Guild Wars 2

I’m sure this is an old discussion topic to some, but since the second expansion for the game is about to drop and I’ve been dabbling around with other MMOs on the side, it’s on my mind again.

I really do wish there was better variety in body types in the game. Mostly for humans, but honestly for all the player races. Especially since there does seem to be at least one or two NPCs out there with a stockier build! The character creator in GW2 is a pretty nice one, but all the bodies are various shades of skinny and muscular and outrageously fit, with rigid head shapes as well for the most part. There’s not really anything there for fuller faces, squarer/rounder jaws, thicker middles, etc.

I’m a larger person irl, and games that let you play larger characters are few and far between and highly treasured by me and my peers. Elder Scrolls Online is a deeply flawed game that I don’t enjoy quite as much as GW2, but they let you make chubby characters with more variance in their overall builds and it was thrilling to be able to make a character in it so close to the one in my head and that I can identify with so much more on a personal level.

It really does mean a lot to be able to identify with a character in a particular way, and Arenanet’s generally been great about this sort of thing in other areas! There’s a lot of fat shaming and fat erasure out there, especially in video games, and it’s especially ridiculous now when the technology is there to easily add it in as an option, when it’s something that’s such a common and realistic part of life. Being able to make a character that’s, say, a chubby bookworm elementalist or engineer forced to go out adventuring and find their place when they’re not some pipe dream bodybuilder superhero, is endearing and intriguing to me and means a lot.

Something to please, please consider for future, hopefully? A character customization option to include in the new expansion, or sometime after? Even if it was just an exclusive bodytype locked in a total makeover kit, I’d still dish out irl money to buy it. It really means that much to me. (And of course I wouldn’t say no to things like more short hair on women, more long hair on men, decent curly hair, body hair and scars as accessories not tied to specific body choices, etc…)

Please, it’s something to seriously consider! It’s something that really means a lot to a lot of people, not just me. When you’re able to see yourself in a piece of entertainment when you’re usually excluded, it can mean a lot to the point that you’re overwhelmed with emotion and can cry over it. I’ve done it, I know people who’ve done it, and I’d really love to see some of those tears of joy courtesy of GW2.

It would be nice, but I think Anet is unlikely to do that for a cost vs benefit reason. It would mean modifying every single piece of armor and outfit. And Anet doesn’t have the greatest track record in the armor department.

ESO can do it because it has similarly proportioned humanoid races, whereas GW2’s Asura and Charr would require very extreme sliders. And probably result in even more Charr clipping complaints.

Yeah, that’s understandable, and I can see the more bestial races getting left out for those reasons. I’d be okay with it being a body type option just for humans, if that was easiest. Because man, the ones they’ve got now aren’t much, and I can’t even really play pretend with any of them. It got close with a few of the norn, it’s possible to do! Charge money for it to make it worth it, I’ll pay! It’s bizarre to see lesser games manage it so easily, and not a game like GW2 where it seems like a natural fit.

I understand how some may feel that not having “full” figure options for characters can be disappointing. However I always felt that when an option like that isn’t available I think of it as an attempt at realism.

You are playing a game in a universe where there is constant fighting, lots of walking/running, jumping and dodging. Basically constant daily workouts in a way. A person’s body wouldn’t be full figured if they did the aforementioned on a daily basis as the very actions you do in a game would realistically work to slim the body. So it wouldn’t make sense that way.

Unless you throw logic and any notion of attempted realism out the window then yea sure why not? Another big problem is the one onevstheworld mentioned about the armor and meshes, not to mention the clipping issues.

I really, REALLY wish they’d update character creation. It felt limited when the game came out and is archaic by today’s standards.

onevstheworld.2419:

It would be nice, but I think Anet is unlikely to do that for a cost vs benefit reason. It would mean modifying every single piece of armor and outfit. And Anet doesn’t have the greatest track record in the armor department.

ESO can do it because it has similarly proportioned humanoid races, whereas GW2’s Asura and Charr would require very extreme sliders. And probably result in even more Charr clipping complaints.

The “cost vs. benefit” argument/excuse by Anet is getting real old.

For instance, they already have male human bodies they could scale and add to the Norn body options, so not all male Norn must look like misshaped orangutans with tiny heads, while their female counterparts all look like supermodels with flawless bodies (even the heavier ones).

I agree with the OP that there should be a wider variety of options, and it would be more desirabe new content than most of the kitten they have added in the past year.

Revan.2015:

I understand how some may feel that not having “full” figure options for characters can be disappointing. However I always felt that when an option like that isn’t available I think of it as an attempt at realism.

You are playing a game in a universe where there is constant fighting, lots of walking/running, jumping and dodging. Basically constant daily workouts in a way. A person’s body wouldn’t be full figured if they did the aforementioned on a daily basis as the very actions you do in a game would realistically work to slim the body. So it wouldn’t make sense that way.

