Guild Wars 2

Hey All, I was just thinking… First class I ever rolled with was a Mesmer, I thought the whole “Illusion Magic” Concept was pretty cool. Then after playing it, I loved the abilities! But one thing kept bugging me… It’s WAY too pink! Nothing wrong with pink mind you but…. It’s pink butterflies! I realize that is cool for a lot of folks. Just not for me… So I ended my Mesmer toon shortly after starting because I can’t do pink butterflies.

Here’s the question. Could the devs figure a way in implement alternative graphics for the Mesmer so it isn’t so… pink butterflies? Make it available for purchase at the gem store? Or create a “Elite-Profession” that changes it around.

I was thinking of something like black/crimson crows, or blue bubbles… OR SOMETHING NOT PINK BUTTERFLIES!!!

Crows do not equate to chaos theory therefore do not equate to mesmer. Crows belong to necromancers or emo rangers. Bubbles would be something the elementalist would burn you for stealing.

Besides, some of those butterflies are purple.

Nope :>

Keep the butterflies. In fact, add even more of them! More butterflies = more chaos, and I’m all for that

(…yes, I may be messing with you a bit. But… come on! What’s wrong with the purple butteflies? ôO )

I don’t think that’s likely to happen. Like them or not, purple butterflies are a key part of the Mesmer aesthetic in this game, and what sets them apart visually from Elementalists or Necromancers. It’s like asking for Guardians to have red flames: they wouldn’t look quite so much like Guardians anymore, without that Guardian color scheme. (Although, that could be a sweet elite spec somehow.)

I can’t help with the purple if you’re not into that, but it might help to know about some of the symbolism oriented around butterflies. They’re popularly connected to chaos theory because of the “butterfly flapping it’s wings causes a tornado across the world” idea, and they can be a symbol of transformation or metamorphosis. They’re also an ancient symbol for soul or mind, so that the word “psyche” could also mean “butterfly” in ancient Greek. It’s smarter than it is tough, which suits Mesmers very well.

I have a mesmer. The class has always seemed to be very girly and teen-agery to me. I mean, when I was 13, I was drawing pink butterflies and unicorns and rainbows on all my stuff, but I didn’t know of any guys that did that.

That’s why my mesmer is a youngish-looking girl. She reminds me of those angsty, innocent girlish dreams I used to have.

Lol more kids insecure about their sexuality/masculinity that have it programmed into their head by society that pink and/or butterflies are “feminine” and that associating yourself with either of these somehow makes you less “manly”
Classic, pretty much this exact thread pops up every few months

Kayberz.5346:

Lol more kids insecure about their sexuality/masculinity that have it programmed into their head by society that pink and/or butterflies are “feminine” and that associating yourself with either of these somehow makes you less “manly”
Classic, pretty much this exact thread pops up every few months

Yeah, it never gets old for me either.

Kayberz.5346:

Lol more kids insecure about their sexuality/masculinity that have it programmed into their head by society that pink and/or butterflies are “feminine” and that associating yourself with either of these somehow makes you less “manly”
Classic, pretty much this exact thread pops up every few months

First off… I didn’t insult anybody with my post. Your post however was very rude and uncalled for. Secondly, this clip is for you and all of you “dandies” who talk smack because I’m not a fan of the pink butterflies…

Ok… With that much being said, I appreciate the artwork the devs have put into the game. I also appreciate the symbolism. But I personally am not a fan of pink butterflies. It’s not an issue of “identity” it’s an issue of taste. It does look girly and I don’t play girly characters. I’m sure I’m not alone on this, and there are others who play who feel likewise. It doesn’t have to be crows or bubbles, just an artistic alternative.

