Guild Wars 2

Who do you find to be the most boring race as far as lore and personal story go?

While the lore is pretty good, I find the design of the Norn severely disappointing and lacking in any imagination. Especially when you consider that the Charr and Asura are pretty unique races, the Norn lack any kind of uniqueness. They are quite literally just larger humans. It could’ve been fine if they had a shared ancestor, but anet insisted on making sure they’re two completely unrelated races. How can Norn and Humans look 99.999% EXACTLY alike while not being related in ANY WAY.
I think they should’ve had some unique traits, you know. I think it would’ve been cool if the Norn looked like a splice between Jotun and the current Norn. At least then you could tell they’re not humans with a growth-hormone abuse

Yeah, Norn are just stereotypical vikings. Humans have their gods and royal politics, Charr have legions and warbands, Sylvari have the pale tree and wild hunts, Asura have golems and sci-fi wackiness, the Norn are just kinda there.

Even though the racial storylines were completely pointless in the long run, the norn was already pointless from start. One of the missions have you make some “tough” and “moral” decisions regarding an item. You get to defend that item, but shortly after obtaining it random enemies pop inside Hoelbrak and destroy it fearlessly.

Also add to the fact that the snowy maps were a bore, the voice-acting mediocre and all of that. They did try to explore the Spirits of the Wild and visions stuff, but it was pretty weak.

The human storyline is as cliché as it gets, but I find it much more enjoyable than a Norn’s. At least the sylvari and asura’s ones tried to explore a bit more of their culture.

Also Hoelbrak is pretty forgetabble. I get it that it’s supposed to be a big city for big people, but there’s still a lack of wandering NPCs and everything is just too large and empty. Makes it even worse during the refugee crisis during LW1…

logan.5846:

Yeah, Norn are just stereotypical vikings. Humans have their gods and royal politics, Charr have legions and warbands, Sylvari have the pale tree and wild hunts, Asura have golems and sci-fi wackiness, the Norn are just kinda there.

Just because it’s basedo n something many of us is familair with it doesn’t mean it’s technically a bad thing on its own. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was based on the whole norse mithylogy and it came out pretty good. There’s many examples like this. It’s just bad and rushed storytelling. The norn were better in Guild Wars 1 even.

Definitely the norn for me. The charr, the sylvari, the asura, and even the humans all had fairly interesting storylines. There is so much the devs could do with them and yet their lore is stagnant. All of the norn seem to epitomize loud, boorish, drunkards who can’t put down their tankards unless the risen/mordrem/whatever enemy-of-the-week are already knocking down their front door and inside their house.

Forgal was probably the best written of them, but even then he was fairly stereotypical of the tall, powerful warrior troupes, which seem to be every norn we ever see.

Dredge. They just keeping boring holes in the earth.

The Charr is the most boring race ever, specially their lore.
"omg humans we take bak Ascalon sinxe its ours!!! Now we rebuild a stupid capital above this crap and keep killing mad ascalonians ghosts 24/7!!
Meh...
I wished Charr would not been allied with humans, since I wanted to slay and slaughter even more furry Charrs than ever!

#Seperatists

Humans are the most boring. Their starter zone puts me to sleep. Their racial skills put me to sleep. Their player chatter is more boring than a centaur.

I think it’s a tie between humans and the grawl for me.

Human individuals, culture and stories are:
Predictable.
Cliché.
Ubiquitous.
Monotonous.
Puerile.

We are literally drowned in boring human stuff all day. I mean in the game.

