Guild Wars 2

Just a poor little Korean hoping that the increased Asian playerbase might sway Anet’s stance on inclusion of Cantha and Elona in the playable regions of Tyria. I’m still agonized by my people’s lack of representation in GW2, though I do and always will love the game certainly won’t leave if this hope is never realized.

Please, please, Anet. . . I’d love to see some acknowledgment and representation. I’ve been dying to see what’s going on Cantha since I first started playing, and I just can’t get over it. I’d give anything.

Have you ever read up on why the Cantha District in DR was originally removed?

Cantha would probably be temp content, implemented 5 years from now.
You know it’s true.

The main reason (as far as we know) for no Cantha IS because of China more or less, so them joining the game might very well have the opposite effect than you wish.

And to be fair, GW2 is set in a fantasy world, so I really don’t see the need to represent all real-life people in it.

According to Reddit.

It was probably delayed to coordinate release in China as future content.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Have you ever read up on why the Cantha District in DR was originally removed?

I tried to find some reasons. I believe what I heard was that it was to avoid offending the Asian demographic with their own representation of an Asian continent. Is this correct?

lordkrall.7241:

And to be fair, GW2 is set in a fantasy world, so I really don’t see the need to represent all real-life people in it.

Agreed, but some added diversity to the human population would be a welcomed addition for most players.

Jahroots.6791:

lordkrall.7241:

And to be fair, GW2 is set in a fantasy world, so I really don’t see the need to represent all real-life people in it.

Agreed, but some added diversity to the human population would be a welcomed addition for most players.

If Caucasian people can be so richly and widely represented, why not Asians, Africans, Arabics (wow never realized we all start with A’s O.O), Native Americans (both north and south America), etc.? The world is diverse in species of people, so why not diverse in races?

Besides, it’s not like Tyria doesn’t have those races to start with. GW1 is where Cantha and Elona come from; they’re not just some made up idea of ethnic fans. They’ve been cut from GW2 and many of us feel slighted and unhappy about it. We’d like our cultures to be important too. That’s not a bad thing. We’re not going to be mean or rude about it. We just have our requests, like most players do.

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Have you ever read up on why the Cantha District in DR was originally removed?

I tried to find some reasons. I believe what I heard was that it was to avoid offending the Asian demographic with their own representation of an Asian continent. Is this correct?

It was speculated that in order for GW2 to launch in China, they had to remove any references to Asian culture. So if we have any chance of getting Cantha, GW2 has to leave China completely. Which we know is impossible now.

Vol.7601:

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Have you ever read up on why the Cantha District in DR was originally removed?

I tried to find some reasons. I believe what I heard was that it was to avoid offending the Asian demographic with their own representation of an Asian continent. Is this correct?

It was speculated that in order for GW2 to launch in China, they had to remove any references to Asian culture. So if we have any chance of getting Cantha, GW2 has to leave China completely. Which we know is impossible now.

Ugh, that’s what I thought. That’s just taking racial sensitivity too far, and I don’t know whether it’s China that’s demanded such removal or Arenanet that’s being paranoid about offending them. I don’t know, and I wish I did. Different cultures should be celebrated, not avoided.

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Ugh, that’s what I thought. That’s just taking racial sensitivity too far, and I don’t know whether it’s China that’s demanded such removal or Arenanet that’s being paranoid about offending them. I don’t know, and I wish I did. Different cultures should be celebrated, not avoided.

The main issue is that Cantha is a combination of different asian cultures, and I don’t think China (or Japan for that matter) would like to be clumped together with each other, due to history and stuff like that.

lordkrall.7241:

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Ugh, that’s what I thought. That’s just taking racial sensitivity too far, and I don’t know whether it’s China that’s demanded such removal or Arenanet that’s being paranoid about offending them. I don’t know, and I wish I did. Different cultures should be celebrated, not avoided.

