Guild Wars 2

The pinecone faces for the male and female remind me of Pikmin, and they’re adorable once you come to terms with the conspicuous lack of nose. At first, I didn’t like them at all. I really had to remind myself that they’re not human and don’t need noses, but once I was able to do that, I truly came to appreciate the design choice. When I sketch something (I’m an awful artist), I can’t even work up the courage to post it online anonymously, much less stamp my name on it and submit it for everyone to use. I don’t like destructive criticism, and I get discouraged easily. Kristen Perry had to know that the initial reaction would be one of shock and slight disgust. Seeing a face without a nose is fairly unnerving to begin with. He-who-shall-not-be-named (Just kidding. I can say Voldemort) was designed that way specifically to provoke that reaction, after all. Releasing the faces, knowing for sure that there would be potential backlash and hatred, is a sort of artistic bravery that I can really appreciate.

As for the noseless male with the scars, I’m in love. Again, when I saw this on Dulfy’s coverage, I rolled my eyes, laughed, and gawked at how ridiculous it looked. I thought, “No one is going to pick that face for anything but a laugh.” Days later, I’m using my free Makeover Kit to “fix” my Sylvari.

This new face addresses something that has long since bothered me about the Sylvari: There are very few masculine faces. The most masculine one (in my opinion only, I am not stating this as fact) is the one with the goatee, but he has features that don’t really appeal to me. The only other two I was interested in were the skull-like one used on the default Necromancer, and the one covered in layered bark (You know the one). In general, I felt overwhelmed by femininity when I wanted to make a masculine mesmer.

Now hear me out. I’m not saying anything disparaging about feminine men. I’m not the most masculine man myself, but I typically make masculine male characters only because that’s what I like to play. The Sylvari, even the males, are designed to be beautiful, and I appreciate that. In fact, when I set out to make my first Sylvari mesmer, I went ahead and accepted that Sylvari males were okay with femininity and I embraced the idea once I realized that making a masculine Sylvari mesmer would be a huge challenge. I made him incredibly flamboyant. He was thin, periwinkle, and I dyed his gear the most feminine and extravagant colors I could find. I thought it would be kind of cool, progressive, and unique to not be hindered by the idea of masculinity. …And then I ran into hundreds of feminine male Sylvari. It seemed like this was either the trend, or it was just very difficult to make a masculine Sylvari. I took that as a challenge. The end result was a black Sylvari with a hot-pink glow and the bark face. Little did I know that I had subconsciously internalized the concept from this brilliant piece of art that I had stumbled across and soon forgot about. (I did the same thing with my main, a Charr Ele, and now I’m struggling to redesign him… But that’s another story about Charr in light armor).

So, maybe this is horribly hipster-esque of me, but it made me uncomfortable to be using the same look as someone else. When I came across the picture many weeks after “creating” my new look, I felt like I had unintentionally plagiarized. I stopped playing my Mesmer and focused on other characters. That is, until the new faces were released.

I opened my Makeover Kit just to have a look and play around with the noseless faces, which I thought were completely ridiculous and impractical. I wondered what my Mesmer would look like with no nose, so I swapped the face… and fell in love. After an embarrassingly long time with a color wheel, I finally created exactly what I was looking for.

Below is the result of my work. I’ve always wanted to have a masculine Sylvari with a tri-color scheme centered around purple, and I feel like I succeeded. I’m nervous to get feedback on it, but I want to convince people to have an open mind about these noseless faces. I have never been so satisfied with a character’s look, and I feel like this face is exactly what I was looking for in a Sylvari character.

Thank you for reading, and thank you especially to Kristen Perry for the design choice.

tl;dr Read the title.

Well I like them too, even did when I first saw them. They are wonderfully alien and sylvari are not human afterall. I don’t use any of the noseless faces, but not because I dislike them. I just liked another face better for my sylvari

Your sylvari look really nice.

I love the noseless faces myself because they are so unique. I find them eerily beautiful and it emphasises the fact that Sylvari are not plant humans or tree elves. Your character is spectacular! very well done you

Actually after messing around with the faces I noticed they actually do have noses, just small and without noseholes. Makes me wonder if she was going for an anime-style art look. This ‘kawaii’ face one I made made me giggle. :x

Doggie.3184:

…they actually do have noses, just small and without noseholes…

What do you mean? I don’t see a nose, and the sliders only slightly change the shape of the area of their face where their nose would be if they had one.

DallasisaLeo.1584:

Doggie.3184:

…they actually do have noses, just small and without noseholes…

What do you mean? I don’t see a nose, and the sliders only slightly change the shape of the area of their face where their nose would be if they had one.

