Guild Wars 2

Ashantara.8731:

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.

Exactly, the calling of the spirits of the wilds is was defined the Norn. However, as soon as you’re finished with the second personal story chapter you will never hear from the spirits again as if they never existed.

Norn, hands down. The potential is there, it just isn’t capitalized upon enough.

Palador.2170:

And no, big and drunk is NOT their culture.)

I mean, I’m Swedish, and that pretty much sums up our culture.

Ariurotl.3718:

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.

No matter what religion or beliefs you have geology is still real atleast to an extent, science is flawed but its not that flawed wow, just wow I really hope that is a joke.

I’d gladly trade playable Norn for playable Dredge.

I’ll join the chorus and go with Norns, and then humans as booooorring.

Humans, for me, look too young and cookie cutter good looking to be interesteding. Bland.

With shapeshifting tossed aside, Norns are basically tall humans. I haven’t used the Norn shapeshifting skills since around launch. ANet could have made shapeshifting the Norn combat form. Go into battle and shapeshift into the form chosen at character creation but retain your skills.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

With shapeshifting tossed aside, Norns are basically tall humans. I haven’t used the Norn shapeshifting skills since around launch. ANet could have made shapeshifting the Norn combat form. Go into battle and shapeshift into the form chosen at character creation but retain your skills.

I’d make more Norn for this. I totally would.
It wouldn’t make their lore interesting or make them relevant to the plot (at least until Braham kills GEORmag and spreads icy magic all over the world), but I’d feel much better about playing them.

Ariurotl.3718:

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.

Excelsior.
He is clearly just the pure anti-Asura: 100% Bookah, and it took him only a few lines to prove that… :-)

Anyways:
GW2 has beautiful and, unlike one of the posters on the first page said, a very interesting set of races and cultures to choose from. Just check the competitors out there: It’s basically human only with a few changes, but still too human.

I just pull out one over-rated game, Final Fantasy 14:
The races are, as mentioned above, humans:

• Hyur = Humans
• Roegadyn = Tall Humans
• Mi’Quote = Humans with cat tail
• Elezen = Stretched, giraffe-like humans
• Lalafell = Small, pear-like humans
• Au’Ra = Humans with toy horns bought at Toys’R’Us for €2.99

It’s stupid and the Lalafell are the best by far. Guess what: NONE of those races have any real culture. It’s a 2-liner about their origins, and that’s it. There is no personal story either, you are a dumb and mindless contract worker doing fetch quests, none of the NPC take you for real, in the cutscenes random NPC come in and yell “WE did it” and you can not even talk apart from “Ah” and “ugh”. However, when a female Mi’Quote fires an arrow (which happens a lot as Bard), it’s “Ahh..Uh!!Ah! Uh!”.

Here we have two races that are very difficult and great design-wise:
The Charr and Sylvari.

The Charr, actual beast-cats (unlike the aforementioned Mi’Quote) that still retained a form of civilization. The subtle grunting and snarling when they talk is just a little but beautiful detail other gaming companies do not care for. I really like Charr.

Sylvari are cabbage people made from tree branches and leaves, I do not like them, but from an aesthetical viewpoint, they are very interesting.

Gaming companies nowadays play save. GW2 is like the last one where you can choose from really different races.

At the end of the day, it’s the Asura Master Race ruling this place, but until then, I love the diversity. The reason why I am here after all.

Re: “Geology is not a real science!”

Ariurotl.3718:

Ariurotl.3718:

Remember to stay in school folks!

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

Ryou.2398:

No matter what religion or beliefs you have geology is still real atleast to an extent, science is flawed but its not that flawed wow, just wow I really hope that is a joke.

Guys… That was supposed to be funny as it is a quote from “The Big Bang Theory.”

Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, Raj and Lesley play paintball against the other science departments. Sheldon runs into the open field to “sacrifice” himself for the team, shouting that line.
.
Here’s the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CBQv8Y3V4o
.
In various other episodes, he also denounced other sciences (apart from his beloved physics) as not being real sciences (primarily geology, but also biology, not to mention his arrogance towards those who study subjects such as literature).

