Guild Wars 2

See TL;DR and Disclaimer toward the bottom. I recently made a Canthan Human character and found something frustrating in the character creation, or rather not in the character creation. There are no dark eyes available. There is a dark brown but it isn’t very dark at all.

For those of you that don’t know, Canthans are a subculture of Humans in Guild Wars 2 that is very similar to Asian cultures in our world. These cultures typically have very beautiful dark eyes. So it’s frustrating that there are no dark eyes in the character creation.

The same problem extends to anyone wanting to create an Elonian character, which I also would like to do. Again, for those that don’t know, Elonians are a subculture of Humans in Guild Wars 2 that is very similar to African/Middle Eastern cultures in our world who also typically have beautiful dark colored eyes.

Now, there are dark eyes as exclusive eye colors if you purchase a Total Makeover Kit. But I don’t think someone should have to pay 350 Gems to create a typical Canthan or Elonian looking character. There are already far too few facial options supporting these subcultures. And I know, I know, you hardly see the eyes, but honestly I do notice it in cutscenes or when looking closely at my characters. And yes I do that, I take pride in my characters and enjoy appreciating how they look. The dark eye color is a subtle factor but it’s amazing the difference it makes in pulling off the look especially with the limited facial options. The current brown eyes really work against the look I’m going for. I really think a darker “dark brown” eye color should be added to the character creation options, much like the Chocolate color.

Disclaimer
To anyone of any ethnicity reading this, please know your eye color is beautiful no matter whether it’s the color that most of your ethnicity has in common or is different from that. My goal is making characters that match the typical theme of their subculture. Because I’m just boring perhaps :P
But really please don’t take offense, none is intended.

TL;DR
Please forgive my frustration, I really do love Guild Wars 2. But basically, I’d love to see more free (and exclusive) character creation support for Canthans and Elonians.

Selling cosmetic options is a core element of gw2’s business model. I get why you want the option, but not the apparent unwillingness to pay for it. It doesnt even require real world money.

Ashen, thanks for your comment. I have spent probably more money than I should have on cosmetics so I am certainly not afraid to do so. I love GW2 and love supporting them and hey, I get to look cool in the process! However, my opinion is dark eyes should really be there by default. It just doesn’t make sense that such a common eye color is exclusive.

First off, I absolutely love the way you put this and how you went out of your way to make sure this thread stayed constructive and didn’t devolve into bickering and complaints, props to you my fellow fashion wars player.

Second I’ve honestly never thought about it, but I can definitely see your point and agree that its a shame that such a common eye color isn’t already included, and that the only way to get it is to buy a total makeover kit. I’ve bought a kit before just to change eye color myself honestly, but that was for one of the more unique shades and I can totally understand why you’d want a simple color like that to be included, especially considering what a small detail it is to pretty much anyone but yourself when making your character.

It’s most likely an oversight. I would not have thought about it either. I don’t think they honestly sought out to make gem sells at the expense of their Asian/African players.

In fact for a company that likes to get on its high horses about diversity questions it’s probably an embarrassing oversight now that someone points that out, heh.

I hope they change their minds about the dark eyes or just add a second dark eye color that’s free to choose. It’s a very reasonable request in my opinion.

Juggre Naut.3427:

Ashen, thanks for your comment. I have spent probably more money than I should have on cosmetics so I am certainly not afraid to do so. I love GW2 and love supporting them and hey, I get to look cool in the process! However, my opinion is dark eyes should really be there by default. It just doesn’t make sense that such a common eye color is exclusive.

I must admit that not having a dark brown eye color as a baseline option does seem odd to me.

Good luck.

I agree I think it was most likely an oversight and not a money grab. I do hope ArenaNet takes note and addresses it. Thank you all for your comments on the subject. Happy gaming

I think you make a valid point.

Agreed – there should be more darker eye colors available by default. ALSO, natural hairstyles for kinky hair. Right now there are some dreads for norn women and female charr, a cheesy afro for male non-sylvari, and… that’s it. Nothing for female humans at all.

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

Agreed – there should be more darker eye colors available by default. ALSO, natural hairstyles for kinky hair. Right now there are some dreads for norn women and female charr, a cheesy afro for male non-sylvari, and… that’s it. Nothing for female humans at all.

I tried making a black character once and the result in-game looked nothing at all like what the character creator looked like. I wound up having to use head armor that covered her face because the result looked more like a caricature than something serious.