It’s a small bump nose like anime characters have. Some don’t even have noses~ meow.
We just need a noseless one with a catface mouth now.

I had to use the new scarred noseless face for my Sylvari Warrior, Pursifal.

I agree, they’re awesome. I’ve done the bark face for mine and her needle nose fits her, she’s all pointy wood bits. The recent character slot sale means I have open slots, though … I might have to do someone noseless for my next leveling project.

I don’t I agree with the “they’re plants so they don’t need noses” thing.

Normal plants don’t have noses, but Sylvari aren’t just normal plants. They’re plant beings created in a human image. If they have stuff like eyes, mouths, and ears (which regular plants also have no need for) and even human-esque reproductive organs (even though they can’t reproduce) because they’re made in a human image, then having a working nose certainly doesn’t seem out of the question. Which means the faces that don’t have noses at all would be at a disadvantage.

But that’s just my take on it. I’m glad other people like the noseless faces, but I’ll always consider them impractical, personally.

Electro.4173:

I don’t I agree with the “they’re plants so they don’t need noses” thing.

Normal plants don’t have noses, but Sylvari aren’t just normal plants. They’re plant beings created in a human image. If they have stuff like eyes, mouths, and ears (which regular plants also have no need for) and even human-esque reproductive organs (even though they can’t reproduce) because they’re made in a human image, then having a working nose certainly doesn’t seem out of the question. Which means the faces that don’t have noses at all would be at a disadvantage.

But that’s just my take on it. I’m glad other people like the noseless faces, but I’ll always consider them impractical, personally.

Another note about impracticality: if you pinch your nose with your fingers, your voice doesn’t sound the same. How can noseless Sylvari speak with the same voice as other Sylvari characers when they have no nose or sinuses to create the same resonance?

Also, they’d have to chew with their mouth open all the time. Yuck.

if you pinch your nose your voice does not sound the same to you because of the resonance in the sinus cavities. it still sounds the same to other people ;p also why do.you think Sylavari’s need to breathe?,they might look like humans and have functional funny bits but thier biology is.not based on a mammal

Morrigan.2809:

if you pinch your nose your voice does not sound the same to you because of the resonance in the sinus cavities. it still sounds the same to other people ;p also why do.you think Sylavari’s need to breathe?,they might look like humans and have functional funny bits but thier biology is.not based on a mammal

Sylvari wear respirators underwater and their chests rise and fall with a breathing animation, so logic would dictate they need to breathe.

Also, what? The fact that your voice uses your nose and sinuses for resonance is not something that other people are immune to hearing. I can tell when someone speaking to me has a stuffy nose because their voice sounds different.

DallasisaLeo.1584:

snip

100% agree here, and basically a similar story for me (awesome character btw!).
The first time I saw the faces, I didn’t even consider them for any of my characters. Until I bought a makeover kit and tried it myself. While the other new face (talking about females here) is without any doubt beautiful, there’s one thing that always bothered me about these kind of faces: They’re all very human. Which is not bad, I guess most people prefer a more human, beautiful look on their Sylvari.

Well, those noseless faces are very unique (and the female one is just adorable ^.^).
I really like both male AND the female one (using them for my female Mesmer and male Necromancer). Hope there will be more “inhuman” designs in the future!

Thanks Kristen Perry, you did an awesome job (as always!).

Oh and, here’s ma Mesma
Noseless Sylvari, unite! x)

Imagi.4561:

How can noseless Sylvari speak with the same voice as other Sylvari characers when they have no nose or sinuses to create the same resonance?

The same way that all male sylvari have exactly the same voice, somehow: suspension of disbelief. It’s a fantasy game, after all. Surely you’re used to doing this.
::edit:: after holding my nose and talking to myself like a dork, I have concluded that I can make myself sound almost identical with enough practice. And the Sylvari aren’t speaking English, anyway. They’re presumably speaking New Krytan and what we’re seeing is, in theory, only an English dub. So it makes sense that the voice would go unchanged if you desperately need an explanation.

Electro.4173:

I don’t I agree with the “they’re plants so they don’t need noses” thing.
Normal plants don’t have noses, but Sylvari aren’t just normal plants. They’re plant beings created in a human image. If they have stuff like eyes, mouths, and ears (which regular plants also have no need for) and even human-esque reproductive organs (even though they can’t reproduce) because they’re made in a human image, then having a working nose certainly doesn’t seem out of the question. Which means the faces that don’t have noses at all would be at a disadvantage.

But that’s just my take on it. I’m glad other people like the noseless faces, but I’ll always consider them impractical, personally.

