Why still no new race?
Because isn’t Scarlet more interesting?!?!
From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you.
Because they deliberately balanced the game and the story around the five races we have now. They’ve said (I forgot where) that new races are pretty much at the very bottom of the list of what they plan to implement. New professions are slightly higher on the list, but still pretty much certain not to happen.
Much as I like the Tengu, I’m not in a particular hurry for them to be introduced as a playable race, if they ever are. They’d require a substantial amount of work to have a personal story arc as broad as the other five races, and, art-wise, they’re going to have just as many problems adapting armor to fit their model as Charr do. I think Charr players might like to see their issues sorted out first, before we get another bestial humanoid race.
If there’s ever an expansion, then I’d think more seriously about them introducing a new race. It’s just too big a thing to fit into Living Story, if they want to make the Tengu experience on par with the other races.
~The Storyteller – Elementalist – Jade Quarry~
Much as I like the Tengu, I’m not in a particular hurry for them to be introduced as a playable race, if they ever are. They’d require a substantial amount of work to have a personal story arc as broad as the other five races, and, art-wise, they’re going to have just as many problems adapting armor to fit their model as Charr do. I think Charr players might like to see their issues sorted out first, before we get another bestial humanoid race.
If there’s ever an expansion, then I’d think more seriously about them introducing a new race. It’s just too big a thing to fit into Living Story, if they want to make the Tengu experience on par with the other races.
I agree, it might work for a traditional expansion, but definitely not with the LS. People have argued to me that “it’s fine, just add a few extra NPCs and personal story chapters in existing zones,” but really they’d have to rewrite the whole race to bring them out of isolation. It wouldn’t really merit creating a race just to have different avatars and armor models if there aren’t tons and tons of tengu being actively involved in the world and its events (including the period covered by the personal story). It would be nonsensical for Orr to suddenly have whole brigades of Tengu where before there was only that one armorsmith and maybe one or two random guys I can’t think of right now. As for the Largos—no real customization, the wings would get horribly in the way on land, their story would have to start in or near really high-level zones, and overall they strike me more as a White Mantle-esque faction that will help us now but stab us in the back later. The five “racial sympathy” races (skritt, quaggan, hylek, ogres, and grawl) aren’t nearly developed enough in terms of sophistication and civilization to be playable races, plus it would render that arc of the personal story moot. Kodan are like the opposite of the Largos—friendly towards us, but not enough customization or story to really merit being playable.
My question to people who want more races (or more professions) is this: what will adding these things really do for the game other than simply adding more “stuff”? Flavor and RP alone are not enough to justify such an addition. Looking at professions for example, people have suggested many different new classes, but what would those classes do that hasn’t already been covered by one or more existing classes? They’d have to come up with a completely unique set of mechanics for any given class and make them really good at things that existing classes aren’t already good at. “More” isn’t an end unto itself.
Overall, it’s just too resource-intensive, and (as I stated before citing the devs) GW2 was intentionally built around five playable races—no more, no less. At most they’ll add the tengu, but even that seems like a stretch to me.
My question to people who want more races (or more professions) is this: what will adding these things really do for the game other than simply adding more “stuff”? Flavor and RP alone are not enough to justify such an addition. […] “More” isn’t an end unto itself.
Couldn’t have said it better. If they were going to do more race-based content, I’d like to see additional content created for the existing peoples. It’s not like we need a new race because we’ve heard every possible story there is to tell about the Norn, or the Charr, or the Asura, etc.
We do still have one question used in character creation that isn’t used in the personal story, after all, and I’d like to see that developed into some “return home” content somehow.
~The Storyteller – Elementalist – Jade Quarry~
We do still have one question used in character creation that isn’t used in the personal story, after all, and I’d like to see that developed into some “return home” content somehow.
I’m anticipating a transition into expansion-esque content. That question across all races has to do with one’s inspiration and/or mentorship, so I could see an asuran advisor, spirit of the wild, human god, charr warband member, or firstborn mentor tell the player character about some vision or rumor of danger in a new part of the world, something that you wouldn’t have figured out on your own but would have to have heard of through some very unusual means. Imagine your patron god/goddess telling you about your destiny in X location, or a Synergetics professor explaining that there’s “a great disturbance in the Eternal Alchemy” emanating from some geographical point.
New races → New content → new skills → new builds → New armor.
Also, to release Tengu you would need another story. As they tried to keep themselves locked up to avoid zaithan kittenters come in their territory. Maybe you could actually see a great empire with stuff of GW1 in it.
Hell, they might even release the dervish with an update like that because they got locked up in that empire too.
Seems like a good start of an expansion imo.
Hell, they might even release the dervish with an update like that because they got locked up in that empire too.
Impossible. The dervish gets his or her powers from direct appeals to the six human gods in the same way that GW1 monks did. That simply can’t work in GW2 because we have techno-Buddhists (asura), agnostics (sylvari) and atheists (charr). Note how the guardian class isn’t like old monks in that they get their powers from their personal beliefs, such as loyalty to friends and willingness to fight for a political or ideological cause). The developers deliberately wrote them that way so all five playable races can use them. Dervishes, on the other hand, are strictly religious in nature, so that means three of the five races couldn’t play as them because they don’t worship the six gods, let alone any other deities. And even if they did add dervishes in a lore-friendly way, what would they do that hasn’t already been done in the existing eight classes? It would be foolish and pointless to double up on something that’s already been done, and guardians already exist as a very similar class. Why would we want another “holy warrior” archetype when one already exists? It would be like adding GW1 assassins when we already have thieves that cover that territory.
