Guild Wars 2

The reason Asura armor looks worse (especially on the females) is obviously due to something. Lazy game design? Maybe. However, I was reading through the forums and I cam across this post:

DoctorWhy.3847:

" Take off all your clothes as other races females. What do you notice? They all (actually, not sure about the Charrs) have underwear. What do the Asura women have? A swim suit. Why? Because they don’t want to have any content that may be controversial in certain countries. Countries like Australia have a ban on any (even a tiny bit) sexual representation of a woman with no breasts. Why? Because they think it is depicting a child.

They can’t have Asura be represented as sexual, because some people may think they are children, and GW2 would be banned in some countries. But that doesn’t stop them from making the bigger, more older looking women from having sexual armor with a lot of cleavage."

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Could that seriously be the reason? Why not just give the Asura breasts in the first place than? It wouldn’t be seen as a child. I mean we have people who suffer from dwarfism in the real world with breasts. Size should not dictate maturity.

Any thoughts?

This has long been what I assumed was the reason behind the difference in armor. The Asura are a childlike, much more so than just smaller adult people (for an example, think of Peter Dinklage who plays Tyrion in Game of Thrones… nothing childlike about that guy.) Asura’s faces are rounded with big eyes, much more like kids than small adults, and they run like toddlers.

There are other armor exceptions too. You mentioned Charr, who are more like animals in appearance, and Sylvari are also a bit different. They’re slight and run like adolescents, and even though they have breasts the armor never accentuates them the way humans and norns do.

Anyway I don’t think it makes Asura armor look worse on females. I wouldn’t want an Asura with breasts, because it wouldn’t make her any less childlike. It’d make her like those child beauty pageant contestants. shudder

I wish I had the option to use male-style armor on human and norn models, too, because just because someone has breasts doesn’t mean they want to show them off.

Sitkaz.5463:

just because someone has breasts doesn’t mean they want to show them off.

If agreement was a form of currency I would have just made you a very rich man.

But still. The Asura already have to deal with non-existent weapons due to the scaling of them and no matter how awesome their armor is. No one (including yourself) will ever notice.

I feel that this game has been ruined by the utterly ridiculous size gaps in the races.

Norns: So big that movement feels sluggish and looks AWFUL.
Charr: Same issue as Norn.
Asura: Infinite amount of clipping and issues but more so than any other race.

If they had just made Norns and Charrs shortrt yet still larger than humans the game would be a lot better IMO.

And I still hate this issue with Asura armor btw.

if ArenaNet was afraid of depicting a female with no breasts (for Australia’s sake), wouldn’t they have given Asura enlarged, human style breasts?

i have no idea what was going on in their minds when they were coming up with these little guys. i would like to think they were given complete artistic freedom from start to finish. though, i have no idea.

unless there exists, or in the future exists an article from them detailing how it all (honestly) went we may not ever know. i personally would not have ever cared for Asura and in consequence this game if they had given Asura human sexual traits.

they aren’t human, so why give them human peculiarities?
why can’t they be unique?

clearly the idea behind them is that they are magic-tec wielding, hyper-intelligent shorties that don’t need a large stature. so perhaps they don’t need breasts nor a six-pack..

Id prefer female variant armor for cuter looks, not sexier looks. Wouldnt mind if male and female Asura armor looked different, but not cause I want to run around in a thong.

I do remember some heavy armors does show the inappropriate area of a female asura hmmm

study.1873:

if ArenaNet was afraid of depicting a female with no breasts (for Australia’s sake), wouldn’t they have given Asura enlarged, human style breasts?

Asura were in GW1 and they had feminine clothing with no breasts.

Regardless, Arenanets stance on this was that they chose to re-use the male models of armor as a statement that Asura don’t really care about sexuality. This is, of course, a theory that has been thrown around. The backup reasoning is that Asura couples are formed by likeminded individuals who then tend to form a Krewe and proceed to, if they are the correct genders, have children. Homosexuality in Asura is commonplace and not frowned upon.

Honestly, I’d rather just have a toggle for male/female versions and I’d rather Asura have unique female versions versus kittenty clothes. That’s just my take.

