Guild Wars 2

Chessrook.8643:

To those who say the Sylvari are elves (And I didn’t read out the entire thread) I’d like to point out something I heard the devs said once… HUMANS fill the niche usually taken by elves in a narrative sense.

Loud, old, magical race, once powerful and very loud about it, and currently fading off for the younger races to take the mantle.

Yes humans fill the elven role, but racially, sylvari are the closest out of a mythological perspective, so are the asuras.

But when the word elf is mentioned, people think of slender, light haired or dark haired humanoids with pointy ears, unimaginable beauty and high intelligence. Mythological elves however is a different story.

Sylvari fit the mythological elf background well, with the wild hunt, nature spirit, forest homes and so on. Also their curious interested in things is something that fit well with elves too. There are many myths about the curious behavior of elves, many of them not appropriate to tell on forums.

Elves are lame and cliche.

legion.7518:

You guys haven’t commented on what I said about the Charr and Asuran races. I don’t think anyone can deny that most people really don’t like to play those races. This game just doesn’t have enough cool races. People want to play epic characters, and that means being a race that you think is cool. Look at WoW, a lot cooler selection of races… blood elves, night elves, orcs, dwarves, goblins, etc.

I prefer Charr and Asuran to the boring old elf any day.

yeah who’d want to play a kitten horned bear-cat or magitech yoda when you can be orlando bloom with pointy ears or green humanoid #23

Adine.2184:

legion.7518:

I’d guess that 80% of players dislike the Charr .

I dont know about 80% but i can tell you that a lot of people who played GW 1 were taught for 7+ years that the Charr are evil and should have been wiped off the face of Tyria 250 years ago . Do to this very correct view i would fathom to guess that a lot of people refuse to play Charr

11 toons. 0 charr. I’ll never forgive them for Lady Althea.

legion.7518:

Fantasy MMO developers can go two different routes. They can invent their own stuff (which is usually based on the previous stuff anyway, just with a twist) and gain respect from all the critics and nerds for being “original”. Or they can stick with the popular stuff that the masses already know and love, and maybe have a huge mass audience hit like WoW. GW2 already made its choice in this regard and has to live with it. It will never be a HUGE game like WoW.

Yep, Anet definitely made the right choice. Simply because I found WoW to be boring and relatively annoying, though it is addictive. Still, I moved from WoW to Guild Wars 1 and never looked back.

It’s really nice that there are blockbuster games like WoW, to keep the status quo busy with genre standard tropes. It makes Guild Wars 2 a far far better place to spend time. Much better player base.

It’s funny because my teenaged boys moved from Guild Wars to WoW before I moved from WoW to Guild Wars. WoW definitely appealed to them more.

They’ve both stopped playing WoW and one of them is playing Guild Wars 2 now. He likes it much better. Of course, he’s older and his tastes are more refined but what you can do. <grins>

Aeonblade.8709:

Vayne.8563:

Actually, I wouldn’t even want to play a game with elves. I can’t stand them. And I’m not alone.

In fact, mmorpg.com has a column called “No Elves Allowed” about all the things that are traditionally in MMOs that the writer just can’t stand to see any more of. Ever hear the term “played out”?

Fantasy is a very very broad catagory. It’s long past time it’s expanded beyond elves and dwarves. I’m so glad they’re not in this game (and that Anet killed off the dwarven race in Guild Wars 1).

Honestly, I could stomach more elves before I have to deal with anymore undead/zombies. Nothing is more played out at this point than the undead.

Actually I agree with this. I’m glad the zombies were the first dragon, so they’re out of the way. The whole undead thing annoys me. Zombies aren’t as bad as vampires, but they’re relatively close.

While I do enjoy elves, I suppose we have sufficient Tolkien influences in the current crop of games (and their predecessors). What I would truly like to see would be a race inspired by the green martians from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series. Somebody out there needs to bring some Burroughs!

Imagine: 15’ tall (4.57 m) tall people with four arms and tusks. Warriors could quad-wield swords, maces, or shields (or mix and match) and they could dual wield rifles, longbows, greatswords, and hammers! How about a dual-staff Elementalist? Quad-dagger or dual shortbow thieves!