Amaimon.7823:

While the lore is pretty good, I find the design of the Norn severely disappointing and lacking in any imagination. Especially when you consider that the Charr and Asura are pretty unique races, the Norn lack any kind of uniqueness. They are quite literally just larger humans. It could’ve been fine if they had a shared ancestor, but anet insisted on making sure they’re two completely unrelated races. How can Norn and Humans look 99.999% EXACTLY alike while not being related in ANY WAY.
I think they should’ve had some unique traits, you know. I think it would’ve been cool if the Norn looked like a splice between Jotun and the current Norn. At least then you could tell they’re not humans with a growth-hormone abuse

I completely agree. I feel like the koda are what norns should have been.
I don’t even like the lore, they are literally just nomadic humans with an animist religion. Worst of all, their very existence means that human characters can’t have any tattoos, because it’s the sole defining characteristic of norn.
The hilarious part of the whole thing is, they had around three whole years between the end of GW1 and the start of GW2 to realize how terrible this was.
They could’ve easily just said that at some point in time between the two games they adapted to be in bear form all the time, and that’s just what they look like now.
They even set the precedent for it with Svanir. They could have just said that Jormag cursed them or something.

Norn. They were given some cultural trappings to make them more than just bigger humans, but then that is consistently ignored and they are characterized as big humans. Braham’s current sulky whining is a perfect example. It would be fine if it was coming from a human, but Anet gave us lore on how the Norn deal with grief and remembering those they lost and Braham is not it. Why they insist on Norn not being related to humans in ancestry, but then ignore all the things they did to differentiate them from humans is beyond me.

in short, Norn is everything but what it COULD’VE been.
I mean..
Let’s take a norn.

Let’s give him.. grey-green skin. With markings.
muscularity is fine.
flat wide nose.
How about horns, a bit like a stag’s.
And then.. do hooves make sense? mountain climbing goats like them.
I don’t think they should have a tail so I leave that out.

And then, as a sense to being one with the wild, they have unique features, they can have bast or plants growing on their body, a layer of stone attached to them.
They could have animal traits, to symbolize their druidism.

yea, I think that’s how I would’ve gone about creating a nordic race with shamanic/druidic traits

NOTE: I deleted the picture, but it’s still showing.. forum bug.. disregard it..

I agree with the norn faction. Humans aren’t very exciting either, but that’s at least predictable. Norn could have been much more than they are.

A: Norn

And that’s a shame, because they could have been interesting. Shamanic roots, deeds of legend.
But instead, they’re dull, coarse, and mostly drunk. Like really tall dwarves from other games.
Even having Raven and Snow Leopard as allied spirits, you find most Norn as represented in GW2 are dullards instead of wise and cunning.

At least with humans, I can get the what-the-huh story of “my biggest regret is not joining the circus”. Or find out that my parents were superspies for some old GW1 faction.

The Norn one always felt the most “boring” when I’d play their personal stories. There are boring sections of each race’s story, but the Norn just really seemed to drag, unfortunately.

Alga.6498:

The Charr is the most boring race ever, specially their lore.
“[i]omg humans we take bak Ascalon sinxe its ours!!! Now we rebuild a stupid capital above this crap and keep killing mad ascalonians ghosts 24/7!![/i]

This.

My sword fights for jenna, but my heart beats for the separatists.

Grimwolf.7163:

Amaimon.7823:

While the lore is pretty good, I find the design of the Norn severely disappointing and lacking in any imagination. Especially when you consider that the Charr and Asura are pretty unique races, the Norn lack any kind of uniqueness. They are quite literally just larger humans. It could’ve been fine if they had a shared ancestor, but anet insisted on making sure they’re two completely unrelated races. How can Norn and Humans look 99.999% EXACTLY alike while not being related in ANY WAY.
I think they should’ve had some unique traits, you know. I think it would’ve been cool if the Norn looked like a splice between Jotun and the current Norn. At least then you could tell they’re not humans with a growth-hormone abuse

I completely agree. I feel like the koda are what norns should have been.
I don’t even like the lore, they are literally just nomadic humans with an animist religion. Worst of all, their very existence means that human characters can’t have any tattoos, because it’s the sole defining characteristic of norn.
The hilarious part of the whole thing is, they had around three whole years between the end of GW1 and the start of GW2 to realize how terrible this was.
They could’ve easily just said that at some point in time between the two games they adapted to be in bear form all the time, and that’s just what they look like now.
They even set the precedent for it with Svanir. They could have just said that Jormag cursed them or something.