The main issue is that Cantha is a combination of different asian cultures, and I don’t think China (or Japan for that matter) would like to be clumped together with each other, due to history and stuff like that.

:( I guess I could see that. My parents discouraged me from having Japanese friends, despite the fact that the Japanese occupation was a looong time ago. The way they acted, hostility was a matter of ethnicity and genetics. Why are people so quick to distrust and hate each other?

sigh So this whole issue is a result of human inability to get along. As usual. This is why we can’t have nice things, etc. etc.

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Besides, it’s not like Tyria doesn’t have those races to start with. GW1 is where Cantha and Elona come from; they’re not just some made up idea of ethnic fans. They’ve been cut from GW2 and many of us feel slighted and unhappy about it.

Definitely, the Canthan and Elonian aesthetics alone added so much to this series. It’s a shame GW2 didn’t incorporate more of them.

I wouldn’t expect to see Cantha anytime soon due to reluctance on NCSoft’s part to allow it, though as best I can tell, Elona is fair game, as is the entirety of the map of Tyria currently in-game that does not have explorable areas in it.

We can only hope that greed can eventually make NCsoft accept the Cantha

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

sigh So this whole issue is a result of human inability to get along. As usual. This is why we can’t have nice things, etc. etc.

Maybe in time the old wounds will heal. Those with political power in China/Japan/Korea are still old enough to remember or are only one generation removed.

Give it another 10-15 years. They’ll retire and the 2nd/3rd generations will come into power(Gen-Xers, Millennials). Then things will get better.

Yeah, it kind of sucks that politics gets in the way of gaming. Our next generation should probably do its best to avoid wars or something.

Cantha’s probably not going to happen due to the uproar that happened with “racial insensitivity.”

Elona’s probably on the table, though. I can’t imagine ANet actually just dropping the Crystal Desert, Sulfurous Wastes and Palawa Joko stuff.

Cantha on the other hand has a backstory for not being traveled to anymore (xenophobia and the sea dragon). So while ANet greases the wheels behind-the-scenes, we can rest assured that in the game we won’t travel there.

It’s good that Arabic/African people don’t mind Elona since that’s another mixture.

Rym.1469:

It’s good that Arabic/African people don’t mind Elona since that’s another mixture.

It’s not even that. Neither Africa nor the Middle East are huge markets for MMOs as far as I know, so it doesn’t matter from a business perspective if the use of their cultures in the visual design offends them.

However, Arenanet is owned by a Korean company and trying to break into a Chinese market. It seems to offend Korean, Chinese, and Japanese people to each be associated with the other, so it hurts the business model to have Cantha as it was in GW1.

On top of that, it’d probably offend NA if Cantha were suddenly not Asian (though, I’d personally love it if the Kurzicks took over and Cantha was all gothic architecture).

In short, Cantha isn’t happening.

Cantha could happen. Remember that the emperor conquered the Luxons and the Kurzicks So it doesnt have to be a blend of cultures anymore. Also didnt they send most of the devs to the asia launch? Good time to go culture sniffing i say. You dont need to send a lot of people overseas for a launch just some important ones normally. And they did record music from a far away country. That could be chineese music. Chineese culture has a rich mythology to draw from. So you could make a Cantha that the asian playerbase doesnt find offensive. Besides they could always bounce ideas of the chineese distributor of what goes and doesnt go

Ghost Nightstalker.7163:

Cantha could happen. Remember that the emperor conquered the Luxons and the Kurzicks So it doesnt have to be a blend of cultures anymore. Also didnt they send most of the devs to the asia launch? Good time to go culture sniffing i say. You dont need to send a lot of people overseas for a launch just some important ones normally. And they did record music from a far away country. That could be chineese music. Chineese culture has a rich mythology to draw from. So you could make a Cantha that the asian playerbase doesnt find offensive. Besides they could always bounce ideas of the chineese distributor of what goes and doesnt go

It had nothing to do with the Kurzick and Luxons but rather the whole culture of Cantha, which takes inspiration from several asian cultures.