I believe the company can profit from the artistic alteration and offering it on the gem store… With all the time that is spent on new armors, gliders, minis, and finishers, and dance moves all sold on the gem store, is my request so unreasonable? I don’t believe so…

wolfman.4358:

It’s not an issue of “identity” it’s an issue of taste. It does look girly…

LoL. Just lol. What a great contradiction within two sentences. You see pink butterflies as something attributed to girls and you can’t identify with it. Guess what, pink butterflies are not connected to any gender.

doombreaker.3710:

wolfman.4358:

It’s not an issue of “identity” it’s an issue of taste. It does look girly…

LoL. Just lol. What a great contradiction within two sentences. You see pink butterflies as something attributed to girls and you can’t identify with it. Guess what, pink butterflies are not connected to any gender.

Okay but you are missing his point. The reason he dislikes the pink and butterflies isn’t BECAUSE it’s girly, he doesn’t have an identity issue. He just doesn’t want his characters to be like that. So what? A lot of people put stories and personalities and backgrounds on their characters, some people have dark, mysterious characters, some people have pink, cute characters, or literally any other style you can think of. Just because you dislike a certain style for yourself doesn’t mean you’re a “scared male trying to prove his masculinity and sexuality” I dislike all this policing and telling people what they should and shouldn’t like. Please, just like what YOU like and as long as you don’t try to force it on others, everyone should be happy.

A Charr surrounded by pink/purple butterflies is a whole lot scarier than a Charr w/o them… at least to me…

…just sayin’

~EW

I had a similar issue when I created a male norn mesmer. The idea was that he was a Raven shaman, but I couldn’t reconcile the pink butterfly look with the concept.

It would be cool to have alternate power colorings, in such a way that each class still has iconic colors, except with several colors to choose from. A guardian with blue or gold flames, still works.

But I recall City of Heroes took ages and a lot of manpower to implement power color customization because it’s no easy feat to do a color swap on effects like that.
So pink butterflies it is. I remade my mesmer as a female asura specializing in prism manipulation.

All the trolling aside… Would it hurt anybody if the devs made alternative spell graphics for any class? NO….. Would it hurt the lore? NO… Could it make Anet a little extra money if sold in the Gem store? YES!!!! It isn’t like their not flooding the store with new stuff every other day…

So seriously… Why all the trolling?

wolfman.4358:

All the trolling aside… Would it hurt anybody if the devs made alternative spell graphics for any class? NO….. Would it hurt the lore? NO… Could it make Anet a little extra money if sold in the Gem store? YES!!!! It isn’t like their not flooding the store with new stuff every other day…

So seriously… Why all the trolling?

Your post has come at a time when a lot of the player base has their hackles raised. Perhaps some are finding it a way to vent, or others trying to find ways to find levity. If you can, plz don’t try to take the replies too personally.

~EW

wolfman.4358:

But I personally am not a fan of pink butterflies. It’s not an issue of “identity” it’s an issue of taste. It does look girly and I don’t play girly characters.

That hypocrisy is strong here.
First of all – Pink colours or purple ones are not girly in anyway. The same comes with race. I’ve seen norn and charr mesmers and they were just glorious and powerful. You have problem with your aesthetics. Mesmers? Purple and pinky? So girly, so gay. I dont wanna. That’s what sick homophobic societies create. People with problems. Believe me playing this class won’t make you girly or gay.

Second of all. There’s no way they are going to change it. This colour in game has lots of meanings. It’s symbolism of an illusion, mind, chaos. Mordremoth was also Mesmer. There were colours saying about it everywhere. I knew it before HoT, and then the story in expansion just proved I was right. Trickster, mind controlling dragon that made illusions and chaos in Tyria.

So that’s being said.
You have to learn how to be confident with who you are, so no colours will identify who you are. Loves.

P.s Okay. Colours. I am waiting when it’s going to be about Kasmeer and Marjory or Aidworker Sya, and how people want them to be dead like it was with Trehearne and Eir.

Energoo you can feel offended by whatever you want, but the OP doesn’t want a color change because the current theme for them is girly and gay (your words). The colors just don’t fit with his character design.

