Guild Wars 2

Just look, all living world heroes are female – Queen Jennah, Marjory, Kasmeer, Elen Kiel, Roxx and few more i already forget names.

And all male characters are Rytlock (didn’t even participate any party of Living world), Logan and Lord Faren (well, and Braham, but meeeeeeeh, he don’t even look like a man).

Most of the male heroes were in the first game, now its the female’s turn.

they looks better – noone would believe this “justin timberlakes” to be a hero

Gotta agree with OP, aside from the three he named and some minor norn characters (Not Brahms) there aren’t any necessary/memorable males in this game. (Tybalt was more of a lolxDsorandumApples than an actual character)

Ellen was supposed to be a guy at first, but due to voice actor availability, they went with a gal instead. That might be the reason why the living story hasn’t introduced any prominent male characters – except Braham. Canach had only like 4 lines and 5 minutes of screentime, so he doesn’t really count.

Brutal Arts.6307:

Gotta agree with OP, aside from the three he named and some minor norn characters (Not Brahms) there aren’t any necessary/memorable males in this game. (Tybalt was more of a lolxDsorandumApples than an actual character)

Lol! There aren’t any memorable characters from the Living Story AT ALL. It has nothing to do with male or female. The only one that comes to mind is Scarlet and that’s just because she’s so freakin’ ANNOYING.

Right now I’d give anything for a cool character, female OR male. These characters we have now are just forgettable :/ The best characters are Destiny’s Edge from the main game anyway.

Yah it seems the living story is all about gurlpower. Scarlet in the spotlight, Queen Jenna in the spotlight, Marjory, Lady Kasmeer, Kiel.
Logan and Faren only make an appearance when they need someone to fail (comicaly).

Some more character diversity would be great.

wat is with these threads? i don’t get it. Marjory and Kashmeer are, imho, two of the best characters in the entire game. Why cant we appreciate good characters when we get them?

Didn’t u know it’s women who rule the world? We just let the men think they do lol.

Meh, I like it. Minor characters don’t really ‘mention’ they are female, so it doesn’t bother me.

I didnt even notice we had no proper male heroes untill I read this thread O.o

Maybe they need to bring Dougal Keane out of retirement He’s pretty cool in the Ghosts of Ascalon.

I’m ok with the strong female characters to be honest. Mostly I wish for moar Asura.

Post feminism has caught up to Arena.Net. I dont see an issue, though, Op. The writing casts males and females so poorly anyway that the sexism realky doesn’t matter.

just think “Traherne” and than be happy with what we get

look at the history of games, almost every game had main hero…… as male….

females were usually some whiny housewifes basically

i like how this game doesn’t run typical road and let only males do all the work

as for lore, my guess would be that in countless wars many males died as soldiers so females kind of have to handle things now; same thing happend in one african country where most males died during wars and females ended up ruling the country which, fun fact, was best thing that happend to the country in a while

I like it this way. It’s something different from the usual hero guy we see in most games and movies.

Sadly enough I am rather sure we would not have seen a thread like this if most of the characters introduced were male…

I hadn’t even noticed this. Good on ANet. Completely bucking the male oriented norm in the media and not overtly drawing any attention to it whatsoever.

Who on Earth said that gender balance was bad? The media portrayal of women isn’t even remotely balanced, and to call it “dominated” by females is ludicrous including in GW2. ANet have a handful of females in leading roles at this current stage of the Living Story, which is incredibly unusual for videogames. They also haven’t painted a big feminist arrow over the fact that they’re doing it, they’re actually just treating genders equally (body options and skimpy armour discussions aside) as a matter of course. This is about as positive a behaviour as you could get in terms of gender treatment, and they’re doing it in an industry that is renowned for poorly representing females.

interesting side note did you notice two out of the three leaders of the orders are female (Almora Solkeeper, and riel darkwater), but it’s balanced out a bit because the leader of the Priory and the leader of the pact are both males. I don’t know why people are so bothered by some women taking leading roles though

also @Cynz.9437: if you are going to make this argument (your real world example) please provide sources and what you think was made better, better for one person is often worse for another.

Its great that the cast has strong females in it. Guess what guys, girls like it when all the characters in the game arnt some macho kill em all dude. Even better guild wars 2 has reasonably dressed female leads. They may not have a strong story but atleast they arnt driving the female playerbase away with scantily clad weak female characters. The more women playing the game the better cause guess what happens if your GF plays the game… you get to play the game too, its a win/win. Please Anet keep doing what your doing.

I agree, we need more relatable male heroes especially in the living story who most main characters are female. Tower of Nightmares is a real estrogen fest even sergeant Walters was a woman.

Rytlock is the right kind of male hero, Logan, Trehearne and Braham are the wrong kind and the Lord Faren type is an absolute no. Could you imagine the outrage if we had a female character designed to act like Lord Faren?

