FFXIV 10th Anniversary Special Site

[Kazhar]

So much bickering in the thread, and nobody has pointed out the best(?) part: a new hairstyle contest!

Time to get thinking about ideas...

It has been mentionned (I think?). Unfortunately the game has been taken hostage by the previous hairstyle contest for so long it's hard to feel positive about this.
Sure, it's a good opportunity to finally shake up our current roster, but there's an equal chance vote will be biased towards a certain style and this is all we'll get for the next four years.

[Theodric]

Because people know what the winners will be - more mid-length feminine hairstyles. If for some reason a male hairstyle wins, its gonna be awkward looking short haircut with a huge forhead.

At this point I'm just going to hope that they'll maybe make use of some of the hairstyles they used in FFXVI for the male characters. Even regular NPC's are very well designed in that game, particularly the men which is refreshing when compared to FFXIV where every other background NPC simply looks randomly thrown together.

Granted, FFXVI only has to design things for human models - though that's exactly why this game should have put its foot down and just admitted that some hairstyles aren't going to fit certain playable races without looking exceptionally uncanny.

[Lindaru]

I still remember one rising event where they put 1.0 item (White Ravens) as a reward, I wonder what they're gonna do with the 10th Rising event?

[Iscah]

Sure, it's a good opportunity to finally shake up our current roster, but there's an equal chance vote will be biased towards a certain style and this is all we'll get for the next four years.

If it gets dominated by certain styles then that means those are the sorts of styles that a lot of people want.

Either that or (ideally perhaps) they just don't run a vote and instead just have the judges pick out a good balance of interesting things themselves. There are still some things in the old contest's shortlist that I wish they had implemented in addition to the winners.

[Yeol]

I almost forgot that NA fan fest is 1 month away.

[Boblawblah]

If it gets dominated by certain styles then that means those are the sorts of styles that a lot of people want.

Either that or (ideally perhaps) they just don't run a vote and instead just have the judges pick out a good balance of interesting things themselves. There are still some things in the old contest's shortlist that I wish they had implemented in addition to the winners.

How does the contest work? Is it world wide? Or another "Japanese players get to choose what everyone else will get" sort of thing?

[Theodric]

If it gets dominated by certain styles then that means those are the sorts of styles that a lot of people want.

Either that or (ideally perhaps) they just don't run a vote and instead just have the judges pick out a good balance of interesting things themselves. There are still some things in the old contest's shortlist that I wish they had implemented in addition to the winners.

They'd likely get very different results if they polled people in-game and split the contest into at least three different categories - namely 'feminine', 'androgynous' and 'masculine'. There have also been many threads over the years asking for masculine aesthetics/hairstyles to be embraced more readily which received quite a bit of support. We also know that Yoshi-P was 'surprised' to receive the request for the stubble sported by the Warrior of Light in cinematic/promotional footage to be added to the game. Which suggests that feedback relating to male characters isn't really sent their way as a priority.

[Iscah]

Is this something they've done before?

Edit: judging by subsequent replies, there clearly have been

How does the contest work? Is it world wide? Or another "Japanese players get to choose what everyone else will get" sort of thing?

The thread for the original contest is here:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-Voting-Thread

They don't have any details for the new one on the site, so it's all speculation how it's going to run this time.


For the record, ones I wanted that didn't get in:

[Tsumdere]

They'd likely get very different results if they polled people in-game and split the contest into at least three different categories - namely 'feminine', 'androgynous' and 'masculine'. There have also been many threads over the years asking for masculine aesthetics/hairstyles to be embraced more readily which received quite a bit of support. We also know that Yoshi-P was 'surprised' to receive the request for the stubble sported by the Warrior of Light in cinematic/promotional footage to be added to the game. Which suggests that feedback relating to male characters isn't really sent their way as a priority.

I am totally with you in wanting more masculine hairstyles (I have been wearing the same hairstyle since HW), but if you think that an in-game poll wouldn't tip the scales MORE in the favour of feminine hairstyles I don't know what to say.

To get a balance of hairstyles, they need to not make it a player vote. It needs to be the judges only. It will always be heavily skewed towards feminine if they let the playerbase decide. Look at the popularity of the short bob from pyros/great lengths compared to the Firmament short styles. Or the girly ponytail vs the androgynous ponytail from Island.

[Kazhar]

If it gets dominated by certain styles then that means those are the sorts of styles that a lot of people want.

Either that or (ideally perhaps) they just don't run a vote and instead just have the judges pick out a good balance of interesting things themselves. There are still some things in the old contest's shortlist that I wish they had implemented in addition to the winners.

The majority vote is flawed, since I can see two scenario happening:
- Hairstyles which everyone like at least a little will dominate the votes, which means it's going to favor mid-length androgynous styles.
- Votes will be biased towards Femra and catgirls, since those are the majority.

This system leave absolutely no room for more niche customization or hairstyles which work better with the less favored races. And since the contest is probably everything we'll ever get in the next four years, this will only worsen the diversity issue we already have.