Devs, can we please have a response?

[Krotoan]

Regardless of how we ended up where we are, or what decisions were made to get here. Whether they made good business decisions or no decisions at all on mock-ups or lack there of, I'm just requesting feedback from the devs.

I personally hope they don't waste any more time with the constant nagging I've seen about this topic. I want to hear about 5.0 and the things they've already spent time on and how the game is actually changing.
Everything is content, truly, but this "give us blahblah gender for blahblah" , I feel, is whining about cosmetics.

[Kyuuen]

You've been around since 2011, you should know by now that we typically don't get announcements; or even acknowledgements, outside of Live Letters. If anything is addressed further it will be in the May Live Letter or a later letter.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

They did originally plan to have both genders. They created concept art for male viera. Early plans, but still plans. Now whether they created models for them or not, who knows. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. It would make more sense that they did make male viera models and presented them for Yoshi or whoever made the decision to say, "no, let's do an all male Hrothgar race instead." Again, until we hear from the devs, it's all speculation. And, I don't know why they were surprised about the reaction, given the fiasco of genderlocking Roe and Miquote in 1.0.

Was there a fiasco? I certainly don't remember people being near as upset.

[Rowde]

Was there a fiasco? I certainly don't remember people being near as upset.

I was so upset I put one of my socks on outside-in and my foot felt smooshy all day...

[Alucard135]

It would make more sense that they did make male viera models and presented them for Yoshi or whoever made the decision to say, "no, let's do an all male Hrothgar race instead."

No it wouldn't. Making models for races consumes resources. They always start with concept arts and when approved they take it a step further into the actual 3d modeling part (take a look at Zenos concept arts). They don't make the 3d models and then wait for the approval after they wasted their time making them.

And speculations based on previous events hold more weight than speculations that contradict those events.

[RikkCavalier]

No it wouldn't. Making models for races consumes resources. They always start with concept arts and when approved they take it a step further into the actual 3d modeling part (take a look at Zenos concept arts). They don't make the 3d models and then wait for the approval after they wasted their time making them.

And speculations based on previous events hold more weight than speculations that contradict those events.

I said they made male viera concept art. Read the thread. The model comment was in response to someone. And I didn't say fully completed models. You wouldn't present full models for a decision, you would submit roughs. I just find it hard to believe they made such a big decision without further research, testing, hell even asking the community even. I agree with you on speculation based on history. This is why everyone was shocked they repeated another genderlock.

[Alucard135]

I said they made male viera concept art. Read the thread. The model comment was in response to someone. And I didn't say fully completed models. You wouldn't present full models for a decision, you would submit roughs. I just find it hard to believe they made such a big decision without further research, testing, hell even asking the community even. This is why everyone was shocked they repeated another genderlock.

And I replied to the same comment you mentioned the models in. And yes, they can easily dismiss an idea if it's going to be a barrier to another idea, which in this case was the Hrothgar. Viera only had concept art made nothing more. But they weren't part of the original plan like Hrothgar (Yoshi P said that). Even Fran wasn't planned to show in the Ivalice raids. It was supposed to be Balthier. But when they decided to make Viera, they decided to put Fran in (it was stated in Vegas Fanfest if I remember correctly).

I agree with you on speculation based on history. This is why everyone was shocked they repeated another genderlock.

Yoshi P did say in one interview before that Viera might be female only and there would be another male only race. And some were already speculating that there won't be male Viera based on the trailer and the leaks. Furthermore, this was also done due to resource limitations so those that speculated that had something to back that claim with. But, a speculation that the dev team will place a huge burden on themselves and announce something they haven't even started and if they didn't deliver it on time will cause a bigger backlash is unlikely to happen.

[Canadane]

Things we KNOW:
They didn't originally plan to have alt genders for the 2 new races.

I was under the understanding Hrothgar was the only planned race that initially made it outside concept, but then they decided to do Viera as well. So Viera took the female slot of Hrothgar.

And, I don't know why they were surprised about the reaction, given the fiasco of genderlocking Roe and Miquote in 1.0.

Probably because there was no fiasco at all. Almost nobody had an issue with it. It was the same selection of races and genders that existed in XI, which also next to nobody had an issue with.

[Crushnight]

Can we please not keep making threads about this i'm pro genders and i am getting sick and tired of threads demanding a response asap >_> let them work on 5.0 they have plenty to do when we get a response(vague as it would probably be) then bring on the threads. The longest you would be waiting for would be close to 5.1 if they haven't responded by then they aren't doing it.

[Beki_Bayaqad]

Probably because there was no fiasco at all. Almost nobody had an issue with it. It was the same selection of races and genders that existed in XI, which also next to nobody had an issue with.

Slightly incorrect, as a from launch veteran of XI, I can confidently say that there was a desire, not a demand but a simple desire, for male Mithra. and we finally got one as an NPC in Wings of the Goddess expansion... and... Fans were *perfectly fine* with the lone male Mithra to stay as an NPC since by the time that the team finally finalized what they looked like, the game was *too big* to add them in to the meta without taking upwards of three years worth of work for animations and gear texturing.

Now I need to repeat this, there was a desire for male mithra, but there wasn't a demand, people thought the idea of having a cat boy to be a novel idea that would be nice to have, but knew that the addition would be a monstrous task and were perfectly content with never getting to play as them.