Gender Locks Have Revealed the Worst in Players.

[J-Reyno]

So given those facts, we have to look at his statement again. People want Viera, and the devs/company are looking(looked) into it. However, having males of that race might be weird, strange, mysterious, perhaps even baffling to add in their minds. Why? Because every single piece of lore from other games and FFXIV have stated how rare they are to even be seen. It could have been a company head that made the decision.

I take this as him expressing their dilemma from a development standpoint. I do not consider this to be calling the concept of male rabbits weird. Why even mention them in lore at all if it's the "wrong" kind of weird(taboo)?

I don't think SE, or Yoshida is fundamentally opposed to male rabbits, cats, pigeons, sloths, potatoes, or whatever. I think he was expressing the difficult decision they had to make, and even offered a possible solution at that time to counteract it.

I'll say that I appreciate your response even if I disagree with you for reasons already laid out in other responses. Their history regarding the kind of sentiment I describe is unchanged.

At the very least, I feel like people should be able to agree that while we can't all have what we want, we can also strive to make sure everyone has a share of what's already set before us. I don't feel like keeping things equal is a big or unreasonable ask. Both races should have both genders, or we should have one race with both genders first, and then later the next race with both genders.

There's the whole "they can do what they want" thing, and we're just as free and more than justified in criticizing those decisions. I'm personally not unsubbing because of this, I mean I wouldn't be switching to male Viera anyway. My voice remains as long as I'm paying to play the game, and when I'm not it will mean that I have moved on and won't care about what the game has gained or lost.

[AnnaRosa]

I didn't call the comment homophobic, I called it sexist. These are two different things, and we're fortunate enough to have google available to educate you. Use it.

"Lore" as an explanation is not valid when 1) you can have eight WHMs in a party and 2) they write the lore to their desires. In this case, they've written the lore in such a way to keep out those "weird" Viera males.

Also, we appreciate you showing your true feelings on the matter. You hate those raunchy gays, is that it? You've decided that anyone who wants male Viera is a homosexual ERPer and you don't want those people in your game.

Tell you what, we'll concede your point once you find examples of my pUbLiC hOmOsExUaL RP!?!?!

You can't, and you won't. You've decided to make up some imaginary boogeyman in your head because you have no other point to make that won't include made-up quotes and false assumptions of character. You mock, demean and disparage because your arguments are as empty as your head.

Well pulling the racist/homophobic/sexist cards in a victimization purpose won't get your point heard persons are completely different and have different personal preferences, for instance my concept on Male Viera is completely different from the concept presented in fan art so far do imagine Male Viera being strong large medium stature and middle aged wrinkled with big beer belly, with a big beard and strong mustache does that make me sexist? No.

Neither you will see me pressing a whole company to force my concept on Male Viera to feel my fetish included, on other hand totally respect that YOU have a different concept for Male Viera than me and would be indifferent to me either concept SE would choose because after all is their product in the end, not mine or yours.

Just cause persons have different personal preferences from yours doesn't make them sexists, homophobic or racists that's just a way of grooming the company to make them do what you want.

What did ask to you before and ask again please stop attacking the company workers and lets try to be heard in a different and more polite dialogue.

[Kirsten_Rev]

I didn't call the comment homophobic, I called it sexist. These are two different things, and we're fortunate enough to have google available to educate you. Use it.

In fairness, it's even harder to paint it as sexist. Sexism is prejudice based on gender; SE clearly isn't displaying any prejudices against males, because they ARE introducing a new male. If any prejudice was displayed at all, it was favouring stereotypical muscle-bound males over those dressed as playboy bunnies. That's a lot closer to homophobia than anything.

Be careful criticizing others for their education when you're making mistakes yourself.

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As to the quote in question, yeah, sure, it's possible to interpret that in a negative way. That said, I have two questions for you.

(1) Is it really that surprising to see SE make gender-locked races? It's not like SE doesn't gender-lock gear. It's not like SE didn't take forever and a year to release the bunny suit for male characters. It's not like they haven't made gender-specific appearances for things like dresses.

(2) Do you really, REALLY think that this team is homophobic or sexist? This is a dev team that has created more effeminate males than virtually any Western title on the planet. The male characters are so pretty in this game (on average) that I don't even have an interest in playing one. Every other Hildibrand sequence involves rubbing a near-naked man all over with oil. The gender balance around meaningful storyline NPCs is spectacular, featuring plenty of strong men and women taking the lead in every type of scenario imaginable. Heck, years ago, Squaresoft - before even merging with Enix to become SE - made an entire sequence in FF7 centered around a cross-dressing minigame, with the female characters intentionally poking fun at how uncomfortable Cloud was.

I have a hard time buying the sexism / homophobic arguments. It seems like you're taking a game that in most respects is extremely progressive, and excoriating it the split-second you feel it doesn't live up to the high standards it typically sets. I'm usually loathe to defend SE - I have a lot of complaints with the development team - but in this particular respect, they're doing just fine, in my opinion. And I resent the implication that holding this opinion makes me a sexist.

