Guild Wars 2

Men and women are not created 100 % equal except in games.

When are we going to get gender based profession/race differences besides looks.

I would like to see a female (norm warrior of example) with different build characteristics then the current gender neutral approach.

Just stirring the pot while waiting for a dragon event.

Nice post. Expect backlash. lol

Because it would be one extra thing for the devs to have to balance, that’s why. Not to mention dividing the community in a completely new way. lol

Have to admit, you made me smile.

Theoldman.6483:

Men and women are not created 100 % equal except in games.

When are we going to get gender based profession/race differences besides looks.

Gender’s the wrong term to use as gender is a social construct.

I’d agree if you also include that men and men are not created equal. If we’re to have major differences in game why not just take the plunge and create differences for even the same race and sex, some aspects random and others based on choices in character creation. Thus the strengths and weaknesses of player characters are more lifelike in that they’re based on both nature and nurture.

Let’s also not forget that for some races such as the asura there are no secondary sex characteristics.

Even further, it would be obvious that the Norn and Charr would easily overpower all the other races regardless of sex.

sinzer.4018:

Theoldman.6483:

Men and women are not created 100 % equal except in games.

When are we going to get gender based profession/race differences besides looks.

Gender’s the wrong term to use as gender is a social construct.

I’d agree if you also include that men and men are not created equal. If we’re to have major differences in game why not just take the plunge and create differences for even the same race and sex, some aspects random and others based on choices in character creation. Thus the strengths and weaknesses of player characters are more lifelike in that they’re based on both nature and nurture.

Let’s also not forget that for some races such as the asura there are no secondary sex characteristics.

Even further, it would be obvious that the Norn and Charr would easily overpower all the other races regardless of sex.

Size is the ONLY thing that matters.

Back to my hatch back.

Because magic. Everyone’s ability is augmented by magic, any physical differences are vastly overshadowed by magical/technological augmentation.

Are you a creationist?

No ty I really don’t want to create female chars (like so many othes already do) just to see how they work differently to males.

Besides this might just have players saying silly things like “Fear my wand!” or some such nonsence….

Some games do have different stats for different genders. In The Elder Scrolls series for example each race has different stats and each gender will be slightly different within that. It can work well and as long as neither is obviously better overall I’ve never heard of anyone being offended by it.

The downside is it can limit your customisation options. If I want to make a female khajiit I have to resign myself to the fact that I’m never going to be a powerful barbarian warrior who can smash enemies into a bloody pulp with a hammer. But I can be a kick kitten * thief.

Basically you either have to pick a race and gender and then create a build around that or restrict yourself to the race and gender that suits your build. Which really bothers both hard-core min-maxers who feel forced to play a certain race/gender and casual player who feel excluded from certain builds based on what they may have thought was a purely cosmetic choice.

(Stubborn people like me can really enjoy finding a way to make the build they want fit with the character they like even if it makes the whole game harder. I almost regret that Skyrim made my kahjiit ‘Huntress’ less specialist and easier. But then my favourite GW2 professions are elementalist and engineer.)

But considering GW2 was obviously aiming to give us as much customisation as possible through things like having no big racial differences, letting us change skills and reassign traits easily to change build etc. I can’t really see them ever going down that route.

(* The forum will have changed that to ‘kick-kitten’. I feel I should state that I have never, and would never kick a kitten, unless other khajiit adults count.)

sinzer.4018:

I’d agree if you also include that men and men are not created equal. If we’re to have major differences in game why not just take the plunge and create differences for even the same race and sex, some aspects random and others based on choices in character creation. Thus the strengths and weaknesses of player characters are more lifelike in that they’re based on both nature and nurture.

Don’t at least some versions of Dungeons & Dragons do this? It’s been a while since I played the pen and paper version but I remember spending ages in the various computer games rolling and re-rolling my stats to try and get better results.

Paulytnz.7619:

No ty I really don’t want to create female chars (like so many othes already do) just to see how they work differently to males.

I honestly doubt that people create female characters “to see how they work differently to males.” Perhaps they enjoy roleplaying such a character, and that’s OK-I don’t play games to satisfy artificial societal criteria, but to have fun in my own, meaningful way.

Note that it’s not wrong to play only male characters, but I just don’t understand your statement, other than believing you are transferring real-life gender bias to the game-there’s nothing wrong with women players that choose to play male hero characters, nor viceversa, and it has nothing to do with gender curiosity, etc., as you may be thinking.

Or in short, people are different, prefer different things, and that’s totally fine.

There should be a RNG for choosing what sex your profession is.

Ok then, large (using character creation) male norn/char win over everything else. Boring game.

Theoldman.6483:

When are we going to get gender based profession/race differences besides looks.

When will they allow is to create female characters that don’t have big boobs and armor that mostly barely covers anything?

Star Ace.5207:

Paulytnz.7619:

No ty I really don’t want to create female chars (like so many othes already do) just to see how they work differently to males.

I honestly doubt that people create female characters “to see how they work differently to males.” Perhaps they enjoy roleplaying such a character, and that’s OK-I don’t play games to satisfy artificial societal criteria, but to have fun in my own, meaningful way.

Note that it’s not wrong to play only male characters, but I just don’t understand your statement, other than believing you are transferring real-life gender bias to the game-there’s nothing wrong with women players that choose to play male hero characters, nor viceversa, and it has nothing to do with gender curiosity, etc., as you may be thinking.

