Guild Wars 2

Given a-nets rainbowy post on social media 2 days ago….i can see where this is going.

OP, I know where you’re coming from. Books, games and tv are filled to the brim with examples of kid adventurers/heroes and a lot of us grew up with them. There’s a certain nostalgic charm to playing as a kid character – and they’re adorable! I’m not sure they would make much sense in GW2 when you take the main story into consideration though – a child as the second in command in the Pact?
The closest you can get to it is probably by asking for a tonic.

xarallei.4279:

Natto.5819:

It seems like it’s doable, since in Tera you can make child characters. The difference is, they have long animal-like ears. In the Korean version, they can even wear skimpy armor. So it’s not like it’s not allowed.

I could make one with an Asura, but they are ugly.

That Tera race is bloody creepy. And the skimpy outfits on them even more so. I would hope to god Anet never creates something like that in this game.

you do know they censored elins on the western client, right?

to answer the OP, I highly doubt it would ever happen since the asura pretty much cover the “short, dwarf/gnome-like race” and “cute child race” category of MMOs in one.

Yes, that doesn’t change the fact that they are creepy.

GuzziHero.5104:

I just thought also… what kind of pact would allow a child Commander? Or let them near the battlefront at all?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game

Though that was a very different world setup and a far more desperate “pact.”

I agree with those saying the cons far outweigh the pros on this point for GW2. I can see the RP uses of having kids to fill out family groups. I can even, if I stretch, see the charm of playing a kid in order to fill out some nostalgic misty memory of how nice it was to be so carefree. Though personally I hated the powerlessness and uncertainty (I had a great childhood, btw, very secure and well cared for. But my social life sucked thanks to my being an SF reading D&D playing bookworm). Growing up and taking charge of my own life was too wonderful to want to go back to such a dependent status.

But I can also see just how terrible it would be to let most people stick kids into the situations we get in game, and how implausible a child protagonist would be in the story as presented. ANet can’t facilitate that on purpose.

I actually like Tera, and wish Guild Wars 2’s combat was more like it, but the amount of horrific pedophile chat that goes on in that game as a result of the Elin race is disgusting, and has to be experienced for you to understand how bad it can get. So I say no, a thousand times no, no children characters. Between the perverts, and the trolls pretending to be perverts just to gross people out, it’s not ever going to have enough positives to counter all the negatives.

Yea, I have to disagree with the OP. I chose a couple games that allowed this sort of thing and once I experienced the chat, I immediately uninstalled.
It’s not a good idea and hope that Anet never allows it!

Natto.5819:

Anet should ban all the bad people, so we can play games like normal.

I am more confused as to why you want to play as a child tbh… kinda creepy request in some ways, but as others have said – shouldn’t be on the agenda EVER!

I wish ANET would just close all the topics related to sexual orientations, gender, children, dressup/makeup etc etc.. its getting to be more about these things than actually about the game itself imo…. And would likely stave off a few of the flame wars and hot potato talk that some feel a game is the place to air their preferences and differences around these subjects.. see ANET this is what happens when you try to be all super inclusive.

Just make short people with young faces. That’s how I made my RP character, “Link” from the Zelda series. Just don’t get creepy about it and you’ll be fine.

you know, this thread worries me about the OP more than anything else, the fact that he his oblivious to one of the most basic rule of most society (preserving the innocence and sanctity of childs), a rule even respected by criminals but the most deranged ones. (seriously, look up some studies, incarcerated pedophiles need extra protection to not get shanked on day 1).
That worries me more than anything else

Natto.5819:

In the Never Ending Story, the hero was a child. And the empress was a child. There’s nothing wrong with fantasy characters being young heros.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_

It’s a huge problem when people can see them die and role play.

However I wish I could Make my character look older.

imsoenthused.1634:

I actually like Tera, and wish Guild Wars 2’s combat was more like it, but the amount of horrific pedophile chat that goes on in that game as a result of the Elin race is disgusting, and has to be experienced for you to understand how bad it can get. So I say no, a thousand times no, no children characters. Between the perverts, and the trolls pretending to be perverts just to gross people out, it’s not ever going to have enough positives to counter all the negatives.

^ This 1000000x’s over, OMG the Tera chat….

Oh heck no, that would be just horrible in every possible way.

maha.7902:

you do know they censored elins on the western client, right?

The changes made were extremely slight and did nothing to desexualize the race.

Azure.8670:

Natto.5819:

In the Never Ending Story, the hero was a child. And the empress was a child. There’s nothing wrong with fantasy characters being young heros.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_

It’s a huge problem when people can see them die and role play.

However I wish I could Make my character look older.

Yes i rather given the option to create old characters that looks like and sounds like one. A lot of game let us tune the voice younger or older. This may allow younger and older characters creation without a need to modify character creation screen.

imsoenthused.1634:

I actually like Tera, and wish Guild Wars 2’s combat was more like it, but the amount of horrific pedophile chat that goes on in that game as a result of the Elin race is disgusting, and has to be experienced for you to understand how bad it can get. So I say no, a thousand times no, no children characters. Between the perverts, and the trolls pretending to be perverts just to gross people out, it’s not ever going to have enough positives to counter all the negatives.