[J-Reyno]

In fairness, it's even harder to paint it as sexist. Sexism is prejudice based on gender; SE clearly isn't displaying any prejudices against males, because they ARE introducing a new male. If any prejudice was displayed at all, it was favouring stereotypical muscle-bound males over those dressed as playboy bunnies. That's a lot closer to homophobia than anything.

I am not going to call it homophobic (even though there are implications) because, frankly, I don't associate feminine traits in men specifically with homosexuality. I personal know gay men who are very masculine, and plenty of gay ladies who are the most feminine women you'd meet. It just becomes a messy argument even if I do have my own thoughts about it.

Yes, sexism is prejudice based on gender. There is definitely a prejudice against certain feminine traits in men at play, which is discriminatory. There is a reason why female characters have more options to wear styles for men than vice-versa. Sure, there are definitely options to make "skimpy" dudes and what all, but pointing that out is saying "take what you can get" instead of "hey, maybe the options should be equal". I'm not going to comment on SE as a whole because we're talking about the decisions of a particular dev team.

Also, be careful in assuming that my criticism is limited only to this particular decision. I don't think we're that familiar with each other.

[Physic]

I didn't call the comment homophobic, I called it sexist. These are two different things, and we're fortunate enough to have google available to educate you. Use it.

"Lore" as an explanation is not valid when 1) you can have eight WHMs in a party and 2) they write the lore to their desires. In this case, they've written the lore in such a way to keep out those "weird" Viera males.

Also, we appreciate you showing your true feelings on the matter. You hate those raunchy gays, is that it? You've decided that anyone who wants male Viera is a homosexual ERPer and you don't want those people in your game.

Tell you what, we'll concede your point once you find examples of my pUbLiC hOmOsExUaL RP!?!?!

You can't, and you won't. You've decided to make up some imaginary boogeyman in your head because you have no other point to make that won't include made-up quotes and false assumptions of character. You mock, demean and disparage because your arguments are as empty as your head.

lore on vierra goes back to ff12. they had a village of all females. its highly unlikely that bunny men were erased by yoshida with this in mind.

also, not really sexist. they already have effiminite men, and therevis no indication vierra males would be effiminate.

[J-Reyno]

lore on vierra goes back to ff12. they had a village of all females. its highly unlikely that bunny men were erased by yoshida with this in mind.

also, not really sexist. they already have effiminite men, and therevis no indication vierra males would be effiminate.

I don't think they would be (or need to be) effeminate. It's more of an issue, specifically, with the dev team having a hangup regarding boys with bunny ears.

Seriously though, it's like I've said before regarding Yoshi's "having a rabbit male might be kind of weird" comment. This, along with the men of the dev team (the men, specifically, as stated by Yoshi himself) actually refusing to work on the bunny outfit for male characters because it made them "uncomfortable". They had to ask female members of the team to work on it, resulting in it taking longer. They made the women do the work because the men straight up refused. How wild is that?

Let's really unpack that; as others have said, we do already have skimp options for males in the game. Why is there an issue creating a skimpy variation of the bunny outfit for men? It's because, as Yoshi stated before, bunny boys are "weird" for them. You'd think they'd just make them somewhat buff bunny boys or something, but this is obviously a hangup for the dev team.

Bunny women and girls with bunny ears have long been something of a feminine sex symbol, or a symbol of femininity in general. For them it's uncomfortable to put boys in bunny ears due to the longtime associations. It's not like I think the dev team is evil, but I do think they conform to a trend which has its basis in casual, societal sexism.

They are under no obligation to give players everything they want, but it deserves to be called out for what it is.

[TarynH]

This, along with the men of the dev team (the men, specifically, as stated by Yoshi himself) actually refusing to work on the bunny outfit for male characters because it made them "uncomfortable". They had to ask female members of the team to work on it, resulting in it taking longer. They made the women do the work because the men straight up refused. How wild is that?

I actually think they would've been more comfortable working on it, had they actually made what the majority of people were asking for. Most, from what I saw, wanted a unique male version of the bunny suit. Like a Chippendales type thing. Instead, they went with the female version slapped on males (likely from misunderstanding). Which, btw, I have seen maybe twice since they added them. And it was only in Eureka. Obviously it was not what the majority of people wanted, and I'd be interested to know how many male characters actually glamour it.

Still, it's not "backwards" to respect other cultures' societal norms. You wouldn't, for instance, go into a Muslim country and tell the women to take their hajib off. The more progressive action is to work with and try to understand other cultures and why they might feel uncomfortable putting something in their IP. Instead of insulting them, calling for boycotts, or storming out of the room like a spoiled child. But I don't want to "white knight" here, so...

[Delicious-Flat-Chest]

i don't think you should mention children in any of your posts with a username like that

It's pure, Christian and household friendly. Only someone tainted by Satan would see any weird undertones with my name.

[Gula]

i don't think you should mention children in any of your posts with a username like that

First off, how dare you. Second, I guess everyone who is attracted to men must have a thing for kids because of them usually having flat chests. Call me when you complete Dun Scaith maybe the end boss will change your mind.