Guild Wars 2

This is ironic, I rolled a Sylvari male for all of my characters because of clipping issues. Humans for me are great, loved them in the original guild wars but they were designed awfully in this game. Humans look far too cartoony for my tastes and the weapons were just far too low on the character’s waist. I don’t know what went wrong from the initial transfer but all I know is whoever gave the green light for these unfinished races should be fired. You just don’t rush a race.

I had characters in every race, before I deleted my Charr Engineer. I found the Charr storylines, a bit better than human/norn but I was past that point anyway, and still had a character who was hunched over with an annoying bouncy run and whose class I didn’t much enjoy either. I’m simply more comfortable with looking at a two-legged humanoid on screen when they’re running around and the run speed seems most natural on the human and Sylvari.

I went with human, because charr and norn animations are odd. Besides, norn have club feet and a strange body if you pick a male character. If female, everything is fine.

Asura rats are hideous to behold and sort of annoy me. Treebeardians are fine. Sylvari then..

And I’m disappointed with the animation and armor design for other races.

I have finally settled on all humans. I can’t stand the movement animations for charr and norns. I don’t like the voice actors for the sylvari. Asura are cool, but so tiny, there is no reason to work at their gear, as most players can’t even see it. ESPECIALLY weapons when they are sheathed.

Vis.8471:

I’m waiting for a magical race.

Sylvari not magical enough for you?

As a veteran of the original Guild Wars, I have gone all the way human. The majority of my characters are human and only very recently (after a year of playing) have I branched out to try other races. Given everything humans went through and accomplished in the first Guild Wars series and to now suddenly find humanity ‘struggling’ I feel the need to pitch in and do my part to help restore humanity to its former strength. Which also means I’m a proud Ascalonian and may have some Separatist tendencies (this does not bode well for the Charr I recently made..). I was sad to see much of the old human lore from the original Guild Wars disappear and still hope to one day see return. All in all, humans are just the race I enjoy the most, the race I sympathize with the most, and the race I care to see excel.

My actual favorite races are charr and sylvari even though my main is a human and I have 2 norn. My charr was my main but charr look like kitten in most armor and have clipping issues even in their own cultural armor. Sylvari look strange to me anything other than TA and cultural and the face and hair options are a bit lacking (especially the female faces and male hair). I don’t have asura but they also seem to have armor issues.
So that leaves norn or human if you want a good range of armor options and judging by whats been released that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.
Norn and charr are large but have to run at the same speed as the asura and human so it makes feel really slow. I use speed boosts most of the time just to get around that.
Norn males look human enough for the out of proportion body to be a bit uncanny . This is not necessarily an issue since they aren’t human but many don’t seem to like it.

Human and elves (human with point ears) are always the most popular races in MMO so with that and above it’s not surprising there is a human race bias.

Bandit.6384:

I rolled toons of every race, but I had a real problem with the Charr just for storyline reasons. I mean, they’re evil, or rather the Legions are. I was frankly disturbed and a little sickened by the fascist hell of the Legions, and I was actually rather shocked the game makes the Separatists out to be the bad guys and encourages you to murder as many as possible. That was a hard lump to swallow.

Interesting. I’m usually not a fan of militaristic people at all, but I do like the charr and generally find them more palatable than the humans. The human class system in which your value is based on the accident of birth, and a tiny hyperprivileged “noble” caste grows rich and spoiled and cruel on the backs of everyone else is pretty horrible. While the charr are not “nice”, they appear to be more egalitarian overall, despite the strict military structure and discipline. All cubs grow up together and are trained the same. Promotions are based on merit. There’s no crass contrast between wasteful decadence and poverty. And your warband is your family as well as your military unit, there’s a lot of closeness there. The main issue I have with the charr is how the gladium are treated — it’s one thing to revile someone who truly let their warband down, but if you lose your ’band without any fault of your own, you should not be treated dishonorably.

Anyway, on topic: if the devs are disappointed, then maybe they should look at the pro-human bias they created. Pretty much all the armor is designed only with humans in mind, be it the outfits that came with the game or the ones introduced on the gem store. Play a human and you can be sure that you have a wide variety of choices that all fit you and look at least decent on you. Sylvari on the other hand look plain wrong in pretty much anything but cultural/Nightmare armor, and even that has issues — the light T1 looks like cheap plastic on women, and so do parts of the heavy T2. Charr? Stretched textures and tail clipping are everywhere. Even the stupidly expensive cultural T3 light armor has tail clipping! Not to mention how many pauldrons hover a handspan above the body.

