Building a better Alphinaud

[aveyond-dreams]

They are so disconnected from their Western playerbase that they thought Hrothgar would somehow captivate the WoW audience when their new race has at least twice as many options as our take on a beast race. All they had to do was add eyebrows to Highlander. Goodness, I'm told that even the new dragon race has better eyebrows than them even.

Is it really that bad to ask to not be ignored like this?

[CrownySuccubus]

They are so disconnected from their Western playerbase that they thought Hrothgar would somehow captivate the WoW audience when their new race has at least twice as many options as our take on a beast race. All they had to do was add eyebrows to Highlander. Goodness, I'm told that even the new dragon race has better eyebrows than them even.

Is it really that bad to ask to not be ignored like this?

Nope. You can't try to pull this card when you have yet to prove your argument about Fordola. You don't get to pretend these are the same.

[aveyond-dreams]

Nope. You can't try to pull this card when you have yet to prove your argument about Fordola. You don't get to pretend these are the same.

I don't believe its unreasonable to say that a redheaded Scottish woman with a sword would sell more copies of this game if she had her own cgi art instead of the twins. There's certainly more to market there. Of course that depends on what playerbase you're aiming for.

[tokinokanatae]

Curious that all of these wonderful polls are never conducted overseas in the west. Sort of strange, isn't it?

Not particularly? I can't think of any polls SE has directly taken for character popularity. The ones linked for Japanese opinions tend to be the big one for all FF games done by NHK or smaller fan polls. So it's about as "curious" as posting a favorite character thread on these boards, which has happened more than once. EDIT: There's also the recent Famitsu poll, but that is also not a poll directly conducted by SE.

[CrownySuccubus]

I don't believe its unreasonable to say that a redheaded Scottish woman with a sword would sell more copies of this game if she had her own cgi art instead of the twins. There's certainly more to market there. Of course that depends on what playerbase you're aiming for.

A red-headed "Scottish" (WTF?) woman being inherently more popular a pair of cute white-haired elf twins is a VERY unreasonable statement to make with no proof to back it up.

[tokinokanatae]

I don't believe its unreasonable to say that a redheaded Scottish woman with a sword would sell more copies of this game if she had her own cgi art instead of the twins. There's certainly more to market there. Of course that depends on what playerbase you're aiming for.

I think that's extremely unreasonable without any logical evidence backing it up, and I also like Fordola a lot. (In fact, she was my favorite NPC introduced in Stormblood.)

People point to things like polls because--in aggregate--they give you a pretty solid idea of how the fanbase feels about particular characters. We know that Emet-Selch is likely going to be number one, G'raha Tia will be high, and Haurchefant will also be pretty high. This is not because they are three of my favorite NPCs in the game and therefore my taste is what the game follows, but because they are always at the higher end of the spectrum and have proven to have lasting staying power.

If you want people to take posts like these seriously, you need to provide evidence that isn't just "I think" or "my taste is..."

[Sarkany]

(Endwalker spoilers)

I think it makes perfect sense for the Garleans to switch back to a republic. They tried having an emperor. Less than a hundred years after putting him on the throne, their country is totally leaderless because everyone who could take charge is dead, brainwashed, or gone with no plan to return; the remaining population is hiding from deathbots in a subway station; and a despair-monster that used to be the emperor's uncle is brainwashing people left and right. The republic clearly had its problems, but hereditary monarchy has not made itself look very good.

I do like the idea of switching out some of the Scions for people who aren't from Sharlayan/academics/white-haired, though. A Garlean machinist might be nice, since the Scions don't really have anyone with tech skills who isn't occupied with Ironworks business, or a consistent ranged physical DPS. If you want character development for Alphinaud, I think that might be an interesting way to do it. He can keep protecting people as a healer, not a swordsman, which I feel is an important part of his character, but they could maybe get into the same character type as EW!Fordola - someone who's done some horrible things and has serious emotional issues, but is really working on being a better person.

[aveyond-dreams]

I do wonder what the average western gamer would think of FFXIV if presented with Haurchefant or G'raha Tia as the posterboys without knowing a single thing about them. I have to say I don't think they would take that much of a liking to them, especially if it's the WoW crowd they're after.

[CrownySuccubus]

I do wonder what the average western gamer would think of FFXIV if presented with Haurchefant or G'raha Tia as the posterboys without knowing a single thing about them. I have to say I don't think they would take that much of a liking to them, especially if it's the WoW crowd they're after.

Dude, the Western fanbase watches Yu-Gi-Oh and plays gacha games. A pretty catboy and elf knight are not a problem for anyone who isn't extremely insecure about their masculinity.

[tokinokanatae]

I do wonder what the average western gamer would think of FFXIV if presented with Haurchefant or G'raha Tia as the posterboys without knowing a single thing about them. I have to say I don't think they would take that much of a liking to them, especially if it's the WoW crowd they're after.

It's less the "WoW crowd they're after" and more "the WoW crowd that showed up", in which case they can tolerate G'raha and Haurchefant or leave for greener pastures. Most WoW players I've seen seem to like them just fine, though.