if I can make a look I like. Had Yoshi just straight up said we can't do the missing genders due to time and budget restrictions, I would totally respect that and not say a word because it is what it is.....however the sole reason I'm giving them harsh critique is because of the falsehoods and misdirect that was in the statement. I work in the same industry as him so it's very easy to spot and I am simply stating facts on how the development pipeline works vs his statement, and the two do not match up...

[Insertcoins]

That was a mere suggestion of how they could follow their trend of shortcuts by cutting some gear meshes for the new genders...however this was my last suggestion and one that I would only ever want to see occur as a compromise, rather than the ideal. So yes unfinished is bad and no I don't wan't the gear edit's to be unfinished....

Exactly, as I said in a previous reply the real reason behind this is time and money....none of the work required to implement the missing genders is impossible, it's actually very possible....the real issue is how much time and money is SE willing to invest into their development. Yoshi will have little to no control over the budget he's allocated, so it all comes down to how much leeway the higher ups are willing to give him....of course he can't outright say that because it put's SE's business practices in a bad light, so instead we get the statement we got.

Actually I too can live without Viera....of course I love for them to appear, but if not I'm happy with my Au Ra or possibly a Hrothgar if I can make a look I like. Had Yoshi just straight up said we can't do the missing genders due to time and budget restrictions, I would totally respect that and not say a word because it is what it is.....however the sole reason I'm giving them harsh critique is because of the falsehoods and misdirect that was in the statement. I work in the same industry as him so it's very easy to spot and I am simply stating facts on how the development pipeline works vs his statement, and the two do not match up...

I'm about to be in the industry too, I'm goigng to school for game animation and design online. I'm just going to say it's easy from the outside to say he should've said X Y and Z. But He's got suits over him, I mean you said so yourself. Him saying " We couldn't cause of money issues " could put him in fire with his suits. You DON'T know that relationship cause you're not the suits OR Yoshi P. And just cause one company may not have issue with their Director saying what you want them to say doesn't mean SE wouldn't have an issue. To be honest.. we're lucky we got what we got. We could've gotten " Do you not have buns? " OR " We don't plan on doing anything, deal with it." Like fallout76.

[SoloWingMetatron]

I'm about to be in the industry too, I'm goign to school for game animation and design online. I'm just goign to say it's easy from the outside to say he should've said X Y and Z. But He's got suits over him, I mean you said so yourself. Him saying " We couldn't cause of money issues " could put him in fire with his suits. You DON'T know that relationship cause you're not the suits OR Yoshi P. And just cause one company may not have issue withtheir Director saying what you want them to say doesn't mean SE wouldn't have an issue. To be honest.. we're lucky we got what we got. We could've gotten " Do you not have buns? " OR " We don't plan on doing anything, deal with it." Like fallout76. i'm just saying.

Welcome fledgling developer!

That is exactly what I just said!....my previous replies have all stated why his statement was inaccurate and is likely down to his hands being tied by the suits....I have stated quite clearly those points you have just said to me...

I really don't mean to be rude to anyone here but I will not engage with people who are not going to read thoroughly and offer any counter argument grounded in experience and knowledge....I am talking specifically about those who are actively engaging with me and instead of a discussion, just demand receipts...which I then give, but in return fail to produce their own and people who simply just don't read and end up trying to read me on a point I've actually already stated myself...

[Lauront]

What this really comes down to is time, money and how much SE is willing to invest in them...nothing
more.

Which could, in turn, be why Yoshi-P has to give it this particular spin. Saying SE isn't willing to invest more in the game would not make his bosses seem too great. I do have faith though, that if they see the possibility for increased earnings through adding the missing genders (and also updating the graphics), it will ultimately happen, but for now using resources as an argument is more difficult to dispute than lore-based objections, in addition to probably being true, just not to the degree he states, so it's an effective statement on the matter. At least it's not a hard "no", I suppose. He's in a very difficult position as the mediator between the senior management and the consumer, as one group wants increased profits at minimal cost (and sometimes forgets this requires providing something of value to your end consumer), and the other wants increased features at higher speed at a high level of quality at the lowest possible cost. They're not really compatible notions and so he's left trying to juggle those priorities.

At this point I will just continue reminding them I would like to see the genderlock gone and the graphics updated, even if it takes till 6.0.

I'd like to believe that's true, but I'm losing faith in SE....I am 100% positive that Yoshi and his team truly want to implement all of these great things, but his hands are tied by SE and he has to operate within the times and budgets he's been allocated....there're only so many hours in a day and right now those hours are filled with polishing up 5.0 and working on content for the 5.x patch cycle and beyond.

This is why I advocate for them to stop the 3.5 month patch cycle and give themselves more time to develop quality content and requested content!

