Guild Wars 2

oh.. my..  feels

Christina, you are one brave warrior, I wish more people were like you, strong and positive!
Thank you so much for sharing your story!

I started crying, when I read this threat.
Christina, people like you are the reason why I study game/movie design. It’s just wonderful to create worlds and it’s wonderful to see how much it means to some people. Computer games are like dreams, own worlds to escape to, and I think many people in this society don’t understand that we need places where we can be what we want to forget about the (sometimes really hard) real life just for a little while. It is about giving hope to people like you and I think designing games or movies is a good option to (at least a little bit) change the world to a better place nowadays.

I hope they send Christina a Taimi mini pet.
Make it happen Anet.

Christina Thank you for the sharing. Big hug to you.

Christina.5103:

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

There is a saying in Greece we have "What is taken for granted for some (as far as bodily strength goes) is an ordeal to others ( elderly , people with MS ect) "

The sadest thing is when people don’t care to understand others and believe the World is made for them.Pregnancy is not a handicap .

Best wishes to you Christina and the dev team for this.

I have no tear ducts, so instead I’ll suggest ANet to make a toy the OP’s players can equip, with a skill that let players ride a golem while still visible on top, somewhat like Enchanted Broom, and that you gift at least one to them.

That way they don’t have to imagine it, and can just do it.

Posts like these are why I keep checking forums every now and then. Since it’s usually mostly negative feedback, it’s great to see a post like this.

I wish you all the best Christina. I think you also made a lot of people realize how fortunate they are, and that how we take most things for granted. And at least for me now, whenever I see Taimi in game, I’ll be thinking about that.

Thank you for this post.

Oh boy, I come here to bash others not to cry :’(

Just kidding, I also believe Taimi is awesome, best wishes to you Christina.

“my feels” post got deleted.. i’ll have to be less trendy and more indifferent in the future..
anyway, all the positive vibes in the world to everyone

“Taimi is going to be the grit the pearl forms around”.

That makes me look forward to learning even more of this sassy little Asura. She’s definitely a step in the right direction for the LS.

Christina, by reading your words here and the many who follow their hearts in this thread, made me feel grateful for playing long enough this game and verify since the beginning this is really a special game, made by skilled people and played by awesome ones in the most. Let´s enjoy the best of us and sharing nice moments like this more times

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” (author: Thich Nhat Hanh)

First time I saw Taimi I was like: “OMG SHES SO CUTE” and I wish I could ride a big golem like that. I didn’t know she was disabled though. That’s really cool that you would put in such a character.

Also that pregnant woman who got whiney with you, that’s just pathetic. Pregnancy isn’t a disability even if it might feel like one. Absolutely terrible.

Wow. Such feelings. Very cry.

Last week Ive finished To the Moon (http://store.steampowered.com/app/206440/), wich has an altruist as one of the main chars and now I see your post and feel very happy for playing theses games. I did knew nothing about altruism or ms, and seeing these chars Ive spent some time on google and wikipedia.

There are so many invisible problems you can have, its very nice to know a bit more of the fights that many real people are fighting out there.

I wish you all disabled best luck with your struggles, and lets hope you may live to see the day these sickness will all be simple to treat.

i sincerely appreciate that, i’m sure everyone finds dr. house inspiring as much as i do ._.
although, taimi is a much better role model

Was a very nice OP and good to read the replies from the community. Glad this sort of thing gets recognition, characters in popular culture do matter to people and can be real agents of change in perceptions from Lt. Uhura to Tyrion Lannister.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512

I hope they send Christina a Taimi mini pet.
Make it happen Anet.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————-
I agree, give her the mini
i think you arenanet boys N girls can do that.
it`s a small thing with a big meaning ( didnt know how to say it in english but this is close to what i mean ) and if christina has a asura i say build her a golem.
let her have the one and only mount in the freaking game.

Christina.5103:

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.

The sweet tooth of the ArenaNet office has been documented before, so cookies are probably a really good choice!

I really liked Taimi’s character but it did not occur to me that she might be inspirational in this way. Perhaps that’s what helps to make her inspirational, her character is not meant to emphasize her handicap, she is simply an interesting and cool character who happens to be handicapped.