To be brutally honest I already dislike half of the races in this game. Turning Norn into Bear Charr would certainly shoehorn me into humans and humans only. Which is something this game already suffers from. HUMAN FEMALES EVERYWHERE!

The race selection in general is certainly not the strongest aspect of this game.

Aryan Arlande.6184:

Alga.6498:

The Charr is the most boring race ever, specially their lore.
“[i]omg humans we take bak Ascalon sinxe its ours!!! Now we rebuild a stupid capital above this crap and keep killing mad ascalonians ghosts 24/7!![/i]

This.

My sword fights for jenna, but my heart beats for the separatists.

Pfft. Humans groveled at the feet of bored gods until even the gods yawned themselves into abandonment. Now they can’t even fight off a few centaurs.

Charr blew up gods and built cities on the echoes of human weakness. Guess that’s what they get for having a culture that coddles children into getting kidnapped by circus freaks instead of learning to fight and build awesome war machines.
Bwahahaha! ]}:3

Jnaathra.6549:

Grimwolf.7163:

Amaimon.7823:

While the lore is pretty good, I find the design of the Norn severely disappointing and lacking in any imagination. Especially when you consider that the Charr and Asura are pretty unique races, the Norn lack any kind of uniqueness. They are quite literally just larger humans. It could’ve been fine if they had a shared ancestor, but anet insisted on making sure they’re two completely unrelated races. How can Norn and Humans look 99.999% EXACTLY alike while not being related in ANY WAY.
I think they should’ve had some unique traits, you know. I think it would’ve been cool if the Norn looked like a splice between Jotun and the current Norn. At least then you could tell they’re not humans with a growth-hormone abuse

I completely agree. I feel like the koda are what norns should have been.
I don’t even like the lore, they are literally just nomadic humans with an animist religion. Worst of all, their very existence means that human characters can’t have any tattoos, because it’s the sole defining characteristic of norn.
The hilarious part of the whole thing is, they had around three whole years between the end of GW1 and the start of GW2 to realize how terrible this was.
They could’ve easily just said that at some point in time between the two games they adapted to be in bear form all the time, and that’s just what they look like now.
They even set the precedent for it with Svanir. They could have just said that Jormag cursed them or something.

To be brutally honest I already dislike half of the races in this game. Turning Norn into Bear Charr would certainly shoehorn me into humans and humans only. Which is something this game already suffers from. HUMAN FEMALES EVERYWHERE!

The race selection in general is certainly not the strongest aspect of this game.

You mean like how Tengu are just bird Charr, Hylek are just frog Charr, and Centaurs are just horse Charr?

Everything about the Sylvari just turn me off. Would have improved the game for me if they would have been left out.

Human. I find their story missions uninteresting. I know Human commoner is the fastest for weekly key farm but I hate it so much, I just use Sylvari as my key farm character. Also, Humans lack character customization options and their maps are boring.

Charr are thousands of times more interesting and entertaining than Kodan.

Norn.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the ideas and lore behind them. It’s just that ANet doesn’t USE it!

I’m beginning to think that the people that made the norn lore are gone, and everyone else at ANet just doesn’t understand it, or is afraid of offending someone with it.

Lore-wise, sylvari should be the most boring race. They only have about 30 years of history to draw on, a single human generation to create their own customs and culture. And yet, being such a blank slate has allowed ANet to use them for all sorts of things. Compare how often you see a sylvari NPC poking around and trying to discover things about the world, versus how often you see a norn talking about their culture and religion. (And no, big and drunk is NOT their culture.)

Humans. I can’t even argue with their lore since I don’t have a single human character. Being human in real life and having plenty of humans around me, I just don’t see the point playing one in a fantasy game. I really wonder why they are so popular with players.^^

I’ve always found sylvari more bland than the other races. Simply because they’re close to being elves, but not. You can’t tie them with Ents even though they’re ‘tree-based’ or dendroids (Dungeon & Dragons) tree units.

Something about having a similarly humanoid form just puts me off to them. Perhaps if they had a less symmetrical physical form, it might make it more interesting for me.