I think it’s a great idea, but it would entail a lot of work for just one profession. Then all the other professions would of course like the option, since options are always great when making a character. I think a monochrome black, white, and grey would fit the most characters and play into the chaos theme very well. Though I’m currently happy with the vibrant colors the mesmer profession offers to the game it’s pretty obvious that it leaves a ton of character designs looking completely out of place when they should play in fine. So I think it would be perfectly fine with the Mesmer being the first to get the option since they kind of uniquely have this problem.

Please pm me if you’ve been offended by something I’ve said I’d rather not derail a discussion about power color change with a dead horse topic.

If they ever make black or gold butterflies It would cool to see a Magi themed character (Magi’s a show)

I’d like to see alternate colors for my characters. Not just Mesmers, but also Guardians and any other that has a ‘class-based’ color. Why must my Guardian be Blue, instead of a bold Red or Gold, or maybe even Green?

The effects aren’t what I have a problem with- the colors are. Not only do I have to coordinate my dyes across armor pieces, but also make sure they don’t clash with my class. And that’s not fun. Especially since my Warrior (Forced Red due to class coloration) is from the blue colored Iron Legion, while my Guardian is from the Red-colored Blood Legion, yet is forced to be Blue (Dabo dee dabo die)

Okay, I’m a guy and I generally find the “Kudzu is too girly!!!” threads to be really silly (it’s my favourite legendary), and I have male and female mesmer characters.

That said, I don’t think jumping on the OP as being homophobic or whatever is really fair. The mesmer effects are probably the most visible of the class effects, and they do have a big impact on looks. The only class that is even close to that is guardian with all the blue.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any issues with a big fiery Charr covered in skulls shooting out pink butterflies, but you don’t have to be homophobic to not want that kind of aesthetic mix for your character.

Still, given what’s going on with legendaries I’d REALLY prefer they don’t take another six people off something important to offer us an alternative mesmer effect. Also its handy having such a quick tell in hectic PvP situations.

wolfman.4358:

All the trolling aside… Would it hurt anybody if the devs made alternative spell graphics for any class? NO….. Would it hurt the lore? NO… Could it make Anet a little extra money if sold in the Gem store? YES!!!!

No.

This would require redoing most if not ALL of the effects art for every skill and power that uses them. AND introducing a way to select what effects/colors you want. In short, it’s a lot of work, which means it’s a lot of money. They won’t make that back selling it to just some players in the gem store.

As someone else has said, City of Heroes had the same problem, and they did finally manage to pull it off, but it was a seriously heavy undertaking. And right now, I think ANet has more pressing needs to address.

Professions are colour-coded for our Convenience. It really helps me when I see certain specific colours hit me out of nowhere in PvP, because then I can make a quick note of what profession I’m up against and thus what to expect. If colours were suddenly thrown about, and we end up with Cyan Deathshrouds, Crimson Guardian barriers and Mint-green Mesmer Illusions then everything would be a jumbled mess.

As for why the Mesmer has Pink and Purple as their colours? Well, it’s quite simple actually. When it comes to mentalism and psionics, then Pink (Sometimes Light Blue or Azure) has always been the colour that has been strongly associated with such tasks. However, Blue/Azure is primarily something that’s connected to Soothing and Protection, so it obviously went to Guardian first.

Purple is the colour of superiority and arrogance, also of royalty. It represents one who is above the common mob, and sits well with the idea of the Mesmer being a mastermind that toys around with his or her enemies using Mindgames and illusions.

So overall, I don’t think any other colour than Pink/Purple could fit Mesmer whatsoever.

I’m glad to see that some people here understand my point. Thank you… I understand the devs are busy with other projects as well. But seriously, I don’t believe it’s as impossible as people say it is… A simple color change?

MoarChaos.8320:

If they ever make black or gold butterflies It would cool to see a Magi themed character (Magi’s a show)

I actually like this idea! It would also maintain the Mesmer integrity and chaos theory as well! I just checked for myself, their is other graphics ALREADY in game. NPC Raven Shaman, Vilnia Shadowsong (HP) has pink/purple raven affects… It’s already in game peoples… Just a thought