Guild Wars 2

Christina.5103:

I’ll never forget the day a pregnant woman berated me outside a grocery store for taking the handicapped space she wanted.

Wow that’s low. People are so quick to judge.

I’m not generally one for “feels” but this made me tear up.

I love Taimi. And I am really glad that a character like her has been introduced. I wish our characters could have story lines as fleshed out like hers (without just being the hero, the savant, etc) to actually have physical flaws.

Anyway, I’m glad. And bake those cookies! (Ooh, maybe attempt to make an omnomberry bar with a few berries that are like them!)

15 charrrssssss

Magnus Heartseeker.7958:

15 charrrssssss

Exactly. Lol

This is great. I was happily surprised to hear Taimi talk about her legs, so plainly and like a young Asura. “They don’t work right!” I think she’s a great character, and I think this is a strength of GW2. Yes, 99% of all problems are solved with violence, and this is a very war-driven living story and will likely stay that way. But if you look into the smaller nooks of GW2 and if you go out of the way to talk to NPCs, you’ll see a lot of character and many people with different views on things. I hope to see more of Taimi and strong characters like her in the coming LS installations.

It’s amazing what people can do when they consider what it’s like to be in the shoes of a person different than them.

Agreed with the OP: Great job on Taimi.

@ OP: Beautiful post.

Creator – Fantastic
Op – Hero

What I like most about Taimi is that she doesn’t let a “little thing” like hardly being able to walk slow her down.

She has attitude and she has plans — being cute is icing on the cake.

I do worry about her obsession with Scarlet, however. Here’s hoping sweet little Taimi isn’t going to become Scarlet II.

Beautiful Post OP>

Don’t give up. Never give up. What seems impossible today, will be a matter of taking a few pills in a few years. However, making some people care can be a daunting task.

I wish you well. Hope you get better, and most importantly, feel better.

Godspeed.

EDIT: I appreciate the fact that ANET is trying to work in some of the social challenges in the game to create awareness as well.

I hope you checked out her golem’s interior. If you zoom your camera halfway inside the golem, you’ll see he has a little kittenpit in there. =)

Niko Stark.8932:

I hope you checked out her golem’s interior. If you zoom your camera halfway inside the golem, you’ll see he has a little kittenpit in there. =)

So she keeps little kittens in there?

LMAO. I didn’t even notice it got censored. Well, you know what I mean.

Thanks for sharing, OP.

Beautiful story, thank you for sharing

That OP man, that OP.

It’s an interesting issue. While I appreciate the addition of a disabled character, I do feel that its still somewhat lacking in that it plays to the stereotype of – “Disabled people must be super intelligent or something like professor X and Oracle”.

I`d be a lot more impressed if we saw a disabled norn or charr who wasn’t somehow gifted with an intellect and gadgets that basically made their disability into a benefit.

While I like Taimi, I feel her disability is tacked on. If Roxx lost an arm and was then told she was unfit for the warband – that would be a significant plotline involving disability.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

I’m not generally one for “feels” but this made me tear up.

This right here. Thanks for sharing Christina, and keep your chin up.

I admire you deeply Christina, and wish you all the best.

This is super touching. It’s awesome to be able to have that one NPC character you can resonate with.

Taimi is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

chronometria.3708:

If Roxx lost an arm and was then told she was unfit for the warband – that would be a significant plotline involving disability.

Female Tybalt with less charisma? No thanks.

Logged in just so I could +1 the heck out of this <3 You’re awesome, thanks for sharing

P.S. Not to be presumptious.. but I think someone really wants those cookies.

Hey! This is amazing that you shared your story. I contacted you ingame because the Guild Wars 1 and 2 community do a charity fundraiser every April ingame for Multiple Sclerosis! We are hosting it on the 19th this year…but haven’t posted the final details yet. My mom has MS…and I totally understand people not understanding. I am a huge avocate and an ambassador for the MS Society in Canada. I hope that we can get in touch so you can see what this amazing community does for MS and helping to spread awareness Thanks soooo much for sharing your story! <3

To the OP, my heart truly goes out to you I, too, suffer from invisible illnesses, which people have no clue about nor do they care for knowing. I also play for an escape, and although my eyesight is failing I find it fun and challenging. Some days are good, some not (as I’m sure you know), but it’s a world where I can run and be free. Thank you ArenaNet for providing a place for us. Blessings to all, blessing for tolerance and blessings for good things (health) in your lives.

yay something people can relate, that’s awesome

To the OP: Thank you for sharing your story. I have a dear friend with MS too, so I know what you’re going through. The ability of a video game character to inspire and encourage you is very uplifting, and I wish you well in the years to come.