I like the female heroes we have and in no way against them, I am just wanting a handful of male leads to have equal standing.

Aedelric.1287:

I like the female heroes we have and in no way against them, I am just wanting a handful of male leads to have equal standing.

And would you have wanted (and posted for that matter) the same if most of them were male?

Aedelric.1287:

Irrelevant as I do not deal in ifs and buts.

So you simply wouldn’t have cared if it was the other way around?

Not really surprising, I would assume the same would apply to everyone complaining about it here.

lordkrall.7241:

Aedelric.1287:

Irrelevant as I do not deal in ifs and buts.

So you simply wouldn’t have cared if it was the other way around?

Not really surprising, I would assume the same would apply to everyone complaining about it here.

Where did you pull that fact from? Because it sure was not in my reply. Do not ask a question when all you want to do is come up with your own answer.

Aedelric.1287:

Where did you pull that fact from? Because it sure was not in my reply. Do not ask a question when all you want to do is come up with your own answer.

Well since you refused to answer it, one could only assume that it was due to the fact that the answer would be unpopular.

Don’t be greedy, you have Logan.

lordkrall.7241:

Aedelric.1287:

Where did you pull that fact from? Because it sure was not in my reply. Do not ask a question when all you want to do is come up with your own answer.

Well since you refused to answer it, one could only assume that it was due to the fact that the answer would be unpopular.

You are reading between lines when their are none.

I stated in my first post I want gender equality, equal sharing of important roles for both genders. That is what equality means, do not blame me for your lazy reading ability.

As for me not answering it is because your question is not relevant to the situation and only serves to attempt to undermine my perfectly reasonable request/stance. If I said no (Which I would not) you would try to call me out as a hypocrite, if I said yes you would have called me out as a lair. I have no interest in playing games only with opinions and facts.

Now I hope you are done trying to provoke an argument out of someone that you obviously have no real issue with. I am sure we both have better things to do with our time.

Aedelric.1287:

I agree, we need more relatable male heroes especially in the living story who most main characters are female. Tower of Nightmares is a real estrogen fest even sergeant Walters was a woman.

Rytlock is the right kind of male hero, Logan, Trehearne and Braham are the wrong kind and the Lord Faren type is an absolute no. Could you imagine the outrage if we had a female character designed to act like Lord Faren?

I like the female heroes we have and in no way against them, I am just wanting a handful of male leads to have equal standing.

“The dudes I don’t like don’t count!”

Sorry, but Logan, Trahearne, Braham and Faren are still male and still living story characters no matter how much you or I or anyone else likes or dislikes them. You can’t just discount them all together and then claim that supports a lack of male characters.

P.S. Plus, men get Hobotron on their team, so that’s a win right there.

And Suwash the Pirate Quaggan

Actually..he’s one of the most heroic characters in the game!

ninetales.5208:

Maybe they need to bring Dougal Keane out of retirement He’s pretty cool in the Ghosts of Ascalon.

I’m ok with the strong female characters to be honest. Mostly I wish for moar Asura.

Ooooh! I would dig some Dougal Keane action. He was very likeable.

Faowri.4159:

ninetales.5208:

Maybe they need to bring Dougal Keane out of retirement He’s pretty cool in the Ghosts of Ascalon.

I’m ok with the strong female characters to be honest. Mostly I wish for moar Asura.

Ooooh! I would dig some Dougal Keane action. He was very likeable.

Don’t forget Ember Doomforge! Gurl would provide some much needed kitten kicking.

Who cares? It’s not like any of the characters (male or female) are actually interesting.

ninetales.5208:

Maybe they need to bring Dougal Keane out of retirement He’s pretty cool in the Ghosts of Ascalon.

I would love that very much. Dougal Keane (as well as the other characters that made it through the novel) doesn’t have anything to do right now, but I seriously think the character has so much potential as an NPC.

• As for the living story characters:
  If you list Roxx, you have to list Braham.
  If you list Ellen Kiel, you have to list Evon Gnashblade. (Remember, it wasn’t ANet who decided who won the election.)
  Moto.
• Personal story: Trahearne.
• Novels: as 50/50 as it gets.
• Base game: 2 out of 3 order heads may be female, but 2 out of 3 mentors were male. I believe two out of 3 Charr legions have male bosses (3 out of 4 IF you count the flame legion). NPCs seem to be 50/50, including all lion guard, seraph, personal story side cast etc. Dynamic events, boss fights: for every Brenda there’s a Brogun, for every Rooba a Gamarien.

All in all, it is SO evenly distributed that I am convinced that someone at ANet’s is keeping a tally sheet.

Laurelinde.4395:

“The dudes I don’t like don’t count!”

