Guild Wars 2

Curiosity has me wondering…Marriage in GW2, what do you think?

• Do you think Anet will implement it at some point?
• Do you think it will be gender restrictive?
• If they do, what effects do you think gender restriction, or lack of, would have on the playerbase?
• Do you think they would place any other restrictions on it? Level, Race, etc.

Just some things I’m wondering. ANet is catering to a playerbase of many different cultures. Some are for gender restrictive marriage, some cultures have embraced open-gendered marriages/unions. Some cultures are against inter-race marriages, some are very open with them. How do you think any choices ANet would make would affect their playerbase? Better yet, how would it affect you?

Do you think they should implement marriage of any kind? (lets not hash out titles for romantic unions in this topic please.)

After I get a few responses I’ll answer as well

Seems like a waste of time to me and only good for people that RP. But I do hate RP and can’t stand the people that do it.

Well, nothing is preventing you doing that already It’s all about your ability to RP

I really don’t care/don’t mind. But what I do hope for is if “marriage” is implemented, what would “marriage” to another player entail.

I do hope it comes with an up-side, but also responsibilities and not just a random title/something meaningless. Something like both player’s banks and inventories become shared with the other. This means that “marriage partners” would have to be chosen more carefully, and not just any random player and would definitely be an interesting feature to the game.

I’d also love to see the various whine posts regarding things like “marriage fraud,” and how someone’s legendary suddenly “disappeared” with a system like this. Would be hilarious.

I think this is a difficult issue for game makers. If you implement marriage as an option you can’t win. Either it’s for heterosexual couples only and you get criticism or you allow same gender marriage as well and you get a lot of crap from the other side.

My personal view is that same gender marriage should be allowed if you allow for marriages. I believe that people should be able to choose that for themselves.

Whether Anet wants to make a political statement or not is another matter though. Cause let’s be honest…if you implement marriage as a game developer, you will make a political statement either way.

Ameepa.6793:

Well, nothing is preventing you doing that already It’s all about your ability to RP

This . I see no reason to add it .

I can’t see the point in an actual marriage system because I think for most players it wouldn’t add anything, and for RPers it’s already possible.

All you need to do is buy/make a couple of rings, write some vows, round up some friends and food/drinks (maybe use the guild banquet option), pick a location and switch to town clothes. Same way people used to do it back in UO.

And this way you avoid the gender controversy because players can decide for themselves and Anet doesn’t have to say a word about it.

But if they did add an actual marriage system I think, since it would mainly be for RPers, they should stick to in-game lore. So sylvari can and will marry anyone because gender is pretty arbitrary to them. From what I’ve seen norn and charr seem to regard marriage as primarily picking a partner to have children with so they’d probably stick to heretosexual relationships (I’m actually not sure if the charr even form long-term partnerships since they don’t live in family groups). I’m not sure about the asura and humans though.

Since I’ve gotten some responses I’ll post my views

I personally would like to see a marriage system in game. People like aesthetic gears, and pets, marriages are no different in my opinion.

As for what I think ANet will do. I can’t really say lol. As someone stated, if they do implement it, then regardless of the choices they make, they will offend someone because it will make a statement, which makes a really good case for not doing it. But I would be sad if they chose not to.

I personally would like to see open relationships. So many people play with their family, and friends, I would actually love to see a whole family system set up. How cool would that be? Anyway, before I wander. I don’t really believe in restrictions. My thought would be, with such a wide culture base, it would be safer to be more open than closed regarding choices in these kinds of things. But that’s just me.

zaxziakohl.5243:

Since I’ve gotten some responses I’ll post my views

I personally would like to see a marriage system in game. People like aesthetic gears, and pets, marriages are no different in my opinion.

As for what I think ANet will do. I can’t really say lol. As someone stated, if they do implement it, then regardless of the choices they make, they will offend someone because it will make a statement, which makes a really good case for not doing it. But I would be sad if they chose not to.

