Guild Wars 2

dybryd.1358:

Fooling around with the human female int he character creator, I noticed that the only model with hips had little bust – it’s either/or.

I was also puzzled to see that two pairs of models were exactly identical in shape, but one of each pair had visible ribs when viewed with no armor, and the other did not.

Of course the game is a fantasy and there is no reason why the gamemakers or players should apologize for having characters who embody a particular fantasy image – but it’s weird that development money was spent on a difference that will never be seen during play, while no choice was provided of more realistic figures for those who want them.

I really hate that the ‘chubby’ human model is so flat. I still use that as I much prefer that body type to the normal ones, which look very skinny to me. I would like to at least have some bust though, if not at least equal the bust on the skinny super model. Of course I doubt it will ever get changed, but it’s a big complaint I have.

Probably been said somewhere in this mess, but honestly why would the heroes of this game be fat to begin with?

You run around on foot everywhere, and if your in medium/heavy armor that’s a serious workout. Could you imagine spending all your time walking around in hard-leather or even full plate-mail? You’d get toned real quick.

Not to mention, you are constantly fighting something/everything. This goes for all styles of combat. Fighting with melee weapons forged from heavy metals is a given, but if you consider that in most RPG lore, the use of magic is considered heavily taxing on ones body. While engaging in melee combat would get you thin from a workout standpoint, defeating enemies with magics could be perceived as physically draining and lead to an “unhealthy thinning” on ones appearance, essentially using your own life-force to cast magic.

That, and fat heroes rarely sell games. From a business standpoint people just don’t want to spend sometimes upwards of 12-14 hours a day looking at there fat character. Most of us are fat IRL already raises hand, why drag that in-game!

dybryd.1358:

I was also puzzled to see that two pairs of models were exactly identical in shape, but one of each pair had visible ribs when viewed with no armor, and the other did not.

Erm…those aren’t ribs. They’re muscles.

Just like men women will have a visible six-pack if they’re toned enough. Just look at pretty much any female athlete.

+1 For fatser movement down hills

D’oh, Freudian slip

The human female models are a bit on the skinny side, from borderline anorectic to thin.. there certainly are no chubby model. More like little girls with boobs o.0

Different lifestyles.

If you look at videos of large 1st world events from the 1950s to now, you notice that the rate of obese people increases through the decades. I remember viewing my grandparents photo albums and the first thing that came to my mind was how thin everyone was in the 60’s (they had tons of pictures of huge events). Then I watch my parents videos (70’s – early 80’s) and notice people were a bit thicker, but not fat. I go through some of my jr High to High School (90’s) and realize people were starting to get fat in general. As I skim through the first decade of the new century, people were even fatter. And now…well, medically, I’m twenty pounds overweight for my height, but most would consider me chubby – there are people out there who wish they were as ‘thin’ as I am.

I imagine that the lack of additives and preservatives in even their fatiest foods and the fact that ‘people’ have a more active life style in the game plays a HUGE part in their physical appearance.

One would think they’d build some muscles instead due to a more active lifestyle, swinging a huge greatsword all day and walking/running for miles should do wonders for your body.. but no

I think that’s because Americans are obsessed with weight. In Hollywood movies you have skinny girls as leads, etc. So that may apply to a video game as well. It’s sad and unrealistic but there is nothing you can do about it. It’s how I see it at least, and I’m from EU

My Norn is THICK and I like it! Shes not fat at all, but shes no skinny mini either!

pawtrisha.7234:

My Norn is THICK and I like it! Shes not fat at all, but shes no skinny mini either!

Yeah, after looking over the human models I ended up making a (short) norn aswell..

AndrewWaltfeld.4621:

lethlora.1320:

it would also help if females did not have absurdly long legs in this game.

i don’t get video game designers’ contempt for female bodies, anyway.

contempt?

con·tempt/k?n?tem(p)t/
Noun:
The feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn.
Disregard for something that should be taken into account.

---

With the amount of flak the gaming industry has been getting lately, they have been nothing but considerate. Contempt certainty isn’t the correct word to use.