Sorry, but Logan, Trahearne, Braham and Faren are still male and still living story characters no matter how much you or I or anyone else likes or dislikes them. You can’t just discount them all together and then claim that supports a lack of male characters.

P.S. Plus, men get Hobotron on their team, so that’s a win right there.

All but Trahearne are doofus’s or muscleheads. I’m sure you would feel there wasn’t a lack of good female characters if all of the female MCs were changed to ditzy airheads?

Lostwingman.5034:

Laurelinde.4395:

“The dudes I don’t like don’t count!”

Sorry, but Logan, Trahearne, Braham and Faren are still male and still living story characters no matter how much you or I or anyone else likes or dislikes them. You can’t just discount them all together and then claim that supports a lack of male characters.

P.S. Plus, men get Hobotron on their team, so that’s a win right there.

All but Trahearne are doofus’s or muscleheads.

I disagree.
Some more male characters from the living story that I don’t think are doofuses or muscleheads: Rytlock Brimstone, Moto, Evon Gnashblade, Canach.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

If you list Ellen Kiel, you have to list Evon Gnashblade. (Remember, it wasn’t ANet who decided who won the election.)

I wouldn’t list Gnashblade at all. Kiel had a role in the Living Story prior to the Election. She was prominent in both Southsun story arcs, Flame and Frost, and Dragon Bash. And since she won, she’ll definitely be involved in future story-arcs as well (though I imagine she would have been even if she lost since she’s the big Lionguard NPC it seems).

Gnashblade didn’t do anything prior to the election. He was always in the game at the BLTC building in Lion’s Arch, but he was just some random named NPC who stood around doing nothing that most people didn’t even know existed. Probably played a role in him losing, a well-known LS character vs some random guy who seemingly came out of nowhere.

And now that he lost, he’ll probably go right back to being some random NPC that doesn’t do anything.

As for the whole “LS is full of females” thing… yah, it is. There are both male and female characters, but the females seem to have much more active roles. Magnus is just the head honcho who pops in to give a few words now and then, Kiel is the one actually storming the strongholds and doing the investigating. Logan ends up in the dark (during Queen’s Jubilee) or hires someone else to do the job (during Dragon Bash) while Anise / Marjory make the plans / do the work. Rox and Braham both had their active roles during their introduction, but since then its been Rox in the lead role (bringing Braham along during Jubilee, and investigating Tequatl solo). All of the Asura investigators have been females and are out in the field conducting research, Moto just stands in front of a box.

That said, I really couldn’t care less about what gender the characters are. Its irrelevant to the quality of the character or the story.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

ninetales.5208:

Maybe they need to bring Dougal Keane out of retirement He’s pretty cool in the Ghosts of Ascalon.

I would love that very much. Dougal Keane (as well as the other characters that made it through the novel) doesn’t have anything to do right now, but I seriously think the character has so much potential as an NPC.

• As for the living story characters:
  If you list Roxx, you have to list Braham.
  If you list Ellen Kiel, you have to list Evon Gnashblade. (Remember, it wasn’t ANet who decided who won the election.)
  Moto.
• Personal story: Trahearne.
• Novels: as 50/50 as it gets.
• Base game: 2 out of 3 order heads may be female, but 2 out of 3 mentors were male. I believe two out of 3 Charr legions have male bosses (3 out of 4 IF you count the flame legion). NPCs seem to be 50/50, including all lion guard, seraph, personal story side cast etc. Dynamic events, boss fights: for every Brenda there’s a Brogun, for every Rooba a Gamarien.

All in all, it is SO evenly distributed that I am convinced that someone at ANet’s is keeping a tally sheet.

Evon isn’t “hero” or even “good”.

Everybody hates Trahearne, don’t mention him.

To add to the list of recurring (?) characters: the Mad King, the Bloody Prince, Tixx the Toymaker.

In Activities: the announcer voice in Keg Brawl, Crab Toss, etc, all male. Sanctum Sprint, different male voice. PvP, male voice. Actual NPCs in Keg Brawl and Crab Toss, men.

The drinking game: 3 vs 2 for the champions, and I think a male end boss during the Zephyrite chapter.

World bossee. Dungeon bosses. Etc.

And that’s fine, not everything has to be 50-50. ANet is already overly strict with this (see the examples from my earlier post.) But before saying that ANet has a feminist agenda or whatever, take all aspects into consideration.

Guys get to be the main hero in a majority of MMORPG’s or just games in general. It is refreshing to have female lead hero’s for once in a major title that are more then just barbie doll types or motherly dragon of life maternal garbage. There is more to a woman then the womb bloody writers.

I love that Anet is doing more for female hero’s and I applaud them.

I noticed that there is a lot of female hero’s and main characters but I like the twist. I mean how often do we see it the other way around in other games, maybe one or two female hero’s and the rest is males?
I’m not saying there shouldn’t be more males or anything wrong with male hero’s but generally its the males that are dominant.