I personally would like to see open relationships. So many people play with their family, and friends, I would actually love to see a whole family system set up. How cool would that be? Anyway, before I wander. I don’t really believe in restrictions. My thought would be, with such a wide culture base, it would be safer to be more open than closed regarding choices in these kinds of things. But that’s just me.

What effects are you suggesting that the marriage/family system should have? Would you get a title, or some cosmetic options, shared banks, what? Or would it be just somekind of biography window listing your relationships without any actual ingame effects?

Considering Anet already has same sex relationships in game Im going to assume that if they did (which I really dont think there is a reason to add it) that it would be totally open as far as Race and Gender goes…as it should be.

zaxziakohl.5243:

My thought would be, with such a wide culture base, it would be safer to be more open than closed regarding choices in these kinds of things. But that’s just me.

That depends on your definition of safe. Bioware got death threats (potentially serious ones) for including same-sex relationships in Mass Effect, even though it was completely 100% optional and if you weren’t interested you never even had to know it was there.

Well I know that player housing and such will be released eventually. We already have the home instance, but at this point in time I don’t think it’s full uses are implemented. I personally would love to see something where you can make a family. You could have your significant other (if you choose to have one) children(though that might be awkward), parents, siblings. I know in a lot of MMO’s many players develop bonds with other players in game that are very sibling like. Or you have the one who always tells you what to do (parent).

I think a biography, after doing the official, adoption or family acceptance or whatnot, would be really cool. Also implementing the home instance into it, allowing a player to put a “gift” in your home/help decorate. Or your significant other to enter your instance without you. A tab with your family in it in your social tab. Titles would be cool.

<My sister Ameepa made me wear this coat!>

Stuff like that. GW2 is about being social, and what better way to be social then to form mini-families in game. Maybe make it so you can only /hug your family members, or /kiss a significant other. /tease your siblings.

Humourous little touches with a sense of social connectivity so to speak.

I don’t think anything they implement should provide any advantage over other players. Some people are loners by nature, and shouldn’t be disadvantaged because they don’t socialize. That would be worse than Single’s Awareness Day aka Valentines!

If I were to implement, a marriage system, I would do it as an incorporation of a whole family system. I also think that would remove some of the scrutiny that would be cast on their decision regarding restrictions because suddenly it’s more about having a favorite group of friends with whom you identify a certain way, than it is about, which set of pixels is for lack of a better word, bonking the other.

If the housing comes, I’m pretty sure that it has a system that allows you to give people permissions what they can and cannot do in your house, so you probably will be able to create a situation like that even without actual relationship systems.

It would open a whole can of worms where we’d need a Divorce system, complete with lawyers who can squabble over every piece of armor and gold piece that you own. No way is someone else getting half my stuff!

ProphetSword.5427:

It would open a whole can of worms where we’d need a Divorce system, complete with lawyers who can squabble over every piece of armor and gold piece that you own. No way is someone else getting half my stuff!

And your house..

Marriage should come with a ring that always shows where your other is on the map. Affection is most important when its uncommon in place of war.

Also suggest a pink/white glow to surround both characters when they are within 100

I don’t see how an in-game marriage or family system would add anything that can’t already be achieved with the in-game guild system. Since you aren’t restricted to a single guild, you can create a union of players in your own guild. This gives you shared storage, unique identifiers, etc.

And just bcause guilds are capable of being massive, they don’t necessarily have to be. Remember, ’Destiny’s Edge’ is technically a guild consisting of 5 people.

So, in my opinion, no in-game marriage system needed, as it already exists.

Try telling your girlfriend to join you in holy guildromony :p

Problem is that in this game world not all the races view marriage in the same rites
Heck I don’t even know if Asura even GET married, procreation may just be a science experiment to them

Asura do have marriages. Vekk mentioned that no one is allowed to leave an Asuran wedding until the amount of love in the air is calculated.

Is it bad that the idea of asuran marriage made my mind instantly jump to asuran divorce court?