The Kurzick and Luxon weren’t really that asian to begin with.
Kurzick were basically Germans and Luxons were Greek.

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Have you ever read up on why the Cantha District in DR was originally removed?

I tried to find some reasons. I believe what I heard was that it was to avoid offending the Asian demographic with their own representation of an Asian continent. Is this correct?

so uh, where was the outrage about the pandas in WoW then?

Lightsbane.9012:

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Have you ever read up on why the Cantha District in DR was originally removed?

I tried to find some reasons. I believe what I heard was that it was to avoid offending the Asian demographic with their own representation of an Asian continent. Is this correct?

so uh, where was the outrage about the pandas in WoW then?

There was some outrage. China is very sensitive to the death of pandas, being an endangered species. Blizzard got around it by the Pandaren being a race as early as Warcraft III, but I think they had to go through some extra hoops even then.

Lucky.9421:

Raeysa Penrose.8450:

sigh So this whole issue is a result of human inability to get along. As usual. This is why we can’t have nice things, etc. etc.

Maybe in time the old wounds will heal. Those with political power in China/Japan/Korea are still old enough to remember or are only one generation removed.

Give it another 10-15 years. They’ll retire and the 2nd/3rd generations will come into power(Gen-Xers, Millennials). Then things will get better.

Yeah, it kind of sucks that politics gets in the way of gaming. Our next generation should probably do its best to avoid wars or something.

This. :P

Everyone needs to just chill and celebrate our similarities _italic_and_italic_ differences. It’s all beautiful and deserves inclusion.

Another Cantha thread? Wow very original.

Read this very closely —> Cantha… not happening.

Vesuvius.9874:

Another Cantha thread? Wow very original.

Read this very closely —> Cantha… not happening.

We can dream.

Besides, the point isn’t to be original. The point is to indicate continuing interest in such an update, especially since China is now getting GW2 as well.

I honestly never got the problem with Cantha. Was it the architecture? The animals? The armor designs? The lore? The gangs? The zodiac symbolism? The soundtrack? The mobs?
Certainly wasn’t the Kurzuxons!

It’s a made up world. I’d say if it was such a problem then open Cantha up further(we only saw parts of it). Have the bulk of the culture in what we played before be Chinese inspired. Then as we get further in have Japanese and Korean divisions.
Each section with it’s own lore. Revisit Echovald and the Jade Sea for the gothic/greek-gypsy feel.

God forbid you forget to put in parts for pacific islanders.

I actually could care less about the themes of the different human cultures represented in game for any of the campaigns. I think I just liked the mobs and the whole Kurzick Luxon thing more.

Cantha didn’t have to be Asian inspired at all just like Elona didn’t have to be African. It made sense I guess for different lands to evolve in different ways, made seen mostly through architecture and clothing and even the music in the zones. Honestly, they could get rid of the inspiration there as far as I’m concerned. Kryta did.

I don’t see anything wrong with Cantha representing Chinese population. But Anet is centered in America and apparently people there have many problems with things that would be completely normal in Europe for example.

Take Sesame Street show for example. It was great for kids in 1980s and now in 2014 exactly the same episodes are released but they are only appropriate for mature audience now and can only be aired in the late evening. Again, Europe doesn’t have problems like this.

I think it’s really a shame that such a quality content is limited so much by meaningless things such as representations of nationalities within a game. I hope that things will get better in the future.

Vol.7601:

It was speculated that in order for GW2 to launch in China, they had to remove any references to Asian culture.

It was also speculated, that the “delaying” of Cantha had nothing to do with cultural or legal issues but just a shortage of man power ressources because of the work that has to be done for the China release.

If the last speculation is true, the hopes for Cantha could be go up because the China release happened now.

Greetings.

Hi everyone,

We already have a thread about Cantha here. Therefore, we’ll close this one in order to avoid duplicates.

Thank you for your understanding.