Ashantara.8731:

Re: “Geology is not a real science!”

Ariurotl.3718:

Ariurotl.3718:

Remember to stay in school folks!

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

Ryou.2398:

No matter what religion or beliefs you have geology is still real atleast to an extent, science is flawed but its not that flawed wow, just wow I really hope that is a joke.

Guys… That was supposed to be funny as it is a quote from “The Big Bang Theory.”

I don’t find Big Bang Theory to be funny at all. I’m more of a It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia kind of guy.

TheOrlyFactor.8341:

I don’t find Big Bang Theory to be funny at all. I’m more of a It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia kind of guy.

I don’t care (and it wasn’t my joke), I only explained what the quote was all about as people didn’t get it and were taking it seriously.

P.S. One would assume pop culture references to be recognized, but the person cracking the joke obviously bet on the wrong horse.

Ashantara.8731:

TheOrlyFactor.8341:

I don’t find Big Bang Theory to be funny at all. I’m more of a It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia kind of guy.

I don’t care

You cared enough to reply to me, which means a lot to me. <3

mXz.4512:

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.

Heh, I always thought of them as the exact opposite of elves. Elves, since Tolkien, have been “old” and “wise” while Sylvari are young, innocent and inexperienced (at life, the universe and everything), which is what I liked about them (maybe also due to a vague resemblance to the elfs in Lyonesse with their pranking).

Of course, making them the exact opposite of Elves might be just as ofputting to some, though to me it makes them rather unique (although the Fae in EverQuest 2 are similar in being rather “newly awakened” iirc).

Though physically and due to their link to nature I could see why people might feel they’re kind of like elves and honestly the inexperience isn’t really played out much after the really early bits of the Personal Story aside from ambient dialogue when you hang around The Grove (and the odd NPC in Central Tyria). In a way it makes sense, I mean, Sylvari that end up fighting with the Pact and stuff are bound to lose a bunch of their innocence due to being slammed face first into the ugliness of reality…

Most other races I feel are rather, I dunno, cliche. If anything Asura resemble elves best mentality wise: arrogant, wise, smart and xenophobic.
Humans are, well, humans. Same old, same old. Charr resemble Orc cliches and Norn are drunk Vikings which crossbred with Celts or something, not to mention that the most prominent Norn don’t exactly embody the virtues you’d expect of Norn very well (thinking of Eir and Braham here). (note: Norn is the one personal story I haven’t played through yet)

Ashantara.8731:

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.

That would have been cool. The key problem with racial skills is that they make the choice of race significant — if the skills are any good. Since it is very rarely desirable that the choice is significant, we end up with them never used.

(It’s rarely desirable, because the min-maxing “meta or bust” crowd would complain bitterly if any racial is seen as better than any other, and they can’t race change to obtain that theoretical couple of thousand DPS over a ten minute fight.)

If you want lore, play Guild Wars 1.

GW2 lore is sparse and weak and refers to GW1 all the time, so players who didn’t play the first game don’t engage with what lore there is in the second game.

Lore wise, here is my opinion on the backgrounds (which is basically all Guild Wars 1 story, I think):
The story about humans being pushed back into one city is good.
The story about the sylvari treemother and the tablet guy is good.
The story about asura being forced to the surface world is good.
The story about charrs is forgetable. What was that about? They are disgraced because they are the race that prevents us having cool-looking equipment and clothes.

Svarty.8019:

If you want lore, play Guild Wars 1.

GW2 lore is sparse and weak and refers to GW1 all the time, so players who didn’t play the first game don’t engage with what lore there is in the second game.

Lore wise, here is my opinion on the backgrounds (which is basically all Guild Wars 1 story, I think):
The story about humans being pushed back into one city is good.
The story about the sylvari treemother and the tablet guy is good.
The story about asura being forced to the surface world is good.
The story about charrs is forgetable. What was that about? They are disgraced because they are the race that prevents us having cool-looking equipment and clothes.

