Guild Wars 2

“What better way to teach acceptance and tolerance than to put a transgender character front and center in a main story? The story could detail the struggles that a transgender person in the world of Tyria”

I play GW2 to escape the real world, I do not need a lesson on acceptance and tolerance, im quite happy with my acceptance and tolerance levels, I want a storyline to be about GW lore not sexual orientation.

Op, if you want a transgender to be starring in the next adventure perhaps you should make YOUR character a transgender. Why does this have to be forced on everyone else?

If they want to do this I hope that the new character’s gender identity is not the reason they’re in the spotlight. DA3 had a very well received trans character, you found out about it if you dig in the story but it’s not the main reason your character respects/cares about her.
They could introduce a new character that adds something to the team and you’d eventually find out – in a tangential not-center-of-the-plot way – that the character is transgender and had to face some struggles. However, if the only defining aspect of this new character is the fact that they’re transgender you’d be doing a disservice to the people you want to represent.
Take Taimi for example: she’s the genious of the team, she fills a required spot and her dissability is simply part of the character, but it’s not the one and only defining facet. Now that’s good representation.

Which is an agenda and makes the story shallow

Dashingsteel.3410:

Which is an agenda and makes the story shallow

Not if “Anet’s writers are top notch. They’re able to include homosexual characters into the Living Story without having an agenda pushed. That’s what I’d like for Sya as well.” kitten said…

I though the Kas and Jory storyline was shallow as well. The dialogue between them was awful.

if anets writers are top notch then they will write top notch content that evolves the lore of the game.

Raziel.4216:

If they want to do this I hope that the new character’s gender identity is not the reason they’re in the spotlight. DA3 had a very well received trans character, you found out about it if you dig in the story but it’s not the main reason your character respects/cares about her.
They could introduce a new character that adds something to the team and you’d eventually find out – in a tangential not-center-of-the-plot way – that the character is transgender and had to face some struggles. However, if the only defining aspect of this new character is the fact that they’re transgender you’d be doing a disservice to the people you want to represent.
Take Taimi for example: she’s the genious of the team, she fills a required spot and her dissability is simply part of the character, but it’s not the one and only defining facet. Now that’s good representation.

Yeah that sounds cool. I think Taimi is a great example as well. If Sya is fleshed out beyond “token transgender” I really don’t see why not. I don’t think Anet necessarily has to “hide” her sexuality for the player to dig in the story for though. But that could work I think. But yeah, flesh her out have her add something to the team. Anet did it before, they can do it again.

Whatever opinion people have of SP I hope at least this get’s through to Anet.

When the stated goal of op is to “educate” the masses I think there is an agenda there.

Dashingsteel.3410:

When the stated goal of op is to “educate” the masses I think there is an agenda there.

Pretty much the definition of an agenda in this context.

Dashingsteel.3410:

When the stated goal of op is to “educate” the masses I think there is an agenda there.

Fair enough. I admit I haven’t read any of OP’s posts safe for the original post (and I only skimmed that one because Penguin posts to create heated discussions), and so if he said that, yup, he has an agenda. My point was that there is no overarching “gay agenda” or any similar agenda, which keeps being brought up.

Social Activism of any sort has an agenda.

Yes, it seems we have a divided crowd here on this topic. That is why ops idea is a bad one. Introducing Sya into the adventure would be divisive. Why turn off one portion of your customers just to pander to another portion of customers?

Dashingsteel.3410:

Yes, it seems we have a divided crowd here on this topic. That is why ops idea is a bad one. Introducing Sya into the adventure would be divisive. Why turn off one portion of your customers just to pander to another portion of customers?

Anet literally does that with every decision/change they make and can’t make any change without doing so.

Dante.1508:

If you want to get technical all Asura are transgenders because Anet forces all the females to wear male costumes…

Being transexual (I will always hate the stupid term “Transgender”, because it implies the problem isn’t a neuro-physiological one) and being transvestite are completely different things. The asura and charr simply happen to have a unisex fashion sense due to very little sexual dimorphism in their physiology.

Yes, Anet does do that with every change. I am saying they don’t have to turn off anyone. Just don’t implement this idiotic Sya idea.

MadRabbit.3179:

So is there any context in which a transgender character or a homosexual character can be included in a video game without it being a SJW agenda?

With respect to Sya, she could be brought into the story in a meaningful way.

If the writers decide that as part of S3, there is a situation in which a community gets ravaged or something (something going on with the Dominion of Winds or passage opening to Elona or something) and then spec out whatever happens from there, when deciding how to flesh out this section, bringing in Tyrian aid workers might make sense. And from there, since it fits the situation, Sya could be a prominent character.

That would not be an issue, as far as I’m concerned.

The issue would be:
1) The story being specifically engineered to create the situation above JUST to get her into the picture.
or
2) Her showing up and being important to a scenario it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to. She’s not exactly known to be a super-close friend or acquaintance to anyone relevant, so you’d need a good reason why she is suddenly in the spotlight; same would be true for, say, Wild-Eye Miller or Owain.

That said, with how Verdant Brink just felt like a tonne of cameos for the sake of cameos, I don’t expect much from the writers/designers. The writers actually seem to be quite good when it comes to everything but the actual game, which is a shame. I still remember the pre-release lore blogs and whatnot. :-(

As for Jory and Kasmeer… The problem with them is that, missing the latter half of S1, their relationship seems to be the thing about them I notice more than anything else due to the writing. It doesn’t feel natural given the situations they’re in that they would speak as they do. Granted, no other couple has the prominence and screen-time they do, so it may just be that ANet can’t portray romance well in general, but eh… Not a fan of their handling in S2.