My grandpa died of it. The health care providers didn’t provide that though and the autopsy backed that fact up. Stem cells could have saved him, but that is a topic for another thread.

Christina.5103:

When I play games, it’s usually as an escape. I like to imagine that I’m the perfectly healthy Commander Shepard, or some outrageously good looking Final Fantasy character on a quest to save the world with magic. Games take me out of my situation and, for a little while, allow me to be someone else. Maybe this is why I play a hyper-mobile d/d Elementalist.

Are you listening game developers? THAT is what great videogames are really about.

They are not gambling machines, market simulators or movies, please remember that.

To the OP, my best friend’s brother (who is also a good friend) has early-onset MS as well, and so to a limited extent, I have seen what you have to put up with daily. Your post was truly beautiful, and I am so glad you can relate to Taimi – when I first saw her and heard about her condition I immediately thought of my friend. It’s a wonderful thing that a video game has such an inspiring character in it. I wish you all the best, and admire your attitude.

Re the pregnant lady – that story saddened me so much to read about. I am so sorry you experienced that, and I hope that sort of thing will not happen to you again. There can little understanding in this world for the plight of others, but I am heartened to see this has not blinded you to the goodness of people.

Op deserves a mini taimi imo
Would that be the most awesome mini in game yet? Taimi on her golem.

Josh Foreman.8250:

Chocolate chip with butterscotch chips are my favorite cookies. I mean, I didn’t come up with the character. I’m just say’n.

Work that Adventure Box and we’ll see what the community can do for you.

P.S. I loved Tribulation Mode.

Christina, thank you so much for sharing.

You have inspired me to build you a golem. -Takes off to Wal-Mart.-

Yay! All the feels! <3

Beautiful post & great character indeed.
I will never see Taimi as a secondary NPC anymore after reading this.
I hope she has a great story coming up in the next season of the Living Story.
I vote in too for that Mini Taimi for the OP Christina!!!

i can relate (i have 6 different types of autraithes + psoresis). not relate to the desice but to the situration and the joy of seeing how the game takes up the problem of the disabeled. thanks fore such a game and joy, in a somtimes cruell cruell world.

sorry fore the miss spelling (got dysleksia to)

That was beautiful. I haven’t played GW2 for months and this just made me even more excited to play it cause I have downloaded it again yesterday, trying to get back the feelings of this GREAT game.

OP, this an amazing post! Thank you for sharing. I’m so glad you found a character you can relate to, it’ll help a lot when using the game as an escape from reality. I too use the game as an escape from health problems. Anyway, as someone said earlier, I think Christina should get her own mini Taimi.

Christina.5103:

To the devs who worked on Taimi, who wrote her and created and animated her model:

I want to thank you for Taimi. I live with multiple sclerosis, and while I was only diagnosed a handful of years ago and am looking forward to a future where I won’t be trapped in my own body, I value characters like Taimi more than you can know.

My greatest trouble spots are my legs, specifically the joints in my hips and knees. There are days that I wake up and I can’t get out of bed. I’m young (in my 20s) and I walk with a cane and have a handicapped tag for my car – and I get nasty looks from people all the time because I’m young and, clearly, I shouldn’t need a cane or a handicapped space. I’ll never forget the day a pregnant woman berated me outside a grocery store for taking the handicapped space she wanted.

When I play games, it’s usually as an escape. I like to imagine that I’m the perfectly healthy Commander Shepard, or some outrageously good looking Final Fantasy character on a quest to save the world with magic. Games take me out of my situation and, for a little while, allow me to be someone else. Maybe this is why I play a hyper-mobile d/d Elementalist.

But when you introduced Taimi, I was overjoyed. I didn’t play the Marionette weapon testing update, so I didn’t see Taimi until just recently when I was mucking around the refugee camp in Gendarran. The friend I was playing with pointed her out, and I think I shrieked loud enough to wake the dead.

I don’t know where you’re going with Taimi. But honestly I don’t care. Because now, in Tyria, I can imagine having a giant golem cart me around when I can’t feel my legs or when they hurt too badly to walk. Now when I get derisive or pitying looks, I can take a minute to imagine I’m sitting on a golem’s shoulder like a complete kitten.

So thank you for thinking of people like me. Thank you for thinking about how someone with a disability might get along in your world. And thank you for making her awesome.

Christina

PS Since I’m incapable of fanart of any kind to show my appreciation, I bake. If your office would like to receive a tupperware full of cookies, I’d like to bake them for you as a thank you.

Don’t suppose you saw her dialogue with Braham in Edge of the Mists, did you? They are gone now, but if you haven’t, maybe I can find a video of it somewhere.