If it’s anything like that trial in GW1 it could be very entertaining.

There are Tuxedo and wedding gowns costumes in GW1, they may opt to sell them here to at some point.

I think in game marriage would be a lovely idea… (Is this girly of me?) In person I don’t care much for marriage, but as a gaming experience for a role playing character I think it’s great. After all, it is not taboo or anything in the GW world (Gwen and Thackery being the most obvious one)

To answer your question about gender restrictive marriage, I think that’s easily answered. As far as I know, ANet supports gay marriages, and I believe in Caithe’s past she was also in love with another female Sylvari, and it’s obvious in the story lines too. And I heard rumours of another gay couple being seen in the game (where I do not know). So people who might don’t support gay marriage are in fact already doing so.

As to the results of marriage, the shared bank access idea by Reikou sounds great., but needs to be carefully considered. I don’t want to imagine the complaints ANet will receive of “partners” looting and running with other people’s items… And Zoris idea of the pink/white glow sounds very cute too. ^^

IF ANet does implement this, I think marriage shouldn’t just happen like that. If I remember correctly, in Perfect World you had to actually court the other character and buy him/her gifts and flowers etc etc…

Danikat.8537:

zaxziakohl.5243:

My thought would be, with such a wide culture base, it would be safer to be more open than closed regarding choices in these kinds of things. But that’s just me.

That depends on your definition of safe. Bioware got death threats (potentially serious ones) for including same-sex relationships in Mass Effect, even though it was completely 100% optional and if you weren’t interested you never even had to know it was there.

As soon as you allow your establishment to be swayed by those with narrow minds, you lose all integrity. Death threats or not, people should be sensible enough to make their Own decisions and subject themselves to what they feel comfortable.

I’m missing some lore here and there for the races lol
I know the Humans have marriages and the Norn have Life Unions of equal partners male & female who are equal in terms of skill, power, and the ability to hunt

Danikat.8537:

zaxziakohl.5243:

My thought would be, with such a wide culture base, it would be safer to be more open than closed regarding choices in these kinds of things. But that’s just me.

That depends on your definition of safe. Bioware got death threats (potentially serious ones) for including same-sex relationships in Mass Effect, even though it was completely 100% optional and if you weren’t interested you never even had to know it was there.

BioWare’s revelation of getting threats was a PR stunt to try to deflect from all the backlash they were getting about ME3’s endings. They’ve had same sex romances all the way back to Jade Empire – maybe even before. Still, their implementation of these romances in DA2 and ME3 can be criticized for how ham-handed they are about it.

Anyway, it’s a can of worms ANet really doesn’t need to open. The game provides plenty of options to make a roleplay marriage work.

Marriage I think could be great for both ingame mechanics and rp values. I know my fiancée and I play a lot together and love the game. We don’t really Roleplay, but we have thought an in-game marriage thing would be kinda fun. Were both software developers as well and invariably it turned to, what would the system be like? And we looked at the anime Sword Art Online.

In Sword Art Online marriage in-game entails the following:
-You share inventory and money

Thats it. We decided to think further. Because you have this sharing system, marrying just anyone might be a liability. So add other benefits.
-Separate space that always displays SO’s profile, not blacked out, but always displaying information. Blacked out on offline mode.
-If grouped in the same area, %5 Karma, Exp, Magic Find boost. These are not huge values, but enough to really foster sticking together.
-Shared dyes.
-Shared bank.
-Shared inventory.

These add a more mechanical view of in game marriage, and helps to display the advantages of marriage. Sexuality also really doesn’t matter here, and honestly, as an in-game mechanic, its ethically neutral. You leave it to the players to marry who they will.