Anet really needs to make more armors available that are NOT human-themed. There’s plenty of human outfits already. Give us some norn-themed, sylvari-themed, charr-themed gear — and make sure it actually fits!

More face and hairstyle choices for non-humans would not hurt, either.

Despite all this, I still vastly prefer charr and sylvari to everything else, and the only species I like less than the humans are the asura. I don’t play tiny characters, and the arrogant supremacist attitude is extremely off-putting too.

Gandarel.5091:

Humans got a really good lore, it has a ‘feeling’ to roll a human

And mostly because of GW1.

This. I have a backstory and lore behind my humans and its part of the reason why I won’t roll a charr. My humans are of Ascalonian descent after all.

Slow? It all depends on the class… But i see some of your points, jumping with a charr or norn is a nightmare xD. Side note, i chose Sylvari first (cause they’re amazing…) But after 30 levels i got tired, and made 2 humans fairly quick, a thief (who i play the most) and a warrior, later i made a female necro, but changed the gender later. But i think Norns got one of the greatest cultural armors, their hairstyles (mixed with a beard) can be AMAZING… but the male legs are too skinny xD
Sylvari is my all time favorite though, really cool cultural armor and color pallet..

My first character was a human for RP reasons, to be a descendant of my GW1 character. But since then, I now have a character of every race except Asura (but I will when I get another slot).

For me, the appearances of my characters are everything (probably a girl thing – like they’re my Barbie dolls x_x). So it’s hard to have a Charr when even though she has a beautiful design finding suitable light armour for her is hard and off-putting. My two humans are very easy to work with. But I adore all my characters because I’ve managed to make them all look amazing (to me anyway).

I personally feel like I see more charr than humans these days. Everyone seems to play a male charr warrior…

But let’s face it, most people are always going to play human the most because we are humans. Not everyone are into ‘different’ races. I personally love Norn and their personality and lore, same with Sylvari. Charr I’m into because of how their race has evolved. Asura I’ve never really been big on. A lot people just like sticking to the ‘normal’.

I wasn’t. Asura all the way!

shenhua.2186:

In general I hate really small or large races, so Asura is out and so is Norn and Charr.

I’m left with Sylvaris who look really strange in anything not TA or Cultural(just my opinion) or Humans. So I’ll go for humans.

I seem to be seeing WAY more of the cancer that is Asura all over the world. Everyone and their mother is running around playing one it seems. But this might just be bias on my part due to me hating them so much.

Aww. They’re not bad at all once you get to know them. It’s a trust thing. They have good and bad like every other race. The good tends to outweigh the bad.

Not too different from us, except that every one of them is blessed/cursed with obscene brilliance.

It does tend to go to their head and they end up with too smart for your own good syndrome, causing all kinds of mischief and chaos.

But the ones that get a handle on their egos go very far and they reveal themselves to be very thoughtful, even caring people.

… Just, avoid the ones you don’t know who are overly eager to offer you food and drink randomly. It won’t end well.

Humanity owes much to the asura, if not especially the Ebonhawk Ascalonians.

I wanted to badly to make my main characters either asura or charr but they both have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many issues it just isn’t worth it.

Asura camera issues where it feels like someone is constantly shoving my head down, I can’t stand that claustophobic feeling, and the fact that Anet still defends their pathetic FoV is an absolute joke.

Then there’s the weapon issues, why would I ever bother to waste my time getting good weapon skins or even armor skins? They’re microscopic, my staff is literally a twig and the size of a Norn’s dagger, wtf????

Charr armor issues are plenty, and I really wanted to make a caster charr as well, but I can’t stand everything on them being stretched mini skirts, and halloween masks for helmets, disgusting.

Originally I decided to roll a human that looked like me, but after a couple minutes of trying I thought he was too handsome to be a guardian and that I’d make a mesmer that looked like me later

I have 3 Charr, 2 Asura, 2 Humans 0 Norn (because you know, upsized human …) 0 Tree people. 1 Slot free.

