You can't "lock" something that doesn't exist.

[Alucard135]

Why are you asking people to be patient? We're paying full price for incomplete features.

I'm afraid I have to tell you that the new races aren't what you're actually paying for in this game if you didn't know.

[Anatha]

When a race or class is locked to a certain gender, it is called a "genderlock", this has been the meaning of the term since its inception, and this sad attempt to redefine it to serve as the foundation of a baseless argument against people upset by SE's decision is nothing short of disappointing.

[Sigma-Astra]

Why are you asking people to be patient? We're paying full price for incomplete features.

It's an MMO. The game will always be incomplete in some form or way because you can't fully polish or finish an MMO that's ongoing. This isn't a standalone single player title. Just because you're paying a subscription fee doesn't mean that you're entitled towards whatever you want.

This mentality needs to go.

[Alucard135]

When a race or class is locked to a certain gender, it is called a "genderlock", this has been the meaning of the term since its inception, and this sad attempt to redefine it to serve as the foundation of a baseless argument against people upset by SE's decision is nothing short of disappointing.

Gender-lock for classes is the term that was used and commonly known. But I've never seen gender-lock being used in any other MMOs for races that didn't have the opposite gender when there was no model to begin with.

[Melichoir]

Gender-lock for classes is the term that was used and commonly known. But I've never seen gender-lock being used in any other MMOs for races that didn't have the opposite gender when there was no model to begin with.

Humor me then, what would you call it when a player race only has one available sex when it is clear that in regards to in game lore and descriptions, that it has 2?

Cause the argument you are putting forward is this:
Even though the game directly references them in lore, we have dev precedence with making sure there is a male and female variant on all the races once ARR kicked off, this ISNT gender-locking cause the game assets dont exist (even though I have 0 proof of this), so Gender locking is the wrong Terminology.

Mind you, as I pointed out before, people who make this point seem to understand quite clearly (or claim to do so) what is being directly referenced when people say genderlocking Viera and Hrothgar, and having a discussion about the correct terminology does nothing to address the core complaint. In fact, as the OP directly does, they discuss symantics as an explaination of why "Gender locking isnt happening" and people are complaining about nothing. It is quite literally "Well the in game assets dont exist, so you really cant clal it genderlocking (even though I completely understand that the complaint is people want the male and female varients of a race, and were only getting one, thus the player's choice when it comes to selection of a race is being "Locked" into a single gender.) But its not genderlocking cause....semantics. So just be happy, ok! Stop complaining."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As a quick aside,

I do think there are bad arguments regarding other aspects of this debate. As also mentioned before, the Sexism/Homophobia PoV are also not productive. Also having the mentality that "We're paying so things need to happen this minute" argument is also a non-starter. IMO, the conversation revolves around 2 points:

1) Feelings about the current situation: That is the happiness, positivity, annoyance, frustration, negative vibes, or whatever else theyre feeling regarding the fact that we are getting two races where we are only allowed to choose one sex. This point should be the expression aspect where people can just say how they feel about the situation. This is part one of hte conversation. Its purely subjective, people are just voicing their thoughts and feelings. There hsouldnt be any real criticism at this point cause people are entitled to hold their opinions and feelings.

2) How the Devs should address the situation: This is where people should voice how the devs should address it. These are suggestions, ranging from "Do nothing" to "Work hard to get those sexes out and in our hands ASAP." Whatever the view, however, reality has to be a part of it. So no, the Devs cant just drop every aspect of the entire company and game to make these two things the players want. There will be a time component, of course. Nor should it really be a thing to suggest the devs do something so egregiously out of character, such as "Make the models and make them background NPCs to dangle in front of players, but never implement." Neither of these suggestions is something the Devs can use, or we can discuss without devolving into idiocy.

That being said and coming full circle, the semantics argument does not fit into either point. It's got nothing to do wiht the feelings regarding the actual decision made, nor is it a suggestion for the devs. If you want to discuss the colloquial use of Genderlocking, open up a thread, talk about it. But bringing it up as a talking point where you are essentially saying "BEFORE WE EVEN GET TO POINT ONE, WE NEED TO ALL AGREE ON THE TERMINOLOGY" and where the redefinition of terminology ends up preventing point 1 from happening due to people not agreeing on definitions, is a derailment tactic. It does nothing to address what should be addressed.