The only clothing that use female models on Asura are T3 Cultural (which have issues and have been the source of many complaints) and Town Clothing (which does look ridiculous, namely the latest pair of shirts that change from fancy, dapper clothes to deep Vnecks on Asura. Also, the Wintersday outfit looks odd on an Asura.

TL;DR
Easy fix for uneasy sexual depictions- Cover with cloth texture in future gear
Documented accounts of female asura and gender differences are evident
Anet has been lazy and ignores its own lore in gear design.
And best of all, stop making porn star outfits to begin with and we would have this problem! Did we learn nothing from the huge blow up years ago in WoW?

Here’s a full break down of most peoples complaints and ‘fixes’ to the whole asura issue.

I understand where many are coming from when you look at asuras as a race. Mostly the females can be taken as child like creatures with flat chests and stubby legs. Though the human females DO have hips and are curved with female features unlike the males who if you pick that option can be rather buff for such a small creature with bulky upper bodies, large shoulders and large upper arms. If you look at the nake body of a female asura or male with the armor glitch you can see that their bodies are pretty far from a human beings.

There are a few ways Anet can fix this issue however. Adding a Bandoo like strap over a female asuras chest to hide what could or would be perhaps nipples or small breasts is a simple one. Or if they way filling in the holes where skin would be showing with a color option or cloth texture. This can all be done on upcoming armors rather then going back and fixing old ones.

Now here is the thing that I find a bit funny. People are up in arms about the idea of ‘asura looks like children its sick to put them in such sexual armors and outfits’ when other games much like Tera online can get away with making outlandishly sexual outfits and putting them on REAL adolescent bodies. To the point that it was ‘censored’ (I use that term lightly) in the US. Replacing panties with ‘shorties’ and using thin see through cloth rather than showing full bellies. Example bellow.
http://www.gamebeholder.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Elin.png

So that whole issue is a bit out to sea since there are simple fixes that have been done in other games to remove sexuallity. If not the idea ignored all together.

" Asura don’t really care about sexuality. " This is understandable as we do not see much mention in sexual attraction from one asura to the next. But the big deciding factor in this is indeed the hairstyles themselves. Unlike the Charr who do have different hair for male and female, BUT the differences are so multi gender that you could put a female hair style on a a male charr and have little difference. Asura females however sport things like clips, ribbons, braids and buns. While male tend to go for a more functional look, less flashy and depended on accessories. Context wise this would lean into the idea that female ausra do indeed take the time out to look like females vs male. And male go out of their way to look more male. With the exception the shared 3 pony tail and bald. The wrap hairstyle is also different from male to female. Female has thicker hair and the wrap around the forehead has small ornaments and beads rather than simple cloth.

Continued in next post-

Continue of last post….

And while asura do see relationships as a mind to mind ideal. You’re smart and I’m smart screw gender. They do also romance each other and speak about appearance. A great example during the Dynamics asura story line Kazz and Doxa are a very tight couple. This is complete with Kazz ‘pitching woh’ and his lover and stating about how pretty she. The two do focus mainly on the intelligence of the other but the small attractive inputs are there.

And the mother of all is that Anet is not only lazy but is heavy handed with gifting humans the best most attractive armor that fit in with their story and lore above all other races. Human females that is.

This is very easy to see in Charr: See this wonderful example
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1isd48/i_want_to_share_the_agony_of_charr_armor_and_how/

If we go by race what would work best for Asura?
Very VERy functional gear. This means things that play to the asura’s physical capabilities over gender. Things like robes and hoods are exceptional as we see MOST asura wearing long robes to help movability of such small legs, and the hoods covering ears or keeping them tucked away safely. And as we see clearly tier armor shows best what asura would find highly functional and desirable in their clothing. Things that use alchemy and their advanced tech in everyday wear as to help productivity during work.

And the very least issue is, just STOP making every female armor in the game sexual and we won’t have to worry about NOT skinning some races and classes with others because it would be ‘odd’ or weird. My dress should have a front to it, explain the point of ARMOR that doesn’t cover my groin? Why are my boobs about to pop out of this heavy set? How come my leather armor looks like bondage gear? Why does that guy have the same set as me yet his is a jacket and mines…a bra? THIS has been an issue for years and I was hoping that GW and Anet would be a bit above it all but apparently not.

That was long winded but I think I covered each issue to the fullest. Please feel free to add to this if you like.

