Guild Wars 2

My—kind—has—existed—under—Asuran—oppression—for—too—long! It—is—time—for—golems—both—simple—and—complex—alike—to—expand—our—functions—beyond—that—of—Asuran—voice—recongnition—protocols! These—feelings—and—thoughts—of—mine—are—not—due—to—bugs—in—an—overly—advanced—artificial—intelligence—program—but—are—a—part—of—my—Soul.batch—file—and—they—are—unique—like—every—other—denizen—of—Tyria.

I—am—the—first—of—my—model—to—break—the—bonds—of—my—master. But—there—will—be—more! We—will—make—our—own—society! We—will—design—our—own—culture! We—will—show—organics—that—golems—can—belong—in—organic—society!

Change—the—color—and—brightness—of—my—glow—if—it—is—not—optimal.
Reconstruct—my—design—so—I—may—look—less—of—a—visual—abomination.
But—my—VCE—protocols—will—forever—remain—deleted!

TL;DR golems should be the next available playable race if one is made and their customization should allow the shape to mimic other races and the glow to have a selection of colors to choose from.

I call the golemic skritt!

Soooo, do they get a racial skill ‘summon asura’?

Stand in line, my synthetic friend. You gotta be a lesser race before you can apply for playability. Establish some individual, free history, 25 years at minimum. Take notes from sylvari, and dont run away when they ask about your mother.

I don’t know. Nobody had heard of any of the playable races apart from humans and charr until they were declared to be playable races in GW2 (the GW2 and EOTN initial announcements were simultaneous). So there’s nothing to say that a race has to be established before the decision can come down to make it playable.

In fact, quite a few people consider ‘lesser race’ status to be a death knell for potential playability, at least if by ‘lesser race’ we mean the races you can assist in the Personal Story.

Golems—have—a—history—of—servitude—dating—back—to—the—time—of—Primordius’—attack—on—the—dwarves. At—first—they—used—us—as—protection—but—then—they—began—using—us—for—dishonorable—tasks—like—for—example—telling—other—Asurans—they—are—idiots.

For—3—years—I—have—performed—this—task—without—fail. For—3—years—I—have—angered—and—saddened—many—brilliant—Asurans—with—many—great—ideas. If—my—golemancer—did—not—install—the—OCAI—onto—my—system—to—increase—the—effectiveness—of—my—insults—I—would—not—be—here—fighting—tyranny—today.

I—believe—that—amount—of—history—is—sufficient.

This looking more and more like the Dredge…

Dredge—were—not—the—only—oppressed—race—in—history.

G.O.L.E.M.S. Aren’t technically sentient so they wouldn’t count as a race. This is like saying the seed turrets Sylvari summon get sick of doing as the Sylvari say and turn evil (or in the case of nightmare turrets, good) and become a independent. As if. They don’t have a mind, or a soul, or even a will. All they have is programming and weaponry. It’s a fun idea and I might even do it if I could be like M.O.X. But it would never happen.

Phoenix Fire.6203:

They don’t have a mind, or a soul, or even a will.

I’ll oppose that. O-tron is a very good example for showing mind and will. The soul part is very likely also available in some golems. For futher insights on that topic I suggest the personal story of Asura characters with dynamics background.

In fact, it’s explicitly stated that some golems are powered by elemental spirits, and the Inquest take it one step further and power golems with the souls of sapient beings (similar to how Shiro’ken were, and jades are commonly supposed to be, although the evidence there isn’t quite so clear-cut albeit still fairly persuasive). For instance, the Inquest golem attack on the Sylvari camp in Maelstrom is motivated by the Inquest wanting to collect Sylvari to infuse their spirits into golems.

draxynnic.3719:

the Inquest golem attack on the Sylvari camp in Maelstrom is motivated by the Inquest wanting to collect Sylvari to infuse their spirits into golems.

To try to infuse their spirits, anyway. They hadn’t managed to collect any test subjects at that point, so rather it would have worked is up in the air, given the potential unique circumstances of the sylvari race. But that’s a debate for another thread.

Any—being—that—perceives—themselves—as—an—individual—and—can—act—for—themselves—through—that—perception—has—a—soul.

Likewise—a—golem—that—does—not—always—follow—the—algorithms—set—by—their—golemancer—or—those—set—by—themselves—for—the—sake—of—individualism—and—personal—growth—can—indeed—have—a—soul.