There are still plenty of places on the Big Map left unexplored in which new races might dwell. Remember, we didn’t know about the asura or norn until we ventured into the Eye of the North, which is where we also got our first glimpse of the Sylvari.

Maybe these guys could appear in a new chapter of the Living Story that unlocks one of those unexplored areas. Maybe even a chapter called… Mouth of the South! Ear of the West? Nose of the East?

Ahem. Anyway. I believe Burroughs-inspired material would fit quite well in the Tyria of GW2. Yes, quite well indeed. So, how about some psuedo-tharks, please?

And oozes.

Ewww..No I do not want Elves in GW2, they’re not a part of the lore of Tyria & Guild Wars. Dwarves are, though..Except they’re very rare right now Sylvari are the answer to "elves’ that ArenaNet came up with so that’s that imo…I seriously cannot stomach the idea of actual “elves” being in this game…I’m so sick of Elves & Orcs…

this thread is essentially a petition to add pointed ears for humans

I definitely don’t want elves in this game… They do not belong in Guild Wars.

lupercaleb.6041:

this thread is essentially a petition to add pointed ears for humans

In that case, I’m reserving the name ‘Spock’ right now.

What about Kodans as the next playable race? With the Voice recently corrupted in HotW by the Harier and Jormag probably beeing the next target on the list, it could make perfect sense to add them in the alliance against the dragons.

Or maybe Tengus, their gates are still closen and one of them is next to the Sylvari starting area, making perfect sense for a new playable race. But something should motivate them to start the alliance with the other races of Tyria.

Ambrecombe.4398:

What about Kodans as the next playable race? With the Voice recently corrupted in HotW by the Harier and Jormag probably beeing the next target on the list, it could make perfect sense to add them in the alliance against the dragons.

Or maybe Tengus, their gates are still closen and one of them is next to the Sylvari starting area, making perfect sense for a new playable race. But something should motivate them to start the alliance with the other races of Tyria.

Not sure about the Kodan. It might interfere with their Coca-cola contract.

lupercaleb.6041:

this thread is essentially a petition to add pointed ears for humans

And I see nothing wrong with it! Add red eye color too pls! And a bit of glow to human skin and I’m happy. Wait.. Did I just request to have an option to make my human look like a vampire from twilight?

SneakyErvin.3056:

legion.7518:

Most of you missed my point anyway. This wasn’t so much a diss of GW2, I was just trying to start a discussion about what makes certain games such a big hit with a mainstream audience. Those are the people you need to reach if you want a blockbuster hit like WoW.

EQ had the beautiful female elf on its box. WoW also had a female elf on its box. That stuff sells. Most of the general public are not as imaginative and nerdy as you folks here, they just want stuff that they know and can easily identify with, like elves and dwarves.

There is no point reaching those people and becoming a “blockbuster hit like WoW”. Anet doesnt have the need, since the game isnt sub based, so their income isnt based on how many players they have in the same way as Blizz.

With 8000000 subs, Blizz pulls in $120000000/month. They must remain mainstream to keep their cash flow, so they need to add all the silly fluff to saticefy the playerbase. I wouldnt be suprised if they introduce sparkly vampires soon in WoW in a serious non-easter egg kinda way to attract even a younger audience. They’ve already broken the lore on several occassions.

GW2 is popular enough, servers have enough population without them having to add more servers or more hardware, so keep their costs balanced. That means they dont need a silly amount of income generated from the players, except that which we are willing to pay ourselves.

I currently started to play STO (Star Trek Online) again after a 2-3 year hold. The game is now free to play and is filled with people. They’ve gone from the sub version to an optional sub version. You can either pay monthly for gold membership or just use the item shop, which can be fully used without spending one single real life coin on it. They’ve still managed to add content and polish the game.

More and more games have a better success as free games and dont require mainstream WoW numbers to survive, because they fill a role in the MMO genre.

We really dont need elves in this game, since they are already there basically in the form of humans, or in the mythological sense they are there int he shape of sylvari and asura. Adding elves would break the lore.

And if you really want elves, Neverwinter online is around the corner. You can even make your own Foundry content too so you can get all dirty with your elves.

I left STO for this game.

This one wins.

