Hrothgar Feedback Thread

[Adamantini]

I'm here to offer my support. Of all the races, hrothgar is by far the most limited.

What's funnier is that Yosh P himself says (if I remember well) that Hrothgar was always a race he wanted to put in the game, as he wanted a more bestial race. I think that desire was not that great. The race is poorly chosen among players, but is it just because it is unpopular? I know many friends who became hrothgar at launch, but after months, years of neglect, they simply reverted back to another race.

[Kolsykol]

I'm here to offer my support. Of all the races, hrothgar is by far the most limited.

What's funnier is that Yosh P himself says (if I remember well) that Hrothgar was always a race he wanted to put in the game, as he wanted a more bestial race. I think that desire was not that great. The race is poorly chosen among players, but is it just because it is unpopular? I know many friends who became hrothgar at launch, but after months, years of neglect, they simply reverted back to another race.

I think a beastial race is always going to be less popular.
Charr in GW2 and Tauren in WoW aren't popular either they're quite rare to come across ( will people have a mental breakdown again cuz I mentioned WoW LOL? ).
Even less so female ones they're almost non-existent.

Not saying they should be neglected because of that.
But even if say they just solved all of the issues I don't think the playerbase for them would increase much long-term.
Maybe short term there would be a bump but then people would just go back again I think.

[Chie_M]

I think a beastial race is always going to be less popular.
Charr in GW2 and Tauren in WoW aren't popular either they're quite rare to come across ( will people have a mental breakdown again cuz I mentioned WoW LOL? ).
Even less so female ones they're almost non-existent.

Not saying they should be neglected because of that.
But even if say they just solved all of the issues I don't think the playerbase for them would increase much long-term.
Maybe short term there would be a bump but then people would just go back again I think.

I can't speak to GW2, but as a former female Tauren (yes, I'm expecting people to have a mental breakdown at the WoW talk too lmao), part of the reason they're so off-putting is that they give off major dairy heifer / breeding sow vibes. The males look like bulls, which is great - it suits a hero, an adventurer. But the design of the females leans too heavily into farmyard tropes for female cattle, and makes them look like docile barnyard creatures. It was hard to find an adequate transmog to make my Druid look fierce - so much so that I mostly stayed in kitty form.

Anyway, I guess I'm concerned SE is going to do to Hrothgar what Blizz did to Tauren. I'm worried we'll end up with catgirls and hirsute catgirls.

[Denji]

I can't speak to GW2, but as a former female Tauren (yes, I'm expecting people to have a mental breakdown at the WoW talk too lmao), part of the reason they're so off-putting is that they give off major dairy heifer / breeding sow vibes. The males look like bulls, which is great - it suits a hero, an adventurer. But the design of the females leans too heavily into farmyard tropes for female cattle, and makes them look like docile barnyard creatures. It was hard to find an adequate transmog to make my Druid look fierce - so much so that I mostly stayed in kitty form.

Anyway, I guess I'm concerned SE is going to do to Hrothgar what Blizz did to Tauren. I'm worried we'll end up with catgirls and hirsute catgirls.

you can blame the straight dudes back in the day for that lmao.

back in the day, the og female tauren and trolls looked a lot more like what one would imagine... and the nerds rioted and cried how they can't jerk to it. i'm not even joking. so blizz desu-fied them and made them far far more feminine.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

I can't speak to GW2, but as a former female Tauren (yes, I'm expecting people to have a mental breakdown at the WoW talk too lmao), part of the reason they're so off-putting is that they give off major dairy heifer / breeding sow vibes. The males look like bulls, which is great - it suits a hero, an adventurer. But the design of the females leans too heavily into farmyard tropes for female cattle, and makes them look like docile barnyard creatures. It was hard to find an adequate transmog to make my Druid look fierce - so much so that I mostly stayed in kitty form.

Good points, i'm sure, but of course the biggest reason for female beast character unpopularity is the lack of jiggling mammaries (for charr anyway, don't remember if tauren had those).

