New hrothgar hairstyles are really bad.

[Budimir]

I wondered if the translation was entirely accurate. It sounded uncharacteristically dismissive of the issues and seemed to blame players for being unclear about what they wanted. It's good to hear that this is primarily due to a language difference rather than an actual dismissal of player concerns.

Overall, I highly respect the development team and understand these things take time. I also know that it might be hard to create hairstyles for Hrothgar. Still, it is hard to ignore that the team has had years to address the situation, and what was received is a flawed product that nobody seems to have wanted. Honestly, it doesn't look like much effort went into the hairstyles Hrothgar are getting, and I don't understand why it took so long to add them if the developers were going to remove the ears from the character model to make them work anyway. Add to this concern the fact that previous mentions of Hrothgar getting hairstyles (such as the bullet points during previous live letters) barely got a comment, and the laughing that occurred during the reveal of the new hair, and it just feels like the developers do not see addressing this issue as a priority.

This whole situation is unfortunate. The developers put so much time and care into certain parts of the game that it is hard to believe that there are two playable races (Viera and Hrothgar) that do not receive as much consideration as other in-game races. It would be nice to see a more significant emphasis on these races so that they can start wearing headgear and having more suitable hairstyles moving forward. Additionally, while I cannot speak for everyone, I would be happier with having fewer race-exclusive hairstyles that fit Hrothgar than many hairstyles that do not look right and remove the ears.

[juicybug]

Here's hoping that when they're upgrading the character model textures they're actually rebuilding the entire system from the ground up so that they can add further customisation features more easily in the future...

It's a bit too late now, though they really should have not bothered adding any new playable races until they had implemented a more streamlined process. It's poor form to complain about 'extra work' when they frequently embrace inefficient methods of development.

I also wonder where they're getting their feedback if they believe a sizeable number of players wanted the 2B hairstyle available for male characters. Far more people have spoken out over the years in favour of more masculine looking hairstyles for male characters.

Maybe it's time for Yoshi-P to ditch his female lalafell and female raen and be forced to play a male character for a while. He kept saying he wanted to see Hrothgar added because a bestial playable race was a desire of his - so why isn't he playing one?

yeah, here's to hoping they'll add more detail to skin models too not just update the texture, but the actual skin tones.
here's to hoping they'll add Lyse, Hien, Yugiri, Hilda + other requested hairstyles people have asked for for years.
here's to hoping they'll for once stick to their word and actually add unique hairstyles just for viera and hrothgar
here's to hoping hrothgar will get the attention the so desperately need
here's to hoping they listen to player feedback and implement the most requested changes first and then go down the list.
here's to hoping theyll update the dated character creator
here's to hoping and reapplying the 99th layer of clown makeup

Im not jesting at you, im agreeing with you.

[Denji]

I wondered if the translation was entirely accurate. It sounded uncharacteristically dismissive of the issues and seemed to blame players for being unclear about what they wanted. It's good to hear that this is primarily due to a language difference rather than an actual dismissal of player concerns.

Overall, I highly respect the development team and understand these things take time. I also know that it might be hard to create hairstyles for Hrothgar. Still, it is hard to ignore that the team has had years to address the situation, and what was received is a flawed product that nobody seems to have wanted. Honestly, it doesn't look like much effort went into the hairstyles Hrothgar are getting, and I don't understand why it took so long to add them if the developers were going to remove the ears from the character model to make them work anyway. Add to this concern the fact that previous mentions of Hrothgar getting hairstyles (such as the bullet points during previous live letters) barely got a comment, and the laughing that occurred during the reveal of the new hair, and it just feels like the developers do not see addressing this issue as a priority.

This whole situation is unfortunate. The developers put so much time and care into certain parts of the game that it is hard to believe that there are two playable races (Viera and Hrothgar) that do not receive as much consideration as other in-game races. It would be nice to see a more significant emphasis on these races so that they can start wearing headgear and having more suitable hairstyles moving forward. Additionally, while I cannot speak for everyone, I would be happier with having fewer race-exclusive hairstyles that fit Hrothgar than many hairstyles that do not look right and remove the ears.

The translation is... relatively accurate, unfortunately. However there's a lot that just doesn't translate well. Additionally anything given out by companies/for the press is often written differently -- so much so that in Japan there is a thing called "easy read news" like https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/ which is written specifically with this issue in mind.

If it seems absurd, it's because, well... it is. A common complaint amongst Japanese is that news and press releases are always so cryptically written which is why easy to understand news services exist in the first place. So what may seem apathetic is actually meant to be professional and when translated it unfortunately can come across as rude or dismissive.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I mean….let’s be real i don’t see why people are shocked. These are the same devs that handwaved healer concerns with “f off, go play ultimate lul.” They’re dismissive, and there’s a lot they just…don’t seem to care about.

