MrHappy interview with yoshida from tokyo

[Leomoon]

the thing that I get is his mentions fans wanting a more animalistic/beast race, but in almost every MMO they make up a small minority of the playerbase (as low as 2% in some games) and that's with having them from release and not having to pay to race change or re-lvl and put yourself behind.

So from a game development standpoint it doesn't make sense unless they believe they can create a beast race that everyone and their mother is going to love and that will have more player then the potential for male Viera. ( know a lot of people who enjoyed the race in 12 and A2 who wanted to know what the males looked like, so it's chance not only to get those currently playing that are interested, but those who aren't)

Au ra are vary inhuman.... you know the race your playing...

[Iscah]

Au ra are vary inhuman.... you know the race your playing...

Au Ra (particularly the men) are a curious mix of "inhuman" features - horns, scales and possibly eerie eyes - on an a face that's actually quite human*. It's an interesting juxtaposition and I like it, but I thought it's as close to a playable beast race as the lore writers would be willing to go.

Up until now, I would have said it's that human-like face that is the clear dividing line between whether the race are considered "men" or dismissed as beastmen, but Hrothgar put a serious wrench in that understanding. Even putting aside the blurrier difference in regions beyond Eorzea, these new races still need to go through ARR's storyline where beastmen seem to be universally feared and reviled.

To some extent it'll just go in the same pile as all the other times where player race is ignored (Duskwights in Gridania; Au Ra meeting Yugiri; etc.) but it seems a lot more glaring.



* some Au Ra faces from the character creator are actually reused as 'unique' faces for non-Auri characters. Edmont is definitely based on Au Ra face #4, and I suspect Aymeric and Lucia might be male face #3 and female #4, but they don't have such instantly recognisable features so it's harder to be sure.

[shiroxkatsuya]

the thing that I get is his mentions fans wanting a more animalistic/beast race, but in almost every MMO they make up a small minority of the playerbase (as low as 2% in some games) and that's with having them from release and not having to pay to race change or re-lvl and put yourself behind.

So from a game development standpoint it doesn't make sense unless they believe they can create a beast race that everyone and their mother is going to love and that will have more player then the potential for male Viera. ( know a lot of people who enjoyed the race in 12 and A2 who wanted to know what the males looked like, so it's chance not only to get those currently playing that are interested, but those who aren't)

Well i understand many people's disappointment about no male viera, i think you underestimate how many people do want a more beast like race though.


Also well im not positive, i would not freak out to much over the tank comments. I dont think it means that suddenly two tanks will be crappy at tanking bosses.

[Theodric]

Quite a few posters have expressed their desire for a more bestial playable race. It just so happens that many of the same posters complaining about the lack of Viera men are the very same posters who do everything possible to downplay and stamp out the suggestions for something that isn't more of the same. Personally I'd have preferred no new playable races at all in favour of more customisation options for the existing playable races.

[Shurrikhan]

Quite a few posters have expressed their desire for a more bestial playable race. It just so happens that many of the same posters complaining about the lack of Viera men are the very same posters who do everything possible to downplay and stamp out the suggestions for something that isn't more of the same. Personally I'd have preferred no new playable races at all in favour of more customisation options for the existing playable races.

As much as a male Viera in keeping with the concept art would have been exactly what I've been looking for (especially if, oddly enough, I could somehow hide the ears, or they at least weren't so large), if there were just even a single face I could stand and/or a taller, lean-but-well-muscled body type available to Midlander men, I'd be well satisfied with that.

[Alleo]

Quite a few posters have expressed their desire for a more bestial playable race. It just so happens that many of the same posters complaining about the lack of Viera men are the very same posters who do everything possible to downplay and stamp out the suggestions for something that isn't more of the same. Personally I'd have preferred no new playable races at all in favour of more customisation options for the existing playable races.

The problem really is that they somehow decided that one part of each race would be the best. So they probably thought that less people would want to play female ronso or male viera. This might be true for the female but eventhough I do want a beastial race (and since I only play females on my main I still have to wait for that dream to come true) I am not sure if the need for a male ronso was higher than the one for a male viera. Anyway the best (imo) would have been to make a full beastial race (maybe with a bit more quality to their faces) and then tease the Viera with Fran as the next and last race for the next expansion.

(I also would not want to sweep so many people into one category. Because quite a few Viera supporters wanted Viera men that are different from the things we already have.)

I feel bad for Yoshi P and the dev team ... they will be back from the Fanfest and there is an avalanche of complains about the genderlock races as if nothing else they showed for 5.0 matters.

That might sound a bit harsh but sometimes you reap what you sow.

[reivaxe]

the thing that I get is his mentions fans wanting a more animalistic/beast race, but in almost every MMO they make up a small minority of the playerbase (as low as 2% in some games) and that's with having them from release and not having to pay to race change or re-lvl and put yourself behind.

So from a game development standpoint it doesn't make sense unless they believe they can create a beast race that everyone and their mother is going to love and that will have more player then the potential for male Viera. ( know a lot of people who enjoyed the race in 12 and A2 who wanted to know what the males looked like, so it's chance not only to get those currently playing that are interested, but those who aren't)

This is not universally true.
GW2 for example. Though 40% of players play human characters the remaining 60% pretty much evenly play the non-human races ... including the Charr, huge, hunched over monster cat people with horns who run on all 4s. It really depends on the culture of the game. Males have shown a willingness to play body types that differ from the human norm so I could easily see a tall beastly race being between Roebros and Draggo Bois in popularity.

I personally don't think M Viera would be terribly popular but that's beside the point.

The races are sounding incredibly rushed to the point we don't even have headgear set for them

That's the wrong way of looking at it.

They're not rushed, they have been working on them since basically the start of the expansion. Problem is that they seek to given them a level of character customization unseen in this game so far and that requires a ton of work for the heads. And no head gear in this game was designed with either of their features in mind so they have to redesign things around it.

Given the Dance preview I'm sure AF gear is top of the list though.

[Vivi_Bushido]

the thing that I get is his mentions fans wanting a more animalistic/beast race, but in almost every MMO they make up a small minority of the playerbase (as low as 2% in some games) and that's with having them from release and not having to pay to race change or re-lvl and put yourself behind.

So from a game development standpoint it doesn't make sense unless they believe they can create a beast race that everyone and their mother is going to love and that will have more player then the potential for male Viera. ( know a lot of people who enjoyed the race in 12 and A2 who wanted to know what the males looked like, so it's chance not only to get those currently playing that are interested, but those who aren't)

Because it's more than 2%, people are just quiet about it. Just cause you keep your mouth shut doesn't mean you don't exist.
Remember when everyone use to say that raiders only made up 1% of this game? That was obviously false.

[Reynhart]

Remember when everyone use to say that raiders only made up 1% of this game? That was obviously false.

The thing is, at that time, the metric was not how many people talked about it, but how many characters officialy cleared Alexander (Gordias, IIRC)

[Alucard135]

The point on Armor construction in the art department is very realistic; i fear people won't agree with that excuse, but it's very legitimate.

People have to look at this in the perspective of a game developer.

It is and anyone who worked in 3d modeling will know how time consuming it can be to make sure thousands of gear fit and rigged to a newly made mesh.