Anyway, I’m disabled myself, though it’s milder than yours. I am an amputee. I lost my left leg below the knee while in the military during the FIRST Iraq war roughly 25 years ago. Despite that, though, as long as I haven’t had an issue come up like foliculitis (ingrown hair), or the prosthesis is wearing out or something, I’m just fine, so I’m not really handicapped often.

It DID lead me to a career as a prosthetist though, and I take great joy in helping amputees. Mostly they are geriatric diabetics, so I’m thrilled if they even get out of their wheelchairs, but recently I fitted an 11 year old girl who lost her leg due to cancer. Wow, if you could have seen the look on her face after she took her first steps… she started crying, and I had to fight not to myself.

Anyway. So yeah, I loved Taimi was in there. I’d love to see more. Maybe people with asuran or charr tech inspired prosthetics. Harnesses for helping paralyzed people walk. Etc etc. I think it wouldn’t be wise to inundate the game with such characters, but inserting one here and there, or maybe an Advanded Research Hospital with several of these patients might be really cool.

Just wanted to say that this post put a nice little smile on my face.
I probably had the same smile while I was reading through Taimi’s dialogue.

Dem Feelings THO

This is probably going to get censored to hell, but that was an incredibly touching post, I actually teared up. I have a one year old daughter and just the possibility that she could have hip dysplasia makes me upset, I really feel for people who have much more serious problems with everyday things I don’t even have to think about doing. I work in medicine and being able to help alleviate pain makes me happy to have been able to improve someone’s life, and I take it to heart when I am unable to help with conditions such as yours. I think its great that something most people would consider so small was able to bring you so much joy, positive outlook is so important. kitten , teared up again.

This will definitely get censored to hell and back. kitten that pregnant woman, kitten her up her stupid kitten . Regardless of age, if someone has a cane and clearly has trouble walking even with it, they deserve a handicap spot. I say that even knowing full well how uncomfortable it is for pregnant women to walk long distances, but you needed that spot more than she did and you shouldn’t feel bad for taking it. Maybe her kid will throw up all over some expensive dry clean only sweaters and ruin them.

Reading this put a huge smile on my face. Thanks for shareing Christina, and all the best to you!

You’re an awesome woman, Christina!

chronometria.3708:

It’s an interesting issue. While I appreciate the addition of a disabled character, I do feel that its still somewhat lacking in that it plays to the stereotype of – “Disabled people must be super intelligent or something like professor X and Oracle”.

I`d be a lot more impressed if we saw a disabled norn or charr who wasn’t somehow gifted with an intellect and gadgets that basically made their disability into a benefit.

While I like Taimi, I feel her disability is tacked on. If Roxx lost an arm and was then told she was unfit for the warband – that would be a significant plotline involving disability.

I dunno. I rather like the fact that Taimi used her intelligence to make a golem that is part wheelchair, part Kool-Aid man, and part Chuck Norris. I didn’t even realize she couldn’t walk until it was pointed out to me.

MisterElliott.2481:

…And?

/15chars

If you’re not filling 15 characters, your post generally shouldn’t be on the forums.

MadDemon.7548:

chronometria.3708:

It’s an interesting issue. While I appreciate the addition of a disabled character, I do feel that its still somewhat lacking in that it plays to the stereotype of – “Disabled people must be super intelligent or something like professor X and Oracle”.

I`d be a lot more impressed if we saw a disabled norn or charr who wasn’t somehow gifted with an intellect and gadgets that basically made their disability into a benefit.

While I like Taimi, I feel her disability is tacked on. If Roxx lost an arm and was then told she was unfit for the warband – that would be a significant plotline involving disability.

I dunno. I rather like the fact that Taimi used her intelligence to make a golem that is part wheelchair, part Kool-Aid man, and part Chuck Norris. I didn’t even realize she couldn’t walk until it was pointed out to me.

I agree with MadDemon, her disability isnt noticeable unless you talk to her and she states it as it just is. She’s disabled, she manages, moving on. Plus Taimi is an asura, using a golem makes total logical sense.

to chronometria: I dont think it was stated anywhere that she is superiorly intelligent (for an asura), she could be Zojja’s disciple for a different reason (like she’s related to Snaff). You also seem to forget Tybalt Leftpaw – he was gladium b4 joining OoWs and named Leftpaw because his left paw was a prosthetic. It wasnt a gadjet arm, it didnt do anything special. It just was. Stuff happened, these characters moved on with whatever skills they had and opportunities they could get. How exactly does that play on that stereotype you quote?

I feel it is a great message, and I am humbled by the strength shown not by only the characters, but also players like Christina here, who rise above their disability and all the negativity that comes with it. Being disabled does not make you lesser, it just changes what your daily life means. Should anything happen to me (knock on wood) I can display the same strength and fortitude.