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.

You mean like Tybalt? Though he was an Engi

Hang in there Christina. Don’t let anything pull you down. Everyone is equal, they just don’t realize it yet.

Like I said in the other thread, maybe a tonic would be even more appropriate, so she can turn into Taimi when ever she likes, even in combat. I hope someone at Anet goes the extra mile, and makes this happen.

My eyes watered a bit reading this, I have to admit. My decision to purchase this game is validated more and more the longer I play Looking forward to interacting more on the forums now (1st post) due to the positivity I’ve witnessed in the replies, keep on trucking Christina (Y)

i too agree that the OP should get the Taimi mini-pet. If enough of us post that, maybe Anet will cave in >_>

Dat feeling…

Thank you Christina! Don’t give a !@#$ about what ppl say or do in a mean way. You are smart and a strong woman. Remember that!

ANet, thank you too for make people happy and appreciate!

Dragonhero.1852:

You mean like Tybalt? Though he was an Engi

He was, just as Taimi is. However, the wiki states that the explosion only “mangled” his right hand; apparently he was still able to wield firearms as we have seen.

Slightly OT…does anyone recognize Taimi’s armor? My own Asura engineer likes it.

Tanith.5264:

Dragonhero.1852:

You mean like Tybalt? Though he was an Engi

He was, just as Taimi is. However, the wiki states that the explosion only “mangled” his right hand; apparently he was still able to wield firearms as we have seen.

Slightly OT…does anyone recognize Taimi’s armor? My own Asura engineer likes it.

It did mangle his hand but he became effectively “useless.” As he said, “Nobody wants a shaky engineer.” Whether he meant shaky as in trauma after the incident (which I find it hard to imagine a charr would feel that way) or that he just wasn’t as good with explosives. Anyway, he didn’t have a warband anymore and he was shaky so he joined the Order of Whispers doing clerical work. What I like about him, at least in comparison to Taimi, is that the player-character gave him confidence to go kick some kitten after he had been distraught over the loss of his greatest functionality.

He by no means compensated for his predicament with intelligence or the like, rather it was the confidence that the player-character passed on to him that really boosted him up. The kind of interaction that made the relationship, at least in my opinion, feel less degrading than Taimi. What I’d like to see more than just more of Taimi would be more of Braham and Taimi and their relationship.

Taimi alone, on the other hand, currently reminds me of a Professor X kind of stereotype. I would like to see her relationship with the rest of “Destiny’s Edge 2.0” grow to more than just a genius in a wheelchair.

It reminds me of Family Guy’s Brian & Stewie episode and MacFarlane’s commentary about it and how he knew by the time the crew worked on it that their relationship was strong enough to make a 22 minute episode without gags, cutaways or any other characters. That’s a good relationship in anything.

Tanith.5264:

Slightly OT…does anyone recognize Taimi’s armor? My own Asura engineer likes it.

sry, but taimi wears feathered pants and exalted mantle {light armor} :<
i dunno what the rest is

I first noticed Taimi during the LS meeting in LA and within her first couple of words I fell in love with her. She is a great character, funny and clever, and I thought it was great to have another strong female character.
When I learned about her handicap it took a moment to sink in, but then my jaw dropped.
I had no idea.
There is this really lovable character and Anet pulls this stunt to let you know too late that she is handicapped. And by “too late” I mean “too late to see her as ‘that handicapped person’ rather than ‘that cool asura girl’”.
Well played, Anet, you delivered a new NPC, one that would be the immediate favorite member of “Destiny’s Child” (or Destiny’s Edge 2.0 or whatever you would like to call the new NPC hero group) for many and only then you told us that she just also happened to be handicapped.
I am not a fan of all of your storytelling decisions, but this one was just awesome.

Cheer up Christina, I don’t know if you can get in game a golem to carry your toon around like Taimi but I am pretty sure you’ll have the love and care of all the gw2 player community and the dev as well. So be strong and live proud

Morfedel.4165:

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.