And the Norn weren’t even worth mentioning ;-)

marelooke.9708:

Svarty.8019:

If you want lore, play Guild Wars 1.

GW2 lore is sparse and weak and refers to GW1 all the time, so players who didn’t play the first game don’t engage with what lore there is in the second game.

Lore wise, here is my opinion on the backgrounds (which is basically all Guild Wars 1 story, I think):
The story about humans being pushed back into one city is good.
The story about the sylvari treemother and the tablet guy is good.
The story about asura being forced to the surface world is good.
The story about charrs is forgetable. What was that about? They are disgraced because they are the race that prevents us having cool-looking equipment and clothes.

And the Norn weren’t even worth mentioning ;-)

Who?

Zedek.8932:

Anyways:
GW2 has beautiful and, unlike one of the posters on the first page said, a very interesting set of races and cultures to choose from. Just check the competitors out there: It’s basically human only with a few changes, but still too human.

I just pull out one over-rated game, Final Fantasy 14:
The races are, as mentioned above, humans:

• Hyur = Humans
• Roegadyn = Tall Humans
• Mi’Quote = Humans with cat tail
• Elezen = Stretched, giraffe-like humans
• Lalafell = Small, pear-like humans
• Au’Ra = Humans with toy horns bought at Toys’R’Us for €2.99

’

I actually disagree about one set of races in particular. Specifically Norn/Roegadyn. Roes to me are significantly less human looking than Norn. For both the men are huge meat cakes and not just straight up taller. There’s muscle mass, and “bulk”. Roe women also have bulk to some extent. They’re significantly more “toned” or “thick” than other ffxiv females. Norn women are just straight up tall super models.

The big change tho is in their faces. Roegadyn have distinctly non-human facial options, most prominently their noses. It gives them a slightly bestial/alien vibe imo. In addition they have a range of colour palettes of skin tones available to them that Hyurs (humans) don’t. You would have to try very hard to get your Roe to look exactly like a hunan. Norn in contrast might as well have been a simple sub race.

Amaimon.7823:

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.

Why not? They are more unique and less cliché than humans…

Ardid.7203:

Amaimon.7823:

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.

Why not? They are more unique and less cliché than humans…

so is a trashcan, doesn’t mean I want one anywhere in my personal story

norns have so much potential with the shapeshifting and stuff,
imagine if there was quests to do to discover which spirit animal you worship?
imagine if there was an awesome quest chain to unlock the ability to shapeshift?!
imagine if shapeshifting could be used like an everlasting tonic?

but nope, Anet have wasted the opportunity to make norns awesome.

Sylvaris are the most boring race. The devs’ attempts to make them special in vanilla and HoT at the expense of the 4 more interesting races just exasperates the issue. They made them immune to Zaithan’s influence and made one of them leader of the pact despite being awfully boring. Scarlet should have been an Asura but for some reason they forced her to be a Sylvari. Hearts of Thorns was all about Sylvaris. After what she did, I wish my character told Caithe to choke and die when she reappeared after Heart of Thorns. I just don’t like Sylvaris, I hope the next expansions put Sylvaris at the backseat for a little while and focus on the other races.

EDIT: Actually, Canach is fine. I like him. Mostly for his cynism. But he also doesn’t seem to care much about Sylvari problems.

Zedek.8932:

GW2 has beautiful and, unlike one of the posters on the first page said, a very interesting set of races and cultures to choose from. Just check the competitors out there: It’s basically human only with a few changes, but still too human.

I just pull out one over-rated game, Final Fantasy 14:
The races are, as mentioned above, humans:

• Hyur = Humans
• Roegadyn = Tall Humans
• Mi’Quote = Humans with cat tail
• Elezen = Stretched, giraffe-like humans
• Lalafell = Small, pear-like humans
• Au’Ra = Humans with toy horns bought at Toys’R’Us for €2.99

It’s stupid and the Lalafell are the best by far. Guess what: NONE of those races have any real culture. It’s a 2-liner about their origins, and that’s it. There is no personal story either, you are a dumb and mindless contract worker doing fetch quests, none of the NPC take you for real, in the cutscenes random NPC come in and yell “WE did it” and you can not even talk apart from “Ah” and “ugh”. However, when a female Mi’Quote fires an arrow (which happens a lot as Bard), it’s “Ahh..Uh!!Ah! Uh!”.