I think you might misunderstand. No one is claiming that having a nose is superfluous, but rather that not having a nose is not unquestionable. I don’t think it’s at all a “disadvantage” or that not having a nose is any more alienating than the fact that they’re walking, talking, glowing plant people. Some of them have thorns and some of them have giant fungus hats growing from their heads. Surely that’s equally strange.

I don’t use these faces.
However I’m a huge fan of the option to differentiate our sylvari from human or norn.

DallasisaLeo.1584:

Imagi.4561:

How can noseless Sylvari speak with the same voice as other Sylvari characers when they have no nose or sinuses to create the same resonance?

The same way that all male sylvari have exactly the same voice, somehow: suspension of disbelief. It’s a fantasy game, after all. Surely you’re used to doing this.
::edit:: after holding my nose and talking to myself like a dork, I have concluded that I can make myself sound almost identical with enough practice. And the Sylvari aren’t speaking English, anyway. They’re presumably speaking New Krytan and what we’re seeing is, in theory, only an English dub. So it makes sense that the voice would go unchanged if you desperately need an explanation.

As amusing as I find it that you experimented with holding your nose until you could get your voice to sound the same, I don’t “desperately need an explanation.” The vocal resonance is one of several small issues I have with the noseless faces—besides the fact I think they look like the aliens from Independence Day—that prevent me from liking them.

Edit: To clarify, my opinion on the appearance of the noseless faces is largely in regard to the pine cone ones. I’ve come to like the Voldemort face. While a Sylvari with it would still have to chew all their food with their mouth open, I think it has more character to it than just existing to be cutesy and different.

Imagi.4561:

DallasisaLeo.1584:

Imagi.4561:

How can noseless Sylvari speak with the same voice as other Sylvari characers when they have no nose or sinuses to create the same resonance?

The same way that all male sylvari have exactly the same voice, somehow: suspension of disbelief. It’s a fantasy game, after all. Surely you’re used to doing this.
::edit:: after holding my nose and talking to myself like a dork, I have concluded that I can make myself sound almost identical with enough practice. And the Sylvari aren’t speaking English, anyway. They’re presumably speaking New Krytan and what we’re seeing is, in theory, only an English dub. So it makes sense that the voice would go unchanged if you desperately need an explanation.

As amusing as I find it that you experimented with holding your nose until you could get your voice to sound the same, I don’t “desperately need an explanation.” The vocal resonance is one of several small issues I have with the noseless faces—besides the fact I think they look like the aliens from Independence Day—that prevent me from liking them.

Edit: To clarify, my opinion on the appearance of the noseless faces is largely in regard to the pine cone ones. I’ve come to like the Voldemort face. While a Sylvari with it would still have to chew all their food with their mouth open, I think it has more character to it than just existing to be cutesy and different.

That’s still a very strange hangup to have about a face. Just pretend their nostrils were relocated to the corners of their eyes or something.

I really like my new face, but….
is it just me, or do I have a slight case of ye olde Durp Eye?

Edit: Ok, no – I definitely have Durp Eye. Seriously, they made a new face and didn’t test for the infamous Sylvari eye issues?

Mouth breathers. Just sayin’ :P

Are we forgetting that they’re plant people?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoma

You’re forgetting the people part of plant people.

As we can see in the game, they breathe much the same as humans do, by watching them. They have lungs, they expand/contract, etc. Not to mention, wearing clothes at all, were they to “breathe through their skin”, would be utterly crippling in the way of gaining the energy they need in order to actually move around and animate.

They breathe the same as humans do. Born without a nose? Mouth breathers, then.

DallasisaLeo.1584:

That’s still a very strange hangup to have about a face. Just pretend their nostrils were relocated to the corners of their eyes or something.

They do have two little holes on the chin. Who knows if those aren’t nostrils ? :’p

Regarding the fact that their models ingame appear to breathe, actually I think it’s more kind of a game design aspect more than a lore thing : If your character don’t have a breathing animation, then it’ll look too stiff and poorly animated, especially if the other characters does have a breathing animation.

I was in love with the noseless face with the scars the instant I saw it. :‘p It makes me think about a wooden mask, rather than Voldemort (he does have nostrils, so…) or whatever, it’s kinda freaky, uncanney valley-ish, so I really like it, there’s already a lot of very human looking Sylvari, a little bit of variety can’t hurt.
I don’t like the one with the big eyes very much, though. It looks too “cute” for my tastes, and a bit out of place, even if it’s quite alien-looking. It’s possible to make it look like a younger version of the one with the scar by making the eyes smaller, though.

My engie, Kögwyhle, have black eyes so he does look like a wooden mask rather than a face even more. :’p

Game design aspect or not – it is how it is. Until we are told something that explains otherwise, it is how it is.