If he hit the nail any squarer on the head the plank will split in two. Look at games like Tera and Blade & Soul. Hell, look at a new MMO coming out called Queen’s Blade. Game industries do NOT care what we think, they make games based on what they think we want, and apparently we want kittenty women in tiny outfits with giant chests, running in all sorts of environments in stilettos. To them, women are objects. So yeah, contempt is an apt description.

As bad as the female humans are (and most of them are pretty anorexic and awful) the female norn are worse. The fattest norn female model should actually be the skinniest norn female model.

They don’t even look like the same race as their male counterparts.

This is one of the things I miss about Warhammer. Your character didn’t have to look like a pinup or model. They could actually have some character.

There is a whole lot of skinny hate in here. I am a skinny guy in RL @ 6’ and 125lbs. I have less than 5% body fat and don’t understand why someone has to be obese, ugly, or disfigured to have character/personality.

I agree that overweight people aren’t largely represented in this game. I think they should always have a fat option, but I can see why they didn’t add one from the beginning. It doesn’t make any logical sense as to why your hero would be fat after the adventures they go on.

I am a firm believer that more options is always better. I like making tall, skinny and gangly characters like myself, but then sometimes I like making a character to fit an archetype.

I don’t care what your preference is, the character models in the game look great. They do need to add more variety to the choices, but everyone in here complaining about anorexic, barbies, meat heads, etc need to realize that just because it isn’t your ideal doesn’t mean it isn’t someone else’s.

Ask for variety and options instead of bashing the ideals in the game you don’t agree with.

I was commenting that my Sylvari at starting level looked like Venus Williams. No one could call a world-class athlete like her fat, but she definitely has some junk in the trunk and very strong thighs.

Combine it with the starting Necro outfit – which looks very much like a Venus Williams original tennis creation, and the illusion was complete.

On creation you have a bunch of different body types to choose from, all with different..um..attributes. There are several who look like they need to eat something, but the majority of them look fairly healthy.

There’s a fairly wide (pardon the pun) choice.

And P.S. I WANT my toon to look like a pinup model. I want a pretty and/or cute toon. I’ve left games ::coughRiftcough::: because I just couldn’t stand looking at the toon another second.

ounkeo.9138:

There are different types of fitness. Look at people who do cross training which is more similar to what our toons would be subjected to. They are typically of the lean variety. Muscle yes, but very lean and generally small in size.

Those muscle bound beefcakes you see on TV and walking around are bulking up in the gym. The guys who participate in iron man competitions are typically leans because they are acclimatized for endurance. You only really bulk up doing heavy weights in a controlled setting.

If you read books on Special Forces/Special Operations, you will see that during long operations in the field, they usually come back much leaner, lighter than when they first started. If you look at pictures of special forces in the field for long periods of time, you see most of them are extremely slim and not bulky at all. See SAS, there are a lot of pics of them in the field.

Likewise look at female runners, lot of muscle, very cut, but very lean to the point of skinny.

The problem with this argument is that the females are skinny and the males are the beefcakes on TV you talk about. If the “they should all be lean” argument was the motivating factor behind Anet’s decision, it would apply equally to the male and female models, yes?

There are two main issues with the female models imo.

One – the legs are too skinny. The muscle bulk and definition on the upper torso is decent in many of the human and norn models, but their legs are like chopsticks in comparison. Yes, a few female athletes have skinny legs, but many have much leaner and muscular legs. And the calf definition is terrible. Anyone doing a lot of the acrobatic style combat most of our characters do need better defined calves.

Two – allow breast size selection. Breast sliders generally don’t work out well. What Anet needs to do is have a cup size selector (because different sized breasts don’t usually have the same shape – thus breast sliders tend to look weird outside of a narrow range)

Joiry.2504:

One – the legs are too skinny. The muscle bulk and definition on the upper torso is decent in many of the human and norn models, but their legs are like chopsticks in comparison. Yes, a few female athletes have skinny legs, but many have much leaner and muscular legs. And the calf definition is terrible. Anyone doing a lot of the acrobatic style combat most of our characters do need better defined calves.

Two – allow breast size selection. Breast sliders generally don’t work out well. What Anet needs to do is have a cup size selector (because different sized breasts don’t usually have the same shape – thus breast sliders tend to look weird outside of a narrow range)

I don’t think the calves are as much an issue as to need developer attention. You can make the argument about the legs thing, but even that is asking for a minute change.

