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

[Sclair0]

I understand why they went this way. Every "Please make Viera!" thread for years has been literred with "Can we have something more cool though? Like Ronso" comments. So probably early in developement they chose to go this way to try and please both groups.

But yeah I definitely hope they undo the genderlocking in future. I was really excited for the prospect of male Viera as a big Ivalice fan, and obviously like everyone else I'm dissapointed at the result. Even just coming out and saying something as non-comittal as "We'll work on it, please look forward to it" would bring back a lot of my hype for the games future.

[Twinsoul]

Please do not speak for all females. Personally I am ok with the new races being what they are. It's sad that a vocal minority are kicking and screaming and will take away dev time to "fix" the races that we were given, to which you would likely complain about our getting lacklustre content because of.

Don't make majority/minority assumptions. My reading of the forum has the pro-genderlocking folk being a significant minority. But there's no real way to know. Ultimately, SE will do their own counting and make their own decisions.

[Lexi]

I understand why they went this way. Every "Please make Viera!" thread for years has been literred with "Can we have something more cool though? Like Ronso" comments. So probably early in developement they chose to go this way to try and please both groups.

But yeah I definitely hope they undo the genderlocking in future. I was really excited for the prospect of male Viera as a big Ivalice fan, and obviously like everyone else I'm dissapointed at the result. Even just coming out and saying something as non-comittal as "We'll work on it, please look forward to it" would bring back a lot of my hype for the games future.

That’s my hope, that they at least say we will look into this seeing the high demand for both genders.

Just something to give us hope, I know it takes time and won’t be ready right away but to give us something to look forward too.

[Gramis]

I want to see male Viera be a thing, I want to see female hrothgar be a thing to. You want my money for a fantasia from the mogstation? That's one way to get it, thank you.

[manickitty]

Please do not speak for all females. Personally I am ok with the new races being what they are. It's sad that a vocal minority are kicking and screaming and will take away dev time to "fix" the races that we were given, to which you would likely complain about our getting lacklustre content because of.

Oh so you’re personally ok, that makes everyone else a vocal minority? Don’t presume to speak for everyone else.

“The vocal minority is attempting to stifle valid criticism and requests for male viera/ female ronso”

See, I can do it too.

[DancingFirecat]

Signed! Severely disappointed in how SE handled this. Female Hrothgar? I would've been throwing money at SE

[Adyrawr]

Made an account just to pose here. :") This was very well written and I'm happy to sign it!

Please give us some big lady Hroths and Viera guys D:

[hynaku]

I sure don't support what they did. Gender locking is wrong. Why didn't they just bring out viera in 5.0 and other lion race in 6.0. What heard they don't even have any head armor made for them yet. If they did just one race then could used head armor on both male and female. But now they have to make if for two different races. To me it seems completely dumb what they did.

[Shiro--Tsubasa]

Don't make majority/minority assumptions. My reading of the forum has the pro-genderlocking folk being a significant minority. But there's no real way to know. Ultimately, SE will do their own counting and make their own decisions.

The reason why it is logical to assume this is due to the nature of this topic. When people are upset with something they are more likely to take to the forums and complain. Those who are content do not. This leaves it in a situation where unless you get posts from more than half the player base you can assume that it is just a small vocal minority. (which I doubt not even 20% of the playerbase even bother with forums, twitter, etc outside of looking up news, guides, or lore) So when it comes to it, the majority consists of those who are happy with it and those who don't mind either way.
The forums are never a good representation for the overall population. Just those who are unhappy with something involving the game.
Honestly I'm surprised that there are some that like the gender-locking aspect posting anything purely because they are content with the choice now. It just goes to show that some realize that these posts being against the gender-lock might change something they are happy with and are preemptively making their stance in hopes of preventing it before it is to late.

[Kirsten_Rev]

I sure don't support what they did. Gender locking is wrong. Why didn't they just bring out viera in 5.0 and other lion race in 6.0. What heard they don't even have any head armor made for them yet. If they did just one race then could used head armor on both male and female. But now they have to make if for two different races. To me it seems completely dumb what they did.

Why is the gender-locking in FFXIV wrong? I'd be interested to hear more clarity on this one.

After all, most of the arguments I've read on gender-locking - and I agree with them - have to do with a far harsher level of gender-locking than is present in XIV. I remember games made 20 years ago - games like Diablo 2 - have gender-locked classes. If you wanted to play Sorceress, guess what - it was female, and that was it. Feel like a Barbarian? You were a male. There are all sorts of issues with a system that severe in an MMO: it perpetuates problematic stereotypes (usually, anyway); it forces people to choose between class identity and gender identity. All in agreement, that's less than ideal.

But that's not the reality of XIV, a game which features a fairly wide array of choices for race / gender, all of which are capable of playing any class in the game. About the only thing missing is a muscle-bound female model which, yes, would be nice - and speaks to making a female Hrothgar - but I don't even see most people calling for that; I hear people wanting male playboy bunnies, as if male Miqo'te (or male Hyur) can't recreate this look already with a Gold Saucer costume.

So what's the additional element, in your mind? Why the blanket moral statement? The stereotype argument is objectively flawed when applied to XIV and the Viera discussion, so I'm under the assumption that people are feeling something more, and I'm quite curious about what it is.