New Races

[Amnmaat]

Imagine running a multi million/billion company and being sensitive to criticism.

[Shougun]

This was before ShB. Viera and Hrothgar were never supposed to happen. However since SE dug themselves into this hole, they have to get out of it. So they will add the other genders.

I still wonder if they planned this from the beginning. I love Hrothgar but as people are wont to point out beast races are not as popular as super model races. This isn't a confirmation that they've no value, again I still strongly believe that there is value in having diversity of options (even if the more popular ones are repeated more often because, eeeey they're more popular).

So.. picture an expansion where they announce just a beast race. People will still have some interest of course because new FFXIV content, and for some the beast race is hype, but just general statistics would show not a majority amount of players will switch over. I do think more will switch over to hrothgar in the larger scope of things if two elements are added, a. females and b. lack of barber hair issues (so I think in the end hrothgar has high potential to be more popular than Roe).

Picture just Viera. Of course popular, it's the super model race. Just like Blood Elf for WoW. Hugely popular option for WoW. Sexy may get some hate, but sex still sales anyways lol.

Now.... picture you split it. But no seriously picture it, don't think 'yah but hate'.

FFXIV is a good MMO but it needs people to talk about it, this got the game into people's radar more so than if it was just expansion news (as people plastered forums and articles about the gender split, although most articles I saw weren't that aggressive which is nice for SE and plays well back into that 'no such thing as bad publicity'). Maybe some might be like 'oh no I won't play it because of X' but many will hear about it more and so now it's on their radar which is a lot more to say than before when it wasn't. Furthermore if they implement the other races for those who were like 'oh no' are now 'oh yes' and put on their radar from the previous issue, so when they see the article that it was added they would be more likely to engage than previously.

Ontop of this it allowed them to create a race that adds high diversity (hroth), while also adding a race with high desire (super model Viera), at the same time of milking this twice. They get to release super models twice, get twice the notice publicity, they get to solve a problem they created (and people love seeing companies solve problems, it feels good), it's actually not half bad of a deal.

Those who quit before, which I doubt was that many having seen many who threatened to leave didn't lol, will have a decent chance to return, those who stayed away have less of a reason so, and they get articles about adding the other gender as extra free publicity, they get the articles about expansion features because that'll happen of course, they get diversity and value.

I'd argue they get more value splitting like this than if they hadn't. Now I'm not defending the character creation limitations about having to fantasia to change your hair.. you might argue value in fatansia sales because if that as intentional that just feels like short sided gains.. but if they intentionally split the races like this for what I said above... I could see it being the long game, and actually intentional.


Of course alternatively they really do just have massive memory/character creation problems and the head gear situation really is just a near insurmountable task, and it is what it is because it is lol. Yet because of some key wordings and timings that are coming up recently I'm very interested to see how they advertise 6.0 and how 5.0 closes. I am lightly gambling (metaphorically) that either a big change is coming to FFXIV or the next MMO is in production, which I would also feel would lend to them not tackling the memory issues as direly (changes to be done in the future). So I'm not entirely sold that it's being purely waived off even then, even if it was just memory problems.

Kind of conspiracy but I feel it exciting, and plausible enough, to share lol. Also not saying people have to like the split just because there might be a marketing reason for it haha, just suggesting it may be intentional. Controlled chaos can be a good thing, and we've seen it used before (by other companies, and governments really).

More publicity and balanced desire this way, in some ways also makes them more sympathetic, and a problem solving oriented company, than if they had just done it from the beginning.

[EtherRose]

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It's because Viera was very sought after because Fran swooned everyone. People wanted Viera, it was popular. So SE of course decided to give it out. Hrothgar was due to Lupin being well received in Stormblood. So the Dev team made Hrothgar as a decision on their own. I support it but i'm not happy about it. I would have preferred if they actually added Lupin as a Wolf/Fox race. We have a Dragon/Cat/Bunny race. We don't need another cat race. I really would love a fox race. White fox <3.

[Shougun]

It's because Viera was very sought after because Fran swooned everyone. People wanted Viera, it was popular. So SE of course decided to give it out. Hrothgar was due to Lupin being well received in Stormblood. So the Dev team made Hrothgar as a decision on their own. I support it but i'm not happy about it. I would have preferred if they actually added Lupin as a Wolf/Fox race. We have a Dragon/Cat/Bunny race. We don't need another cat race. I really would love a fox race. White fox <3.