As for the topic:

Yes the humans are the old dying race in the visual

in the underlying themes though:

Humans are humans but possibly dying out

Charr are Orcs

the Asura are the Tarutaru

Sylvari are the Elves just with the time line reversed

Norn are the barbarians

It’s kind of sad that it’s been ten years, and nobody has topped Shadowbane’s race selection.

Humans – dark age catholic European humans
Dwarves – forged from stone and metal by their god
Elves – evil people who want to enslave or kill everyone who isn’t like them (including the god who created them)
Irekei – the even more evil elves who worship the dragon and just want to watch the world burn
Nephilim – winged demons that can fly and shapeshift into mortals
Aracoix – A bad kitten Tengu that can fly.
Minotaur – they’re like Tauren, except not lame
Shades – Pseudo-undead humans
Vampires – they’re vampires
Centaur – half man, half horse, half chainsaw. That’s 150% son
Half giant – humans with the blood of giants in their ancestry
Aelfborn – lunatic half elves who are barely kept sane by magical tattoos that cover their bodies

Caffynated.5713:

It’s kind of sad that it’s been ten years, and nobody has topped Shadowbane’s race selection.

Humans – dark age catholic European humans
Dwarves – forged from stone and metal by their god
Elves – evil people who want to enslave or kill everyone who isn’t like them (including the god who created them)
Irekei – the even more evil elves who worship the dragon and just want to watch the world burn
Nephilim – winged demons that can fly and shapeshift into mortals
Aracoix – A bad kitten Tengu that can fly.
Minotaur – they’re like Tauren, except not lame
Shades – Pseudo-undead humans
Vampires – they’re vampires
Centaur – half man, half horse, half chainsaw. That’s 150% son
Half giant – humans with the blood of giants in their ancestry

Yeah bro, that’s what I’m talkin about. Now those are some cool races.

80% dislike charr and asura

lol

SneakyErvin.3056:

Chessrook.8643:

To those who say the Sylvari are elves (And I didn’t read out the entire thread) I’d like to point out something I heard the devs said once… HUMANS fill the niche usually taken by elves in a narrative sense.

Loud, old, magical race, once powerful and very loud about it, and currently fading off for the younger races to take the mantle.

Yes humans fill the elven role, but racially, sylvari are the closest out of a mythological perspective, so are the asuras.

But when the word elf is mentioned, people think of slender, light haired or dark haired humanoids with pointy ears, unimaginable beauty and high intelligence. Mythological elves however is a different story.

Sylvari fit the mythological elf background well, with the wild hunt, nature spirit, forest homes and so on. Also their curious interested in things is something that fit well with elves too. There are many myths about the curious behavior of elves, many of them not appropriate to tell on forums.

GW2 humans are more like Tolkien’s high elves. Sylvari are more like Celtic elves, or tree spirits (dryads etc).

Asura have some of the character of the diminutive elves of post Christian English folklore (like Santa’s elves), but I can see influences of goblin and gnome as well.

Tolkien wanted to shift the image of elves from the Santa-elf back to the high-elf of the old heroic epics. I’d say he succeeded remarkably well, because when a lot of people think elf these days, they are quite likely to think of an elf from Lord of the Rings. Prior to Tolkien if you asked someone to picture an elf, they’d probably have one of Santa’s helpers, or a character from Midsummer Nights Dream in mind.

Wanderer.3248:

Tolkien wanted to shift the image of elves from the Santa-elf back to the high-elf of the old heroic epics. I’d say he succeeded remarkably well, because when a lot of people think elf these days, they are quite likely to think of an elf from Lord of the Rings. Prior to Tolkien if you asked someone to picture an elf, they’d probably have one of Santa’s helpers, or a character from Midsummer Nights Dream in mind.

I’m not a fan of Tolkien’s elves. I liked the elves in EQ, which were smaller than humans. My wood elf druid from EQ2 is still my favorite character from any MMO.

I still have hopes for EQnext, although I know it’s a longshot.

legion.7518:

Doesn’t surprise me that most of you poo-pooed my post and defended GW2, since most of the crowd here are GW2 fanboys. You guys are really not representative of the mainstream public.

Really? Really? That’s pathetic. If you’re going to dismiss the opinions of any and all people who disagree with you, then why even bother making a topic in the first place?

legion.7518:

Most of you missed my point anyway. This wasn’t so much a diss of GW2, I was just trying to start a discussion about what makes certain games such a big hit with a mainstream audience. Those are the people you need to reach if you want a blockbuster hit like WoW.