I whole heartedly agree with the breast cup slider. I mostly make my female characters very small chested, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the waist and hips on the body type with the small chest.

“This is one of the things I miss about Warhammer. Your character didn’t have to look like a pinup or model. They could actually have some character.”

The difference between warhammer and the rest of the world’s games on characther creation. The rest of the world have body types like “Heroic”, “righteous”, “holy”, “well built”. Warhammer has body types like “malign”, “stunted”, “deformed” and “bludgeoned”. I do miss my bright wizard in WAR looking like a demented psycho that just had his spell explode in his face.

That said, I like most of the face and body types in this game. Granted, I am a bit disappointed in the male/female norns. The originals looked better, IMO (GW1), and while I tried making a “strong” looking norn girl in the beta – she just looked fat to me. The man are insanely larger though. . . Not too sure how you’d make the girls work like that, female body types tend to distore more easily then men unless we make all of them look fat by out standards.

ounkeo.9138:

I don’t know where you come from but the largest human female body size is pretty bloated looking. She looks overweight by about 40 lbs, which is a lot. that is not skinny.

Maybe what you are asking is to have the option to make a severely obese woman.

Excuse me, but this comment is not only offensive in the extreme, it is totally false. The heaviest human woman looks like an ordianry, slender female. The rest look unnatural or near to it.
The attached screenshot is a picture of the heaviest human body type in-game. Does this look 40 pounds overweight to you?

And that goes to all the rest of you who are saying “Oh, but there ARE fat women in-game. Look at the heavy option” No. If you’re looking at the skinny option, and then click to the larger option, then the difference might make you automatically say “EW, FAT!”
Stop and actually LOOK at it. It isn’t fat in the least.

Weindrasi.3805:

ounkeo.9138:

I don’t know where you come from but the largest human female body size is pretty bloated looking. She looks overweight by about 40 lbs, which is a lot. that is not skinny.

Maybe what you are asking is to have the option to make a severely obese woman.

Excuse me, but this comment is not only offensive in the extreme, it is totally false. The heaviest human woman looks like an ordianry, slender female. The rest look unnatural or near to it.
The attached screenshot is a picture of the heaviest human body type in-game. Does this look 40 pounds overweight to you?

And that goes to all the rest of you who are saying “Oh, but there ARE fat women in-game. Look at the heavy option” No. If you’re looking at the skinny option, and then click to the larger option, then the difference might make you automatically say “EW, FAT!”
Stop and actually LOOK at it. It isn’t fat in the least.

I wouldn’t say 40lbs, but she is pretty thick. There are some people in here asking for fat and obese options. I would say the largest body type should fit anyone who doesn’t like the model ideal and wants to be fuller without tipping into fat.

Edit: They have some fairly fat Sylvari and other races though.

I have noticed that female character look normal without leg armor and suddenly have skinny legs when the armor if on. This is valid only for humans not norns

It’s a world without corn-fed cattle, fast food and heavily refined flours.

Chubby is as fat as you can get, unless you are a Vabbian noble, and that only if there’s still Vabbian nobles at all.

Ronah.2869:

I have noticed that female character look normal without leg armor and suddenly have skinny legs when the armor if on. This is valid only for humans not norns

My char loses all muscle tone upon dawning armor. Biceps no more, in his oddly rather very tight light armour. It’s either a robe, or skin tight armor that removes all definition of arms/stomache.

I am cool with everything that’s in the game so far. What I would like is for the team to continue to add body types and character customization options. I think that it will be good to keep going and take seriously doing a nice heavier model for each race (or a few) since some people want that.

I’m actually quite in love with the current character creation system! I’ve played games with sliders, and being OCD, I either had a very stressful time creating a ‘not-ugly’ character, or would get far enough that I’d be too scared that I’d mess everything up if I tweaked something. I LOVE how it’s really hard to make an ‘ugly’ character unless you really try in GW2!

Besides, sliders get confusing.

http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/7800095/1024/Screenies/2012-03-14-17-27-55.jpg