Oh I wasn't discussing why they wanted to add those two races, I was saying the split might have been intentional- as in they knew what would happen and did it 'because' of what would happen. While annoying negative/outrage marketing can be very effective and reach people in a way that your positive marketing wouldn't. Like people complaining about the gender split might reach someone's ears over 'some random mmo is releasing another expansion!' and that person just yawning and scrolling to the next article.

You said they dug themselves into a hole and I suggested perhaps that hole was intentional lol.

And self admittedly saying it is a bit conspiratorial but I think also very plausible.

More hrothgar faces could be done for those vibes I think~! Fox face would be interesting.

One suggestion, if the system can handle it, was that when they update their character creator that they might consider adding more clans. Like with Au Ra they might add the more draconic/void inspired options they had in their concept art. Or a sort of shower thought pet project is a vivi / yuke like race for Lalafell, like the survivors of Sil'Dih had to use magic to transport their minds and aether to machinery as the zombie magic spread, and they've been holed there since it first started- this underground community trying to get out, trapped inside the city from this huge wall of undead.

Might have some allied race vibes from WoW.. Hopefully it doesn't take too much resources away from other things because while races are fun it's not like I play race roulette when I log on lol. Mostly I think of it as an opportunity to update the character creator in general, like making sure your ear slider doesn't mean you can't have a muscle slider .

[Yencat]

This was before ShB. Viera and Hrothgar were never supposed to happen. However since SE dug themselves into this hole, they have to get out of it. So they will add the other genders.

Do you have a source for that? I only ever saw them say they were not adding more races after ShB, never before, but it's possible I missed it.

[EtherRose]

Do you have a source for that? I only ever saw them say they were not adding more races after ShB, never before, but it's possible I missed it.

I would have to find it. If i remember correctly it was around the time of Stormblood expansion. It was during one of those live letters/questions asked. It's also why a race wasn't added for Stormblood.

[Amnmaat]

They said they would add them if they "can find a way around the QA (quality assurance) and operational issues." It's all a matter of how much value the missing genders bring to Square enix in the next expansion and how it would hurt the next expansion without it. I'll be honest, Stormblood fanfest and the expansion itself didn't have that much hype; it was the first time people were questioning if paying for fanfest to reveal 1 job and half a trailer was worth the ticket.

[wereotter]

I would have to find it. If i remember correctly it was around the time of Stormblood expansion. It was during one of those live letters/questions asked. It's also why a race wasn't added for Stormblood.

I recall something to this end too, though it wasn't that the races weren't supposed to happen, but that the idea initially was to only make hrothgar, but after they got the green light to add Fran to the Ivalice 24-man raids, they knew there would be a sizable number of players disappointed that after seeing an in-game viera model, they wouldn't be a playable race, so they scrapped female hrothgar to make viera instead.

[elioaiko]

Personally I think the limiting factor on Viera and especially Hrothgar with the hair issue is pretty jarring.

Like someone else said, it was probably their last chance at adding new races so they did half and half to appeal to two crowds. In turn though, they ended up making limited races since they get no new headgear and hairstyles are solely lacking.

I would have liked them to just have focused on one race and have a finished one rather than two with missing genders.

The missing gender thing was a hot topic as well since they said "lore" but in reality, they didn't have time to finish/undecided the other genders. However their excuse also less people to believe that for reason they're taking lore into consideration when it typically does not.

I mean it's already lore breaking with all these Vieras leaving the woods and nevermind all the cat boy to cat girl ratio not lining up as well. Of course they didn't want to say "we don't have time" because that would admit to failure or lacking support in their part. If they couldn't handle the load of new races, I would have rathered them taken more time to work on them and save them for the next expansion

The whole Viera/Hrothgar situation is weird because they're so nice looking (especially Viera), but they're so lacking in customization and they haven't done anything for them since release.

My guess is that they might use the missing genders as a selling point for 6.0. And Yoshi-P is pretty clever with his words since he said "this might be the last race" but he didn't say that the missing genders wouldn't be implemented. Not to get our hopes up since the two races now are in a pretty grim state but it wouldn't surprise me if they did release them in 6.0.

[lolicon09]

They are also pushing for a steam release, so they will rake a last pile of cash of this with the influx of new players, even when your statement is true.

GW2 on Steam? wow... it's dying indeed then. If there are cute and/or sexy outfits for female characters, i'll probably try it a bit