I wanted to roll human because I felt thakittens more immersive playing a character more similar to myself. Also a human male guardian seems to fit very well lore wise. That being said I’ve also rolled a Sylvari for more mystical professions

Vis.8471:

LINK:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/16/guild-wars-2-designer/
(And by “disappointed” I am referring to the statement of ““people avoiding charr & asura are missing the strongest story stuff””)

============

I chose a human due to the fact that I wanted to play a Norn or a Charr however the Norn males are hideous and their animations are god awful. Charr’s cant hold a shield without it clipping through or way off their arm and their tail goes through most armors by clipping etc etc. And they are both SLOW. So I went with the boring old human.

The most likely race to be released next is the Tengu which is just yet again another large animal race so I’ll just stick with my human after them as well. I’m waiting for a magical race. Something like the largos etc.

This is the first MMO I have ever rolled a human. I only did it due to the Norn males having worse hairstyles, movements, animations than any other MMO race I have ever seen.

============

TL;DR?

Were you forced into playing a human due to something?
OR
Did you choose a human simply because you wanted to roll a human?

..and he maybe be right but I find the charr and asura a bit silly looking. I can’t take them too seriously.

Yes this is the first fantasy game were I have played as a human and I was kinda forced into it. I have a pet hate for animal races.

Charr armor is terrible even the cultural armor. Really ruined my idea of charr especially after seeing the concept art.

They are disappointed in this, yet in the first game you had NO choice but to be human. WHAT DO THESE DEVS WANT FROM US?

I usually pick based off of visual appeal. In other MMOs, elves and dwarves look pretty cool, and I always stay away from human. I have never been drawn to avatars that are animal like, so this is the first MMO that I picked human IIRC.

I am not surprised by the population differences. The Dev’s shouldn’t be either. When they designed a game around looks, they only support people to play what they think “looks” best. Apparently humans are the most aesthetically pleasing. Personally I completely disagree and play a Charr myself. The clippings are hardly noticeable and the tail doesn’t bother me. The problem here, I think, is that people care to much about how their character looks rather than care about their characters story. This is largely Anets fault for providing such bad story telling. I mean Dialogue cut scenes? For EVERYTHING? Now that’s a problem.

PMilkos.9103:

Vis.8471:

I’m waiting for a magical race.

Sylvari not magical enough for you?

Asura not magical enough for you?

Their main purpose is to study magic for crying out loud…..

My first charracter is a human, but that’s because i’m plain unimaginative and boring and i like my first char being human. At the moment however i’ve got 2 humans, 2 norn, 2 charr and 2 Asura. 0 Plants because they’re not a race. The only thing that bugs me really is that Charr have a truckload of clipping issues and a majority of the headpieces just look dreadfull on them , but MAN those GS swings look handsome.

PlayerX.5307:

Asura not magical enough for you?

Their main purpose is to study magic for crying out loud…..

They treat magic as a science, though, not as magic. There is really nothing “magical” about the, nothing “mystical”, or “supernatural”, or “occult” or “paranormal” or “weird” (in the supernatural sense). They are scientists and engineers, and for them magic is merely a power source or tool.

Humans actually seem more “magical”, because their gods are something truly supernatural. Similarly with the Norn, who have a great deal of mysticism going on, as do the Sylvari. Only the Charr are less magical (having killed their “gods” and trusting only in steel and so on).

Personally I’m surprised that the devs are surprised or disappointed by the human numbers. Humans are always extremely popular, even more popular than elves, in every game where they are present, and given that they are presented relatively well, and have cool lore, in GW1/2, it would be shocking if they weren’t popular.

I think the devs did an awesome job on all the races, but the “small race” and the “beast race” are always going to be the least popular two. In fact they are actually MORE popular in GW2 than they are in most games.

Never understood the complaints about clipping Charr models etc. My main is a Male Charr Guardian and he looks so much more kitten than the Justin-Bieber-baby-face-look-alike-stereotype-warrior-in-black-armor-and-twilight. Gosh this makes me angryyyyyyyyyy (acts-like-Trevor-from-GTA-V).

I have an account full of norn, plus two humans. The other races just aren’t for me. While I normally play “the elvish race” in every MMO that has them, I just couldn’t get a sylvari looking the way I wanted her to be. While norn are the much cooler dwarves, sylvari aren’t the cooler elves at all, sorry, ANet.

Charr…sorry, but as a former GW1 player I will never be able to look at them as anything else but a warmongering, evil race that committed genocide on the people of my GW1 character. And I don’t want to play something evil, period. That and I am not into furry races. I never play them in any game.

And while the scientific mind of the Asura is appealing to me, I don’t want to play an arrogant little rat either.