Or in short, people are different, prefer different things, and that’s totally fine.

I think he meant that if the genders did have different stats he would feel obligated to make female characters to try them out in spite of the fact that he has no interest in playing a female character otherwise. And then seperately (the bit in brackets) acknowledging that some people already do make female characters, even without that reason.

Iruwen.3164:

Theoldman.6483:

When are we going to get gender based profession/race differences besides looks.

When will they allow is to create female characters that don’t have big boobs and armor that mostly barely covers anything?

You already can.

My sylvari female uses the smallest body type and is very flat-chested, in some armor it looks like she doesn’t have boobs at all. It’s been a while since I looked and I don’t have an empty character slot right now but if I remember right you have the same option for humans and norn. Charr and asura don’t have boobs at all.

It’s also entirely possible to have a character covered head to toe even in light armor. If anything I’d say you need to go out of your way to get something revealing (past the starter armor that is).

Although in between the obvious extremes (like tops which are little more than a bra) there are some factors that can make a surprising difference. I wonder actually if adult female players have a bit of an advantage in this area because they’re more likely to already be aware of the difference things like neckline can make to how big your boobs look. My sylvari is never going to match my norn (who uses the biggest body type) but in the right top she certainly looks like she’s gone up a cup size at least.

sinzer.4018:

Theoldman.6483:

Men and women are not created 100 % equal except in games.

When are we going to get gender based profession/race differences besides looks.

Gender’s the wrong term to use as gender is a social construct.

Wait, what? Gender roles may be social constructs, but gender is a biological distinction regardless of what John Money tried to do to the word. You’ve been reading too much feminist propaganda.

Original RPG systems made gameplay distinctions between the sexes, by the way. Dungeons and Dragons used to take one from the Strength stat and add it to the Dexterity stat if you rolled a female. Not entirely realistic, but it meant the best archers (which relied on Dex) were always girls.

Just realised I never gave my own opinion here.

As I said above I think sometimes gender differences can work, and work well. But given the choice I’d rather keep it as a purely asthetic choice because I like having the option to mix and match things like race and gender without worrying about how it will affect my build.

I also think it makes the game easier to learn. You can make a character and try different builds without worrying that you need to delete them and start over because you can’t really get a feel for how a certain build would work when you’ve got the “wrong” gender. (Same can be said with race.)

While it’s an interesting idea that’s been done in other games, I don’t think GW2 would benefit from it.

In an RPG-MMO, you want players to be invested in their characters so that they invest more time and money while playing. I think it would detract from player engagement if they were forced to play as a sex they didn’t care for in order to get a good build.

Games like LoL allow you to go back and forth between a ton of characters without having to invest much more than time learning how to play them. Even in D&D I expect characters to die and not come back and to re-roll and all that. In an MMO you’re sticking to a character and working with it and building it up even more so than a single-player RPG because not only is there character what you’re investing time it, it’s now an avatar that represents you to others.

Plus, I feel the game would have to be a whole lot “deeper” and more realistic to make it work. The GW2 combat system just isn’t the kind that it would make sense to make that kind of distinction. It’s great when maybe having that extra +1 intelligence means you get an extra spell, but GW2 isn’t like that. If it had a more D&D-like system, maybe – but that brings about even more problems and I think GW2 does what it’s doing now well and it’s enjoyable. I like the combat as-is and play other games for different experiences.

Star Ace.5207:

Paulytnz.7619:

No ty I really don’t want to create female chars (like so many othes already do) just to see how they work differently to males.

I honestly doubt that people create female characters “to see how they work differently to males.” Perhaps they enjoy roleplaying such a character, and that’s OK-I don’t play games to satisfy artificial societal criteria, but to have fun in my own, meaningful way.

Note that it’s not wrong to play only male characters, but I just don’t understand your statement, other than believing you are transferring real-life gender bias to the game-there’s nothing wrong with women players that choose to play male hero characters, nor viceversa, and it has nothing to do with gender curiosity, etc., as you may be thinking.

Or in short, people are different, prefer different things, and that’s totally fine.

I didn’t say there was anything wrong with it, I said I would rather not. If we had different stats/skills like the opening post (wow changed to “o kitten” for op?) is suggesting then I would have to test those as I like to fully explore all classes/races etc.

Tinfoil hat much?

tolkien.6317:

sinzer.4018:

Theoldman.6483:

Men and women are not created 100 % equal except in games.

When are we going to get gender based profession/race differences besides looks.

Gender’s the wrong term to use as gender is a social construct.

Wait, what? Gender roles may be social constructs, but gender is a biological distinction regardless of what John Money tried to do to the word. You’ve been reading too much feminist propaganda.

Original RPG systems made gameplay distinctions between the sexes, by the way. Dungeons and Dragons used to take one from the Strength stat and add it to the Dexterity stat if you rolled a female. Not entirely realistic, but it meant the best archers (which relied on Dex) were always girls.

How do you explain human societies with more than two genders then?
Sex is a biological distinction (male, female and occasionally ambiguous) but gender is a matter of identity and roles.

Anyway, my initial post still stands, if we’re to have stat differences why not make it extensive and not just limited to sex?