Gender Locking and Hats: This is a constraint issue

[Jaywalker]

There are a lot of threads already talking about fanfest overall, but none that seem to be focusing on something that seems increasingly apparent to me.

The news on genderlocking and lack of hats to me reads overwhelmingly like SE is trying to navigate behind the scenes restrictions in a limited time period to the best of their ability. Maybe they hoped to have more for the immediate premier, maybe they always understood it would be a staggered content release. But the hat visibility in particular makes me think what we're seeing ties to pragmatism and navigating limitations as well as they can.

Coming from that standpoint, I seriously don't think it's sexism and homophobia. Seriously. If I thought the gender locked version was going to be a forever thing and they actively wanted to prevent players from playing as bunny boys or lady ronsos that would be a different story, but that would also be hugely out of character given SE's track record. If it's a pacing thing and trying to manage resources along with possible pressure from higher ups, accusations like that are uncalled for.

This isn't the last update for FFXIV. Come on. They're making money off of this game. There's time and especially if there's demand, it makes sense for them to address that for greater profit.

SE has been pretty good about stuff like this. Patience is a weak point for this fandom, and there are plenty of players with no idea how anyone could like something they don't... but honestly. It's not helping anyone to be impulsive OR spiteful. We're not twelve.

[Roda]

SE not being able to handle their scope isn't really much better than yoshi p literally saying male bunnies are weird.
It's just a different kind of bad.

[Jaywalker]

SE not being able to handle their scope isn't really much better than yoshi p literally saying male bunnies are weird.
It's just a different kind of bad.

I linked this previously, but idk I don't think it's about not being able to handle scope so much as company politics. And tbh I don't mind if Yoshi P thinks that male viera are weird as long as he doesn't allow his personal preferences on that front stand in the way of providing an option many fans want. That's just a question of professionalism and I don't see reason to doubt his at this stage. My understanding is that even if he thinks male viera are weird, he also doesn't like gender locking.

[Roda]

I linked this previously, but idk I don't think it's about not being able to handle scope so much as company politics. And tbh I don't mind if Yoshi P thinks that male viera are weird as long as he doesn't allow his personal preferences on that front stand in the way of providing an option many fans want. That's just a question of professionalism and I don't see reason to doubt his at this stage. My understanding is that even if he thinks male viera are weird, he also doesn't like gender locking.

I mean I've seen rumors saying it might've been ff12-man-i'm-bad-at-names who bound xiv to not having male viera, and he has since stated that it's not true. So I'm going off of what I've seen and what's been publicly said until someone gets officially thrown under the chocobus. Yoshi P has stated in interviews that he was considering genderlocking female viera and replacing the males with another genderlocked race because he thinks male viera are weird. As long as he keeps his opinions about his playerbase's tastes to himself it should be fine, but since exactly what he said he wanted to happen... happened, combined with his rather forced jokes at "lol we put pants on the male dancers, ur welcome" it really REALLY seems like some personal preferences have gotten in the way of finishing the Viera and Ronso races.

And not being able to finish your character race options because something internal is dragging you down is still technically something you should've accounted for when setting your deadlines and making promises.

It's a small indie company, please understand. /s


Seriously, though, it's also in their responsability to not bite off more than they can chew. I'd rather have a polished, complete xpac than one riddled with problems and weird choices, even if it meant waiting more time.
Yes, at the moment it's all cutting corners in cosmetic (which, honestly, are very important for people in MMOs. There's a good reason Mogstation makes that amount of money) but it's already not a very good indicative of what is to come. Imo, it's the small details that shows the directions they are taking.

This! This! This! This! This! This! This! This! This! This! This! This! This! A THOUSAND times THIS!!!!

[Duskane]

lack of hats and gender they better be very vast options with there customization options

[Fawkes]

The game has always felt like the budget is too small.

[Boreal]

It's a small indie company, please understand. /s


Seriously, though, it's also in their responsability to not bite off more than they can chew. I'd rather have a polished, complete xpac than one riddled with problems and weird choices, even if it meant waiting more time.
Yes, at the moment it's all cutting corners in cosmetic (which, honestly, are very important for people in MMOs. There's a good reason Mogstation makes that amount of money) but it's already not a very good indicative of what is to come. Imo, it's the small details that shows the directions they are taking.