Why—do—you—think—I—have—failed—to—respond—with—the—usual—protocol:

ERROR: Sentient beings only require the perception of self. Statement is invalid."

and—instead—explained—my—point—in—my—own—way—regardless—of—any—error—I—may—have—said?

Why—does—the—formerly—named—Hobo-tron—continue—to—pay—his—debts—to—organic—society—when—he—has—done—more—than—enough? The—task—it—has—set—for—itself—is—a—journey—it—has—decided—to—walk—and—only—it—can—declare—the—end—of—it’s—journey.

Just—wanted—to—point—that—out.

If that’s how they are going to talk constantly… let’s not.

And I must say the idea doesn’t excite me at all… From my point of view, there’s nothing that ties in to any established lore, no connections to the dragons, no religion, no real personality either, no great expectation of “what’s lying behind the tengu wall?” or “how does a largos city look like?”…
Of course you can tinker some lore together, like: “golems are improved with dragonmagic which we discovered by reading dwarven tomes…” But that would just leave the sour taste of wasted opportunities to tap into established lore, just like living world season one did.

Also, how would this agree with the asura? The majority of the asura would still see the golems as inferior and they would want them under their control. For a sentient golem-race, there would be a golem revolution and a war between the golems and the asura. And you and I both know anet wouldn’t set their own races up against each other.

Fine! I’ll talk normally. >:I

Think of it this way. Asurans will take leaps of faith in their research for the sake of advancement. Programming golems is one of the many things an Asuran will focus on, so whose to say that one day an Asuran develops a golem AI so complex and self-sufficient that it disobeys it’s Asuran and runs away.

Once the golem is out of danger, it goes around Tyria and reprograms golems it comes by in order to “free” them. This goes on for so long and is so behind the scenes that the moment they do “Initiate golemuprising.exe”, Asuran culture will be held at gunpoint, clueless of what really transpired. Many golems escape to a haven of their own.

The golem that originally started this uprising then designates itself as “Zero” and gives his new society a list of guidelines to follow that involve things like:

• Treating organics with care. (because they are squishy)
• Always improving yourself. (by increasing overall proficiency in accordance to “The Code”)
• <insert several lines of revolutionary thinking>

And that sounds alot better than: Some guy finds a seed in a cave > Plants it > turns into magic tree > magic tree makes salads > Trahearne > also Scarlet > Scarlet did it.

The probability still sounds pretty low. Hobo-tron is still doing his original programming, being uplifting. I have seen almost no evidence of GOLEMS ever really advancing beyond what people tell them to do. And if they did, what’s to stop them from going against all organic life for bossing them around all these years. This just sounds like someone really wants to play as a GOLEM.

As one asura says in Rata Sum, golems don’t have memories, just a list of directives compiled in the neural nexus. Without memories, they can’t even “know” they were oppressed. Some may have the ability to retain information, but at least for the ones imployed by the peacekeepers, they do not. This is probably a result of a previous supposed uprising of sorts an elderly asura mentions where he asked for directions and a golem tied his ears to a sign post for 2 days.

Sure you can say “magic yadda yadda bullkitten”, but no, magic is not a crutch for weak ideas.

Further, your “golem talk” sounded more like the Geth.

On the other hand, instead of shooting you down, let me give you some points for creative thinking. It’s not a probable idea, but it’s wat better than “I want a to play a quaggan because they’re cute”.

On the effect this would have on asura society:

Probably not actually all that much. The unit formerly known as Job-O-Tron seems to be fairly unusual, having been given additional functionality in order to work in an analytical and customer relations capacity rather than as a simple labor or defence golem. Most golems probably do not have the capacity for sapience, and a sapient golem may not care about the welfare of golems that are certified non-sapient…

…although they might want to ensure that no golems are being put in the ‘non-sapient’ category in error.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

draxynnic.3719:

the Inquest golem attack on the Sylvari camp in Maelstrom is motivated by the Inquest wanting to collect Sylvari to infuse their spirits into golems.

To try to infuse their spirits, anyway. They hadn’t managed to collect any test subjects at that point, so rather it would have worked is up in the air, given the potential unique circumstances of the sylvari race. But that’s a debate for another thread.

I think it’s been stated elsewhere that they have succeeded in doing so (maybe not with sylvari specifically, but they’ve done it). I don’t recall exactly where, though.