I like some of the faces and colors, but that’s about it.

I’ll have to admit right here that even though I have a few of them in my account, norns are kinda strange to me. It just feels off. I do get the idea that they feel a connection to the wild spirits and the Mists, but that’s basically all it is. It’s more or less “prove your worth” personal-story wise.

The character I find that is in the middle of it all are the sylvari, esp. since the bad-rep Heart of Thorns (“Can’t trust these sylvari”) but I’kitten the Charr are the ones with some firm standing. I kinda put the humans alongside sylvari as the “trustworthy not trustworthy” bunch, but you have some structure with the Charr..

That’s not the point of the topic, though.

I just feel the Norn are kinda empty lore-wise, but maybe I’m not making full sense of it. Doesn’t stop me from running a few.

As far as PS goes, in order from best to worst: Asura, Human, Sylvari, Charr, Norn.

Lorewise, only human and Sylvari lore is followed up on in a big way after the early PS, and to some extent Asura just through Taimi’s dealings with Phlunt. Charr lore is interesting, but not well explored. Norn lore is mostly ignored, and mostly forgettable anyway.

Norn have the most unfulfilled potential.

Personal order from most interesting race to most boring:

Asura > Humans > Sylvari > Norn > Charr

inb4 people tell me my opinion is wrong despite it being an opinion

Humans because who wants to play a human when you play one in real life? Then I am going to say asura, yes they have good lore but cmon they are stereotypical gnomes in the dnd world, arrogant geniuses and etc.

My main problem honestly comes from races and their importance to the story/meta-story.

Because lately, the pecking order of importance are asura > sylvari > human > the rest. Hell, I’d argue human race is only up there because of established GW1 lore. Seriously, unless you’re an asura or sylvari you’re pretty much unimportant to the story, and this really sucks.

Basically my argument is – how can they make something interesting if they keep on insisting this one true race to be either a) super special snowflake or b) technobabble galore where we can pull kitten out of our kitten

I agree on the Norn.

While the lore is pretty good, I find the design of the Norn severely disappointing and lacking in any imagination. Especially when you consider that the Charr and Asura are pretty unique races, the Norn lack any kind of uniqueness. They are quite literally just larger humans.

Culturally, I have to disagree. While humans in Tyria are similar to older cultures in mid and southern Europe (Ascalon, Kryta), eastern Asia (Cantha), and northern Africa (Elona), Norn are supposed to have a northern European culture (Skandinavia and Germany, as in Vikings, Celts and Teutons etc.).

Anet did a great job with the environment (architecture), even the culture (animism as their religious foundation etc.). But when it comes to developing content for the Norn, it was all reduced to NPCs talking about drinking and hunting, and the personal story was reduced to that as well.

There was so much stereotypism in all of it that it made me roll my eyes on several occasions (e.g., making Norn say stuff like “Ja!” at the end of each sentence is ridiculous, because neither Skandinavians nor Germans talk that way).

As for their looks:

Yeah, Norn are just stereotypical vikings.

I wish they were!

While female Norn have beautiful bodies (much better designed than those of female humans), their males look like mud chunks (with ridiculously large hands and feet). They should have toned down the males and toughened up the females, then we could talk Vikings.

The way it is now, many players abuse Norn PC females as “taller humans with tattoos”.

For those saying nords are typical vikings, lol hardly they are more shamanic naturally then vikings.

Kir Sakar.3647:

Humans. I can’t even argue with their lore since I don’t have a single human character. Being human in real life and having plenty of humans around me, I just don’t see the point playing one in a fantasy game. I really wonder why they are so popular with players.^^

For many people, playing as some dragon-fighting wizard is fantasy enough, without needing the character to also be all fangs and fur with 4 arms and 6 eyes.
Traditionally, the setting is the most important element of fantasy. The more alien the characters are, the more difficult it is to empathize with them.

Most boring: Human.

But most of my characters are human because I’m interested in human fashion, not charr fashion, or asura fashion. Couple of norns, but they’re still a humanoid race.