I find myself agreeing with miss Sugarific. I too would like to see a marriage system within the game,. I recall one game i used to play that allowed married couples to summon one another when in danger, among other abilities gained when coupled off… there would have to be some obvious benefits to choosing to marry another character in game,… as for why even have it? lets face it, Marriage itself is an open declaration between a couple making their commitment to each other known to their friends and family and having this commitment recognized by both religion and government alike.. why wouldn’t we want to be able to make such an open declaration in the game? make our commitment to a significant other known to all in game and the development team?
I give a huge thumbs up to the idea of an in game marriage system!
If it gets introduced, I know who i am asking! ~.o

I’d think it’s pathetic if some people start an outcry due to gay marriage
being accepted in the game. Kind of feels like “Oh grow up” : p. . .

To answer the lore question. I think you may just be able to find a loophole.
Sure, some races in Tyra might not marry, but maybe we could say, that your character
is so unusual anyway, to have traveled so far and wide in Tyra and experienced so many things… That they’re quite unusual. THUS, marriage is quite fine ^^.

The only way they’d do this is though personal storylines, they did mention romance as a possibility for the future in the past.

The LZ.7891:

I’d think it’s pathetic if some people start an outcry due to gay marriage
being accepted in the game. Kind of feels like “Oh grow up” : p. . .

To answer the lore question. I think you may just be able to find a loophole.
Sure, some races in Tyra might not marry, but maybe we could say, that your character
is so unusual anyway, to have traveled so far and wide in Tyra and experienced so many things… That they’re quite unusual. THUS, marriage is quite fine ^^.

Actually, the current events are changing the culture of Tyria. My favorite two NPC’s are the children in Lions Arch, the Charr and Human little girls who are always playing together.

Charr: “Lets play!”
Human: “Ok, but this time I want to be a charr, not a dirty old ghost. Im ash legion!”
Charr: “Doesnt matter to me what you are, lets just play!”

Marriage could be becoming something that entice some Charr, or Norn. The Lore is rewriting itself during the game because of current events. What is cannon and what isn’t is somewhat fluid right now.

Tarantalus.8671:

there would have to be some obvious benefits to choosing to marry another character in game,… as for why even have it?

That’s a really good reason to not have a marriage system. Why should people have an in-game benefit for choosing to get married.

FFXI is the only game I played that wasted resources on not only designing a marriage system but also having a GM presiding over it.

Oddly enough I see this suggested in pretty much every MMO and I’m always left wondering why a simple RP wedding which requires no additional work on the devs’ part and gives no advantage isn’t enough for some people.

They could just call something else. Just like Christmas is Wintersday. Marriage can be " Life bond" or something like that that can cover all races

Good point gricks. I’m sure they could tie this in with some world
events.

Leave anything to do with sex out of my video game about killing baddies.

Leave that stuff in the sims.

I’ve played only one game that had a marriage system.It wasn’t awful either.There wasn’t much of a benefit to it other than a daily Marriage quest.It was just something nice to do esp for couples playing the game.It was only M/F which is silly but at the time i guess was what people expected.These days it should be open to any one period.

Vlaxitov.5693:

Leave anything to do with sex out of my video game about killing baddies.

Leave that stuff in the sims.

Thats a bit narrow minded. its a MMO"RPG". Thats Roleplaying Game. We have a person in our guild who loves crafting. He comes with us on adventures, but he does it solely to get materials and craft. He doesnt really bother with the fighting. Hes got a 400 Tailor/Weaponsmith, 400 Leathsmith/Huntsman, and simply plays the game to work the auction house, make ingame gold, and craft. He LOVES this. Hes basically our guild sugar daddy.

lordstrego.1874:

It was only M/F which is silly but at the time i guess was what people expected.These days it should be open to any one period.

All public bathrooms should be co-ed too but for the love of the eternal alchemy please leave these real life social issues out of my FANTASY game. Go play the sims if you really need that in your game. The sims does it better than any mmo ever would anyway.

I personally hope they don’t add it. I think in-game marriages are lame and should be stuck to RP servers. The worst is when they need to have a wedding too and act like it is real and take all these pictures and flood chat channels for invites and telling people to go etc.