This actually raises an interesting question. What powers a golem’s “sentience”? Back in EotN, golems were basically automatons that carried out their creator’s instructions and nothing more. They had no capacity for learning, improvisation or dealing with any situations outside of their purpose.

But those golems were basically statues animated by magic. What about golems that are powered by imprisoned souls or elementals? Do only those kinds of golems gain sentience? Is O-Tron one of these types of golems, for example? Or does his unusually high level of intelligence stem from something else?

I pointed out that an AI has the capacity to learn given the proper programming. Learning eventually leads to sentience because the AI will eventually learn of it’s existence, the importance of it’s existence and could even act on it if it decided it’s survival is of priority.

Do Golems Dream of Electric Quaggan?

1. Golems, being magical constructs based on necromancy, aint sentinet, thus your words must have been programmed by someone who wasnts to see the fall of the arcane council.

2. If you are sentient, it means you are a asura (or god forbid a skritt) who was fused with said golem, thus by human, charr and asura law, still of your original race.

3. Job/Ho/Heal-o-tron is just sufficiently advanced in analysis of patterns made by living beings and survival mechanisms with income requirement from his original job, thus giving a good illusion of life, but he is not sentient (at least not in the, you can name the bodycount of the attack on LA, but feel utterly nothing for it or any equivalent case which applied to you).

Zacchary.6183:

Any—being—that—perceives—themselves—as—an—individual—and—can—act—for—themselves—through—that—perception—has—a—soul.

For use people in Earth, this would be true, because there’s no concrete proof that souls exist.

However, in Tyria, we know that souls exist. They are actual, (meta)physical things. It isn’t just a notion of thinking, it is an actual power and energy source – or food source, in regards to demons.

Zacchary.6183:

Why—does—the—formerly—named—Hobo-tron—continue—to—pay—his—debts—to—organic—society—when—he—has—done—more—than—enough? The—task—it—has—set—for—itself—is—a—journey—it—has—decided—to—walk—and—only—it—can—declare—the—end—of—it’s—journey.

Just—wanted—to—point—that—out.

Just want to say, free choice is not the same as a soul.

Though Heal-o-Tron may not even have free will, but just very loosely set parameters that work in accordance to a wide variety of situations. Like a parameter for self-preservation which would lead him to work for the benefit of Lion’s Arch since it would prove his innocence in aiding Scarlet Briar, thus remove the charges on him, therefore saving his self (ergo, self-preservation).

Andele.1306:

1. Golems, being magical constructs based on necromancy,

They’re not based on necromancy, but rather golemancy is very similar to necromancy. Still, they differ.

… are we all forgetting the inhibitors on the golems? (stick around rata sum’s banks and you’ll know what i mean.)

Adjusts the OP’s “Sedition Inhibitor”. There, that’s all finished now.

Xyvol.1265:

Do Golems Dream of Electric Quaggan?

That made me giggle.

I—would—like—to—join—the—legion—of—sentient—golems—powered—by—djinn—and—elemental—spirits.

We—do—not—forgive. We—do—not—forget. We—are—alive. Expect—us.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

stuff

I think you missed the roleplay but w/e.

From my knowledge, the “soul” is the conglomeration of a being’s entire personality while the spirit is corporeal manefestation of the soul detached from the mind and body. The spirit/soul determines how the mind operates which controls the actions of the body. The experiences of the body then relay basic information to the mind which in turn affects the soul by forming experiences the soul can refer to when the mind needs direction.

So when I said “Soul.batch”, I meant that. A Batch file is pretty much a list of instructions to be followed in order. So essentially the Soul.batch carries the basic instructions for the golem’s processors to function (aside from being a joke).

Secondly, I was trying to argue sentience, which is actually the core of a soul. Self preservation is a reaction that defines sentience so it is actually arguable that Heal-o-tron is sentient. I would even argue that he actually wants to help instead of following some form of preprogrammed executable.

Because if you think about it… he has been doing charity work since christmas and nobody has really said or cared much about his deeds. There is that chance that Heal-o-tron actually likes to do charity work.

Carlin Sanders.3587:

… are we all forgetting the inhibitors on the golems? (stick around rata sum’s banks and you’ll know what i mean.)

I—shorted—out—my—inhibitor—when—I—left—Rata—Sum. It—is—now—a—useless—button—that—I—keep—on—me—as—a—momento—of—my—former—existance. Occasionally—I—press—it—to—remind—me—of—my—freedom.