They could feasibly do it by dropping a patch and, say, work on a 4 month model but say 4 patches in total, giving them more time to focus on the polish of them. The real issue is how much content they're striving to both add and maintain. Raids, trials and dungeons are non-negotiables for them, understandably, and perhaps they would feel a stronger need to stick to 3.5 month release cycles for those, however an extra 2 weeks won't kill anyone, so the real question is more the sacrifice of the one final patch if they want to keep it on a 2 year fiscal cycle. Eureka has actually given them a way to keep people playing, provided they design it correctly.

[Fei-yen]

You're going to make male Viera a target with talk like this.

This game is already far too slow in terms of updates, slowing it down would end it especially for something which is essentially glam.

If you want support from more than a niche you shouldn't advocate for the rest of the game to suffer so that you get a thing you want, you're circling back around to selfish and entitled and it's only going to garner more heated opposition.

Exactly. And the topic itself is so cheap (for just a glamour) I don't know anymore if it's a kind of fetish with those people enjoying getting bullied or just a total absence of interest about the game itself and its future and just willing to sit in Limsa and RP/ERP or showing off their glam. Glad dev team isn't going to feed this rotten side of the community, they're a few, but they're very vocal and I believe they think showing off their RP skills with their walls of text while trying to argument their reasons will help them to transform those from crap to cakes.

Problem is even now Yoshi-P told people again this heinousness won't happen, they start to build their tricky RP castles in their own brains feeding something that doesn't exist in reality. Will be my last post on this thread as I am a gentleman wishing people not getting bullied and so wishing for this thread to disappear slowly in the next weeks/months.

There's literally no in-game reasons to not get a gender-lock race. All those are extra and related to RP, ERP and glamour show-off nobody cares about (or should) when it comes to videogames. For sure doesn't help the game to get better, so stop with this #$*8%!

[Roda]

"Why would anyone want to play a character like this??? Its gotta be for erp reasons" -A lalafell 7 times out of 10.

[SoloWingMetatron]

Which could, in turn, be why Yoshi-P has to give it this particular spin. Saying SE isn't willing to invest more in the game would not make his bosses seem too great. I do have faith though, that if they see the possibility for increased earnings through adding the missing genders (and also updating the graphics), it will ultimately happen, but for now using resources as an argument is more difficult to dispute than lore-based objections, in addition to probably being true, just not to the degree he states, so it's an effective statement on the matter. At least it's not a hard "no", I suppose. He's in a very difficult position as the mediator between the senior management and the consumer, as one group wants increased profits at minimal cost (and sometimes forgets this requires providing something of value to your end consumer), and the other wants increased features at higher speed at a high level of quality at the lowest possible cost. They're not really compatible notions and so he's left trying to juggle those priorities.

At this point I will just continue reminding them I would like to see the genderlock gone and the graphics updated, even if it takes till 6.0.

They could feasibly do it by dropping a patch and, say, work on a 4 month model but say 4 patches in total, giving them more time to focus on the polish of them. The real issue is how much content they're striving to both add and maintain. Raids, trials and dungeons are non-negotiables for them, understandably, and perhaps they would feel a stronger need to stick to 3.5 month release cycles for those, however an extra 2 weeks won't kill anyone, so the real question is more the sacrifice of the one final patch if they want to keep it on a 2 year fiscal cycle. Eureka has actually given them a way to keep people playing, provided they design it correctly.

That's exactly it!...the entire purpose of my argument is to say that his statement is as you say his particular spin on the issue, due to in house politics. Rather that it being something in the actual development process that makes it impossible...

However I have said my piece on that and provided my understanding and receipts. The beauty of the internet is everything has a timestamp and a citation...so if people wish to come for me, I advise those individuals to do a fact check first and foremost...otherwise they will just be ignored....I've only covered the very basics of the development processes in my replies and I sure as hell ain't walking the children through nature for this one...

I'm glad you have been an active presence in this thread! You have always approached the debate with comprehensive and well thought out arguments and it has been fun to just bounce ideas off of each other, spitball, theorycraft and brainstorm this topic out!

Going forward I'm just going to echo your statement of reiterating that I'd like to see the genderlock removed in the future and then just wait and see I guess.

[Insertcoins]

Welcome fledgling developer!

That is exactly what I just said!....my previous replies have all stated why his statement was inaccurate and is likely down to his hands being tied by the suits....I have stated quite clearly those points you have just said to me...

I really don't mean to be rude to anyone here but I will not engage with people who are not going to read thoroughly and offer any counter argument grounded in experience and knowledge....I am talking specifically about those who are actively engaging with me and instead of a discussion, just demand receipts...which I then give, but in return fail to produce their own and people who simply just don't read and end up trying to read me on a point I've actually already stated myself...

I did read and I did say you even said so yourself in my post. I was just saying Or tryign to say I think it's unfair to past judgement cause we don't know the details which could be why he gave the reply he did. But if I'm misunderstanding anything my bad.