Repose to the FFXIV Japan fan fest keynote <SPOILERS>

[XiroGear]

While I'm sure there is a good lore reason that The male Viera and the female Hrothgar cannot be a playable race, I feel as though there is a good lore reason that they can be. So please hear me out. For the case for Male Viera: As far as the world the game takes place in is concerned, unless there is something I'm missing there is only one warrior of light, or in this case a warrior of Darkness, and by extension a single Male Viera WoD, and I do believe the Viera race would, albeit reluctantly allow this Viera access to their cities/villages due to them being little more than a barrier otherwise and acting as an unwitting agent in the lights consumption of the first shard. And even if the other characters that we know of that are confirmed to have the echo, there is only one, the player character, that would be a male Viera echo user, the WoL/WoD. Basically giving said Viera a pass, again with reluctance from the females though with whatever we do to earn their respect during the events of 5.0 going into the Greatwood and first contact with the Viera of the first shard would aid in our allowance into their towns along with any recommendations that we may get along the way. The males may be banished from the towns without the known exceptions, I think that an exception could be made for a single male Viera that not only have done what is done before the first contact, but is the to be the savior of the shard.


As for the Female Wrothgar, I'm sure we will get more lore reasons going into the future but The fact that the Hrothgar exist as a response for the Viera being currently Female only, is kinda a poor excuse for them to be male only. So until we learn more about the Wrothgar I don't see a reason that there can only be male playable Hrothgar.

And for those who will argue the fact the male Viera are banished from the towns until the requirements for the exceptions to be met, nee dI remind you of the Mi'qote, the Male Keepers of the moon are in the same if not a similar boat to the Viera and yet we can play as them in the game. Also the laws for the male Viera's banishment seems to really only be applicable to the Greatwood and no were else, plus I don't think there is a lore reason as to why the males cannot simply leave the Greatwood and make a name for themselves elsewhere in the world, also, as stated in the opening keynote there are differences between the Scorce and the other shards, so the laws of the first may not be the same in the source as far as how civilizations are developed, look at the Lalafells, they are the Lalas that we all know and love...or hate, in the source, but in the first they are the Dwarves, living live akin to those of the kobolds. So my Question to the loremaster of FFXIV and the Dev team as a Whole would be to rebuke this statement with lore reasonings and rational not just using the lore as an excuse to avoid this.

[polyphonica]

I think people are wrong in claiming that lore was ever "the reason" for the development decision anyway, as it certainly wasn't. The lore is shaped by dev decisions, not the other way around. So while the lore will certainly find a way to explain what's happening in both cases, there will be no reason they can't expand the lore later to change the situation. This is really just a dev decision through and through -- making two new "half-races" rather than one full race.

[legg]

Honestly, they already know its a bad move from 1.0 era but why did Squeenix decided to make another 'Genderlocked' playble race again?
i feel so dissapointed and pissed by this 'lore-friendly' reason.

are we going to became ffxi and sudenly every race reproduce via Reincarnation ?
yeah, 'Lore'.

Hrothgar is cool, really.
but they're deciding to push 'Male' only Hrothgar and 'Female' only Viera is....really a bad move.
imo they only need to say "Sorry, but Male Viera and Female Hrothgar is Delayed to another patch update" or basically Delayed the realease of other playble race into another expansion and focused on 1 (one) Race but with Male and Female variant for this expansion.

i always respected squeenix for their good Lore and Story writing, but, man... this is awful.
i really never feel this mad before, lol.

edit : Yasumi Matsuno's "Father of ivalice" respond to Genderlocked Viera

[Anonymoose]

The best way to ensure the developers hear you and enact the changes you want is to...

• ...concentrate responses in one very large thread so the people who read it and report to the dev. team can keep track of it, summarize it, and note recurring themes.
• ...make concise, specific points about what you want and why you think it should be implemented.
• ...[Like!], echo, and elaborate on posts that do the above in ways you agree with.
• ...assume good faith even in what you feel are bad decisions. Never assume to be malice what is adequately explained by ignorance or mistake.

Think about the humans reading your posts, and the humans doing the work. Dozens of knee-jerk threads filled with emotion and vitriol aren't doing them (or the fans) any favors. They want your constructive criticism - give it to them. They want to craft an experience you want to enjoy - tell them how. They want to create a product that you will buy - help them understand their target demographics.

When I read these posts, what I'm hearing is that people are struggling to express various sentiments, such as...

• This feels like the sudden and needless return of a problem that was solved ages ago; that the team has forgotten its roots in (by overwhelming popular demand) abolishing such things in 2.0.
• Player expectations and hopes were not adequately measured or managed with regard to how the Viera would be implemented. That the Wandering Dramaturge's words were used to support belief that male Viera were and were not coming may support this.
• It feels disingenuous and perhaps even hypocritical that the lore is ignored for vanity and player expression on a regular basis, including for the Miqo'te and the Au Ra, never mind the mounts and minions and so on, yet used here to justify the denial of options that don't seem to conform as well to Japan's more traditional gender norms.
• The above in combination has left some people feeling surprised, disappointed, and deflated.

It takes extraordinary development resources to make something like a new race. And each new race has 50% of the work in each gender expression. If you feel that these sentiments (or others!) are so pervasive and so meaningful that SE should be convinced to allocate resources to seeing the imbalance redressed, help them.

If you're confident: organize, be constructive, and get out the vote.

You've got this!

[legg]

im never going-all-out at ranting this kind of thing before....
but yeah guess i hoping sooo high and when they revealed all the info, everything goes back into dark age and hate speech happening everywhere.

gonna trying to calm down and write some constructive criticize at the propper forum post later.

[Seraphor]

So what would you prefer, for our last ever race update?

1. Male and female Viera
2. Male and female Ronso/Hrothgar
3. Female Viera and male Ronso/Hrothgar

[Fenral]

In response to a moderated post:

Your third post on these forums ever, and it's hate speech nobody asked for? Why? It adds nothing. If you're just trying to make yourself feel good, you don't need to blow your load in a public forum.

[Remedi]

I think races in general in this game are nothing more than fantasia bait, they are nothing more than glamour and while for some ppl this is enough, I'm of the opinion that races should've gameplay implications, if not by stats, at least in story.
When Au'ra were announced and their consequent announcement of being shunned by the Holy see because too much dragon-like, I was thinking that it would mean Au'ra would've some dialogues changed to reflect this or at least ppl being surprised in some way since the race was not present in the game (and Yugiri pointed out they would appear monstruous to Eorzean).
Yet nothing of the sort was done, which essentially zeroed my interest in any new races for the game. Honestly it would've been interesting to see male viera being added only for how they would've to adapt the story for them, but eh meh.

[Zol_blade]

So what would you prefer, for our last ever race update?

1. Male and female Viera
2. Male and female Ronso/Hrothgar
3. Female Viera and male Ronso/Hrothgar

Just Viera. Remove Ronso and replace them with......

[SicariusSeven]

Well there was an article where they were looking over the player responses and feedback. Part of me feels that eventually they will add the Male Viera and Female Hrothgar. I just think they wanted to at least put what was finished out for Shadowbringer rather than delaying an expansion for 2 more models.