Here we have two races that are very difficult and great design-wise:
The Charr and Sylvari.

The Charr, actual beast-cats (unlike the aforementioned Mi’Quote) that still retained a form of civilization. The subtle grunting and snarling when they talk is just a little but beautiful detail other gaming companies do not care for. I really like Charr.

Sylvari are cabbage people made from tree branches and leaves, I do not like them, but from an aesthetical viewpoint, they are very interesting.

Perhaps, but FFXIV has 5 to 10x more armor sets than GW2, they’re more varied, they’re about the same quality, and they’re 99% obtainable in-game without cash shop. That’s thanks to having relatively similar body shapes on all races.

Given that “nobody” plays Charr and Asuras in GW2 anyway, I consider that having so many widely different races at the detriment of customization and cosmetics was a HUGE mistake on Arenanet’s part, and I wouldn’t be surprised to catch a few devs say that they regret it off the record. The game is supposed to reward with cosmetics, and armor sets are the most important customization option for most people, but the devs themselves say that it’s too hard for them to pump as many as in the first game due to having so many different races. That super varied set of races holds back the rewards system, which is a huge problem in a MMO. I’d go as far as to say that they should have gone with only humans like in GW1. I mean everyone plays humans, big humans (norn) or green humans (sylvari) so why put the effort?

Of course that doesn’t mean that I disagree with your point about GW2 having more varied races than most other MMOs, I’m just saying that the cost was not worth it in my opinion.

Just throwing my two copper coins in this pot.

FFXIVs races have no culture assigned to them because the cultures are split by cities. All cities are semi-diverse melting pots of the different races with different cultures in each city. The world of FFXIV is more believable to me due to the similarities of the races in a weird way. They all talk the same language and live in the same world. So of course they would look alike in a realistic environment.

The cities of gw2 are interesting to look at. The visuals are very pretty, especially the slums of the Black citadel or peak of Rata sum. Love the vivid colours on display.

As for the topic on hand i will just agree. The norn are the most boring. They feel underdeveloped. My very first character was a norn. I gave up on the game for a few months after the story quests out of boredom. The voice acting was iffy and Eir sounds like an old lady despite looking like shes in her late 20’s to 30’s. I later made a human warrior which i have enjoyed ever since.

(And this might be a very specific nitpick, they pronounce their J’s hard. Dyormag = Jormag in their book.)

Humans probably…. it is just so generic.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Dredge. They just keeping boring holes in the earth.

lol when you see dredge you know something annoying is gonna happen, they are not boring they are very successful at being annoying in dungeons and fractals.

I love the Norn, but it’s obvious that Anet doesn’t have the lore nor the character story to really delve into Norn as a seperate culture. From what I gather they are a hybrid of Native American and Celtic culture. Though, when it comes to the personal story it’s just a bad stereotype of a beer swilling, bar brawling, hippie blowhard. This may have been a place for them to take some notes from Inuit people of the Arctic and apply that to Norn culture.

As for the one I just don’t care about well that’s the Sylvari. I’ve only ever made a scarce few and well they’re just the basic Elves of GW2 when it comes to their story and lore.

Dredge, I hate their perma protection and regen. It’s like fighting a mini boss.

For me it’s Asura. They’re just tiny sarcastic kittens.

I’m not fond of the Charr (I never felt engaged by their story and at this point I only have 3 Charr out of 27 characters)

Bearhugger.4326:

Perhaps, but FFXIV has 5 to 10x more armor sets than GW2, they’re more varied, they’re about the same quality, and they’re 99% obtainable in-game without cash shop. That’s thanks to having relatively similar body shapes on all races.