Humans are usually popular in any MMO to begin with, but in this one they even got a good background, as they are not the master race unlike in pretty much all other MMOs, but the underdogs on the verge of total extinction. It’s interesting. And I like it. In the end, the popularity of humans is just proof that ANet did a good job with them. shrug

I only have Human and Charr characters. I tried playing Norn, Asura and Sylvari but just got bored of them. I like humans because of the great looking armor sets and the character creation is always fun, and I like Charr because they just look very cool! (I make all my Charr on the smallest height setting lol – and my Humans too!)

Forced into playing a human because I’m a perfectionist and they got ‘something’ wrong with every other race I would consider to play.

Eugh, Tengu… No need for any violent poultry thank you! Not going to play that either.

I played a Charr named Chasind (because chasind means to run, running, flow, flowing water- all that stuff & plus I love Dragon Age: Origins) During BETA. I ended up making a human elementalist named Soceress Rinoa after Rinoa Heartilly from FF8. I didn’t keep my charr because no armor looks good on them, I also don’t find anything very extinguishable between male or female charr besides the fur on their tails & horn shapes/voices.

I’d play a charr if they didn’t look so goofy with a staff.
I’d play a norn if the female voices weren’t so awkward.
I Do in fact, play an Asura
I also have a Sylvari

When I first heard of GW2 I wanted to play Sylvari because.. plant people. But the animations and particularly the running animation really bugs me for some reason and I couldn’t stand it so I made a human mesmer because I’m a big fan of Venetian masquerade stuff.

I tried a Norn but .. never again. It’s just awful in every way. Norn are supposed to be big and tough but most faces looks like teenagers except one or two which looks like they were hit by an ugly stick. Then you get in game and see even more of how awful they are, the way they hold their arms, the way they stand, the way they run(speaking of males here, females seem pretty darn good.)
Then it’s the armour .. oh boy .. did not like it at all. I like a bit of bulky armour but on norn it just goes to the extreme with massive shoulderpads, massive gloves, massive everything and it just looks silly to me. A huge blob of muscles and metal. (Norn with robes looks even worse.). I did try to make the thinnest norn and it was marginally better but it still didnt sit right.
I really wanted to like Norn but the male body shapes and the way armour look on them is just too much of an annoyance for me.

I tried charr as well and they were pretty decent except for the running, not a fan of them running on all fours, and their starting areas are really dull compared to the others.

Tried Asura for about 5 minutes but I have a rule of never, ever, playing the tiny cute race that seems to be in every MMO these days.

So now all my characters are Human because they’re the most “neutral” ones, they have good animations, armour looks good on them and their starting zones are appealing.

Vis.8471:

LINK:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/16/guild-wars-2-designer/
(And by “disappointed” I am referring to the statement of ““people avoiding charr & asura are missing the strongest story stuff””)

============

I chose a human due to the fact that I wanted to play a Norn or a Charr however the Norn males are hideous and their animations are god awful. Charr’s cant hold a shield without it clipping through or way off their arm and their tail goes through most armors by clipping etc etc. And they are both SLOW. So I went with the boring old human.

The most likely race to be released next is the Tengu which is just yet again another large animal race so I’ll just stick with my human after them as well. I’m waiting for a magical race. Something like the largos etc.

This is the first MMO I have ever rolled a human. I only did it due to the Norn males having worse hairstyles, movements, animations than any other MMO race I have ever seen.

============

TL;DR?

Were you forced into playing a human due to something?
OR
Did you choose a human simply because you wanted to roll a human?

Well, firstly, I find it really strange they specify, ““people avoiding charr & asura are missing the strongest story stuff” in the first place.

Why? Why do this? Why put the strongest story stuff on the non-Human races? Guild Wars started out, primarily, with Humans. People, in mass, in every MMO I’m aware of, choose Humans over the other races available. This is pretty consistent. People like playing as Humans, and shouldn’t be punished with the, “Lesser story stuff” because they didn’t play as another race.

Now, with that off my shoulders, I came from GW1. Directly. I have 30 points in the HoM. I didn’t go over that for one reason, and that’s because the physical rewards stopped at 30 – the titled beyond 30 didn’t interest me. In GW1 we were met with 3 races of Humans, and technically a forth if you count the Krytans separate from Ascalonians, which they were.

