A letter to the Devs, Producers, and whoever else has a say

[Pixelburst]

Not really. FFXIV's version of Dalmasca doesn't match XII lore to the letter, why couldn't they do this with Viera? They write the lore, they could have easily made male viera if they wanted to. The lore is not the reason it's the excuse.

FFXIV does not own the rights to Viera anyway. So go complain to the crew of FF12. lol

[Anselmet]

I really don't get it. Statistically speaking, most people in this game play 'pretty classes or cute classes'. That's why we have a bunch of hyurs and miqo'tes running around this game. Male roes and male highlanders are so rare that I can probably realistically count on just my finger and toes over the past 5 years playing this game where I have entered an instance where they are the majority of the party. So why waste resources on them? And if they were making a ronso race then why didn't they MAKE a ronso race. Why make this hunchbacked furry abomination instead? Ronsos from ffx are actually cool and could have filled the niche that male au ra fill. But no we get these weird deviant art furry race instead. Can't wait for the great yiffening!

Like I know people are connecting this to sexism but I often wonder if this is an attempt to pander to western audiences. From what I understand is that lalafels and other cute races are the in races on Japanese servers and roes and male highlanders being even more rare than in na/eu servers. Is this what they think we want? Is this in the same vein as why Haurchefant was changed so much in the na version? Or that we got different flower crowns from females? Did the localization teams in the west tell the dev team that we would find hrothgar cool so they thought okay we will make pretty and cute bunny girls for Japan and awkward furry cats for the west. I just don't get it.

People can also cling to lore all they want as to why we did not get male vieras but we all know that is a crock of bs. As male miqo'tes have been pointed out we also gotta remember that duskwight elezens are also supposed to be rare. Which they are so unpopular that they might as well be, but at least they are playable! There are so many things that people can point to that just violate lore that we have just to have. So there must have been some type of disconnect in the dev team. And that is worrisome.

[Solarra]

Will there be more Hrothgar than we would have seen male Viera? Harder to say but I don't think SE is crazy for thinking that there will be.

Good question. I'm not sure Hrothgar will be all that popular, personally. The more muscle-bound males don't seem to be commonly played at all. Male Highlanders are very limited in facial options so I'm sure that is a factor in why more aren't seen in-game (I have given up on trying to make one that doesn't have the same face as everyone else) but male Roes are even rarer in my experience. Sure I see a few male Roes dancing in Limsa every now and then but I rarely encounter them in PF or roulettes. On the other hand I see quite a few male miqo'te, suggesting lean and lithe males are generally more appealing. Considering the unpopularity of Male Roes in general, it does seem odd that they've chosen to make a second race with exactly the same body-type.

[krinchan]

/signed. I'm not mad. I'm not canceling my sub. But I'm really disappointed. The real disappointment here is it's not equal and FFXIV up to this point has been about equal opportunity, right down to guys can get their slut glam on or gender bend with the few skirt options and the same "face paint" (it's makeup) options as the ladies.

This is not equal opportunity to either ladies or men. Full stop.

[spf1200]

oh look the same thread again how very useful and totally not a waste of time

[Crushnight]

oh look the same thread again how very useful and totally not a waste of time

Tbh this is probably the best thread on the forums about the issue that people have OP did an excellent job putting together a well written criticism and think this should get the most support out of all of them

[0spots0]

Absolutely agree with every single word! What a baffling, disappointing decision. Why?!

[Halivel]

That's a very good written post and maybe the best one in this topic, to be honest, thank you for this.

I was never okay nor with genderlocked races, nor with genderlocked jobs, nor with racelocked jobs in any game which I played and never will be. It's a silly system that should not exist.
And as female player I want to see more handsome men and strong women in game because why not? Not all male players want to be buffed as well, you know, same as not all female players want to be waifus for an eternity. Yes, there do exist male Miqo'te as handsome guys and Roe/Highlander females as strong women but there again: genderlock itself should not exist.
So yeah, signed both for male Vieras and female Hrothgars. Even if it will going to be in 6.0 or later - I'm okay with waiting and I understand that's it's not something what you can do in one day.

[ScorpioShirica]

I agree with the letter in the original post. Very bad for them to go back on this promise. And whether the development team is sexist or it was some producer with a sexist decision that was made, it is seen as sexism here in the west.

[TheGrimace]

oh look the same thread again how very useful and totally not a waste of time

oh look the same complaint again how very useful and totally not a waste of time

see, it goes both ways