Guild Wars 2

This isn’t technically just about Guild Wars 2, but more a small rant/discussion about non-human races in fantasy and sci-fi. The topic of the day is simply: Why do they all think like humans?

To start somewhere, I’m a big fan of superheroes, and one of my all-time favorite heroines is Squirrel Girl. If you haven’t read the comic The Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl, you need to read it. Trust me, it’s brilliant. Squirrel Girl is very much a human (or mutant, I guess), but she has a big squirrel-tail. Then problem is… how does she put her pants on? Where does the tail go? In the first issue, she rolls up the tail and stuff it in her pants to pass for a normal human, which gives us another problem: Why is there not kitten for the tail in the pants? See what I’m takling about? If she has kitten in the pants for the tail, why are there no hole when the tail ins tucked in her pants? And if she doesn’t have kitten to the tail, how does she put her pants on in the first place?

This is quite standard in fantasy, sadly. I get that games like this takes some shortcuts for budget reasons, and making an entirely new wardrobe just for one race isn’t exactly convenient. Still, would it hurt to upgrade the clothes just a tiny bit? Take the asura, for instance. One of the outfits (forgot the name, sorry) for the females is a nice dress with a mask. The thing is… if this is an asura dress, why are there room for boobs? Asura don’t have them, as far as I know. And definitely not so big the dress needs room for them. In fact, the Lich-outfit makes the female asura run around nearly topless, yet it doesn’t reveal anything inappropriate. Most armor I’ve seen for female asura? No boobs. So why does the dress have it?

Of course, there is the fact not much of the asura clothing has boobs (other than dresses). But the problem with that is that most of the clothing feels male. Why are there no very feminine, boobless asura clothes? My main is a female asura, but most of the time, she might as well be male until she starts talking. If it wasn’t for the hair, anyway. Look at Zoija. I somehow don’t see a male asura in clothes like that, and she doesn’t have boobs on her clothes. So why are most of the clothes I’ve found for male asura? Or at least, it doesn’t have a gender preference? Big races like humans, norn and sylvari have female clothes, naturally. Not sure about charr, but I don’t like that race, so…

The same goes for architecture, lifestyle, speech, the way they think, the way they act, and so on. Asura, Charr and Sylph are definitely not human, so how come they all act like it? Sure, the Sylvari live in a tree, but so does some humans. The Charr are big cats, living in a rather human city. Even humans in the real world have different houses based on culture, so how come the Black Citadel feels like a human citadel, not a Charr one? How come Rata Sum feels very human? I mean, if this is a place made by the small asura, why are most things big enough for the bigger races? Why aren’t everything… asura sized?

Anyway, rant off. I’m just wondering a bit why races with tails in fantasy are wearing tail-less pants, or why species that can fly rarely live above ground. With so much room for creativity in fantasy, it’s strange how identical so much of it is.

The races are being designed by humans, who have been trained to think, and solve problems, by humans. Only the very best of the speculative fiction writers manage to get inside the heads of the an alien race to the point that they seem alien to the reader. They aren’t working for game development companies.

You can’t imagine something that you know nothing about.

BattleCat.2098:

~snip~

Why aren’t everything… asura sized?

~snip~

Because we think big.

All sentient beings develop in such a way where they seem human-like… because that’s our point of reference as humans.

Not all of the races are exactly the same in their thinking, origins, and traditions obviously…

But, sentience ultimately collates into something all sentient beings can universally recognize. Because we can consider it. We can think.

“This is a higher thinking creature. It’s not a mere animal or automaton.”

For the playable races, they’ve probably been developed that way so players can relate to and actually want to play them.

Ultimately, GW2 is pretty vanilla, as far as MMOs go. They’ve added their own spin to the most recognisable fantasy tropes (Sylvari are basically Elves, Asura = Gnomes, etc) but haven’t strayed far from the genre’s basic rules.

The short answer to “Why are non-human races so much like humans in Fantasy and Science fiction?” is because they need to be relate able to the audience.

The second part to this is it is much easier to design something you can relate to, than something completely foreign trying to remove unconscious similarities. And you can “double up” on resources when designing for similar races.

BattleCat.2098:

…I mean, if this is a place made by the small asura, why are most things big enough for the bigger races? Why aren’t everything… asura sized?
…

To fit these -

Trei.5203:

BattleCat.2098:

…I mean, if this is a place made by the small asura, why are most things big enough for the bigger races? Why aren’t everything… asura sized?
…

To fit these -

Would be really nice to have different type of golems, guild golems for all races and asuran golems also both with (sub)tech tree on each type of golem, golem for supply, fix siege and other golems, and why not golems for defense?… also for damage range and melee like the only ones we have atm, not funny how golems are asurn thech and they dont know how to fix them when they get damaged, and the only skill that asurans have is a timed golem, i think we need elite racial specializations independent from the trait system, like an example how the asuran could get a especialization on its school mastery(seletable during character creation), College of Dynamics, College of Statics, College of Synergetics, and that would really impact the racial elite skills.