Then there was Utopia, which didn’t happen, sadly. It really annoyed me actually, it annoys me even more when people say, “That content got turned into the Asura, and Asura areas/enemies” . . . that really annoys me. I can’t say it enough. GW1 was very Human centric, and I preferred that.

When it was announced we’d be getting extra races, I was afraid that Human storylines would become lesser, as a result, and that seems to be exactly what happened in many aspects. So many races to keep track of limit class options that would Human specific, and all manner of issues. On top of thta we have a developer outright saying they gave preference to the non-Human races in story, giving them the, “stronger story stuff” and I find that outright offense.

The reality is I would have been happier if we’d gotten Utopia, and moved onto this game with five distinct Human races with their own classes and racial characteristics and architecture. I’d have preferred four strong storylines on Human issues in the GW2 world, and for there to be a unique expansion for each Human race in question. I’d have preferred non-Human races never be a playable option. I’d have preferred the Asura never have existed. The Charr were a great addition in GW1, and I’d want more of them in GW2, but not as a playable option. Rather a strong story and dialogue point, at various points, to interact with. I think that would have been great.

I really was not forced into playing a Human.

Indeed there was never a single chance that I would play anything but a Human, and if they’d not included Humans at all I simply would never have bought the game. I always play Humans. Humans are just more interesting.

All the racial characteristics, all the cultural characteristics – every single thing about the non-Human races in the game are inspired by Human things. The Asura show this the best because the Asura really are just a mish mash of ideas originally meant for a race of Humans in GW1. The Charr themselves are massively Human inspired. For me if every single non-Human race stayed the same, except they were suddenly Human, NOTHING WOULD CHANGE for me. Nothing. At all. Because the things that make them what they are, are Human things. Even the Charr eating people – guess what, cannibals exist. The end. Just Human inspirations. All that variety they have is Human variety. Human this. Human that. Human everything. The most varied and wonderful and complex and culturally diverse thing we know of – Human.

Humans are interesting, and I always love playing as them, even when developers have an insane bias toward non-Human races.

The edit function for my post isn’t working for some reason, so I’ll add this here:

Canthan, Luxon, Kurzick, Elonan, Ascalon and Krytan as Guild Wars peoples were amongst the best and culturally diverse Humans that have ever graced an online RPG in my mind. I adore what was originally done with them. A South-American inspired race of Humans would have been the perfect top to a glorious cake.

The non-Human races cannot be salvaged in my mind, nothing will ever make me like or play as one. I love a great many aspects of Guild Wars 2, but the non-Human races simply cannot, and will not count amongst them. The only way they could possibly improve the non-Human races in my mind is to remove all the non-Human races from being playable, permanently. That is my honest feeling. I’m sorry if other feel different, that’s fine, I won’t argue the matter, but I just did not need, and never did want, playable non-Humans in GW2 or GW1. If other people enjoy them, so be it, I’m glad even, I’m only speaking to my personal preference.

Lucien

Hmm, I never actually thought much about keeping the playable race as only human for GW2. I suppose I always thought that there were simply better ways to go about it than what they did here. I agree with a lot of your sentiments, although I will say other playable races were always on the devs mind’s…even as far back as Prophecies. They just didn’t have the resources to implement it back then.

They could have done one simple thing to avoid a ton of this mess:

Don’t replace human history and culture…just ADD to it!

Honestly…Tyria is a huge place. Why they couldn’t utilize all that empty space out there for new races I have no idea. Instead they chose to almost completely dismantle and neuter the existing human civilizations to “make room” for the new guys. It just makes no sense to me.

You don’t need to destroy one race to create 4 others.

Obsidian.1328:

Lucien

Hmm, I never actually thought much about keeping the playable race as only human for GW2. I suppose I always thought that there were simply better ways to go about it than what they did here. I agree with a lot of your sentiments, although I will say other playable races were always on the devs mind’s…even as far back as Prophecies. They just didn’t have the resources to implement it back then.

They could have done one simple thing to avoid a ton of this mess:

Don’t replace human history and culture…just ADD to it!

Honestly…Tyria is a huge place. Why they couldn’t utilize all that empty space out there for new races I have no idea. Instead they chose to almost completely dismantle and neuter the existing human civilizations to “make room” for the new guys. It just makes no sense to me.

You don’t need to destroy one race to create 4 others.