[SendohJin]

Humor me then, what would you call it when a player race only has one available sex when it is clear that in regards to in game lore and descriptions, that it has 2?

unisexual playable races

Mind you, as I pointed out before, people who make this point seem to understand quite clearly (or claim to do so) what is being directly referenced when people say genderlocking Viera and Hrothgar, and having a discussion about the correct terminology does nothing to address the core complaint. In fact, as the OP directly does, they discuss symantics as an explaination of why "Gender locking isnt happening" and people are complaining about nothing. It is quite literally "Well the in game assets dont exist, so you really cant clal it genderlocking (even though I completely understand that the complaint is people want the male and female varients of a race, and were only getting one, thus the player's choice when it comes to selection of a race is being "Locked" into a single gender.) But its not genderlocking cause....semantics. So just be happy, ok! Stop complaining."

the semantic problem is people who use this term incorrectly trivialize the solution.

the response is frequently "just unlock it", "unlock it already" when it really should be, "we want 2 complete races added this expansion instead of 2 halves". it sounds much more unreasonable to ask for two races to be added to one expansion.

it allows them to be entitled without sounding like it. it allows them to make what would normally be an unreasonable demand sound more reasonable.

maybe some people feel like we're owed two races since Stormblood didn't have one and that's probably a discussion worth having but we rarely if ever talk about it like that because semantics dictates that we just talk about unlocking what's been locked.

[Alucard135]

Humor me then, what would you call it when a player race only has one available sex when it is clear that in regards to in game lore and descriptions, that it has 2?

unisexual playable races

That lol.

There are so many games out there that just because the lore stated that there is only one gender available, everything was ok (Tera Popori, Elin, Baraka. Blade and Soul Yun. Warhammer greenskins). I wouldn't call it gender locked since, as I have stated many times before, there are no playable features that you were prevented from by having one gender only. And the same lore you're using is explaining why such feature doesn't exist. Lord of the rings online got away from making female dwarves just because they used the lore to state that they look like males. FFXIV used the lore also to explain the lack of male Viera. But let's be honest, everyone for male Viera are saying lore is no excuse.

But let's assume something fun. If the only reason for all this outcry and we're considered genderlocked in Viera race was because the lore said there are males (not because they made them and have them already in the game), then if SE was to make up their own lore on Hrothgar (since they can because they're not tied to FFX lore) and said that they are only males, would you consider Hrothgar gender locked?

it allows them to be entitled without sounding like it. it allows them to make what would normally be an unreasonable demand sound more reasonable.

Just look at the news articles echoing the same things to see how bad this have gotten.

[Raiya]

I'd be honest the whole gender-lock fiasco was overblown but that being said SE should have been more straightforward from the beginning about the situation regarding their development as well as the situation going foward. Interviews after the fanfest basically confirmed that Hrothgar was initially meant to be the next race then when Return to Ivalice happened and they got Fran included as part of this it basically became choice between developing resources to create an entirely new race gender (female hrothgar) or integrate another into the game (viera F) that was getting development anyways, hence we got the Hrothgar Male's and the Viera Females. The best way going foward to preventing any further controversy is to basically for them to commit to eventually releasing the other gender at some point for each race. Part of the upside to this though is that by introducing 2 races even if it's one gender now it's alot easier later on than introducing them seperately.

One other thing as well is that because of the different head sizes for example the new race's are going to be initially unfinished a little on 6.0's release though this will be patched later on. On top of that whenever they get round to developing the other sex of both races it might not take as long as initial development resources for the 1st half of the race can potentially be used to develop the other half quicker later on.

[Joven]

if fans cry loud enough, eventually SE will buckle.

This is the part that really bugs me and actually makes part of me wish they announce that they're NOT going to release the other genders just to prove that they have integrity enough not to cave to fan outrage and pressure over everything. I would honestly applaud a decision like that in the face of all of this.

[Alucard135]

This is the part that really bugs me and actually makes part of me wish they announce that they're NOT going to release the other genders just to prove that they have integrity enough not to cave to fan outrage and pressure over everything. I would honestly applaud a decision like that in the face of all of this.

Exactly, we want to see the dev team's vision for this game. Not fans' demands. Else we would have gotten Sephiroth for Alphascape instead of the amazing fight against Omega. What bugs me more is that when the dev team tried to partially implement something based on fans' demand, they got labeled with horrible things despite them explaining why they did it instead of people thanking them for their hard work to provide things for as many players as possible.