Guild Wars 2

Since most of the people here are only complaining and crying, I thought I make a thread about something that makes me really happy.

I really have to say, that Anet has the best character models I’ve ever seen in an MMO.
We may have Asura, Charr and Sylvari, which are so unique you can’t compare them to anything else, but the Human and Norn models are very well done.

Not only that they look believeable and the Face and Hair options are all beautiful, they also move and act like a real person would, no robotic or artificial movements. And the attention to detail is awesome. I noticed yesterday that my Female Norn Ranger even closes one Eye when she aims with her bow, and the two outstretched fingers ready to fire an arrow always looks cool!

I really like looking at my characters, not only my female ones, even the males ones look like they were done with love and with attention to detail.

Well done, Anet, Well done!

Counterpoint: Female Humans are anime as all getout. Their arms are like twigs. Not realistic at all.

Well I look at other parts on my female human than her arms…

So the models look great… when you’re 14. Got it.

Arimahn.3568:

So the models look great… when you’re 14. Got it.

I am not 14 by a long shot and I love the character models.
Was watching a friend play another MMO the other day and I actually lol’ed at the jumping animation because it looked so much like a frog hop!

Character models in GW2 and the animations have so many little details that are just amazing. It makes all my characters feel alive- I love it

They’re very good, although human necks seem a little too long to me (still better than the giraffe necks on some GW professions) and there’s something about the heads that seems off. A little too small, maybe?

Norns are just bigger more bulkier humans.

Most people are complaining about things that the devs mess up. The art team has always been the back bone of this game.

I agree that graphically the game is really outstanding, animations and detail to environment are much better than many, many other games. There’s still a few bugs I encounter.. like my charr being all weird when falling and swinging a sword at the same time during landing. I do think that they missed an oppertunity with making everyone look young though. I would have liked to make a more elderly character to fit as an elementalist or something, it takes time to learn all that magic after all.

Arimahn.3568:

Counterpoint: Female Humans are anime as all getout. Their arms are like twigs. Not realistic at all.

I’m not really sure what you are expecting here… I would argue that the bulky males are the unrealistic ones. To become bulky muscular you have to work out specifically for that task. By way of raw strength, though, I would pit the strength of a stringy dock worker who carries boxes and pushes crates all day against any body builder you throw at him.

I’m assuming the alchemists of Tyria have not yet developed testosterone elixirs + possibly some creatine potions and maybe even a steroid to two to help bulk those ladies up, so I’m afraid I’m far more inclined to believe the vision of tightly packed muscles on a female body as opposed to a lady-Arnold in this situation.

Tolmos.8395:

Arimahn.3568:

Counterpoint: Female Humans are anime as all getout. Their arms are like twigs. Not realistic at all.

I’m assuming the alchemists of Tyria have not yet developed testosterone elixirs + possibly some creatine potions and maybe even a steroid to two to help bulk those ladies up, so I’m afraid I’m far more inclined to believe the vision of tightly packed muscles on a female body as opposed to a lady-Arnold in this situation.

Well, they might not know about steroids but they seem to be pretty good at breast enhancement. Female models are universally thin like a beanstalk with huge breasts. And let’s not forget the amount of creepy “looks like she’s 14” face options.
In other words: Anime.

Arimahn.3568:

Tolmos.8395:

Arimahn.3568:

Counterpoint: Female Humans are anime as all getout. Their arms are like twigs. Not realistic at all.

I’m assuming the alchemists of Tyria have not yet developed testosterone elixirs + possibly some creatine potions and maybe even a steroid to two to help bulk those ladies up, so I’m afraid I’m far more inclined to believe the vision of tightly packed muscles on a female body as opposed to a lady-Arnold in this situation.

Well, they might not know about steroids but they seem to be pretty good at breast enhancement. Female models are universally thin like a beanstalk with huge breasts. And let’s not forget the amount of creepy “looks like she’s 14” face options.
In other words: Anime.

Well, they fit well enough with their steroid laden male counterparts.

It’s a video game- appealing aesthetics for the opposite sex tend to be in the forefront of character design in these things. It appears females aren’t exempt from this, any more than the males.

The models are good, but far from the best in an MMO, imo of course.

Warhammer Online, for me, still had/has the best character models ever made. From the Warrior Priest to the Goblins they are all spot on and fit well in the WH theme. Each moving very different, and each with their armors/weapons unique to the races. I still have not seen an MMO do it better yet.

I think the models look very nice. The skin has really nice details like freckles. Obviously not the best, but have you seen other MMOs? Most of them are terrible.

Arimahn.3568:

So the models look great… when you’re 14. Got it.

If anything you’d think the 14 year olds would be the ones saying they look bad. Quite a few younger people only care about graphics.