[Chie_M]

Good points, i'm sure, but of course the biggest reason for female beast character unpopularity is the lack of jiggling mammaries (for charr anyway, don't remember if tauren had those).

You're likely very correct.

[SturmChurro]

Good points, i'm sure, but of course the biggest reason for female beast character unpopularity is the lack of jiggling mammaries (for charr anyway, don't remember if tauren had those).

A lot of people are just not into the full on beast thing. When it's a male character, people can justify it by 'cool' factor.

[Minali]

I considered adding my own take but you summarized everything really well and writing my own stuff down would just be the same in different words. The worst part for me is that it is treated as a little side pet project, when Hrothgar issues are issues of the main character in the game. And it should have the same priority as any other issue regarding the main character, just like it would be the case if it would be about a Miqo'te, Hyur or Aura. It's not the Hrothgar player's fault that Hrothgar as a player race were "late to the party". Please don't treat us like it would be.

So instead I'd like to add a link to the "Hrothgar Hair request: MEGATHREAD"
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...est-MEGATHREAD

There are so many suggestions of existing and new hairstyles for Hrothgar in this thread. Dear devs, if even after reading this wonderful elaborated thread still leaves you with the question what specifically we would like to see, click the link and read this thread with great care, too. It's not a very long one but if this doesn't give you a good idea, I don't know what would.

One thing I'd like to add because unless I missed it, this was not addressed: I am a woman who'd love to play a Hrothgal, I already would've loved to play one back in FFX. Although I don't speak for all possible Hrothgal players, as a member of the intended target group, I beg you, the devs, to fix the issues of male Hrothgars first. If you create female Hrothgars the same as male Hrothgars, with individual sets of ears glued to specific faces and hairstyles that make them look like peanut heads (see the 2B one), you will end up with two extremely incomplete character models you have to fix instead of one, giving the art team twice as much work as necessary. (And an incredibly disappointed fanbase on top of that.) Hrothgars as a player character race will not be able to get fixed, let alone their options in variaty in facial features and hairstyles expanded, until you tackle the core issues. So please, repair Hrothgars. Repair what is the main character and therefore most important person in the game for many.

[Bunnycake]

Have a bump from a bunny. Also, the thing that baffles me on the hair that crops out the ears is why the Hrothgar and not miqo'tes like this hair. The ears are way in the heck up there lol

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Still just waiting for Female Hrothgar.
Im of the mindset that they might be a package deal. You introduce the females with better design, that means you can go back and make fixes and Corrections in the past.
Not that I can guarantee that.

Im sure the Devs and company have gotten the picture that things are not good for the Hrothgar and they need to do better.
I wanna blame many other factors for the solution not being here yet....dev time on XVI, production of Future Patch Content, including stuff for the next expansion, and also the development of Female Hrothgar, and even dev time on Glamours for both Viera and Hrothgar. Oh yeah, and the fact they spent last expansion making the male Viera. Lets also not forget they are finally working on Updating the Game Engine!
Just time and resources are split really thin, so some things get more attention then others, and some others are probly shoved down on the Priority list, but are being worked on. Just Slowly

And Im not spewing any garbage and nonsense about how the Devs are my friend, and everything is fine BS.
Im just trying to think about it rationally as if I was apart of the dev team, and not push ignorant ideas like "Its a Billion Dollar Company" because that doesn't mean anything nor does it prove any point. Or self insert invisible rhetoric like "They Hate hrothgar" when...they are on record saying they WANTED to make Hrothgar, or something like it.
Yes I agree, we've waited a long time....honestly Im patient, and its not like there isn't others things to do in the meantime. Or other things that can use attention.

Ive not given up on the future of Hrothgar nor have I lost trust they can fix things and turn it around.
Not yet at least. My 1st step, is Female Hrothgar...bring in both Genders.
Then...idk what kind of time I can personally give them to address and fix everything else...but I like to think...and HOPE, that they get things figured out with the addition of FemHroths and the Game Engine Upgrades