Most likely never to get past the starter zones: Sylvari

Most likely to get annoyed at the arrogance of: Asura

Most likely to disagree with the brutal mindset of: Charr

Most likely to forget what their story is: Norn

Best Dressed: Queen Jenna

Most Overrated: The Pale Tree

Most Likely to Narrate a Series of Bestselling Sylvari Children’s Books: Trahearne

Most Likely to be Used in Alzheimer’s Research: Skritt

Most Likely to Get to the Bottom of Things: Dredge

Grimwolf.7163:

The more alien the characters are, the more difficult it is to empathize with them.

Depends on the player. I always go for the weird looking / alien races in MMOs. Probably because I’ve always been “the weird kid” so I like weird things. :P As an introvert, I’m not fond of the human race in real life either… Haha.

there’s a difference in order between GW1 and GW2, namely:

GW1: Humans > Asura > Charr > Norn
GW2: Asura > Humans > Sylvari > Charr > Norn
in gw2, the asura became more engaging, while the humans religion became blander.
In retrospect, a lot of the charr was lost as well, but the norn were the most watered down race of all, there’s actually nothing left about them anymore.
They’re just normal humans with a druidic banckground now

I also have to go with Norn.

They should have been secondary tribe of humans who were slightly larger and taller than usual.

To me, from best to worst: sylvari > charr > asura=norn > human

I don’t know, lore wise, and as a roleplayer, I just like the feel of norn and their shapeshifting shamanic roots more than humans. I am a human. I am around humans. I like their aesthetic kind of, but to me they are the most boring.

Curunen.8729:

I also have to go with Norn.

They should have been secondary tribe of humans who were slightly larger and taller than usual.

Good news; if you ignore their meager lore, that’s exactly what they are.

I dispise the combat voice lines of Asuras.
“Guess who’s back! It’s me, by the way.” …I don’t give a … that you are back.
“Why won’t anyone help me?” Because I want to see you dead.
“Geological forces, at my command!” Geology is not a real science.

They are simply small narcissistic gnomes. Also they are ugly.

Grimwolf.7163:

Curunen.8729:

I also have to go with Norn.

They should have been secondary tribe of humans who were slightly larger and taller than usual.

Good news; if you ignore their meager lore, that’s exactly what they are.

Yeah I could definitely accept them like that if the game didn’t try to always make them out to be a unique race.

DirtyDan.4759:

Geology is not a real science.

Remember to stay in school folks!

Any race that looks so similair to another race that you can’t tell them apart by looking at their silhouettes.

Norn are just slightly bigger humans. Instead of norn we could have had tengu or skritt or quaggan.

I’d Have to say Norn. Funnily enough though they’re my favourite race. I guess i’m just reiterating what so many have said in here already, but the race is the EPITOME of wasted potential. It’s sad.

Want to make Norn more Unique? Start by making Norn women something more interesting than just really tall supermodels…

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

Any race that looks so similair to another race that you can’t tell them apart by looking at their silhouettes.

Norn are just slightly bigger humans. Instead of norn we could have had tengu or skritt or quaggan.

We do not use such foul language here, the quaggans are not, and will not ever be a socially acceptable race for any possible scenario.

I have to say the norn are the most boring to me. Their lore is great, and they were pretty good in GW1, but in GW2 they just seem like bigger humans to me.

bird.5920:

I don’t know, lore wise, and as a roleplayer, I just like the feel of norn and their shapeshifting shamanic roots more than humans.

The problem is that — like the Asura with their golems — the Norn’s shapeshifting ability (honestly, I had totally forgotten about that!) has been reduced to skills nobody uses, because they are not strong enough build-wise.

This is a huge shame. They could have made it so that Norn automatically shape-shift under certain conditions. That would have made them more interesting and reminded players of their supposedly unique background.

TheOrlyFactor.8341:

DirtyDan.4759:

Geology is not a real science.

Remember to stay in school folks!

Yeah, I choked on my tea when I read that.