They didn’t get rid of any human civilisations though?
During GW1 the only place there were humans left was Kryta (Ignoring Cantha and Elona because these were completely different campaigns/continents).
Ascalon had fallen and was pretty dead at the beginning of GW1. Orr was dead beforehand. Humans never really inhabited the Crystal Desert. Humans certainly didn’t inhabit the Shiverpeaks. Yeah you found humans all over, but not in large quantities.

FlamingFoxx

Kryta was a lot bigger in GW1. It stretched into Maguuma and south as well. Riverside Province is all Asuran and Sylvari land now. And Sanctum Cay is Tengu. And Centaurs were only found in Maguuma. North of LA and east of Beetletun all the way to the Shiverpeaks was Krytan land. More importantly though, Krytans were changed from a “mediterranean” race with olive skin and unique architecture into a “one size fits all” white Euro-race. The same style all humans use now, regardless of origin.

Ascalon wasn’t gone by any means, they won the Charr war after all. Adelbern and Ascalon defeated the Titans thus breaking the Charr power base. The fact that ANet decided to “reload” the Charr demise in EotN and later insta-spawn yet another massive horde to wipe out Ascalon for good was only done for 2 reasons: to provide GW2 racial parity in terms of living space(every race should have roughly equal territory in terms of size), and to reduce humanity to a single kingdom to avoid unbalanced racial hegemony. It was done purely for marketing GW2 to a new audience, not for any lore-related reasons.

Orr was dead, yes.

The Crystal Desert belonged to no one really. The Forgotten perhaps?

The Shiverpeaks was Dwarf territory. I can see how ANet might not want to make the Dwarves a playable race for GW2, they are way too common in these games. But all they really did was replace them with tall humans who act just like dwarves. More individualistic and spiritual perhaps, but essentially the same thing. That’s another topic though.

Humans weren’t in large quantities simply because the GW1 game engine wouldn’t allow it. It was an “assumed” portrayal. For instance, seeing those random castles you couldn’t get to in Kryta was meant to imply population and civilization. They weren’t just for show.

As for Cantha and Elona…do you really think, if they ever decide to actually make an expansion, that those areas will be human anymore? 99% chance they are overrun by the other 4 races. Why? Because it’s not in ANet’s best interests that any one race should surpass any other. Everything has to be equal.

Even if that means going against the very foundational history with which you base your game on.

Obsidian.1328:

-snip-

The physical land area of Kryta was bigger yes, but over 50% of it was swarming in Orrian undead. There were very few human settlements and it wasn’t just about the engines limitations. Ascalon was a fallen kingdom with just a small number holding out against the Charr who were walking around north of the wall. The only major settlement in Kryta was of course Lions Arch, with minor settlements in the Ascalonian settlement, Riverside Providence, Beetletun and Shaemoor. Don’t forget that the White Mantle, who were Krytans, had to be wiped out or driven out and after fighting the Orrian Undead Kryta had to withstand a full on assault from the Mursaat who even breached the inner city walls. It was in no way a thriving kingdom.

The city of Ascalon was the last bastion of Ascalon (until the founding of Ebonhawke which was populated by those who fled Ascalon and established by the Ebon Vanguard..)

Yes they had to make allowances for the other races, but all in all it’s not that drastic. We were faced with the idea that humanity was failing from the very beginning of GW1. This is something that was continued through into EoTN and it was sort of about the question of humanities place in the changing world.

Considering Cantha’s history, if we ever return there is very little chance of it being presently populated by anything much other than humans – Anet is quite aware of this. As for Elona, humans are a dying breed there as well and as far as we know Palawa Joko and his undead horde have pretty much taken over – this is something that was set in motion by the player character in GW1 when we willingly freed Palawa Joko from his prison in order for him to help us cross the Sulphurous Wastes.

Disappointed about the story…lets be honest after the first 20 levels of personal story they all are pretty much the same. The order characters that talk may be different but what they say is pretty much the same.

Flaming Fox

Kryta wasn’t thriving at the time of the Mantle conflict, true. It would be a really boring campaign had it been peaceful. You’re wrong about it being just a few ragtag settlements besides LA though. That’s not how it was portrayed in-game nor through the storyline. Just like Ascalon isn’t meant to only be defined by the areas we actually get to walk in, Krytan lands were assumed to fill in the periphery of our visual experience. It would be silly to, for instance, count the # of npc’s you see in the game and assume that’s an accurate representation of that Krytan province’s population.

