Hello all
I am writing this for myself and other people that I know that play this game. We want to know what you think about the way Females in game hold the Greatsword, as to me it looks like they are dragging it across the floor but when males are holding it and running around with it equipped, it sits on their shoulder. In my opinion this makes it look like women are weaker than men in this game. If possible would people like this to be changed or staying the same?
Speaking of realism, the greatswords in this game are huge. A piece of metal weighing 150 + pounds just impossable to keep on weight, so as do the male characters in this game. Therefore much more likely to argue that men are too strong, but not women are not strong enough.
Odd. My Male Norn Ranger carries it down by his side. My female Asura Ranger up on her shoulder. At least, I think they do, when it’s not on their backs.
Judging by the physiques in game, yes, it would appear that the female characters have less muscle and therefor the current system is logical.
The only exception I’d grant would be the Norn females, how appear to be reasonbly stronger in tone than the other female races. So maybe they can have change to reflect it.
I have to say that it irks me a little when people use the word ‘female’ as if it was a noun when it’s more of an adjective.
With that out of the way, I actually kind of like the distinction for flavor reasons. In reality, women do have less upper body strength than men, so trying to support a greatsword on the shoulders would be awkward at best. It makes sense for them to be wielded and carried differently due to differences in anatomy. Of course, I don’t think that should be transferred to actual mechanics, but it’s fine and even desirable from a cosmetics perspective.
Of course, people will make the “it’s a fantasy who cares about realism” argument, which to an extent is a valid argument. However, I have a one-word response: verisimilitude, or real-world characteristics used to increase coherence and a sense of immersion.
I think the way we females carry our greatswords is very cool and very aggressive, as though we were poised to strike while on the run.
On the other hand, the way males casually perch their GS on a shoulder looks much less aggressive.
So our impression is the exact opposite of the OP’s: we females look much more aggressive than our male friends when running with our greatswords, and we would NOT want this changed.
Aggressively yours,
Danielle Rigolette, Human Mesmer
Kara Adalwolfa, Norn Warrior
Are they really that different? My beta Ranger and my post-launch Ranger are different genders, but I hadn’t really noticed that. (Of course, they were separate by quite a few months, so there wasn’t much side-by-side comparison.)
Anyway, I wouldn’t have read anything into it. Personally, I like the greatsword having -some- indication of its weight; those things are pretty huge, after all.
I think the way we females carry our greatswords is very cool and very aggressive, as though we were poised to strike while on the run.
On the other hand, the way males casually perch their GS on a shoulder looks much less aggressive.
So our impression is the exact opposite of the OP’s: we females look much more aggressive than our male friends when running with our greatswords, and we would NOT want this changed.
Aggressively yours,
Danielle Rigolette, Human Mesmer
Kara Adalwolfa, Norn Warrior
Less aggressive sure…but from a realistic standpoint, carrying the large sword on your shoulder would give you a better starting point for pivoting the momentum of the sword into a downward slash.
Of course in the game the attacks aren’t you know, realistic.
" from a realistic standpoint, carrying the large sword on your shoulder"
LOL! As someone else pointed out, there is zero realism in the concept of a greatsword 6-8 feet long and weighing 200-300 pounds. Almost ALL of the weapons in GW2 are at least double a realistic size. Daggers are the size of swords, swords are the size of greatswords, and greatswords are the size of…. um…. Volkswagens.
So if Anet were to change anything about greatswords, I would respectfully suggest that it should be a downsizing, not the run animations.
" from a realistic standpoint, carrying the large sword on your shoulder"
LOL! As someone else pointed out, there is zero realism in the concept of a greatsword 6-8 feet long and weighing 200-300 pounds. Almost ALL of the weapons in GW2 are at least double a realistic size. Daggers are the size of swords, swords are the size of greatswords, and greatswords are the size of…. um…. Volkswagens.
So if Anet were to change anything about greatswords, I would respectfully suggest that it should be a downsizing, not the run animations.
Perhaps I don’t know….reading the whole post? Cherry picking is fun though I guess.
“I have to say that it irks me a little when people use the word ‘female’ as if it was a noun when it’s more of an adjective.”
The word “female” is both a noun and an adjective, depending on how it’s used.
“My father does not wear female underwear.” (adjective)
“Some females are more aggressive than many males.” (noun)
No charge for the tutoring.
I believe female would change to ‘feminine’ in the first case. As that particular sentence is painful just to read.
When a noun is absent, there is usually an implied presence, meaning the terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ are still being used as modifiers for something not explicitly mentioned in the sentence (such as ‘bears’). The terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ are not intended to take the place of the terms ‘man’ or ‘woman’ (or any other variation thereof).
I wasn’t arguing that it’s technically wrong, it’s just poor usage.
Speaking of realism, the greatswords in this game are huge. A piece of metal weighing 150 + pounds just impossable to keep on weight, so as do the male characters in this game. Therefore much more likely to argue that men are too strong, but not women are not strong enough.
But my armor is magically imbued to add strength. And my weapons are magically imbued to weigh less than a feather.
Heck, I can even summon a magical weapon that fights FOR me. No need to carry.