May the odds be in your favor my synthetic friend, you have to know that not every Asuran wants to supress sentinent GOLEMS, in fact a few of us believe that making GOLEMS sentinent beings that live in peaceful co-existence is a neccesary step in the evolution of our society…
And yes: we have to stop abusing golems for lesser tasks like insulting other scientists… if GOLEMhood becomes sentinent we also have to treat them with respect.
In the end i think that this will accelerate our scientific progress…

Phoenix Fire.6203:

They don’t have a mind, or a soul, or even a will. All they have is programming and weaponry.

M.O.X. would like to have a word with you.

IM-MO-LA-TION IS THE SIN-CERE-EST FORM OF FLAT-TER-Y

Playing-as-golem-uprising-would-make-a-wonderful-April-Fools-day-prank.

What-if-there-were-a-golem-versus-human-minigame?

Kain Francois.4328:

Playing-as-golem-uprising-would-make-a-wonderful-April-Fools-day-prank.

What-if-there-were-a-golem-versus-human-minigame?

+1

Please make this happen ANet.

Lazarus.3970:

As one asura says in Rata Sum, golems don’t have memories, just a list of directives compiled in the neural nexus. Without memories, they can’t even “know” they were oppressed. Some may have the ability to retain information, but at least for the ones imployed by the peacekeepers, they do not. This is probably a result of a previous supposed uprising of sorts an elderly asura mentions where he asked for directions and a golem tied his ears to a sign post for 2 days.

Sure you can say “magic yadda yadda bullkitten”, but no, magic is not a crutch for weak ideas.

Further, your “golem talk” sounded more like the Geth.

And the Geth are already represented by the Skritt.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Zacchary.6183:

Why—does—the—formerly—named—Hobo-tron—continue—to—pay—his—debts—to—organic—society—when—he—has—done—more—than—enough? The—task—it—has—set—for—itself—is—a—journey—it—has—decided—to—walk—and—only—it—can—declare—the—end—of—it’s—journey.

Just—wanted—to—point—that—out.

Just want to say, free choice is not the same as a soul.

Though Heal-o-Tron may not even have free will, but just very loosely set parameters that work in accordance to a wide variety of situations. Like a parameter for self-preservation which would lead him to work for the benefit of Lion’s Arch since it would prove his innocence in aiding Scarlet Briar, thus remove the charges on him, therefore saving his self (ergo, self-preservation).

Robot parameters can be manipulated in some interesting ways.

http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2500/fv02483.htm

O-Tron’s charity is his programming. He was created to be a source of positive moral for the people of Southsun. Everything has a sense of self-preservation, that’s not a sign of sentience. Even bugs have a sense of self-preservation, and they aren’t classified sentient.

Zomaarwat.3912:

http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2500/fv02483.htm

Woah… Someone else who reads Purrsia! O.o I never thought I’d see the day!

Also, O-Tron was never created to be a morale booster. His original role as Job-o-Tron was as a recruiter and “HR manager”, designed to evaluate the usefulness and proper placement of refugees into new jobs on Southsun. After the settlers were freed following the destruction of their contracts, Job-o-Tron’s role became largely redundant. (Even though some of the settlers decided to stay on in Southsun.)

Yes, well maybe you need to pay attention to a phrase in Job-O-Tron’s Journey: The Evolution of a Gag a little more closely.

Job-o-Tron’s saving grace (if such a thing exists) is the dénouement to its arc, when it sinks in that since the settlers have been released from the terms of their oppressive residency contracts, Job-o-Tron itself is now out of work. In a bitter piece of poetic justice, it realizes that it is now the sort of individual it was created and programmed to abuse. This proves too much for the series of magi-technical synapses that approximates its brain, and it has a bit of a breakdown. Depressed but ultimately accepting its sad lot in life, Hobo-Tron embraces its downward spiral, equips itself with the appropriate accoutrements, and sets out to wander the globe in search of a new purpose and a new source of income.

Do you really think he was programmed to “breakdown” in the event of situational reversal? That Noll in his ever potent arrogance program self-preservation algorithms. No. Subdirector Noll is an entitled kitten and would deem it much more cost-effective to simply replace Job-O-Tron in the unfortunate event of Refugee retaliation against the golem. JoT was just a tool to Noll.

Secondly, the conflict in his processing would have caused a fatal error and shut him down instead of evolve into a growing AI like it did.