(04-26-2015, 03:56 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote: Ugh, what wouldn't I do to get an actually beastly race in the game...
A beastly race would be neat, but there's two issues with that. Across most - if not all - MMOs, beast races actually are played only by a smaller portion of the population. I could see a beastly race added if it was similar to the Hyur structure with one clan being more beastly and the other more humanoid.
But that's actually a fairly minor issue and here's the stumbling block for beast races in XIV: we're currently all playing 'races of Man' with a common ancestor. Beast races are still seen significantly differently, with varying degrees of intelligence, aggression, population and sentience. None of them are seen as 'equal or close to equal' with the races we play. And therein is the big issue, putting a beast race at the level of peer.Â
But I think XIV could do it, with some really neat, strange race that is much more beastly and monstrous. It'd require a significant amount of storyline development and world shifting to possibly allow for it and it'd be a much more demanding modeling and meshing endeavor (to say nothing of making armor fit)... which leads back to my first point that beast races, in general, are much less popular in MMOs.Â
But I definitely could see it happening down the road when SE is feeling much more assured in the game's stability and success and the fans continue to clamor for it. Right now, they're focusing on the 'big picture' of populations and taking too many risks probably makes them very nervous. A hugely successful expansion or two could really alleviate some of these concerns.
