Hrothgar Viera and Baraphobia

[JunkhogMakison]

Haven\\\\'t made a forum post in a long time so I apologize if this feels alittle sloppy in parts. Before I begin I just wanna preface by saying this is not a hit piece or an attack on people, rather this is a general analysis of what I have been seeing after this past fan fest and my current feelings and opinions on everyone\\\\'s reactions to the Hrothgar.

Big burly husky lion dudes, all beast and all Male what more could I ask for. Having to look at half naked cat women every 10 seconds seeing these brutes strutting around town will be a welcome change for me.

I was always a big fan of big giant male races in games. Not just for adult appeal but also for the fact they are always picked on and treated like misfits, something that I can relate to on a personal level. People make fun of Roe men on a consist basis cause their big, their muscle heads, their not thin etc.

So knowing my feelings and opinions on big Male races, you can imagine how excited I was for the Hrothgar.

Unfortunately it would seem I am apparently the only one excited for these guys. The backlash for the Hrothgar has been difficult to see to say the least.

I decided to take to the posts and see what I can find. General consensus being that mainly most people are just angry it\\\\'s a gender locked class in this day and age. This is indeed a valid and fair criticism, I refuse to play games such as Black Desert and Tera because my favorite classes are only playable by young skinny little men and females. Gender/Race locking is an unnecessary handicapp on any game and it\\\\'s high time the gaming industry sees this.

However, I have been seeing other comments towards the Hrothgar, comments I find very offensive. Alot of people are angry at the fact that they are not skinny enough, they are to muscular, to tall, to fat, to furry, and their all Male which Is gross and sexist.

Seeing people say these things leads me to believe that if the Hrothgar were skinny feminine looking boys people would not be angry about their inclusion. There not angry at the gender locking, rather their angry the Hrothgar does not cater to their heteronormative ideologues and this closed minded dillusion that men are only attractive when they are skin and Bones and have fem like features.

I play a game called Housamo, it has the most diverse cast of men you could possibly ever meet and it is heavy Bara leaning. So many different types of men, Big, little, furry, muscular, chubby, and so on! This game believes in chubby men, which is something MMOs would never in a million years dream of giving us "World of Warcraft being the new exception with their new alliance race"

This really gives me worries for the future, its next to impossible to find chubby burly men in MMOs. There always skinny humans, skinny elves, skinny kitty boys and so on.

[Gwenorai]

If it makes you feel better OP, I'm happy you got your bara cat. It's sad that prejudice will sadly have folks 'picking' on the bara cat. While I have my own, I'm working on 'getting away' from that and just letting them be. Best to see them not as the 'race that replaced male Viera' and just 'a new playable race' as things can change. Hopefully, Hrothgar will have its female counterpart and also be 'buff' and 'roar' like.

[craybest]

no one hates the wrothgar per se, it's because of how they came to happen. people had been expexting a full race with viera, and only got half, and then we got the wrothgar that no one had asked for.

[Nyvara]

I have no opinions at all, I come from the it is what it is school.

I Just wanted to give you 50 internet points for using "heteronormative" in a sentence. Well done!

[Keridwyn]

Honestly Hrothgar are kinda victims in this. I think you'd be seeing a lot more excitement for them if they hadn't 'replaced' male Viera. I play and enjoy a femroe so seeing the male Hrothgar kinda salts me not because 'no bunny men' but because there are no females of that race. Let me be a buff savage cat lady if I want. Why does the most beastial race in FFXIV have to be boys only?

[KaitoAsaha]

Years before this I would often say it would be neat if they had a bulkier version of Miqo. To me the current ones were like tamed, smaller, house cats, so the bulkier ones would be more like larger feral cats. I'll definitely be switching over to Hrothgar for a couple of months myself, longer if I'm blown away by the customizations. Also I agree all too well with a comment on here. The hatred for this race will eventually blow over, sure enough. Those that are dismissing the race are just extremely displeased with how things turned out during the fest. Personally I'm a bit disappointed too but I'm not joining in the heated debates and will just leave things be. Hrothgar is a pleasant surprise, for sure, but with them being limited, in terms of gender, just sucks when we're possibly looking at a 2 year wait before this is expanded on, least the devs have put their foots down on leaving it as is. I would like to add that if the devs gave a more legit reason for why this is happening it would've dampened the fire some more too. Just an assumption though.

[BiddyBatnana]

Those who asked for male viera and got traumatized not having them are the ones critisizing the Hrothgar.
They are vocal and loud, bashing on this race on purpose. Instead of celebrating the fact that we got one additional race to play with. (the more the better right?)
Acting this way they believe that way they'll end up with their Bunny Femboys.
But life doesn't work that way, making such noise is nothing but a nuisance.
Nuisance ain't cute.

[Thefates]

Those who asked for male viera and got traumatized not having them are the ones critisizing the Hrothgar.
They are vocal and loud, bashing on this race on purpose. Instead of celebrating the fact that we got one additional race to play with. (the more the better right?)
Acting this way they believe that way they'll end up with their Bunny Femboys.
But life doesn't work that way, making such noise is nothing but a nuisance.
Nuisance ain't cute.

To be fair, It's not "the more the better" if they get rid of half of each race. We're just left with the same amount of options we would have had with one race, except now people are angry since it wasn't the options they expected.

[BiddyBatnana]

Yeah but once again people brought it upon themselves.
Still 2 different races.

[Ayer2015]

I like the Hrothgar actually. I'm just salty about no helms.

Both the Viera and the Hrothgar look so much better than our current races. I hope the old ones see some love in 6.0