(12-21-2014, 04:33 PM)Tiergan Wrote: My thing is - concept artists are always thinking about silhouette.  It's important because you want people to be able to look at a character at a glance and instantly know what they are.   A lot of times, some concept artists will even start concepting creatures by drawing out a silhouette first and then designing on top of it.

If we made silhouettes of all the different races, most of them would be pretty easily distinguishable ...except maybe miqo'te and midlanders if we cropped off the cat ears and tails.  They tried to make up for it by giving them noticeably larger, cat-like eyes, a slightly different facial structure from midders - (or a very different facial structure if you have the older male miqo'te nunh face).  If you put a hyur midder and a miqo'te side by side, you can visibly see the differences in their faces.

What we've seen of female Au Ra doesn't really do that. The silhouette just reads "female midlander with horns and tail".  Their faces just have a few scales tacked on, but overall look like midlanders or like they're trying to squeeze the features in somewhere between midlander and miqo'te.

At the end of the day, I'm not really going to lose any sleep over it - but it's very hard to argue that the same level of work in making the male Au Ra unique went into the females too.

(12-21-2014, 06:59 PM)Naunet Wrote: The "lazy" accusation towards SE comes from the way they put no effort into maintaining a consistent aesthetic across the race. Rather than create an equally delicate and beautiful male model, or an equally fierce, lithe, and draconic female model, they went with plan B for the guys and "pretty human with some horns" for the ladies. I find it "lazy" in thought process. They couldn't fathom a beauty beyond the simple standard present in 90% of their women already.

Do I think they're pretty? Yeah. Doesn't mean they're not disappointing, and I won't hesitate to call out SE for falling into the thoughtless character design trap.

(12-21-2014, 06:46 PM)Ashren Snow Wrote:

(12-21-2014, 07:21 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote:

(12-21-2014, 06:46 PM)Ashren Snow Wrote:

Ugh, actually seeing them side-by-side actually makes it look... pretty gross.

Of course my mind is firmly in the gutter here, but seriously? Think about this for a second. Those guys. Breeding with those girls. It makes. NO. SENSE.

Ugh. Not a fan. Not at all a fan of that. And the scale patches look completely out of place on such smooth skin...

(12-21-2014, 07:30 PM)Knahli Wrote: That's where your argument holds no objective merit in my eyes. You are insisting that races should always command some consistent aesthetic across the genders to conform to your standards or interests, and that is your opinion and your preference. The fact that females are not very similar to the males in height and their lack of largely-pronounced features does not make the developers lazy.

No-one whom likes the race cares enough to be offended that you or anyone else does not feel similarly, nor does the case apply in vice versa; what Ashren was talking about(and correct me if I am wrong, Ashren), is that you are very, unfairly throwing negative comments towards the developers because their chosen design didn't appeal to your standards or expectations. You and many other people were hoping for something that in the end, did not deliver. You have every right to be disappointed and even to be disgruntled by the similarities between Au Ra females and existing female races, but your(plural) dissatisfaction with that does not translate into laziness on anyone's part.

"Laziness" carries a very, obviously negative connotation since it implies that they deliberately didn't put enough time, creativity or effort into the female race. You can never know enough to decide that is the case and make such an accusation. As far as you know, and I am very sure is the case, Square Enix designed a race that would and has successfully appealed to people, just not everyone; and that can never be avoided.

(12-21-2014, 07:46 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote: They took the easy way out, plain and simple. I will call it 'lazy' because that's how it looks in my eyes and you are entirely within your right to disagree with that assertion, but there's no point trying to argue that it should not or cannot apply in this instance. I'm not pretending to be 'objective'. I'm just telling you how I feel.

Quote:I got my hopes up for something a bit more... something. Different? Beastly. They're nice as they are, and I'm certain they'll appeal to a lot of people, but between the obviously (possibly pandering) dimorphism and the stated facts of basically being elezen and miqo'te with different ears, horns, and scales, I can't get excited about them. I just had my heart set on something different.

(12-21-2014, 08:32 PM)K Wrote:

(12-21-2014, 07:46 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote: They took the easy way out, plain and simple. I will call it 'lazy' because that's how it looks in my eyes and you are entirely within your right to disagree with that assertion, but there's no point trying to argue that it should not or cannot apply in this instance. I'm not pretending to be 'objective'. I'm just telling you how I feel.

You can feel however you please as that is not something anyone should allow themselves to get worked up over, but don't expect not to be found unfair for blaming the devs for doing something "wrong"(calling them lazy implies it) and not be called upon by people who find your unfair comments.... well, unfair. After all, it is an arbitrary and direct criticism of the devs taken from 0 known facts about why the chose the design they did... and an indirect criticism towards those who really like how the class turned out.

Call it petty if you wish but there is a significant difference between "feeling" something was lazily designed and "declaring" it to be the case. I'd argue that even "feeling" such would be a prejudicially, misplaced concept but this, to me, is really feeling increasingly redundant as something to debate over because, as you said, it's largely irrelevant to the topic at hand.

(Again Ashren, I apologise if I am misrepresenting your opinion from earlier).

(12-21-2014, 07:21 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote: And the scale patches look completely out of place on such smooth skin...