Given that “nobody” plays Charr and Asuras in GW2 anyway, I consider that having so many widely different races at the detriment of customization and cosmetics was a HUGE mistake on Arenanet’s part, and I wouldn’t be surprised to catch a few devs say that they regret it off the record. The game is supposed to reward with cosmetics, and armor sets are the most important customization option for most people, but the devs themselves say that it’s too hard for them to pump as many as in the first game due to having so many different races. That super varied set of races holds back the rewards system, which is a huge problem in a MMO. I’d go as far as to say that they should have gone with only humans like in GW1. I mean everyone plays humans, big humans (norn) or green humans (sylvari) so why put the effort?

Of course that doesn’t mean that I disagree with your point about GW2 having more varied races than most other MMOs, I’m just saying that the cost was not worth it in my opinion.

It may have made the customization more difficult, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d have designed the races differently in hindsight. But there’s a couple counterpoints to that.

• GW2 is the only major game that I can think of that’s actually done heavily customizable player races that aren’t just reskinned humans. It’s an example to the rest of the industry in that sense, and if I ever have to move on from GW2 I’m going to miss that badly.

• Despite that potential, they’re not putting that much effort into customizing new assets for the non-humanoid races. NPC clothes and armour look markedly different for each race, at least in the cities. What’s available for players, on the other hand, rarely fits the racial themes for asura or charr and most of the new armours and outfits are just stretched to fit. So I’d argue asura and charr don’t cause any significant problems with releasing new skins, because they’re simply not putting in much effort to adapt them to those races.

Ben K.6238:

It may have made the customization more difficult, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d have designed the races differently in hindsight. But there’s a couple counterpoints to that.

• GW2 is the only major game that I can think of that’s actually done heavily customizable player races that aren’t just reskinned humans. It’s an example to the rest of the industry in that sense, and if I ever have to move on from GW2 I’m going to miss that badly.

I believe we’d see far more content if all races were reskinned humans.

One way to make outfits or suits work would be to have invisible or none-existent head pieces.

My order for most intresting to boring would be Norn>Char> Sylvari>Asura>human

While I would really love to have more armor, I wouldn’t EVER sacrifice race diversity for the sake of it. What’s the point in having a huge amount of cosmetic items if I can’t use them in a race that I like to play?

No variety = No gw2 for me.

Humans, hands down They are fun to play, but their story is a pretty mid line fantasy tale. The Norn are based off Vikings and though I hate the male Norn body shapes, I find their lore fun enough to be a bit different. I like how the Charr came back from being the bad guys to heroes, and I find their culture of “honorable warriors” cool (in that “Klingon” way). Asura are just plain fun in their self important mindset and they are one of my favorite races to play. But as for which race has the most unique story line and are least ‘boring’, I’d say the Sylvari win that one (in my opinion). Although “elf like” in nature, being plants formed into human shape and born of the Pale Tree, they are truly a unique race in the fantasy setting, and without any Spoilers, the HoT story line truly makes them an integral part of the Tyria tapestry.

AzureWolf.9150:

But as for which race has the most unique story line and are least ‘boring’, I’d say the Sylvari win that one (in my opinion). Although “elf like” in nature, being plants formed into human shape and born of the Pale Tree, they are truly a unique race in the fantasy setting, and without any Spoilers, the HoT story line truly makes them an integral part of the Tyria tapestry.

For as much as I loathe anything remotely “elfy,” there’s something about the Sylvari perspective that I find positive and refreshing. Even after Southsun, Scarlet, and Mordremoth, I’m still somewhat fond of them. (But srsly though, that years worth of bad PR wore me down…)

Rauderi.8706:

For as much as I loathe anything remotely “elfy,” there’s something about the Sylvari perspective that I find positive and refreshing. Even after Southsun, Scarlet, and Mordremoth, I’m still somewhat fond of them. (But srsly though, that years worth of bad PR wore me down…)

I don’t see the “elf” sort of thing, though that might be my initial exposure — I think of the Tolkien elves, and then secondly the unworldly Celtic versions, and the Sylvari really don’t quite fit with either.