Unless you throw logic and any notion of attempted realism out the window then yea sure why not? Another big problem is the one onevstheworld mentioned about the armor and meshes, not to mention the clipping issues.

I’m sorry, but that’s kind of a condescending thing to say. There’s no ‘realism’ in excluding an entire set of people that exist in the real world.

Here’s the thing: a lot of the shapely muscles and six pack abs and things people generally identify as part of being super fit tend to involve a lot of very specific sculpting and focus. Sure, there’s folks who get ripped naturally, and are very very fit and athletic like that. But people who are for real ridiculous strong, weightlifters and World’s Strongest competitors and the like, both men and women, they are thick. They tend to be as wide as they are tall, covered in varying amounts of muscle and fat together, and many to the untrained eye just look like fat people. But the fat is there to cushion the muscle and protect against things like hernias. These “fat” people can deadlift giant weights over their head, pull automobiles with their jaws and wrestle wild animals on mountaintops.

That’s more realistic and interesting than a mage who spends most of his life in a library and waypoints everywhere with low health/stamina levels yet has an inexplicable washboard abdomen. Fierce wild fighters and engineers sitting in workshops all day and studious magic users of varying levels of activity and physical capability! People who you wouldn’t expect to be in a particular profession or walk of life, but who are exceling in it, or at least doing their best!

There’s also the fact that there’s varying levels of fitness in people. Just because somebody’s a little thicker or chubby doesn’t mean they’re not fit. A fat kid can do somersaults, a heavy person can exercise constantly and be healthy as heck. Hell, there’s lots of people out there who are just born that way and always look heavier naturally, no matter what they do or what lives they lead.

I also always find it weird when people look at a game that’s full of things like dragons and magic and golems and talking hivemind rats and declare something like ‘sometimes people are thicc’ to be the unrealistic part.

I didn’t intend to offend anyone with what I said. I tend to basically say how things are which I know that it can offend some people even if I don’t intend it too. I am not against having more variety in body options. I was just stating that when I come across a lack of body options I try to attribute it as an attempt by the developer to try and be somewhat realistic.

As much as I hate to admit it I was on the heftier side myself for a good majority of my life until 5 years ago. So when I made the comment that I made it was truly from self experience. I fully understand that people’s bodies can behave differently and that some may look fitter then others while others may not look fit but actually are. The principle however doesn’t change as much as people try to argue it. If a body moves enough it will change accordingly regardless.

In your example even if a mage or an engineer spends a good amount of time sitting around in a world like guild wars where physical movement and combat is a daily necessity for basic survival it would keep them in decent shape still.

I agree that there is no real excuse beyond technical / budget limitations that more varied body types should not be available for players in a game with with dragons, golems, magic and such. In the end it’s up to the developers in how they want to portray the characters in their game.

Went to make a chubby Asura a long time ago. Instant regret. Not only did i have the same ‘floating shoulder’ on like 80% of the skins to choose from but now I also suffered crazy clipping, especially with the legs/feet armor. In order to make more body types if at all possible – they’d need to tend to the existing issues at hand when it comes to armor skins etc working with certain body types.

I wish male norns were not deformed with scoliosis and the weird sideways posture problem and the chicken legs with thick upper body with drooping manboobs and undersized head.

Ashantara.8731:

onevstheworld.2419:

It would be nice, but I think Anet is unlikely to do that for a cost vs benefit reason. It would mean modifying every single piece of armor and outfit. And Anet doesn’t have the greatest track record in the armor department.

ESO can do it because it has similarly proportioned humanoid races, whereas GW2’s Asura and Charr would require very extreme sliders. And probably result in even more Charr clipping complaints.

The “cost vs. benefit” argument/excuse by Anet is getting real old.

For instance, they already have male human bodies they could scale and add to the Norn body options, so not all male Norn must look like misshaped orangutans with tiny heads, while their female counterparts all look like supermodels with flawless bodies (even the heavier ones).

I agree with the OP that there should be a wider variety of options, and it would be more desirabe new content than most of the kitten they have added in the past year.

You know, I was thinking this very same thing, standing waiting for Teq last night. Why can’t they just scale male human builds to Norn size? There is no way I will ever play a male Norn with their current appearance. And it makes no sense to me that female Norn are human-ish supermodels while male Norns are so, well, not. They are like two different species.

Nikal.4921:

They are like two different species.

The males and females of a species don’t need to look similar to each other. Think peakittens, but instead of tail and colour, you get tiny heads and manboobs.
O_o

onevstheworld.2419:

Nikal.4921:

They are like two different species.

The males and females of a species don’t need to look similar to each other. Think peakittens, but instead of tail and colour, you get tiny heads and manboobs.
O_o

That’s a load of crap. It’s obvious that time has been spent on female models at the expense of male ones. Just like most armor in this game is designed for females and then they just cover up the skin on the male version and remove certain flourishes deemed feminine and give nothing in return.

Luminiscent armor is a prime example, as is the legendary cloth armor.