Lalafell as a percentage of NA population

[MirielleLavandre]

Hi all - a few of my friends back on the Japanese servers were wondering about the scarcity of, or rather the lower number, of players who play as Lalafell on most NA servers. Whilst I play on NA, I also have many chars on the JPN DC as I'm Japanese myself but live in the US. Many of the JPN servers have a much larger representation of Lalafell, and though I usually don't notice it, my friend (who recently made an alt on Aether) asked me about it right away.

Does anyone have an idea, from an NA viewpoint, why there are so many of other races (esp. cats and lizzies) and so few Lalafell usually? I, myself, find them to be really cute and their chibi nature is great for many glams - but I suppose some have a negative view of them in the non-JPN datacenters? Just wondering if anyone had noticed this, or if maybe myself and my friends are just wrong or mistaken?

[Illmaeran]

Hello Mirielle,

I'm an American playing on a JPN server; we're opposites! Two things immediately come to mind:

1. Japanese, as a whole, love small things, so the chibi nature of Lalafell seems to me to be more appealing in general to the Japanese people. I certainly see a lot of them on Atomos. Also, we in NA don't put as much importance on being cute/kawaii as we do on being sexy or powerful and to be fair, Lalas aren't exactly sexy nor powerfully built, but they are super kawaii.

2. Miquo'te and Au'ra fit the Western aesthetic of beautiful/sexy and/or heroic more than a chibi so it makes sense to me that people would play them more often; especially if they come to FF from other games and aren't fans of Japanese pop culture. I can see a good number of people who play Lalafell on NA servers being fans of anime and/or manga and are used to seeing loli or chibi characters that are portrayed as super cute.

[SturmChurro]

They look like toddlers. That alone can be seen as a very negative thing here. They are also seen as joke characters. A lot of players in the west will prefer to play 'cool' characters, so will go for things like male au ra, or something that looks like a representation of them that they can make look cool: like hyur. Aside from that, catgirls are just kind of a phenomenon for people who like Japanese things like anime; a weeb thing. They are also a go to for people who want that 'cute' aesthetic, rather than lalafell. Au Ra sort of hits this niche as well for many, as well as being a short petite female option which is generally more popular than much taller females, or the lalafell toddler look.

[BaconBits]

Lalafell are a meme race because they're small, and meme races get dunked on.

I don't agree with it, but that's just the way it is in NA.

[Gyson]

Lalafell are a meme race because they're small, and meme races get dunked on. I don't agree with it, but that's just the way it is in NA.

Many people in NA do like lalafells and other people play them knowing they will be meme'd on.

I haven't seen this with the folks I've been around, but maybe I'm in a bubble. If anything I usually assume anyone playing a Lalafell has a playful streak to them and any interactions will generally be positive.

In FFXI my friends and I played Tarutaru characters. At first I started off as a Hume, but they seemed dull. Instead, the idea of being this tiny Tarutaru tank keeping my allies safe made everything more entertaining. Movement seemed faster and more enjoyable as the camera was closer to the ground. Normal enemies were often larger than my character, making standard fights seem more epic than they otherwise would have been. And as a Tarutaru I found I could always run up to people and be jovial without it seeming out of place. It just made the entire experience feel fun and better.

I suspect many people play Lalafells for the same reason. The only reason I didn't choose a Lalafell in FFXIV is because I was really disappointed in the aesthetic shift from a chibi-style Tarutaru character to pear-shaped children. The latter just didn't draw me in the same way; to me Lalafells just look too bottom heavy and for that reason I have a hard time imagining them as effective adventurers.

[Sotaris]

Lalafell are a meme race because they're small, and meme races get dunked on.

I don't agree with it, but that's just the way it is in NA.

I'd say this is true in this game.
I can't recall it has same stamp in FF11 but in that game starting stats had a more importance and tarutaru (lalafell counterpart and is based on) had bigger MP pool and i believe INT.

I play lala every once in a while, i think they can be cute but glamour is usually the reason I switch back to Miqo.

Lalafells are pretty ugly tbh I wish they replaced it with loli'qotes like Khloe Aliapoh and T'kebbe Morh

kinda disgusting tbh

I agree, that is pretty disgusting.

Wait, what? People are kicking players out of duties for playing Lala characters? How frequently is this happening?

Isn't this a form of harrassment you can report other players for? If someone thinks that's extreme, I personally would side with having Square Enix discouraging toxic behavior through punishments.

In my 8 years of playing and I play lala on and off. This has never happened to me or anyone I know.

[Jeeqbit]

Many people in NA do like lalafells and other people play them knowing they will be meme'd on.

A lot of people don't want to play something resembling a child though so usually they play miqo'te or viera.

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

On the other hand, there are almost no Viera on Atomos (on Elemental DC in general).

[Illmaeran]

On the other hand, there are almost no Viera on Atomos (on Elemental DC in general).

Really? I see them all the time. Then again, my "all the time" may be skewed relative to other servers as I've never set foot on a world other than Atomos. Also, if you see me, please say hi! My character and account name are the same.

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

Really? I see them all the time. Then again, my "all the time" may be skewed relative to other servers as I've never set foot on a world other than Atomos. Also, if you see me, please say hi! My character and account name are the same.

Will do

Yeah, when there's a Viera around, they do stick out in the sea of shorties
There are even more lalas on Mana and Gaia DCs, where the percentage of JP people is higher. Elemental is where most English speaking people congregate.