Guild Wars 2

Left-handed characters?

Currently there is an overwhelming prejudice in this game. All characters must be made right-handed. Tyria is stripped clean and clear of any trace of left-handedness. Why is this? What fear have brought this forsakening?

• ~“But wouldn’t that require tons of time for development that could go to the rest of the game?”

Yes and no. Basically looking to change the hand of which the main weapon goes in as well as the casting hand. So for example a staff Elementalist would be holding the staff in the right hand and casting out of the left. Stances with greatswords would also be reversed, swinging a bit from the left.

• ~“Would this change weapon skills?”

Good question, but no. This is strictly an aesethic change for the sake of immersion and character reflection. Animations of the character’s holding and position would be mirrored off the right to the left, but nothing to skills or their animations would change.

• ~“South paws are such a low population. Nobody cares!”

Oh how wrong you are. While right-handedness ranges between 70-95%, left-handedness ranges between 5-30% of the population in the world. Yes the higher number is skewed due to mix-handness and even ambidexterity (although that is a rarity that takes up barely a percentage itself), but not at all reason to dismiss it. Still measuring up to be close to 1/3rd the population is a major thing to consider.

Siphaed.9235:

• ~“But wouldn’t that require tons of time for development that could go to the rest of the game?”

Yes and no. Basically looking to change the hand of which the main weapon goes in as well as the casting hand. So for example a staff Elementalist would be holding the staff in the right hand and casting out of the left. Stances with greatswords would also be reversed, swinging a bit from the left.

It’s not quite that simple, though.

Several bows, foci, and all shields would need to be reversed for use in the other hand. Then, on anything with a guild emblem on it, that too would need to be (un)reversed so it displays correctly.

Then, mirrored versions of many of the weapon animations would be needed, as well as most of the utility skills (so your character can do them left handed, as well). Even harvesting skills would need a left handed version.

Finally, code would have to be put in to allow you to set it to right or left handed for each character. You can’t just say “base it off of how they hold their weapons”, because what happens if someone uses paired weapons? Or tries to make their warrior carry two shields? Or uses weapon swap to change from right to left handed (though… that would be kind of awesome).

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love a left handed option. But putting it in now, after so much of the game’s code has been made to assume right handedness? That’s a lot of work.

I am left handed and I think this is silly. Of all the improvements they could add to the game this is very unnecessary. No mmo has this option so I think I can safely say it will never happen. Which is good because it would be a waste of time and resources.

Cazamar.7148:

I am left handed and I think this is silly. Of all the improvements they could add to the game this is very unnecessary. No mmo has this option so I think I can safely say it will never happen. Which is good because it would be a waste of time and resources.

Agreed.

“overwhelming prejudice”

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!

i am left handed and i dont give a kitten about the complaint in this thread

Tolas.2458:

“overwhelming prejudice”

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!!

LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEFFFFFTT!!!!!!!!!

(+1 for puns)

I asked for this at launch

bow down to your right-handed overlords

Sinistral.5782:

bow down to your right-handed overlords

Back in the fifties we could just beat them for not being right handed. Now they want equal representation in video games? pfft.

Start with Hollywood first, like all the rest of the minorities!

/s

I would like left handed straws and left handed cups too please!

i would like left handed mode in windows.

I’m going to have to agree with Palador. However, I do agree with your sentiment, Siphaed. I’m a righty, but I will always endorse more customization options in character identity – my own roster of characters runs such a gamut that I certainly could see some of them being left-handed to boot.

However, Palador’s right about the logistics. A LOT more work goes into the seemingly “simple” changes than most of us realize. I’m as much an end-user as anyone, but I have the benefit of knowing people who program, some of them professionally – and I would NEVER call what they do easy.

It really isn’t as simple as mirroring the character. Many art assets are not easily flippable (as mentioned, guild emblems are a prime example). Making “southpaw” animations for many skills will similarly have to be done; you can’t just flip a sprite about its axis and expect to get away with it, like they did in games of the ’80s era.

P.S. I do have to admit one thing – the part where “Or uses weapon swap to change from right to left handed (though… that would be kind of awesome).”…. that was golden. I think Inigo said it best: “I know something you don’t know… I am not left-handed.”

We all know lefties don’t have souls! :b I kid I kid much love for Lefties, I mean how else would we see the awesomeness of southpaw boxers messing people up, or lefty pichers striking people out LEFT and right.

Monkey Fritz.9052:

Sinistral.5782:

bow down to your right-handed overlords

Back in the fifties we could just beat them for not being right handed.

what is assault?

so no

I understand the sentiment, but I majorly disagree with this idea. There are so many other things that time could be spent on that the majority of the gw2 player base would use.

It’s not that they’re against lefties, it’s just that it’s most likely easier to have every character in the same setup – that and they probably didn’t think that it would ever be requested/used.

Sorry, as a fellow leftie I don’t think it’s worth the time or effort to implement.

The process is not as simple as you think it is, you don’t simply flip numbers around and hope to get correctly mirrored animations (you’ll more than likely get animations where the character thrusts their upper arm through their chest and gently caress the back of their heads), nor do you simply add a button to the UI to toggle handedness (it’s most likely that every action has its own animation call, so if you want to add a handedness toggle you’d have to update every single player action in the game to check for handedness before it knows which of the two animations to call).