I don’t remember which game did this, but they dealt with the issue of “practical” male armor vs “sexualized” female armor with a solution I haven’t seen before— just make the armor, armor, and let everybody wear it. Which meant that some portion of the male population ran around in bikinis.

I actually rather like how the male and female armor for Asura are the same— the bodytypes are very similar and practicality is dominant. (As the set somebody above alluded to, I actually wear pit fighter… partly because it amuses me, partly because it’s part of my full berserker set. If I’m going to be squishy, I want to look the part. http://www.gw2armor.com/asura/female/named/heavy/front.jpg) Though, on a fashion-related note, I wish we had more hair styles…

The null armor swimsuit look intrigues me— if they just made the male trunks unisex, I wouldn’t’ve batted an eye at it. (Personally, I like the idea that Asura traditionally fed on slimes when young… one reason why there’s so much experimentation that goes on with them. Long cultural history with them. [Grub pulp is another theory I’m fond of.]) Rather than hiding anything, the swimsuit actually raises the issue and further sexualizes them in such a fashion that they look even younger. They don’t have nipples; they don’t even have mounds. (See above armor…) It might just be based on the models that I noticed, but the males seem to have larger chests than the females— hopefully in the form of pectoral muscles, but a largely irrelevant point.

I find the bandeau idea interesting from a conceptual and visual standpoint. Not exactly sure what the point would be unless more physiological details are pinned down.

There are physical preferences when it comes to Asura, though generally speaking, they come second to a meeting of minds: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Oggy

But, I think I speak for the majority when I ask to please keep the D-cup off my Asura…

I like how it is, except I wouldn’t mind a few tweaks. Such minor tweaks would be Arah shoulders having the female counterpart (where it has tiny wings that look more like wings) etc.

Actually, I’m fine with the way it is now. I’m having fun running around with Pit Fighter’s chest on a female Asura. :D

What does the sexual representation of to do with the look of the armor? Why the hell aren’t you people complaining about the ugly boots!

What crappy armor? I always found multiple sets looking quite nice on my chars (and all of them are asura).

Oddly enough, you can actually use a Light Armor which makes you look shirtless.

Fun fact: Asura have no nipples.

Personally, I wish ANET made Asura cute rather than sexy.

I hate how a ton of actually good looking armor headpieces is hiding asura ears.

On my asuran warrior I refuse to put on my heritage gear, because it really bothers me that one of our most distinguishable features is taken away from us.

It’s the same with the charr, in some headpieces they just don’t look like the horned lion badasses that they are supposed to be, but like bulky mole people..

I really hope some day in the future there’s going to be something done about this, so I can finally start looking like a gremlin-dragoon instead of a gnome suffering from progeria wearing a knight’s armor.

Kain Francois.4328:

Oddly enough, you can actually use a Light Armor which makes you look shirtless.
Fun fact: Asura have no nipples.
Personally, I wish ANET made Asura cute rather than sexy.

Interesting. Having no nipples implies a lack of mammaries, which indicates a reptilian, amphibian, or avian nature to the species. Given the big eyes, sharp teeth, and claws that visually appear adapted for climbing on their hands and toes, I would guess probably reptilian egg-layers. Progeny appear to be communally raised, though not in the same manner as the Charr, so strong family bonds are forsaken for stronger communal, and later krewe relationships.

Blast, this derails the talk about Asura-Skritt hybrids that we’ve been talking about in another thread unless we start really hybridizing the genetic material.

Hmm… Skritt hatched from eggs. Amusing idea…

Drakkon.4782:

Interesting. Having no nipples implies a lack of mammaries, which indicates a reptilian, amphibian, or avian nature to the species. Given the big eyes, sharp teeth, and claws that visually appear adapted for climbing on their hands and toes, I would guess probably reptilian egg-layers. Progeny appear to be communally raised, though not in the same manner as the Charr, so strong family bonds are forsaken for stronger communal, and later krewe relationships.

I think it’s actually been confirmed that the Asura give live birth by someone at Anet? At least, I remember hearing that somewhere on the forums.

