Needs to be asked.....on Male Viera

[Schan]

I still haven't found any information regarding that artwork though. was it something someone did on their free time? were they just brainstorming ideas?

Like I said. it's not the first time they show us stuff they have done for fun + on their free time. Why is everyone taking it as gospel? or is it just because if fits their view?

Also i'm pretty ure the WoL is older than 13 years old sooo uuuh... we don't know how much they change after that. Elezen range from mature to "delicate" as well. Sure they aren't the typical buff male but they are also not exclusively "delicate". Effeminate? maybe that's the word i want to use instead of delicate.

I personally don't find Ayemeric / Haurchefant / Bradien effeminate. So what exactly did Yoshi P mean when he said they would be like Elezen?

[WhiteArchmage]

Also i'm pretty ure the WoL is older than 13 years old sooo uuuh... we don't know how much they change after that. Elezen range from mature to "delicate" as well. Sure they aren't the typical buff male but they are also not exclusively "delicate". Effeminate? maybe that's the word i want to use instead of delicate.

I personally don't find Ayemeric / Haurchefant / Bradien effeminate. So what exactly did Yoshi P mean when he said they would be like Elezen?

First two parts were already answered (and it's besides the point) so skipping that. Yeah, we don't know how much the Viera change after puberty, it's just imagining that they wouldn't be hit with a dimorphism as weird as Au Ra. More like Males would still be tall and either slender but cut or buff because of their lifestyle.

I can't find the quote right now but he said in the MrHappy interview that male Viera would be "Perhaps an elezen body with a miqo’te face and bunny ears" afterwars he refered to them as tall, elegant, and slender (although I can't find the actual quote for that yet).

I'm not being a smart-arse this time, just answering those points. We're also not expecting them to be "effeminate", in fact, Lauront's poll (here) pointed that most people (who answered it, ofc) would like either a Elezen-like or Au Ra-like body type, in the support thread we generally agreed to let the devs make their vision of the race.

[CoolDad]

I'm not saying they're wrong to be disappointed. What I find disappointing is people setting themselves up and then blaming other people for it. You've set yourself up. Deal with it. Be it talking to others or creating your own fan art.... basically what I'm saying is: at the very least try to channel that energy into ... not something "destructive".

There's definitely something to be said on part of both players AND developers for setting reasonable expectations. There was a lack of transparency and communication during and after the second fanfest that caused a great deal of people to hold onto their confidence in FFXIV being a game without genderlocks that could have been acknowledged early on but were not for the sake of making Hrothgar a surprise. The infamous "wait until tokyo fanfest" interview, for example.

In this situation, where SE had been giving signs that they were both in favor of adding male Viera and signs that they were not, I feel it is both the fault of the development team for the way they communicated this and failed to set expectations, as well as the users who were taking the more troubling signs and spinning them into incontrovertibly positive ones.

[Alucard135]

https://imgur.com/r/ffxiv/KhEZe

You can see the full list of art they made for the different races that time here.

[SahreeYurblu]

So not shown or promised in any Letter or Fanfest. Got it.

[Senn]

So not shown or promised in any Letter or Fanfest. Got it.

Ok, but that wasn't the point I was addressing.

[Dalmacus]

IMO i think the fault lies at paris fan fest of viera reveal. Yoshida should have state there and then that viera is a female exclusive race instead of telling people there is one more fanfest right? and get people hope up again.

[CoolDad]

So not shown or promised in any Letter or Fanfest. Got it.

It was from a NicoNico Chokaigi FATE in Tokyo event which for the most part were just fanfests. It's where Yoshi P and the development team revealed important stuff like concept art, player models, release dates, the benchmark, and had letters from the producer (also he dressed up as a miqote like twice).

Also the image you were using earlier to prove your point is from the same event?

[SahreeYurblu]

It was from a NicoNico Chokaigi FATE in Tokyo event which for the most part were just fanfests. It's where Yoshi P and the development team revealed important stuff like concept art, player models, release dates, the benchmark, and had letters from the producer (also he dressed up as a miqote like twice).

Also the image you were using earlier to prove your point is from the same event?

Here's the footage. Concept art and races starts about 41:10 in. Nothing in here screams effeminate male Viera. Even if it did, you can clearly see how much Au'ra changed from the concept art, and we didn't end up with the Lupin looking race they showed. I could be just as outraged and say I saw the picture here, so I've been expecting them for years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02O73jNqEfc

[Maverick_Haas]

If it weren't for the fact the devs put tons of time and work into implementing these new races, I'd heavily suggest they cut them out. If adding new content causes this much upset, why do it at all?

The devs have explained exactly why there are no male Viera or female Hrothgar, and it was mainly due to both technical and design reasons. Technical because they are building, and still fixing, off of the original 1.0. 2.0 isn't a completely built from the ground up game, it still uses a lot of parts from 1.0, and unfortunately they've met with some technical limitations. Design being the fact there are over 10k equipable items. For every new race and gender, 10k items roughly have to be modified. The biggest decider in all of this as well, is that they wanted both a new humanesk race, and a bestial race. They know that they can only do 2 different characters, so a gender-lock was the only way they could introduce new races and try to make everyone happy. However, it seems this backfired big time on SE.

Take these scenarios:
1. They make female and male Viera. Those who asked for more bestial race will be upset and threaten to leave the game.
2. They make female and male Hrothgar. Same situation as with Viera, those who wanted them will be upset, especially after the teasing.
3. They make both... and either kill some of their staff from overwork or spend waaaaay to much money and time required to fix the underlying technical issues and design tasks. Essentially making a whole new engine. (kinda)
4. They make neither and instead make a new healer class or something else.

I for one, take the path of understanding. Taking on 1.0 and making it into something was a huge achievement, but definitely at a cost. And... welp... Here's the receipt coming up. Would I expect SE to take better care of these issues in future iterations of the MMO franchise? Yes, but I wouldn't twist their arm over something when they literally saved a game from ruin.