Gonna repeat my post because you Western people is really kinda double standard and knows really little about what leads to crime.

“People are complaining about the “ethical issue” of the game, but guess what, the US and some European countries have much higher adolescence crime rates/prostitution than Korean and Japanese! This speaks volumes about some “western standard” being misleading propaganda and shows an essence of arrogance and ignorance.”

Clearly it’s not those chit-chat of your so called “disgusting comments” that lead to crime. In fact maybe it is those video games that “prevents” crime at the first place because it satisfies some people’s needs virtually. People who swing that way don’t need a video game to turn them into what they are. They use video game to do that because they swing that way before that and wish to satisfy what they want by just playing virtual games that hurts no-one.

Toxsa.2701:

imsoenthused.1634:

I actually like Tera, and wish Guild Wars 2’s combat was more like it, but the amount of horrific pedophile chat that goes on in that game as a result of the Elin race is disgusting, and has to be experienced for you to understand how bad it can get. So I say no, a thousand times no, no children characters. Between the perverts, and the trolls pretending to be perverts just to gross people out, it’s not ever going to have enough positives to counter all the negatives.

Gonna repeat my post because you Western people is really kinda double standard and knows really little about what leads to crime.

“People are complaining about the “ethical issue” of the game, but guess what, the US and some European countries have much higher adolescence crime rates/prostitution than Korean and Japanese! This speaks volumes about some “western standard” being misleading propaganda and shows an essence of arrogance and ignorance.”

Clearly it’s not those chit-chat of your so called “disgusting comments” that lead to crime. In fact maybe it is those video games that “prevents” crime at the first place because it satisfies some people’s needs virtually. People who swing that way don’t need a video game to turn them into what they are. They use video game to do that because they swing that way before that and wish to satisfy what they want by just playing virtual games that hurts no-one.

Regardless of whatever implications this idea would have, there is something fundamentally wrong with the mental image of huge T1 children zergs clashing in ebg i got when i read the OP. Imo this should never be done and is a VERY bad idea.

Teratus.2859:

Just make a really small character with a young looking face.. and pretend you are a young character..

Actually, that is what people do in second life (although now the fashion is using customized meshes). Because of someone doing a mistranslation of feet to meters the average adult is like 8 feet tall. Combine this with a lot of avatar customization options all set to at/near 0, Then add different skins and hairstyles so they do not all look alike.

Toxsa.2701:

imsoenthused.1634:

snip.

Gonna repeat my post because you Western people is really kinda double standard and knows really little about what leads to crime.

“People are complaining about the “ethical issue” of the game, but guess what, the US and some European countries have much higher adolescence crime rates/prostitution than Korean and Japanese! This speaks volumes about some “western standard” being misleading propaganda and shows an essence of arrogance and ignorance.”

Clearly it’s not those chit-chat of your so called “disgusting comments” that lead to crime. In fact maybe it is those video games that “prevents” crime at the first place because it satisfies some people’s needs virtually. People who swing that way don’t need a video game to turn them into what they are. They use video game to do that because they swing that way before that and wish to satisfy what they want by just playing virtual games that hurts no-one.

I absolutely agree that you can’t make a sane person insane through a video game (there was a media topic a while ago regarding GTA, and how some believed it to be breeding more violent criminals). I also agree that a healthy person wouldn’t be turned into a sex offender through a video game- if they were already that way inclined, than eventually something would “trigger” them.

I can understand that the virtual world could satisfy the needs of a criminal, but I’m sure that the satisfaction wouldn’t last long. It would only be a matter of time until they feel the need to move onto something that gives them that “high” again. But anyway, why should A-net make child characters to fulfil the needs of criminals?

If making child characters was allowed, I’m sure sexualising them in terms of aesthetic and through text would happen. This doesn’t “hurt no-one”. It upsets people- especially those who have been affected by it in real life. It hurts the community: trolls have another tool in their belt and one that would take it a step too far for many. It makes Arena-Net look bad if such abuse is a common sight to see and would also result in more strain for their Customer Support/Moderation staff.

Crossaber.8934:

Azure.8670:

Natto.5819:

In the Never Ending Story, the hero was a child. And the empress was a child. There’s nothing wrong with fantasy characters being young heros.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_

It’s a huge problem when people can see them die and role play.

However I wish I could Make my character look older.

Yes i rather given the option to create old characters that looks like and sounds like one. A lot of game let us tune the voice younger or older. This may allow younger and older characters creation without a need to modify character creation screen.

The difference is, most games that have multiple voices only have various yells, grunts and spell casts voiced. GW2 has hundreds, maybe thousands of voiced dialogue lines for player characters making multiple VA’s for each race and gender incredibly expensive.

