Guild Wars 2

I know it was decided that tattoos were the Norn’s thing. But the human characters look terribly plain to me without anything like this, and it’s really disappointing to me.
I’m not recommending anything so extensive as the Norn, like the face + full body tattoos.
But at least some shoulder and/or arm tattoos.
When I look at my Thief in the cultural tier 3, I just feel like screaming.

I guess you disapprove of how most people look IRL, then. lol

I wouldn’t mind the option, though I think the human race of Tyria is portrayed as highly civilized. I don’t see them sporting body markings personally. Tattoos have their roots in tribal and ancient cultures which doesn’t fit the bill for the humans I see walking around Divinity’s Reach.

I just wanted facial hair specifically a trimmed beard without being connected to a goatee.

You guys might want to look at some of the original Krytans. It should still be culturally relevant.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Krytan

dinominator.9862:

I guess you disapprove of how most people look IRL, then. lol

I wouldn’t mind the option, though I think the human race of Tyria is portrayed as highly civilized. I don’t see them sporting body markings personally. Tattoos have their roots in tribal and ancient cultures which doesn’t fit the bill for the humans I see walking around Divinity’s Reach.

Zeivu.3615:

You guys might want to look at some of the original Krytans. It should still be culturally relevant.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Krytan

Can’t say that I’ve seen a single NPC around Divinity’s Reach or Queensdale that looks like that. Not that I remember, at least. Plenty of farmers, scholars, merchants, and nobles, though.

dinominator.9862:

Zeivu.3615:

You guys might want to look at some of the original Krytans. It should still be culturally relevant.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Krytan

Can’t say that I’ve seen a single NPC around Divinity’s Reach or Queensdale that looks like that. Not that I remember, at least. Plenty of farmers, scholars, merchants, and nobles, though.

MOST of the Kryta NPCs were tattooed. I’m pretty sure a fair number of Canthans were as well.
Also, every single Monk, Necromancer and Ritualist was heavily tattooed.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this. Humans have more characterization options than the other races as it is, so adding more before adding hair styles, faces etc. to the other races probably wouldn’t be a good idea. If they add more customization to the other races, than perhaps we can introduce small (not like Norn) tattoos for humans, but they need to get the others first.

Zeivu.3615:

You guys might want to look at some of the original Krytans. It should still be culturally relevant.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Krytan

It was culturally relevant 250 years ago.

dinominator.9862:

I wouldn’t mind the option, though I think the human race of Tyria is portrayed as highly civilized. I don’t see them sporting body markings personally.

That what you said is so not cool…

I think games (specially fantasy MMOs) shouldn’t be an exact portrait of reality. Honestly, I like the Norn because I like the real nordic people, but I wouldn’t mind if they were all different. Like Norns shouldn’t necessarily have a nordic look, architecture, language/names, etc, I honestly don’t think others should have as well (like canthans to asians, elonians to africans) on a fantasy game. This is what makes the Asuran, Silvary and Charr races so cool (with some exceptions). This plague seems to permeate every MMO, even those with different races, they still try to “resemble” a real civilization. So, I guess, I am the wrong one.

Rash.6514:

dinominator.9862:

I wouldn’t mind the option, though I think the human race of Tyria is portrayed as highly civilized. I don’t see them sporting body markings personally.

That what you said is so not cool…

Like it or not, the humans of GW2 are more advanced than those of GW1 (as someone pointed out, by 250 years). Tattoos are not prevalent in their culture anymore. They may exist as curiosities and artistic expressions among some, but they’re not mainstream. In a land of nobility and villagers, tattoos are not commonplace.

I agree that we don’t have to base fantasy games on reality. That’s a valid point. Though since the human race in GW2 has already taken a certain direction, I think it would be awkward to give them body markings now. It would be incongruent.

Imagine the Queen of England inked up like Eir Stegalkin o.0

On second thought… don’t.

Rash: I totally see your point.

I think it’s not so bad in GW2 actually – while some people insist that “Ascalon is Russia!” or similar, I don’t necessarily see the connection. Please keep in mind that people will always try and MAKE a connection to something they know (Vulcans are high elves! Romulans are dark elves! Klingons are orcs!)

There is however a wealth of (real world) lore that is recycled over and over in fiction, and that is fine, as it is elements we already know and relate to; it would be difficult to include near-East lore (think elements from 1001 nights) without also using Arabic sounding names, and voila, you’re back in cliché-land… but at the same time, it would be a shame to lose access to this repository of fantasy motives by avoiding any references to RL cultures.

So I’m in two minds about this.

As for the OP: I don’t care whether humans can have tattoos or not; in general I am for more diversity / more options, but before adding tattoos to human style choices I would seriously rather see some additional Asura faces and such. (I don’t play Asura myself but I feel for those who do and find themselves with so limited options.)

I’d rather see tattoos as part of new armors (similar to some monk outfits in GW1) so if you want to play a tattooed pirate, you can do so as part of your pirate outfit, or whatever.

As for now, I’m happy to accept that human culture 250 after GW1 just doesn’t fancy tattoos very much. /shrug