Also, to release Tengu you would need another story. As they tried to keep themselves locked up to avoid zaithan kittenters come in their territory. Maybe you could actually see a great empire with stuff of GW1 in it.
You’re missing the important fact that they’ve been isolated these last hundred years. The tengu have deliberately isolated themselves as a culture, so even if something brought them out of the Dominion of Winds and other nearby areas, I don’t see them becoming a playable race. Imagine all the changes they’d have to make to existing zones to accomodate the flood of new tengu NPCs. And they would have to add tengu NPCs, otherwise tengu would simply be an aesthetic choice without any real substance or backstory to it, and it would be very difficult to have a personal story taking place throughout the world if the tengu are only just starting to leave the safety of their former home. No, you need the same scale of development you see with the five player races, and it’s simply not going to happen at this stage in the game because they hadn’t planned for it by release. I could easily see the Dominion of Winds being released as a new explorable zone, but not the tengu becoming a playable race. Again, “it would be cool” is not sufficient justification to bring about such a significant change to the status quo.
Why do we need a new race? Isn’t 5 enough?
Because they deliberately balanced the game and the story around the five races we have now. They’ve said (I forgot where) that new races are pretty much at the very bottom of the list of what they plan to implement. New professions are slightly higher on the list, but still pretty much certain not to happen.
They balance the game around PVP not the 5 races. The racial skills are so weak they would never throw balance out of whack.
They balance the game around PVP not the 5 races. The racial skills are so weak they would never throw balance out of whack.
Not racial skills, but the cultures, histories, and flavors of those races. Like I said, I can’t remember where, but I read something from the devs stating that the story and environments of GW2 were built around the five races, and that for that reason they don’t intend to add more.
simply put the amount of time to add in a new race to the game.
even ones with exisiting lore and models.
tengu, dwarf, dredge, skritt, kodan, quaggan, ect.
is far to much work for to squeeze into the LS system.
Not only do you need to build and ingame storyline and introduction events, you need new animations, voice work, personal story lines, reskinning all of the existing game models for new models, new emotes, new racial armor sets, new starting zones, new race specific npcs, new zones.
Everything has to be tested and evaluated and then fixed and tested again. It is a huge undertaking and would require either a vast amount of time or a vast amount of resources.
Simply put it would be a massive investment akin to a major feature of a paid expansion.
I’d really like see dwarf, tengu, and some of the other GW1 notables make apperances as playable races, because I personally find all the existing races to be either boring, lackluster, or simply ugly.
Hell, they might even release the dervish with an update like that because they got locked up in that empire too.
Impossible. The dervish gets his or her powers from direct appeals to the six human gods in the same way that GW1 monks did. That simply can’t work in GW2 because we have techno-Buddhists (asura), agnostics (sylvari) and atheists (charr). Note how the guardian class isn’t like old monks in that they get their powers from their personal beliefs, such as loyalty to friends and willingness to fight for a political or ideological cause). The developers deliberately wrote them that way so all five playable races can use them. Dervishes, on the other hand, are strictly religious in nature, so that means three of the five races couldn’t play as them because they don’t worship the six gods, let alone any other deities. And even if they did add dervishes in a lore-friendly way, what would they do that hasn’t already been done in the existing eight classes? It would be foolish and pointless to double up on something that’s already been done, and guardians already exist as a very similar class. Why would we want another “holy warrior” archetype when one already exists? It would be like adding GW1 assassins when we already have thieves that cover that territory.
I used to have this mind set. But now I realize that it doesn’t matter at all how human centric something it. I mean we have all the other races celebrating wintersday and halloween which are indefinitely human holidays. They could do something with the Dervish like the did with the Monk becoming the Guardian.
From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you.
Because clipping.
Because everything is so combined and in peace with each other in this story, I’m sure there’s no way they can change it up a bit…
Because new races are always an expansion material.Don’t get to much hope before it…
TxS – Tequatl Slayer Alliance (EU)
People who aren’t Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s day, non-Christians celebrate Christmas, and non-Hispanic people celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Why? Because they’re holidays and an opportunity to relax, have a good time and/or an excuse to drink as much as possible. I don’t think your argument really holds up. Also, 1) dervishes were native to Elona, which has since been pretty much wiped out, and 2) some of the attributes of Dervishes already exist in Guardians. Plus (as I said) the devs have confirmed that they’ve done pretty much everything they’re going to do with classes because they are satisfied that the eight we have are all we need to cover what they want to get done.
Make a race that can be boutgh on the BLT… gems gems everywhere!
1st April joke, when gw2 receives a “balance” update.
The looks are there, the map is there, the story is there… so why aren’t these feathered friends still not here?
…because the game doesn’t need a new race? 5 are enough and the ones that exist are fine when compared to other MMORPG’s.
Unless the game moves to somewhere completely different on the other side of the planet or otherwise and new races are found: There is no need for any new races in GW2. Instead the currently playable races need more story to them.
Indeed it is so…
THE MASTER HAS SPOKEN!