Having said that though I think it would be good for the game. It doesn’t hurt me or effect my game play so why shouldn’t this be added? Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean I don’t see how some do and it wouldn’t bother me if they added it. I just think they are dumb.

If they do they should allow same sex marriages. It is a fantasy game. It won’t hurt anyone. If people don’t like it then that is just stupid. Just like in real life, does 2 same sex people getting married really effect you and your life in any way shape or form? No it doesn’t.

gricks.1897:

Thats a bit narrow minded. its a MMO"RPG".

Whats narrow minded is thinking you’re going to add detailed sexual themes to a game that caters to people who have different opinions on these themes whether you like it or not, and that it will make everybody happy or was worth the time and effort.

Are you imagination challenged? Can you not make up your own stories in your mind with video games? I think MMO"RPG" makers are already currently destroying the “RPG” by heavily scripting our games with stories much worse or cheesier than we could make up for ourselves.

RPG used to mean I got to make up my own story. It seems now a days its starting to take bioware’s definition as a cheesy animated comic book disguised as a video game.

Personally I think if they did add a marriage mechanic any changes should be fairly minimal. Maybe a symbol next to your name like the one for world completion and a small buff if you’re close by/in a party together.

I’m not sure about the shared bank idea. I can see where people are coming from, although contrary to popular belief it’s not a requirement of real-life marriage (my husband and I still have mostly seperate finances) but I can see a lot of problems with it, even without people stealing each others stuff. I definately don’t like the idea of a shared inventory, I think that would just make it too hard to keep track of things and it’d be a pain to have to check with your husband/wife every time you wanted to sell something.

gricks.1897:

Vlaxitov.5693:

Leave anything to do with sex out of my video game about killing baddies.

Leave that stuff in the sims.

Thats a bit narrow minded. its a MMO"RPG". Thats Roleplaying Game. We have a person in our guild who loves crafting. He comes with us on adventures, but he does it solely to get materials and craft. He doesnt really bother with the fighting. Hes got a 400 Tailor/Weaponsmith, 400 Leathsmith/Huntsman, and simply plays the game to work the auction house, make ingame gold, and craft. He LOVES this. Hes basically our guild sugar daddy.

That’s pretty much what my sister used to do in UO. I don’t think she ever saw most of the map, she’d pretty much only leave town to gather resources in the local area and spent the rest of her time crafting and selling items.

Coincidentally she also had a side buisness as a wedding coordinator. She had a bag in her bank full of colourful cloth, flowers and other decorative items and people would hire her to decorate a taven or wherever, make or loan them some clothes, make the rings and she could usually recommend people to conduct the ceremony and supply food too. And this was in a game with no marriage mechanic.

Ameepa.6793:

Well, nothing is preventing you doing that already It’s all about your ability to RP

For those that aren’t able to RP very well without having the theme / setting and such available it could be a nice adition.
I like the ceremonies they implemented in Rift even though I don’t care for it myself I can see how it could make some players happy if they met eachother in game and aren’t dedicated RP’ers.
Currently I would consider it a waste of resources though if it would take away from the resources to develop other content like player/guild housing, new events, new spvp modes and I could go on for a few pages with features / content I consider more important or a more nice adition for a larger group of players than marriage.

Vlaxitov.5693:

gricks.1897:

Thats a bit narrow minded. its a MMO"RPG".

Whats narrow minded is thinking you’re going to add detailed sexual themes to a game that caters to people who have different opinions on these themes whether you like it or not, and that it will make everybody happy or was worth the time and effort.

How would an in-game marriage be detailed and/or sexual? At most it would allow RPers the ability to have some in-game acknowledgement that they are with someone else. And the idea of marriage in a game is romantic for some.

Vlaxitov.5693:

Are you imagination challenged? Can you not make up your own stories in your mind with video games? I think MMO"RPG" makers are already currently destroying the “RPG” by heavily scripting our games with stories much worse or cheesier than we could make up for ourselves.