How noble of you, to be so concerned with ArenaNet’s best interests and the success of their game, that you have come here to share your inspired plan. Elves! Why didn’t anyone think of it before?!
However, a game can be a success without being a “blockbuster hit like WoW.” How many MMOs can you name that have been as successful as WoW? Are there any? Do you seriously think the path to record-setting sales numbers to the tune of 11 million subscribers is to just put ELVES in the game?
A lot of the reasons people got into playing Guild Wars (both the original one and this game) have to do with the fact that the devs decided to do things differently, and not just copy what another game did. If GW2 had turned out to be yet another WoW clone, a lot less people would have been so interested in it in the first place, and it probably wouldn’t have been met with the amount of success it has now. And it’s doing fine, by the way. Not everyone needs to sell their souls in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and just do what’s popular and familiar.

legion.7518:

EQ had the beautiful female elf on its box. WoW also had a female elf on its box. That stuff sells. Most of the general public are not as imaginative and nerdy as you folks here, they just want stuff that they know and can easily identify with, like elves and dwarves.

Fantasy MMO developers can go two different routes. They can invent their own stuff (which is usually based on the previous stuff anyway, just with a twist) and gain respect from all the critics and nerds for being “original”. Or they can stick with the popular stuff that the masses already know and love, and maybe have a huge mass audience hit like WoW. GW2 already made its choice in this regard and has to live with it. It will never be a HUGE game like WoW.

In other words, your entire thread is basically just a lot of “You need to look and act a certain way, so you can be popular.” Frankly, I’m tremendously glad there are brave developers out there who don’t believe in the same disgusting “advice” that you’ve given. If they did, every game would be the same boring, tired, forgettable, grey sludge.
If you want WoW, it’s still there for you. The servers are still up. You can have your elves (two varieties, no less!), and your gear grind, and your kill-stealing, and your open-world ganking, and your monthly subscription fees — and all the generic, bland, tasteless fantasy tropes you could ever hope for in a thousand lifetimes. The rest of us came to Guild Wars 2 so we could play Guild Wars 2, not World of Warcraft 2.

Caffynated.5713:

It’s kind of sad that it’s been ten years, and nobody has topped Shadowbane’s race selection.

Humans – dark age catholic European humans
Dwarves – forged from stone and metal by their god
Elves – evil people who want to enslave or kill everyone who isn’t like them (including the god who created them)
Irekei – the even more evil elves who worship the dragon and just want to watch the world burn
Nephilim – winged demons that can fly and shapeshift into mortals
Aracoix – A bad kitten Tengu that can fly.
Minotaur – they’re like Tauren, except not lame
Shades – Pseudo-undead humans
Vampires – they’re vampires
Centaur – half man, half horse, half chainsaw. That’s 150% son
Half giant – humans with the blood of giants in their ancestry
Aelfborn – lunatic half elves who are barely kept sane by magical tattoos that cover their bodies

I like the sound of these. I want!

All I know is if 80% of players hated asura and charr….Then holy kitten this game must have an INSANE amount of players….

Surely, because they are EVERYWHERE.

I do not want elves, dwarves I can handle because they’re in the lore. Otherwise, I want races that are unique to Guild Wars, so I’m open to a whole heck of a lot of races but I don’t want the same stuff everyone else always does. ..IE: Elves. If they added Elves in the ‘traditional’ sense then that might just make me quit. Koda and Largos have my vote for the next ones added.

Elves are not in the game but dummies are in LA so at least the OP got 50% of what he wanted.

If we want to grab attention of “mainstream” I don’t think elves is the right way to go. As seen here, to be honest, elves are one of the love to be hated races. With gnomes and other puntable races next.

As far as if the game needs elves or any other common fantasy races other then already exist in the GW universe I really don’t think so. If you look at the races in game, playable and not there is pretty much a little of everything. And in the future will probably be more.

On the topic of Sylvari are the elves. I can see why people would jump on that boat. But I see them more of dryads or nymphs then pure on elves. And most people that like elves say Sylvari are ugly in my past experiences so who knows.