Toxsa.2701:

imsoenthused.1634:

I actually like Tera, and wish Guild Wars 2’s combat was more like it, but the amount of horrific pedophile chat that goes on in that game as a result of the Elin race is disgusting, and has to be experienced for you to understand how bad it can get. So I say no, a thousand times no, no children characters. Between the perverts, and the trolls pretending to be perverts just to gross people out, it’s not ever going to have enough positives to counter all the negatives.

Gonna repeat my post because you Western people is really kinda double standard and knows really little about what leads to crime.

“People are complaining about the “ethical issue” of the game, but guess what, the US and some European countries have much higher adolescence crime rates/prostitution than Korean and Japanese! This speaks volumes about some “western standard” being misleading propaganda and shows an essence of arrogance and ignorance.”

Clearly it’s not those chit-chat of your so called “disgusting comments” that lead to crime. In fact maybe it is those video games that “prevents” crime at the first place because it satisfies some people’s needs virtually. People who swing that way don’t need a video game to turn them into what they are. They use video game to do that because they swing that way before that and wish to satisfy what they want by just playing virtual games that hurts no-one.

This I’d an extremely foolish comment in so many ways I actually don’t think you even notice it. Can we please lock this thread

Toxsa.2701:

imsoenthused.1634:

I actually like Tera, and wish Guild Wars 2’s combat was more like it, but the amount of horrific pedophile chat that goes on in that game as a result of the Elin race is disgusting, and has to be experienced for you to understand how bad it can get. So I say no, a thousand times no, no children characters. Between the perverts, and the trolls pretending to be perverts just to gross people out, it’s not ever going to have enough positives to counter all the negatives.

Gonna repeat my post because you Western people is really kinda double standard and knows really little about what leads to crime.

“People are complaining about the “ethical issue” of the game, but guess what, the US and some European countries have much higher adolescence crime rates/prostitution than Korean and Japanese! This speaks volumes about some “western standard” being misleading propaganda and shows an essence of arrogance and ignorance.”

Clearly it’s not those chit-chat of your so called “disgusting comments” that lead to crime. In fact maybe it is those video games that “prevents” crime at the first place because it satisfies some people’s needs virtually. People who swing that way don’t need a video game to turn them into what they are. They use video game to do that because they swing that way before that and wish to satisfy what they want by just playing virtual games that hurts no-one.

a) what has youth crime to do with crime commited by adults against children?
b) east asian countries have a way harsher judical system than eg. european countries (which I think is a VERY good thing). Here young people can gangkill on the streets and get away with probation repeatedly, adults up to their mid-twenties are tried under juvenile law if the judge thinks that´s appropriate – meaning most of the time. That is the reason for a riptide of juvenile criminality
c) the “satisfy their urges in game” is just one of contradicting psychological theories. There are also established schools which think simulated crime may actually habituate the real thing (of cause only when you have a predisposition, no mentally healthy person will develop a disorder just because of a game). Not saying that is actually the case, just saying professional opinion on this matter is divided.

I’m just amazed no one has mentioned the primary reason ANet will never add playable children. It has nothing to do with the proclivities of perverts, various laws, keeping the innocence of children, or realism.

The #1 reason this will never happen is the benefit/cost.

To add playable children, would require them to double the number of playable model types. They have to give us a male and female version of all 5 races. Now you might be naively thinking that “But there’s already children models for most of the races already in the game!”. But that doesn’t matter. They don’t just have to give us one model of each, they have to give us the whole gambit of feature and hair customizations. They’d have to go through and get voice actors to voice 10 different voices for every personal story step and then be stuck with that many additional for all voiced story going forward. They’d have to make fitted versions of all armor sets for the 10 different new models (and all armor sets going forward).

Basically, they’d have to put in hundreds of man-hours just to retro-fit the existing game, with hundreds more hours for new content all because a tiny fraction of the playerbase wants to play as a kid. For the kind of work it would take them to do this, you’d have to be able to show them hundreds of thousands of people who are currently not playing the game that definitely would if only you could play as a kid (or hundreds of thousands of current players who are definitely going to quit the game if this isn’t added).

Considering this thread is the very first I’ve seen of its kind, and besides the OP, pretty much all the responses have been “No.”, I’m guessing the player base, whose deciding factor of whether they’ll buy the game or keep playing is this feature, is extremely small. I’d wager less than 100.

ANet just won’t put in the time and money necessary to cater to such a small population regardless of the other issues mentioned by others.

The changes made were extremely slight and did nothing to desexualize the race.

because having a character displaying their underwear versus not is “extremely slight”.

hell I’m pretty sure you’re even able to modify the thunder thighs which they had on release, so there’s pretty much nothing sexual about them anymore besides what you’re trying to make yourself see.

GragorR.9768:

Regardless of whatever implications this idea would have, there is something fundamentally wrong with the mental image of huge T1 children zergs clashing in ebg i got when i read the OP. Imo this should never be done and is a VERY bad idea.

Lord of the Files!