Wow.. It’s always amazing to hear from people who’s chosen to put themselves in harms way to serve. Having something disable you is one thing, but being willing to accept those kinds of consequences is the definition of heroic. I know as a country we don’t treat vets well at all. Especially the injured ones. Thank you!

Too much feels….

Christina, you’re awesome.

Keep that in mind all the time.

Good job everyone, you scared her off. If she ever comes back online don’t bother her in-game. Let her enjoy the game like a fellow adventurer.

I say “for the Taimi!” and all affected by the same <3

I hope all goes well for your christina, made tears to my eyes reading this today and its good that Anet are including characters like Taimi that can inspire such brave people as yourself, this post is the reason i want to take game design, and i hope Anet give you some Taimi goodies for your words before they get those cookies! nodnod

Another youngish disabled person here – late 20s, hypermobile/EDS3. I have problems with my arms and legs both, and seeing Taimi in game made me smile; it’s not often that characters with disabilities show up at all in video games, never mind in MMOs.

thank you anet for creating this kitten little asura. It’s one thing to use games as escapism, to pretend that you can be abled or forget that you’re not; it’s another to see yourself in that mirror, looking back, not on the sidelines but as a hero.

and /fistbumps/ to all my fellow disabled gamers as well. rock on \m/

This would be the perfect moment to reveal that the cookies were poisoned.

Pictures, please!

I like Taimi, a great character.

When I first saw Taimi, the first thing I thought was that the writers would have rooted for the “Kill the Cutie” trope of fiction.
I know right. Cruel, heartless, indeed, yet very effective on human emotions.

Now now, I don’t really know if that was really the ultimate fate planned for our little Taimi (and I bet my fellow writers here are sure hellbent on not letting out a word about it :P), but if it was, could Christina’s post have changed something? I wonder.

Ok I completely agree with the OP of how inspirational this character is to those with disabilities. My question is why after this post was made, in the latest update does Taimi sound like a sadistic disturbed child when you speak to her about your victory over Scarlett in Gendarran? She asks if there was lots of blood and did you see her guts… then goes on to ask if anyone on the team lost body parts… to me it’s a rather disturbing twist to what in my mind was a truly inspirational character… I wish the writing had not gone that direction.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Ok I completely agree with the OP of how inspirational this character is to those with disabilities. My question is why after this post was made, in the latest update does Taimi sound like a sadistic disturbed child when you speak to her about your victory over Scarlett in Gendarran? She asks if there was lots of blood and did you see her guts… then goes on to ask if anyone on the team lost body parts… to me it’s a rather disturbing twist to what in my mind was a truly inspirational character… I wish the writing had not gone that direction.

Well, maybe anet is going somewhere with that, but I just took it as a child-like morbid interest/fascination. I often remember asking my parents gory details about deaths, and I turned out fine. eye twitch

chronometria.3708:
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.

Tybalt Leftpaw, Order of Whispers mentor. Booted from his warband and has a prosthetic arm. So they did this at the very beginning of the game.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

My question is why after this post was made, in the latest update does Taimi sound like a sadistic disturbed child when you speak to her about your victory over Scarlett in Gendarran? She asks if there was lots of blood and did you see her guts… then goes on to ask if anyone on the team lost body parts… to me it’s a rather disturbing twist to what in my mind was a truly inspirational character… I wish the writing had not gone that direction.

Let me tell you a story then. I once was sitting in a train to Paris, and a boy and his father were sitting right across from where I was sitting. The boy was around 6 years of age I reckon. When the conductor came to check our tickets, the boy asked him what it was like being a conductor, and if people ever got run over by trains. The boy then proceeded to ask him if there would be lots of blood, and who would go and clean it up.

Every adult in that train was staring in disbelief, as this little boy was not afraid to ask every single question most of us would never dare ask, and he got an honest answer to every single one of them.

That’s the innocent curiosity of children.

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.

When I see postings like this, I know that there are people who might not be handicapped in the way many others are and they can’t comprehend it in the least.

Taimi gives hope to all who are struggling with disease and maladies produced not by us, but by those very forces that were “supposed” to help us when we are very ill.

Christina, you are simply amazing!
A big hug to you