Guild Wars 2

Greetings all. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and had this idea that I wanted to suggest. With how loved Taimi is because of her disability, I thought it would be a wonderful option to give your characters some type of impairment option. The idea came from a friend who was born with a clubbed hand (if that’s the right term). He lives life like anyone else, and doesn’t let his disability slow him. With some type of optional character mods, perhaps he could make a character that reflects his real life self? I also have a friend who lost her leg.

Imagine the possibilities here. If a character is missing a leg, he could walk around with crutches. Or if both legs are missing, he could get around using an asuran wheelchair, sorta like Professor X (wheelchair mount?). While these would require a lot of new animation coding, there are some options that can use existing animations. Take for instance a “little person” (trying not to be offensive with the “M” word). With this option, you could make your character race shorter than the available height option on character selection. You could have a norn that’s shorter than a human, that runs like an asura. This would use existing animations, albeit on different races.

Some people use video games as an escape from reality. Some use it as therapy to cope with reality. Just a thought for Anet to consider.

I don’t think Taimi is loved for a disability. Being loved for a disability would be being a token character, and such characters are degrading to disabled people for the fact that they almost always act as a sympathy receptacle as opposed to an actual human being, with a few exceptions.

The proposed idea would be a ridiculous amount of modelling and animation work for basically no payoff. I don’t know of anyone, and I know a person who required the assistance of a wheelchair for most of their life, who would want their character to have a disability. Ignoring the fact that the heroes of the game are fit and healthy for a reason (they couldn’t be heroes otherwise), it would just be way too much work, especially for the wheelchair option. How would one swing a greatsword with the proper momentum from a wheelchair?