RPG used to mean I got to make up my own story. It seems now a days its starting to take bioware’s definition as a cheesy animated comic book disguised as a video game.

Technically, you are taking the role of the hero of the story, in a game, so you are still playing a roleplaying game.

holska.4127:

Ameepa.6793:

Well, nothing is preventing you doing that already It’s all about your ability to RP

For those that aren’t able to RP very well without having the theme / setting and such available it could be a nice adition.
I like the ceremonies they implemented in Rift even though I don’t care for it myself I can see how it could make some players happy if they met eachother in game and aren’t dedicated RP’ers.
Currently I would consider it a waste of resources though if it would take away from the resources to develop other content like player/guild housing, new events, new spvp modes and I could go on for a few pages with features / content I consider more important or a more nice adition for a larger group of players than marriage.

^ Pretty much this. I already said how I felt about it but if people then expect all this stuff to be added along with it like bank sharing, etc. then no, sorry. Rather have real content and bug fixes then that. SWG had in-game marriages and it was just in their profile as saying “Married to…” along with you gave each other a ring if I remember correctly. Something like that is all that should be done. If you want more and having in-game marriage is so important then go play the Sims online.

Licht.5168:

How would an in-game marriage be detailed and/or sexual? At most it would allow RPers the ability to have some in-game acknowledgement that they are with someone else. And the idea of marriage in a game is romantic for some..

You said nothing here that even remotely changes or challenges what I’ve already said. What you are saying is that people need to force others to acknowledge their fantasy and that for some reason is romantic.

Licht.5168:

Technically, you are taking the role of the hero of the story, in a game, so you are still playing a roleplaying game.

Technically, MMORPG makers are starting to assume control of soo much detail in the story of their games that its effectively removing any “RPG” there is to be had from them. You aren’t roleplaying anymore at that point, you’re playing through a game that makes no room for your own story. I don’t know why this is soo hard to understand.

i play games to do things i cant do in real life. shoot guns, swing swords, save the world from or conqour it with dragons/aliens/really kitten big laser beams. stuff like that. I never played “the sims” because it seemed silly to have a game where the point is to do mundane things I can do in real life.

edit – please don’t tell my real life wife i just called marriage a “mundane thing”

1. No.

2. This is in the wrong section, suggestions please.

What exactly would you add? Wedding outfits? Other than that… I don’t know that ArenaNet needs to do anything, really. As others have said, this is within the realm of RP and the players participating would be dictating who is getting married, etc.

Marriage is between a man, and a woman.

Not a Charr female and male. Not a Sylvari female and female. And definitely not an asuran male or female.

I would be okay if they implemented it only for Humans.

Vlaxitov.5693:

What you are saying is that people need to force others to acknowledge their fantasy and that for some reason is romantic.

So, if they made an option in-game that was “Disable all effects related to in-game marriage”, you’d be completely fine with the idea, because you’d have control over not seeing the content that other players could want?

Vlaxitov.5693:

Technically, MMORPG makers are starting to assume control of soo much detail in the story of their games that its effectively removing any “RPG” there is to be had from them. You aren’t roleplaying anymore at that point, you’re playing through a game that makes no room for your own story. I don’t know why this is soo hard to understand.

You are still assuming the role of the hero by controlling their actions, thus you are still roleplaying. RP Video games are interactive visual novels at most; you are presented with a set number of options, but you are still being pressed along through the story by the game itself. Also, developer for such video games want the player to still experience their vision of the story, even if the player tries to evade every opportunity to do so. And with every novel, the story comes to an end when the writer wants it to; Guild Wars 2 current storyline ends with the defeat of Zhaitan. Every player gets to experience, though the path that they took to get there is different, based on the choices they make during the story, as well as those during the character creation process.

And to remain on topic, yes, I am for the idea of in-game marriage. The most I would expect from it would be the ability to teleport to the one you are married to, provided you are at the same level or higher than them; also, a title wouldn’t be bad, seeing as they only display when you are tar getting the player.