If people want a race they can relate to, why not roll human? Something like 40% of the player base has already…

The only good elf is one that’s on fire.
Oh, and there are elves in tyria. See the picture below.
Still want to play one?
Didn’t think so.

legion.7518:

I’d guess that 80% of players dislike the Charr and Asura races

Where the hell did you pull that number from? 80% pffft…
Asura is the most fun race ever.
Have you heard their dialogs? Have you walked in Rata Sum listening to what the NPC’s are saying? Check it out
They are so freaking fun. IMO they are the best-designed class in GW2 (fun-wise).
I keep staying in Rata Sum and I keep laughing to the NPC’s lines!
I mean, how funny they look when they do a little twist every time they jump? Or how asura look like they can’t really carry the greatsword and that they will fall down, every time they move from standing still?
80%… Yeah right!

Mungrul.9358:

The only good elf is one that’s on fire.
Oh, and there are elves in tyria. See the picture below.
Still want to play one?
Didn’t think so.

I’ll see your Elf and raise you a bunch more!

legion.7518:

Jemmi.6058:

Charr were very much a race in GW1 (right from the first area in the first game) and have the longest history in this game. Asurans and Norns were added much later (EoTN) and Sylvari are new to GW2.

I would doubt that Charr were ripped from WoW as GW1 and WoW came out close to the same time and GW1 was long in development, meaning the Charr were designed before the success of WoW was apparent.

Charr make sense as a playable race due to their history in the game. They are a much more intelligent race than an Ogre would be. Ogre’s are barely sentient.

All of that said, Charr is my least favourite race.

First, Ogres are not all that dumb. In my Norn storyline I went to help the ogres and they had a leader that was quite intelligent and charming. As a hero, you can be smarter than the typical ogre grunt.

Second, even if you assume the ogres are big dummies, that can be a fun role-playing thing. I remember in EQ people that played ogres would go around and be like “me look for group, me like to smash things.” It was hilarious fun.

Also, ogre females would give a chance to have a female humanoid model that doesn’t look all cutesy or sexy.

I would play as an Ogre in a second.

Why wouldn’t it be fun to roleplay with other races? They all have great personnalities and cultural designs?

I personnaly have a Charr who loves to drink alcool and claims to have invented turrets running on Whisky, yes Charr Whisky! However, he believes it wasn’t his best invention sinds his turrets often ran dry.

My friend is a pesky little Asura who claims his mind is superior to everyone in our Guild. But we both hate salads (Sylvaris) because they taste bad and aren’t enough meaty.

On the other hand there are a few like you, who just lack imagination and wants its stereotypical race from another MMOs around, sinds you feel naked without it and can’t fit yourself in another personnality.

killcannon.2576:

zenleto.6179:

I think of charr more like gnolls, to the point I even named one Gnoll Steakcutter. Anyone play DDO? The Black Citadel is reminiscent of the Burning City, though a hell of a lot prettier, and the Burning City was a dungeon.

Is DDO any good? Always wanted to try it, but Eberon (or however it’s spelled) was kind of a turn off. Whenever I see the Citadel I always think “Death Star”.

Glad it’s not just me thinking of the Death Star!

I find it hard to play any race other than human. I’ve tried the other races but they just don’t do it for me. However, I would typically play an elf of some form in other games so I expect would do the same if they were in GW2… so plus one for Elves!

Arcos.9134:

I find it hard to play any race other than human. I’ve tried the other races but they just don’t do it for me. However, I would typically play an elf of some form in other games so I expect would do the same if they were in GW2… so plus one for Elves!

Out of curiosity, how long have you been playing (about 2 months for me)? I ask only because I was the exact same as you and just recently I decided to try a Charr and an Asura (Never thought I would roll an Asura but turns out the customisation for them is pretty cool!).

Not sure if I just got used to seeing these characters ingame and my opinion shifted or I mayeb got bored of Humans…

If they wanted elves, they wouldn’t have significantly changed the slyvari.

I like elves too, but we have the Sylvari already. Anet took the whole concept of “tree elf” very literally though.

However, having said that… bring out the Tengu!

There were plans from the very start to make the Tengu a playable race. C’mon devs, dig out that old usb stick from the office drawer in the far corner of your storage basement…. and give the Tengu life!