[Jaywalker]

It's a small indie company, please understand. /s


Seriously, though, it's also in their responsability to not bite off more than they can chew. I'd rather have a polished, complete xpac than one riddled with problems and weird choices, even if it meant waiting more time.
Yes, at the moment it's all cutting corners in cosmetic (which, honestly, are very important for people in MMOs. There's a good reason Mogstation makes that amount of money) but it's already not a very good indicative of what is to come. Imo, it's the small details that shows the directions they are taking.

Oh please, are you seriously going to push a strawman and try putting words in my mouth because I'm not screaming "BURN THEM"? Come on. Don't be rude.

I never said I thought the constraints had to do with budget, and I certainly never called SE indie. They have a large staff and this is a high quality game with a lot of resources behind the team. However, it is still human beings making the thing. It takes a lot of time and effort, and if an ultimatum was given that the last races introduced will be in Shadowbringers it makes sense they'd prioritize getting both Viera and Hrothgar through the door. I never named who I thought was responsible specifically on an individual level for possible restrictions on the patch. And frankly, I never claimed to know everything either. But it would make more sense under these circumstances than SE pissing away money and making deliberate outrage because screw the fans. If you want that check out western media for a while.

I agree it's not ideal for there to be unfinished elements. That said, SE is generally good about fixing these things. You can be wary without the level of hysteria people are showing right now. I want the new races too, but the "WE WANT IT NOW" attitude reads extremely spoiled.

[Roda]

Oh please, are you seriously going to push a strawman and try putting words in my mouth because I'm not screaming "BURN THEM" along with you? Come on. Don't be rude.

I never said I thought the constraints had to do with budget, and I certainly never called SE indie. They have a large staff and this is a high quality game with a lot of resources behind the team. However, it is still human beings making the thing. It takes a lot of time and effort, and if an ultimatum was given that the last races introduced will be Shadowbringers it makes sense they'd prioritize getting both Viera and Hrothgar through the door. I never named who I thought was responsible specifically on an individual level for possible restrictions on the patch. And frankly, I never claimed to know everything either. But it would make more sense under these circumstances than SE pissing away money and making deliberate outrage because screw the fans. If you want that check out western media for a while.

I agree it's not ideal for there to be unfinished elements. That said, SE is generally good about fixing these things. You can be wary without the level of hysteria people are showing right now. I want the new races too, but the "WE WANT IT NOW" attitude reads extremely spoiled.

"Small indie dev" a common jab at big, very rich companies saying they can't meet the standards that they themselves set in the past because "it's too hard" "we ran out of time" or "we don't have money." People use it with Blizzard all the time. I don't think they were targeting you with that one.

[Jaywalker]

Dude, that's a common jab at big, very rich companies saying they can't meet the standards that they themselves set in the past because "it's too hard" "we ran out of time" or "we don't have money." People use it with Blizzard all the time.

I've been studying how corporations do this kind of thing across media for a while. Those are legitimate issues. Not every person working within a company is rich, and there is still a matter of division of labor as well as managing deadlines. I said before and I'll repeat, I don't think think this is a money thing. I do think it's a time thing with an internal power struggle about what will or won't be done, which is honestly common at big companies. Business and creative workforce tend to butt heads from time to time.

There are companies that legitimately don't try or care. Maybe it would have been better for SE to push release dates back, maybe it wouldn't have been. We don't have all the behind scenes information but even for big companies sometimes there are messes. As long as those messes are fixed it shouldn't be a deal breaker imo.

When I made a post trying to discuss the actual logistics behind this and suggest it might not be personal or hopeless, that reply to me read overwhelmingly like it was going passive aggressive with some word twisting nonsense. I just don't have patience for that.

Sometimes things don't work out in ideal ways, but this fandom has no middle ground between "it's perfect" and "it's absolute garbage". I get this isn't up to usual standards for SE. It's still way better than what most games do.