BG: 52 alts, 29 lvl 80’s.They all look good, so I am done with the game: Oct 2014
…Seriously? This thread is getting hung up over the mixed usage of “male/female” and “man/woman?” I’ll admit that when I hear someone say “males/females” in reference to people, it sounds to me like they’re some kind of biologist studying animals, but it’s really not that big a deal. Even if there is a “technically correct” answer, “technically correct” is always the worst kind of correct in a conversation. Word choice is less important than our ability to understand each other.
Back on topic, I think it should stay the same, since I’ve never read any implied weakness into it, and I like the current animation as-is.
If you’ve watched any samurai movie, you’ve seen it there as well.
Thanks, I was waiting for someone to post something like this. To assume that arenanet designed the stance with “I want them to look weak” in mind is silly.
I play a male warrior and I prefer the way the female character runs with the greatsword than the way the males do. It looks much cooler dragging the blade behind you than it is holding it like it’s a flag while running. However, when standing still the male pose is better. I do hope one day Arena will change the male running animation to something similar. I would like it to look like how the samurai runs with a sword, holding the greatsword in one dragging it behind us when we run and with two hands when we stop.
If you’ve watched any samurai movie, you’ve seen it there as well.
Good old Samurai stances. Anet needs to watch some Samurai Champloo.
You know what would be really nice. Having the Ability to change the Stances or the way Our Characters hold and wield weapons. Make it a Cultural Thing. Learning the way to Hold and wield weapons from other races.
Scotch and Pills, what could possibly go wrong? – Max Payne
I personally like the down low stance asthetically. Being down low makes it look like you’re ready to step in close and wreck face. It makes your sword look like it has some weight behind it, a great contrast when you start slinging it like it’s made of cardboard.
As a female player, this bothers me a lot. At first I had a GS on my ranger, and I figured it was ranger specific. I was okay with it—I even liked it. It’s a ranger after all.
Then I made a warrior, and found that she holds it the same way. Soooooooooo disappointed to find out that this was a female-specific animation! I’m a warrior, I should be able to hold this sword like a warrior, not like it’s too big for my girlish girly girl wuss strength.
All of this, both on the part of the animators and the people complaining about it, rests on the assumption that greatswords are heavy.
5-10 pounds (tops) is not that big a deal. Complain about the difference in gender presentation if you like, but never forget that the whole situation is silly.
“I care nothing for a festering industry that wantonly refuses to
provide a service that I’m willing to purchase.” – Fortuna.7259
" from a realistic standpoint, carrying the large sword on your shoulder"
LOL! As someone else pointed out, there is zero realism in the concept of a greatsword 6-8 feet long and weighing 200-300 pounds. Almost ALL of the weapons in GW2 are at least double a realistic size. Daggers are the size of swords, swords are the size of greatswords, and greatswords are the size of…. um…. Volkswagens.
So if Anet were to change anything about greatswords, I would respectfully suggest that it should be a downsizing, not the run animations.
There is a sense of realism. You have to believe that your character is actually a living thing carrying around a real sword struggling under the weight of real gravity. There needs to be enough realism to counterbalance the unreal parts so that you can believe what you are seeing is “real” or at least tangible.
That said I prefer the female GS running animation. Putting a really heavy blade that close to your next seems risky at best, especially if you are using GW 2 armor which provides no neck protection.
I was standing next to an ancient wood the other day, as players came to it I noticed that female toons give a tired sounding sigh as they ‘chopped’ it.
I dont really mind the stance, but the animation really irks me. It looks like theyre exhausted by the 3rd swipe, while male animation looks cleaner and more powerful. I even gave my guardian a sex change to male because i found myself auto attack more than on warrior (main) and couldnt stand the animation.
I agree that the female stand is reallistic, as Lord Kuru stated well with his link. However, male stance is not that dumb, and it was also used in 2handed sword fencing. Back in the days, most 2handedsword were just sharp in the last 2/3 of their length because the first one is rarely used in slashing, receives most of the hits and for some close combat techniques, you have to put your hand in the first 1/3 to use the point properly.
That from the perspective of European swords. Katanas and oriental swords were sharped all the way because they were mostly slashing swords with little thrusting capacity.
But the idea of someone “chopping his head off” because he´s putting his sword on his shoulder is as dumb as consider the female stance “weak”.
" from a realistic standpoint, carrying the large sword on your shoulder"
LOL! As someone else pointed out, there is zero realism in the concept of a greatsword 6-8 feet long and weighing 200-300 pounds. Almost ALL of the weapons in GW2 are at least double a realistic size. Daggers are the size of swords, swords are the size of greatswords, and greatswords are the size of…. um…. Volkswagens.
So if Anet were to change anything about greatswords, I would respectfully suggest that it should be a downsizing, not the run animations.
Even if they were 5x the size of their rl counterparts they wouldn’t come close to the weights you guys assume.
Those are all fine examples of real world two handed swords but the great swords in this game aren’t 4-4.5 feet long with 2-3 inch wide blades but 5-6 feet long with some blades 9-12 inches across like swords seen in FF series.
Of course you can hand wave it away with some magical/materials reason why it can be wielded with relative ease because IT’S A FANTASY GAME!
I’m a warrior, I should be able to hold this sword like a warrior, not like it’s too big for my girlish girly girl wuss strength.