[juicybug]

I feel like it will be another excuse and just some honeyed words to help people feel more at ease however nothing will actually come of it. and when new hairstyles are added to Hrothgar- they'll be something that isn't necessarily wanted by the community- but rather some other third party that decides what they think we want, even though much of the community says what they want it will go ignored for more years to come.

[Denji]

and when new hairstyles are added to Hrothgar- they'll be something that isn't necessarily wanted by the community- but rather some other third party that decides what they think we want, even though much of the community says what they want it will go ignored for more years to come.

that's literally what happened.
not even the japanese want the 2b hairstyles. it wouldn't surprise me if it was just to pawn more nier stuff on foreign players who might not have heard about it otherwise.

[DynnDiablos]

I miss my hrothgar and planned to switch back if they added more unique hairs but this? No. I’ll stick with male Viera which is getting infinitely more love

[grinkdaboy]

I wondered if the translation was entirely accurate. It sounded uncharacteristically dismissive of the issues and seemed to blame players for being unclear about what they wanted. It's good to hear that this is primarily due to a language difference rather than an actual dismissal of player concerns.

Overall, I highly respect the development team and understand these things take time. I also know that it might be hard to create hairstyles for Hrothgar. Still, it is hard to ignore that the team has had years to address the situation, and what was received is a flawed product that nobody seems to have wanted. Honestly, it doesn't look like much effort went into the hairstyles Hrothgar are getting, and I don't understand why it took so long to add them if the developers were going to remove the ears from the character model to make them work anyway. Add to this concern the fact that previous mentions of Hrothgar getting hairstyles (such as the bullet points during previous live letters) barely got a comment, and the laughing that occurred during the reveal of the new hair, and it just feels like the developers do not see addressing this issue as a priority.

This whole situation is unfortunate. The developers put so much time and care into certain parts of the game that it is hard to believe that there are two playable races (Viera and Hrothgar) that do not receive as much consideration as other in-game races. It would be nice to see a more significant emphasis on these races so that they can start wearing headgear and having more suitable hairstyles moving forward. Additionally, while I cannot speak for everyone, I would be happier with having fewer race-exclusive hairstyles that fit Hrothgar than many hairstyles that do not look right and remove the ears.

to be fair i remember a lot of "we want more hair!" but not actually really specifying which ones. the ones they gave (2b, 9s, snow/lightning, controlled chaos, the ponytail and the one emmanelain uses) are probably the most popular

[RyuDragnier]

to be fair i remember a lot of "we want more hair!" but not actually really specifying which ones. the ones they gave (2b, 9s, snow/lightning, controlled chaos, the ponytail and the one emmanelain uses) are probably the most popular

For races other than Hrothgar. They could have put up a poll asking the players what hairstyles they wanted for Hrothgar, or could have thought more logical on what would look good on them. Because with the exception of the Pulse hair, none of them look good on Hrothgar heads...which may be attributed to the "combed hair" look.

[Minali]

Tbh I think it would be great if they'd do surveys once in a while to find stuff like this out. It'll be a nightmare to filter it, yes, unless you make them to specific topics and groups, but if you always go by what the forum and social networks say, you mostly get feedback of people who have access to them, time to use them, and are pretty far in the game. (It is often actively recommended avoiding socials due to the big risk of spoilers by players, and not just for FFXIV but basically every kind of media.) I don't know if this would get surprising contradicting results to searching through the forum or if it still matches, but it would definitely be more accurate. Instead of asking a lot of people who are sure that they know what the majority of players or a subgroup of players wants (which is usually the own position, whatever it is about), you would have direct unfiltered feedback from everyone. Or at least everyone who does the survey. Of course there are some things that might not affect many players, like Hrothgar hairstyles, that should still be addressed. But a good developer would also have this in mind and can get more specific feedback by asking specific questions, and maybe get replies that inspire them or help them find a solution. Otherwise you have to rely on assumptions and feedback delivered like in a game of telephone or so.

I don't think a lot of players would have requested a "change pose" for parasols, and if asked, a lot of Hrothgars might have suggested the hairstyles mentioned in the hairstyle suggestion thread instead of 2B for Hrothgars, which might even be able to "excuse" a lack of ears better until they figured out to detach them. But I won't know without actually asking.

Tl;dr: It would be better to create a feature by working with the community instead of assuming stuff and surveys that aren't tied to social media might help with that.

Edit:

For races other than Hrothgar. They could have put up a poll asking the players what hairstyles they wanted for Hrothgar, or could have thought more logical on what would look good on them. Because with the exception of the Pulse hair, none of them look good on Hrothgar heads...which may be attributed to the "combed hair" look.

That's one of the things that would've been able to be cleared up. I actually don't really like that the Karen hairstyle got the nickname Karen hairstyle because I really like it on my Viera, I think it looks good, but she is definitely not a Karen. But on Hrothgars it's just a big NOPE, it doesn't suit the style at all, no matter how you put it. You can't just assume "popular on another race" automatically means "propably popular on all races", it makes a big difference. A poll would have helped.