Also, Ascalon City being the “last bastion of Ascalon” was only a game reality when GW2 was under development and they needed closure on humans there to make room for the Charr. There is nothing in the GW1 game that suggests Ascalon’s days were numbered, only that it had taken a beating. The Foefire is strictly GW2 material, and should be taken as such.

You’re right about humanity beginning a general dive in GW1, but ANet never bothered to let the players experience any of that decline…which is the single biggest mistake they made with GW2 imo. There are so many good ways they could have slowly integrated the other races into Tyria, even occupying former human land, but they didn’t do that did they. They just waved their wand and bam 250 years gone by and humans are an old hat. If they wanted players to be as passionate with the new races as they were about the humans, they should have done it in a way that didn’t destroy what the players fell in love with in the first place. It seriously boggles the mind why they chose to erase 90% of human culture.

As for Cantha, if it has to be all human, then ANet will never let it see the light of day. There is no way in hell they would make an entire expansion for just one race. End of story. Same with Elona for that matter.

Humans need their redemption. I get that the other races needed more space to grow in their own right, but the humans got a raw deal from the writers. Nearly extinct in Tyria, isolated in Cantha, isolated AND enslaved in Elona. Abandoned by their gods. And still infighting. They have nothing going for them at this point other than “tenacity”, and it’s annoying. How long is tenacity going to last against Charr aerial superiority? Against Asura technomagic? How much time till the Sylvari hive mind matures enough to realize that humans are irrelevant? How much longer till the Norn finally unite and use brute force to push farther into Kryta, or south towards Ebonhawke? The Dragons are ironically the only thing keeping the races united, but the second the dragon thread is neutralized, humans will be next up on the chopping block.

They need their redemption now. Humanity’s strength has always been MAGIC. They need to regain their magical superiority, independent of their gods.

In my opinion, the Norn should have been slaughtered by Jormag. Wiped out. Made extinct.

It could have been a tragedy for people who played the original Guild Wars, who could fondly reminisce about Jora and the drinking games and the vast, cold wilds of the Shiverpeaks. It would have felt like something was tangibly gone. That we, as people experiencing Tyria, lost something because of the dragons.

But the Norn survived, and they serve absolutely no purpose in the game.

I think their shamanistic culture is interesting. But I dislike the way the Spirits of the Wild were retconned—I think in Guild Wars it mentions numerous Spirits, but the only one that seemed to be of any significance was Bear, and that was the only form they could/did take. I dislike how their sheer bulk leaves so much to be desired aesthetically, as they make everything look clumsy and painstaking slow.

But most of all, I dislike their racial personality, which contains all the “macho” attitude of the Charr and all the egoism of the Asura, but contains none of the quirks or cultural structure that gives those other races depth.

They serve no purpose.

/rant

If we’re “missing the strongest story stuff” you should have made humans stories better.

well maybe they should’ve put more effort into the other races, fixed all of the garbage clipping and so forth. It also doesn’t feel right playing a charr when all i did for 5 years straight was run around ascalon hunting charr, it doesn’t feel like guild wars unless I’m a human, the gods are pointless and so forth

I have 3 of each. Yes 3 of each, all at 80s.

My main 3 are: Human Female Ranger, Human Female Warrior, Sylvari Male Guardian.

i base my decision as to who i prefer based on several things.

The story: While eventually the story is all the same. the first few personal story are actually race specific.
Human: I like their story, it feels engaging and tells a story. of my humans, their backgrounds are; a streetrat who lost her parents at birth, a commoner who lost her sister, and a noble who wanted to try other things (circus to be exact). it paints a picture.

sylvari: it somewhat painted a picture. the white stag and the black knight as personifications of other things.

asura: Did not really like their story.

Charr: Was decent, but ultimately i was dissapointed cause the warband was never mentioned again and neither was the other things.

Norn: Although they were drunks in GW1, I remember them being fierce warriors in the cold weather often communing with forest spirits. Every thing in gw2 just keeps referencing the drunkards. Nothing about heroism like Jora. Nothing like a tragic backstory of Svanir the Nornbear. (so this one is more nostalgia than actual story).

And then there was also how the person looked.