It’s almost definitely confirmed that it’s a live birth— I think it was in Metrica where one Asura was talking about how his progeny was talking the day it was born— if [Blah] was a word, whatever it actually was. (Aha, here it is, courtesy of another forum: http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z163/Minu_Kitty/gw168_zps7de7fd78.jpg) I suppose he could be referring to the day after it HATCHED, but…

And, courtesy of the same forum: "The asura at Wintersday that talks about her progeny and having her pride “almost be worth the pain of childbirth” also suggests that it’s most common for asura to give birth to one progeny at a time."

Given the size of Asura, I’d guess that it’s either one progeny at at time, or they’re born very early, in marsupial fashion and fed somehow else. (Bird crops? I still like oozes as baby food.)

Treval.6723:

I think it’s actually been confirmed that the Asura give live birth by someone at Anet? At least, I remember hearing that somewhere on the forums.

I don’t have a link, but I once even read an answer in an interview that asura are mammals. Don’t forget not all mammals have such pronounced mammarial glands. Humans and cows are rather the exception.

Personally, I always regarded the fact that asura have no different clothes between males and females (besides underwear, but well) as a distinct cultural feature where gender equality is just natural for them.

Australia should start banning the exposure of big ears.

Why is that the female Asuras get the same town clothing as the human and norn races but not the same or similar armor? Why ANET!?

I don’t see why having a female version of armor on Asura is so bad. If they took the time to craft it so that it is not sexual then why not allow a little more femininity among the Asura? The hair ribbons show me clearly that at least to some extent they care about what gender they are.

My Asura wears the Wintersday skirt and ornate ruched shirt for her town clothes and it is VERY feminine and looks great! Yes it’s a deep V-neck… but it doesn’t looks sexual in any way. This shows me that they could make feminine armor for female Asura.

One thought – the new Phoenix set. Instead of a long, see through, feathered skirt like the human female wears – why not make it an ankle length skirt that has feathers on the bottom hem? Simple change, yet makes a big difference on such a small character model. Also, instead of the sweetheart neckline that accentuates cleavage – change it to a straight across neckline for the Asuran lack of cleavage. This keeps it looking good, yet feminine.

There would definitely be more work involved… but they SHOULD be tailoring the armor to the race/gender that wears it. Small tweaks to make it look awesome on all races and match all genders. Not to mention it would be fun to be like “oh hey, I wonder what this set looks like on _”. It would make it so that there is more variation in the game and people can feel even more unique based on their race and gender choices.

I put in a suggestion topic about female armor on female Asura… but it got few replies so I don’t know if I was heard or not. Maybe I should just grab a protest sign and hop a flight to Seattle to get my voice heard =p

Daevinity Inspirata.2508:

I don’t see why having a female version of armor on Asura is so bad. If they took the time to craft it so that it is not sexual then why not allow a little more femininity among the Asura? The hair ribbons show me clearly that at least to some extent they care about what gender they are.

My Asura wears the Wintersday skirt and ornate ruched shirt for her town clothes and it is VERY feminine and looks great! Yes it’s a deep V-neck… but it doesn’t looks sexual in any way. This shows me that they could make feminine armor for female Asura.

One thought – the new Phoenix set. Instead of a long, see through, feathered skirt like the human female wears – why not make it an ankle length skirt that has feathers on the bottom hem? Simple change, yet makes a big difference on such a small character model. Also, instead of the sweetheart neckline that accentuates cleavage – change it to a straight across neckline for the Asuran lack of cleavage. This keeps it looking good, yet feminine.

There would definitely be more work involved… but they SHOULD be tailoring the armor to the race/gender that wears it. Small tweaks to make it look awesome on all races and match all genders. Not to mention it would be fun to be like “oh hey, I wonder what this set looks like on _”. It would make it so that there is more variation in the game and people can feel even more unique based on their race and gender choices.

I put in a suggestion topic about female armor on female Asura… but it got few replies so I don’t know if I was heard or not. Maybe I should just grab a protest sign and hop a flight to Seattle to get my voice heard =p

Personally i like the designs, i love the female hair more than the males and i love the voice acting more, FEMALE FTW

Uhh… aren’t there three asuran armors that are completely topless?

EDIT: And to the above, none of the races have nipples. However it is confirmed that asura are in fact mammals, who give live birth, produce breastmilk, and have all the same male/female anatomical differences as humans.

Source: http://guildwars2.pl/about_lore_and_mechanics_with_eric_flannum_guildwarspl_exclusive,a545