I really do like them rather a lot, though. Especially the voicing.

Humans. Now I’m not the “Ew, only boring banal stupid ugly losers play humans!” kind of player that exists in some fandoms, but I do go for non-humans morm often than not. There’s just nothing appealing to the humans in this setting — or at least as far as I’ve seen in GW2. Yes, I agree that norn are a disappointment because they don’t really feel (or look, for the women) unique and different as they should, but at least the potential is there with the shapeshifting and the spirituality.

Humans are the elves of gw2. Elder race, favorite of the gods? check
once mighty and powerful and now just a shadow of that former glory? check
pushed back and aside by younger races? check
And at the end, not too much else. Jennah is hot tho.

Charr not very interessting at the first look, but get better during the PS.
Asura are annoying, will be annoying, have been annoying. But at least not boring.
Hoelbrak is awesome to look at. But at the same time, I really do not feel the need to play Norn.
Sylvari, love them. Scarlet was a genius? Of course she was! Mordremoth was in there! Canach is a cynical kitten. They are nice to look at and the NPC chatter is full of funny moments. Trahearne was actually a good guy, always there to praise the PC.

I really wish Tengu were playable

Ookamikun.6472:

I really wish Tengu were playable

Me too. :\
I’ve got 90 just waiting to buy a birb of each profession.

Norn for me. Their lore isn’t bad, but they are basically GW2 Vikings.

Their personal story doesn’t have much interesting either. Nothing that you care about.

Even the human story, which would take second place has things I remember. Not the Norn.

The worst lore for a race in my opinion is the charr. They no longer worship gods. The end. I don’t find anything rich or interesting to draw me into the race.

Humans followed by Norn.

I can go to any other game and get the same story with humans and other races. I get it’s because majority of players need a race to relate to humanly, but then give a better story.

Norn only slightly less because im partial to the Norse mythology. Other than that, large humans, so meh.

Though norns also get best mustache in the game

They’re all ok, but Sylvari come across as a bit bland for me.

Ben K.6238:

Bearhugger.4326:

Perhaps, but FFXIV has 5 to 10x more armor sets than GW2, they’re more varied, they’re about the same quality, and they’re 99% obtainable in-game without cash shop. That’s thanks to having relatively similar body shapes on all races.

Given that “nobody” plays Charr and Asuras in GW2 anyway, I consider that having so many widely different races at the detriment of customization and cosmetics was a HUGE mistake on Arenanet’s part, and I wouldn’t be surprised to catch a few devs say that they regret it off the record. The game is supposed to reward with cosmetics, and armor sets are the most important customization option for most people, but the devs themselves say that it’s too hard for them to pump as many as in the first game due to having so many different races. That super varied set of races holds back the rewards system, which is a huge problem in a MMO. I’d go as far as to say that they should have gone with only humans like in GW1. I mean everyone plays humans, big humans (norn) or green humans (sylvari) so why put the effort?

Of course that doesn’t mean that I disagree with your point about GW2 having more varied races than most other MMOs, I’m just saying that the cost was not worth it in my opinion.

It may have made the customization more difficult, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d have designed the races differently in hindsight. But there’s a couple counterpoints to that.

• GW2 is the only major game that I can think of that’s actually done heavily customizable player races that aren’t just reskinned humans. It’s an example to the rest of the industry in that sense, and if I ever have to move on from GW2 I’m going to miss that badly.

Euhm, EverQuest 2? I mean, if Charr and/or Asura don’t qualify as reskinned humans then I think Frogloks, Ratonga and especially Sarnak likely also qualify… Quite a few of those suffer the same problems of Charr/Asura though: (some parts of) armors look…dodgy on them. Main reason why I ditched my Sarnak Shadowknight back in the day.

Rauderi.8706:

Ookamikun.6472:

I really wish Tengu were playable

Me too. :\
I’ve got 90 just waiting to buy a birb of each profession.

Sadly, it’s never gonna happen. The cost of bringing in an extra race vastly outweighs the benefits it would have — sad but true, that boat has sailed, and we will never catch up.