Humans: Plain look overall, but it was clear and nice. especially heavy t3, and nostalgia also kicked in with the krytan gear.
Sylvari: Their cultural armor is great, the blending of 2+ colors making it look unique. their glow, well not all that noticeable so no content. their animations are practically the same as humans, so i picked the sylvari because of the cultural armor (heavy t2).

asura: I have 2 asuras i play often, 1 for cof, one for pvp/se. the one for cof is a warrior cause i like the animations like shield bash and hundred blades. The one for se has t3 light, i like that arm design. there are some clipping issues with helmets and ears.

charr: no matter what i did, their movement felt clunky and kept clipping with my charr, whether it was the tail, the horn, or the face. I played my charr warrior alot till i replaced it with the asura warrior (yes i have 3 warriors, it’s ok to judge how crazy i am). their cultural armor besides light t3 and heavy t3 were just horrendous, heavy t1 is not bad but medium is just ugh. and light isn’t all that great either (besides t3).

Norn: I play my Norn guardian a good amount (yes i have 2), almost as much as my main 3. I don’t have an issue with this particular norn, i just like my main 3 more. My other norn, t3 medium has clipping issues with the shirt and her hair though. -.-

This one is more minor but racial skills also play a part of it.
Human: Hounds of balthazar can be a really great skill, good for aoe dps.

Sylvari: Yea there’s are lackluster.

Asura: at low levels (this was before we got all the exp scrolls and such), radiation field was very useful. Even tecnobabble can be useful, although it’s cd isn’t very good.

Charr: Their racial skills are meh really. It is fun to mess with Charrzooka, but that’s all. not all that useful, but fun to mess with.

Norn: Their elite, especially Leapard is GREAT in WvW for running away. stealth and dissapear.. but beyond that. its meh.

My main character was going to be a norn male ranger, but after 42 levels i had to delete him, simply because of the animations. I absolutly love the norn tier medium armor and the way he looked, but i could not get past some of the animations. The run itself is pretty bad but rapid fire on the long bow and some of the sword animations are terrible.

I went with a human male to play and i have not looked back, in my opinion, the animations for a human ranger are far far superior compared to the norn male ranger.

PlayerX.5307:

PMilkos.9103:

Vis.8471:

I’m waiting for a magical race.

Sylvari not magical enough for you?

Asura not magical enough for you?

Their main purpose is to study magic for crying out loud…..

humans. an ancient race that came through the mists. lead by the greatest of their race who ascended to godhood?

Sojen.5273:

PlayerX.5307:

PMilkos.9103:

Vis.8471:

I’m waiting for a magical race.

Sylvari not magical enough for you?

Asura not magical enough for you?

Their main purpose is to study magic for crying out loud…..

humans. an ancient race that came through the mists. lead by the greatest of their race who ascended to godhood?

Humanity is the youngest race on Tyria, aside from the Sylvari. So they’re by no means ancient.
And they ar not led by the greatest of their race who ascended to godhood. The only human who has become a God is Kormir – and she isn’t leading humanity. The rest of the Gods are NOT humans, they come from somewhere else in the mists.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

The only human who has become a God is Kormir – and she isn’t leading humanity. The rest of the Gods are NOT humans, they come from somewhere else in the mists.

That’s debatable.

The case might be made that Grenth was a half-god, the illegitimate son of Dwayna and Malchor, who cemented his position as a full fledged god of death by overthrowing the former death god Dhuum.

The fact that they could have reproduced may prove the human gods have a mortal origin…. save for Melandru, who seems to be a more ancient and native Tyrian god… though she also has a human likeness.

CETheLucid.3964:

FlamingFoxx.1305:

The only human who has become a God is Kormir – and she isn’t leading humanity. The rest of the Gods are NOT humans, they come from somewhere else in the mists.

That’s debatable.

The case might be made that Grenth was a half-god, the illegitimate son of Dwayna and Malchor, who cemented his position as a full fledged god of death by overthrowing the former death god Dhuum.

The fact that they could have reproduced may prove the human gods have a mortal origin…. save for Melandru, who seems to be a more ancient and native Tyrian god… though she also has a human likeness.

But he was a half god… Not a human. Also he is not the illegitimate son of Dwayna and Malchor, he’s just their son.

The fact that they can reproduce says absolutely NOTHING about them having a mortal origin. Gods throughout real world myths and legends have been able to reproduce with themselves and with humanity – they’re gods after all so they could probably reproduce with anything.

It’s pretty popular theory that the gods, whilst gods to humanity, are really just powerful beings. We know that they came from somewhere in the Mists and we know that they didn’t create Tyria – so they’re gods in the sense of being extremely powerful – but no in the sense of creating the world.