Devs, can we please have a response?

[AnnaRosa]

You've heard our feedback and we understand you're overwhelmed with the release of 5.0. Can we please just hear any updates in regards to adding the missing genders, please? Any new response will suffice. Thank you.

Logically they do not have any valid reason/argument "to not look into it" it will bring profit to the company and to their shareholders and that alone should be enough reason, developers in a long term time will be rewarded for their hard work on the creation of both genders and indirectly will extend the MMO lifetime.

On why they don't do that now maybe (pure speculation) it has to do with the expansion preparation to prevent situations like happened in Ragnarok on last expansion there were so many players that could not progress on instanced quests story line so you have a notion you had waiting lines with 600-1000 characters/players to make those quests, on the 1st day.

[Daralii]

Logically they do not have any valid reason/argument "to not look into it" it will bring profit to the company and to their shareholders and that alone should be enough reason, developers in a long term time will be rewarded for their hard work on the creation of both genders and indirectly will extend the MMO lifetime.

On why they don't do that now maybe (pure speculation) it has to do with the expansion preparation to prevent situations like happened in Ragnarok on last expansion there were so many players that could not progress on instanced quests story line so you have a notion you had waiting lines with 600-1000 characters/players to make those quests, on the 1st day.

They are also very obviously pressed for time, simple as that. Crystarium was barely ready in time for Tokyo, Eulmore was barely ready, the Eden art was barely ready with Nomura not even having boss designs finalized, the Hrothgar models were barely ready, etc. Even in western countries, which don't have the insane work culture that Japan does, this is the crunch period where developers spend days or weeks at a time without leaving the office and often barely sleeping. Attempting to expand what they already have on their plate at this point screws up the entire workflow.

[Selova]

You've heard our feedback and we understand you're overwhelmed with the release of 5.0. Can we please just hear any updates in regards to adding the missing genders, please? Any new response will suffice. Thank you.

They've already made it pretty clear on their stance as of right now. If you think they are somehow going to magically introduce Male viera in Shadowbringers you're going to be really disappointed.

[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.

[AnnaRosa]

They are also very obviously pressed for time, simple as that. Crystarium was barely ready in time for Tokyo, Eulmore was barely ready, the Eden art was barely ready with Nomura not even having boss designs finalized, the Hrothgar models were barely ready, etc. Even in western countries, which don't have the insane work culture that Japan does, this is the crunch period where developers spend days or weeks at a time without leaving the office and often barely sleeping. Attempting to expand what they already have on their plate at this point screws up the entire workflow.

Yours perspective might be the most realistic on the motive they can't give an ETA for both missing genders for each playable race right now.

[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.

[Canadane]

Yes I remember he gave you a flower :3
And yes, there have always been desires. This is why I worded my post as I did. I don't want to claim nobody wanted anything.

These days however we see people screaming their heads off as they don't get their way. It's a much more brutal thing.

[YatoShishi]

Oh god - not this again.

Once they release both counter parts its gonna be the following anyway: " What is that!? Lazy devs! Just looks like <insert race here> with attached <insert limb here>!!! Im gonna unsub!"

And then we gonna have a battle between players who like it and players who think because they pay a sub each month they own the Devs and Yoshis soul.

[reivaxe]

I've just checked OP's history and ... you need to lay down for a bit, take a healthy step back and reflect on what it is you are doing, why this is and if this sort of obession is really that healthy. This is not me patronising you, this is me being serious with you. As for me, I'm not against the idea of male viera. But if they don't have any real concrete things to work with right now, or they just don't have the time or resources, then they shouldn't and focus on creating an actual game. A good expansion.

More people need to read this ...

Also, to clear some things up ...

1- "they had plans for Male Viera! The concept art!" That concept art is from back when they were deciding between Scaley People and Viera. They didn't even know how the Viera would look which is why there's art for Tall, short and straight up full furry looking Viera. That's how concept art works, you make a ton of stuff and show it to the person in charge and narrow it down over time. Just cause they thought about it doesn't mean they had hard set plans to do it .. that's the whole point of the concept art stage.

2- "They didn't expect this backlash!" actually yes, they did expect backlash. It was a hard decision for them but they decided to make the most people happy and do what's right for the game and devs.

3- " It's been almost a month, I humbly demand an answer that I feel entitled to!" Do you know what they meant by looking at the response to this? For all we know they're gonna wait even until after ShB releases to comment on this, they never said when they would respond nor did they promise a statement here.

People really need to look at the Happy Interview ..

"We did expect strong feedback on the gender lock. It was a tough decision, but we decided to do our best to meet both the player feedback and our development team’s vision. It will be very costly to add a new race or genders. So I won’t say no, but I would not like to set expectations high.

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Thank you for the insight. Currently, we are putting together all the feedback. Depending on the feedback we are considering an official statement on the forums.
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