We had the best male heroes already, Logan Thackeray, Trahearne and Lord Faren.

Lol

But is it really girl power or feminism when all the female characters tend to be extremely shallow (save for Queen Jennah, she’s cool, just we need to see her work more, maybe the next time the Queen’s pavillion gauntlet opens, she decides to throw herself in as the final boss and kitten), poorly written, and often times, done up as fetish bait?

Kiel and Jennah are “Mah pure waifu”. (Even if Jennah probably puts up this front on purpose, from what I’ve seen, the woman is actually a nasty schemer and as deadly as her own court)
Scarlet is… I’d say jailbait in personality, and somewhat in looks, mostly the pig tails.
Rox is for furries
Kashmeer is “Mah Dark Waifu”

Admittedly, not sure about the new one. Either way, I won’t call it girl power until the girls are decently written with explored personalities.

I will admit/point out that because of how Sylvari gender and sex concepts work, Scarlet just as easily could have been a man and just as annoying and poorly implemented as the female version.

DarksunG.9537:

kamedin.4698:

Most of the male heroes were in the first game, now its the female’s turn.

lol your memory isn’t very good.

KorKor.9452:

Guys get to be the main hero in a majority of MMORPG’s or just games in general. It is refreshing to have female lead hero’s for once in a major title that are more then just barbie doll types or motherly dragon of life maternal garbage. There is more to a woman then the womb bloody writers.

I love that Anet is doing more for female hero’s and I applaud them.

Except that writing is saying that the best way to write a female is to make them more Masculine. Men are usually the focus of war stories because men are genetically suited to fight. It’s why sports are split among men & women, it’s unfair otherwise. To say that “There is more to a woman then the womb” then not comment about how pretty much every game has a guy that is just a distant, violent fighter is disingenuous at best. I love how you basically took the most important, civilization-building thing women have offered to the human race & been worshiped for & call it garbage. Nice. Not really sure you even know what you are applauding other than you just want men to be depicted with women’s bodies..

This post here is so bad, well…

Everything you said makes you look like you don’t think a single woman can do what a guy can. You’re dead wrong, they can pull off anything a guy can, including physique (seriously, have you seen some of those female body builders out there!?).

I dunno, it’s nice to see a lot of women in roles that gaming traditionally gives to men….

given that this argument seems to have moved to one about physical strength which I know very little of the records and bests of each gender this is what I came up with when googleing quickly Paul Anderson {male}, Jan Todd {female}

RyuDragnier.9476:

This post here is so bad, well…

Everything you said makes you look like you don’t think a single woman can do what a guy can. You’re dead wrong, they can pull off anything a guy can, including physique (seriously, have you seen some of those female body builders out there!?).

Bull. I never said woman can’t do anything men can. I never even eluded to it. I pointed out that men are suited to fighting. If something like that makes you jump to such conclusions then you’re gonna have a hard time dealing with any data that goes against your preconceptions.

Have you even read anything about the differences in strength, speed, stamina, emotional detachment, & willingness to fight/inability to restrain violence that makes men & women different? The differences are huge. yeah, if you take a bodybuilder women & have her fight an out of shape skinny guy, she will probably win, but when things are equal the differences are massive. Up to 60% stronger. The fastest women in the world is slower than certain boys highschool track speeds. Men are more likely to return to a situation in which they experienced pain. Men are wired to be more detached from emotion making violence easier (which has negative consequences in our society) It’s just the way it is. How do you interpret that data? So far is seems to support all of human history & warfare. (notice that’s not for the best. it just is)

Seriously, I feel like the guy that said the world is round & people screaming “blasphemy”! I didn’t make reality. It wasn’t an arbitrary social role, it was an evolutionary one. It’s not EVIL that they like making tons of women the main characters but it sticks out in a war game that is played mostly by men. & on top of the ambient level of anti-maleness in GW2, it becomes suspicious.

First, there are male heroes, so your title is misleading. Second, I’m not so sure I see the problem. Male characters are represented in the game (even as heroes!) Are you suggesting that they cater to some population demographics of the real world for every character they create in the fantasy world? In terms of male heroes you have Rytlock, Logan, Thrahearne (who will return to the story in the future), Braham and some lesser support characters; like Evon Gnashblade, Lord Faren, Emissary Vorpp, and Captain Magnus. They each have their own personalities and quirks, which is a good thing.

How many will be enough for you?

SirMoogie.9263:

How many will be enough for you?

You should read the thread.
Also, no, every single minor character does not count as a “hero”.

I’m unclear what the problem here is.

Kal Spiro.9745:

I’m unclear what the problem here is.

If you bothered to read the posts, you would likely have no trouble working out what the problem is.

Lack of male heroes in the Living Story arc.