The models are really well done, and the animations are great. The biggest thing missing is a lot more animations. I miss the huge variety that CoH had.

I mean come on. Who doesn’t want the “/smack” animation just for Traherne?

GW2 brings it home with the articulation of movement in the joints.
The reason so many other game’s models look stiff is the limited or nonexistent range of movement in the shoulders, shoulder blades, wrists, knees, ankles, etc.

1. Here is my mesmer at a combat ready stance. Note the wrists and angle of the fingers.
2. Here is another one where she is in a state of extremis casting spatial surge. Look at the range of movement in the shoulders.

The dynamic lighting and shadows are brilliantly handled as well as the attention to detail. Love the character models <3

The GW2 character models are good but not the best in the MMO, in my opinion. I prefer AION character model than GW2, though I heard that gw2 uses a part of its engine. AION has tons more hair, eye, facial, body, and even voice options. But don’t get me wrong, gw2 has the best environmental design I’ve ever seen.

SlaYer.2138:

The GW2 character models are good but not the best in the MMO, in my opinion. I prefer AION character model than GW2, though I heard that gw2 uses a part of its engine. AION has tons more hair, eye, facial, body, and even voice options. But don’t get me wrong, gw2 has the best environmental design I’ve ever seen.

Voice options is one of the biggest drawbacks for this game. I’ve had several friends not get to make the character they want because the voice doesn’t fit.

Example – make a human male. Make him a big black guy and tell me the voice fits perfectly. It ruins immersion for folks trying to make certain styles of characters. I actually really regret the voice acting in the game for that reason.

The animations in this game have spoiled me. Take running animations- I’ve tried to go back to Rift, but then I see the human (mathosian / eth) male running animation and go “wtf?!”

Here’s a video of it that I ran across some time ago that shows what I’m talking about-

Ineed Aion had better character customization.
Just look at this -
http://izziebytes.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/aionhaha3.jpg

CoH’s (RIP) character customization was pretty detailed as well.

mojowalker.3798:

CoH’s (RIP) character customization was pretty detailed as well.

AHHHH THE NOSTALGIA, I’m shivering! They also had Power Colors

Nick.6972:

Ineed Aion had better character customization.
Just look at this -
http://izziebytes.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/aionhaha3.jpg

You are right, aion had better. I wish guild wars 2 had more choice, but I don’t certainly want a repeat of the deform characters that plague that game. Those deformed character just ruined kitten game for me.

I think guild wars 2 biggest flaw is having too many races which limits customization potential.

My Norn are lovely. I think they did an amazing job with them. I do wish I could create a human girl over the age of 19, but otherwise, the best characters I’ve had in a lot of MMOs

My Norn girls keep me in this game TBH.

Funny thing re Full Body sliders and somewhat unlimited options. I was an Image Designer Profession in SWG, we did that. Instead of a player paying SOE for a makeover, we did it, they paid us, we had all the char options at full skill. Over hm. perhaps 5 years of ID, I can say that the chosen body parameters were a very narrow range of options, and we all learned to just start from there. Very little of the full range was used by very few people overall, from my observation. Not surprisingly, age and fat were the least used on humanoids… while fat was extremely popular on Wooks.

Humanoid males had the most variety of full body styles chosen, while humanoid females used a very small range of options.

LOL, when I got tired of certain “types” of whispers, I would ID myself to 0 Torso and max hips and waist. Instant cure.

Well, seems like in these days saying that thin arms covered in clothing aren’t that noticeable is against some forum terms and my message got deleted. Good thing I don’t live in north korea, I’d probably get shot for that.

Honestly, the only race that serve as a real accomplishment of modeling are the Sylvari. Second being Charr then Asura, but those two races can be easily seen as “limited” in variation.

Norn are just scaled up humans.
Charr are cool, but many are often similar looking.
Asura are cool, but they too are often very similar looking.

The Sylvari are good, but overall everyone is too pretty. Try and make an ugly character, it’s very, very hard. Modeling should cover a wide scope of looks.

Tolmos.8395:

Example – make a human male. Make him a big black guy and tell me the voice fits perfectly. It ruins immersion for folks trying to make certain styles of characters. I actually really regret the voice acting in the game for that reason.

There aren’t even any “typical black” faces in the game. It’s all vaguely asian and a few caucasian ones.

LumAnth.5124:

mojowalker.3798:

CoH’s (RIP) character customization was pretty detailed as well.

AHHHH THE NOSTALGIA, I’m shivering! They also had Power Colors

I’d forgotten about that! That was pretty awesome … plus the different effects each char could be surrounded by … think of how cool it would be for necros to have the option to get the swarm of flies?