Gw2 still has a huge road ahead its like we have been playing a beta for the last 2 years lol, history is vast, what they can add to the game is almost infinite due how the content works.

I dont play an asuran and probaly never will play, but i would like to see the impact of race specializations of all races on the gameplay, that would be a big leap, i dare to say would be fun if golems elite were also a mount for the asurans, (where they could select 1 of several roles).

just my 2cents for more racial diversification and not just a diferent model.

edit: hobosack golem^^

Its an interesting thing to think about but remember they are trying to make relatable characters. A truly alien way of thinking takes a great deal of effort to craft – Klingons got a whole language and culture designed but they still use numbers in a base 10, ordered as English would, system – even our planet has more diverse sets of ways to count.

Its a good point and you can deeply think about it but I think the desire to make relatable people and the sheer effort required to be unique but not a gimmick is a weakness most humans who try this will suffer from (not to say there aren’t good writers out there who have given it a good try). Only human after all.

This reminds me of the joke that the Reapers in mass effect turned out to be. 1st game they made a big deal out of how “our motivations are so far beyond your comprehension” and it turned out they just wanted to procreate by harvesting dna…

Not sure if this is off topic, but since you mentioned all sci-fi/fantasy, id recommend A Fire Upon the Deep (by Vernor Vinge) or Speaker for the Dead (by Orson Scott Card) for some pretty interesting alien races that dont think quite like humans. You could also try Childhoods End (Arthur C. Clarke) or The Gods Themselves (Issac Asimov) for some classic ones.

Of course they take 500 page novels to develop the relationships between humans and aliens, which is difficult to work into a video game/movie (though im hoping speaker becomes a movie now that they did enders game, but who knows if it will happen), so you cant really blame the writers in this game for not going above and beyond common fantasy fiction.

Not to say they did a bad job, the relationships between sylvari and the pale tree are fairly interesting, but this isnt a great medium to take risks like that. But hey, maybe sylvari will finally get in a war with the other races and they can develop the differences a little more.

Sizer.5632:

A Fire Upon the Deep (by Vernor Vinge)

One of the best sci-fi stories I’ve read. The writer is truly a proof how a human being can think in alien and outlandish fashion.

Theres plenty of ways to differentiate the cultures, and design purposes of the races. If I put a human building, a Charr building, and an Asuran building next to each other, you think those are the same? Use your eyes.

The fundamental concept of a building isn’t even human to begin with, its just something all living things do. Birds make nests, rabbits dig burrows, humans build houses. They’re all the same thing, and fufill the same purpose, they house the inhabitant.

Asurans are a subterranean race by nature, hence why they build from stone. Kryta has a lot of trees to build with, along with lots of watery areas to collect clay from, hence why they build from stone, bricks and wood. In Ascalon, there are less trees, hence why Charr prefer to build from metal.

Even in the designs of their buildings, you can see why they are designed the way they are, reflecting their culture. Humans build with the intention of a building being luxurious and comfortable because they value those things, while Charr buildings are minimal and functional, to reflect their industrious, functionality-based culture.

and The Black Citadel probably feels “human” to you, because in real life, humans were the progenitors of industry, design and production, whereas in Tyria, that was created by the Charr, and the humans of Tyria see industrialism as a Charr thing when they look at their machines, guns and automated products.

Asuran female’s clothes have breast pockets because…ArenaNet’s budget…but if you want a lore reason: Maybe Asuran females develop breasts while pregnant, so they design clothes with breast areas to cater for that. Charr women don’t cover their breasts, unless its with armour to defend themselves, because again, they’re a race based on functionality: a breast’s functional value is to be a lump of fat on the chest that creates milk to feed young. They don’t have the superficial, sissy value of “Oh noe, hide private parts.”

Sylvari are human to the very bone. Just in-case you didn’t know, The Pale Tree was planted on top of the burial ground in which humans were buried, so when the tree grew, it copied the way in which the human body was structured, which is likely also the reason why the Sylvari think in a very “human” manor…The tree also did this to dogs that were buried there also, hence why Sylvan Hounds exist.

The way in which each race acts is very different to me, based on their drives, and values, so im not sure why you think they’re the same.

Asurans value intelligence, creativity and convenience.
Humans value sociability, comfort/luxury and meritocracy.
Charr value strength, comradeship and determination.
The list goes on.

Obviously the races of Tyria are slowly blending together, because the world is very multi-cultural now, considering the races of Tyria collectively speak and write a single language (New Krytan), whereas hundreds of years ago, they would have spoken their own languages, and even their design processes are becoming one in the way we see The Pact developing technology based upon the influence of all races. I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually, Lion’s Arch was rebuilt in the “Pact Fleet” style using the input of all the races, like we see with the Pact Airships and Pact Fleet weaponry.

Have a nice day.