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

This isn’t equality. Not when you judge a group by the label they wear. It’s wrong. It discounts the person wearing the label.

After you tell people the truth, they’ll label you forever and it doesn’t matter if you’re genius or sport master, or king, queen etc. You’ll have your label till you’re dead. So if Sya is a great mesmer who can fight and make illusions even better than Anise, and also if she fought in the LA battles and saved tons of people then it actually doesn’t matter now – She told her story, she’s trans now.
That shows how some people around us have simply minds and intellectual skills.

Malediktus.9250:

I disagree. 90%+ of the wars take place for economical reasons, the rest for religious motives. I bet less than 0.1% of the wars start because of missunderstandings.

Religion is one big misunderstanding

Here is a hypothetical, if you can grasp it.

“Jane, I want you on our team. You have great people skills, your work is way above average, and our firm needs people like you.”

Or

“Jane, I want you on our team. Our firm really needs a Transgender”

Or another hypothetical Convo.

“Sya, now that you are transgender we need you to lead the next Dragon assault”

Sya replies “When I was male you wouldn’t give me the time of day. Why don’t you kiss my fine female posterior. Jerk.”

I’m pretty sure people want to be judged on their qualities, not their category.

eNeRgOo.5463:

Malediktus.9250:

I disagree. 90%+ of the wars take place for economical reasons, the rest for religious motives. I bet less than 0.1% of the wars start because of missunderstandings.

Religion is one big misunderstanding

Are you insulting religious people right there?!

Malediktus.9250:

eNeRgOo.5463:

Malediktus.9250:

I disagree. 90%+ of the wars take place for economical reasons, the rest for religious motives. I bet less than 0.1% of the wars start because of missunderstandings.

Religion is one big misunderstanding

Are you insulting religious people right there?!

If they hurt other people because of their beliefs then yeah I do!

Anet’s track record for ‘good writing’ isn’t a very pleasant one for those who are falling back on that hope. One need only remember S1 and HOT. Core and LS2 are of course still debatable.
Thus, the likelihood of a forced character being injected in naturally is laughable.

If the priority of creating a character in a story is all about their race/gender/orientation as a focus then you are doing it wrong.

The focus should always be about making the character likable and relatable. That is what makes a good character and what people enjoy seeing, more so than what they are or look like.

This is why Majory was well done IMO. We got to know her for who she was and what she was like and more. I’m pretty sure most never questioned her orientation beforehand either until Kas became a role. She didn’t scream GAY the moment she arrived. Nor was it the only thing her personality and purpose revolved around and even when revealed that she was so, neither of those changed.
She was a respectable character and one whose flavour alot of people enjoyed.

That’s essentially the only way this would ever work with a trans character without it causing a red flag for most people. People literally should never even think that they are trans. (Especially since they WANT to be seen as their true gender. Not as anything else.) They should be thinking about the character, the person they are trying to connect with. As they should.

Let’s have an example here, we get an NPC named Marcus join in. Charismatic, a tactician that knows good strategies and knows how to rally the troops from having a militant family. Making him an ideal advisor for the Commander at tackling dragon issues and rebuilding the Pact. Lighthearted in his personality, warms up to others quick nicely and even enjoys making playful jabs at Lord Faren about his quirks. Following up, we learn about his past in the militia and training which could be noted on being tough but the willingness to do good. Perhaps even with motivation of doing so for a lost loved one.
After long battle strats with the commander and engaging in a few fights, they need to have an audience with say, Queen Jennah about the rising threats.
“We need to see Queen Jennah, it’s an urgent matter.”
“Who are you?”
“Marcus, Son of General Renard.”
“Didn’t the General only have a daughter?”
“He did. We need inside now, I have the Commander with me. It’s concerning X.”

Boom, that’s it. A small line and you get a hint they are trans. They continue to move on their their task at hand at the meeting without prattling on. No big deals made about them being so, it being simply being an understanding and moving on after that. Certainly not before a character is established that is notable and relatable whilst aiming to be likable before the issue with them being different is even a thought. That and after that, there’s no reason for it to even be brought up a second time or pushed further.
That is far more likely in my opinion to get positive results in accepting a person than simply shoe-horning a random Whispers Agent with no real background, personality or merit into a story merely for the sake of putting neon lights over them saying “IM TRANS”. It devalues them doing stuff like that. Disrespectful and certainly only causes ire if they become a notable role.

As a trans person myself, I will tell you all that representation matters so much.

It means that we’re not being ignored or swept under the rug as something too hideous or “upsetting” to include. It means we’re human too, and that we’re worth thinking about.

Seeing Jory and Kass get a story part meant so much to me as a lesbian. It meant that we weren’t just objects to be fawned over, we weren’t just fetish points – We were heroes too. Caithe and Faolin’s story arc broke my heart on the other hand, because it fell into a lot of bad tropes and issues that a lot of other media falls into that tells us that we can’t have happy endings or that our relationships are toxic, etc.

I’d love to see more trans NPCs. It means so much to me, and to a lot of other trans people. It means we’re wanted and that we exist in these fantasy worlds where we get shunned out a lot. Look at some of the replies to the thread, for example. People saying they’d stop playing if there were more trans representation. It’s a way of telling us that we’re completely unwanted.

So when a company does include us, especially in spite of that negativity, it means a lot.