Guild Wars 2

kylwilson.9137:

Straight male insecurity is always such a riot to watch. Love it.

Agreed. This thread is hilarious.

Alternatively, make legendar(ies) and let the aura(s) cover it, or spam-eat Omnomberry Ghost :P

I don’t really see where the Mesmer graphics effect are inherently feminine.

I mean they’re butterflies and glass shards. Not exactly what I think of when I think “feminine stuff”, tbh.

Ross Biddle.2367:

I brought, and currently use, a pink toothbrush. My wife wanted the blue one the last round and being a mesmer fan, I took rightful claim of the pink.

It’s all in your perceptions. Embrace the male mesmer if you have to!

Haha, same! Cyan for her, pink for me!

Emiko.3217:

Just a note here.. in real life, the only symbols of butterflies I’ve seen were on the packaging of feminine products and feminine clothes. Never seen it used for boys or men.

Annnnd? Should I understand that a woman “supposedly” symbol is something bad or inferior?

Emiko.3217:

Just a note here.. in real life, the only symbols of butterflies I’ve seen were on the packaging of feminine products and feminine clothes. Never seen it used for boys or men.

ITT: We take imaginary video game world arcane aesthetics and compare them to real world marketing practice.

EDIT: And then in the next post you mentioned ‘unique gender roles and abilities’. I’m going to gracefully and masculinely step out of this one because this is a can of worms that really needn’t be opened in the first place.

Fear the butterflies.

I think the real problem is that your husband lacks creativity. I am one of the few who has a male Mesmer, and I have never been told that my character is “girly”. Why, you may ask?

Chainsaws.

Look at my character, with the armor and weapons he’s wielding. Seems girly, right?

http://imgur.com/4AslkG5

Now look at my character; the difference is like night and day.

http://imgur.com/oleM1yX

Chainsaws will always make characters look manlier, and that’s a fact.

You want to know something else? As a Mesmer I can summon three more characters with chainsaws, so my character uses eight chainsaws. Can you think of something manlier that a guy with 8 chainsaws? No?

THAT’S BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ANYTHING.

No amount of glitter, butterflies, or pink can hold up to the manliness of 8 chainsaws.

When I wvwvw, there are a lot of players who will either run away me or jump off cliffs to their imminent demise because their mind cannot comprehend the manly manliness that is 8 chainsaws.

So you should tell your husband to ditch that character and make a manly Mesmer. With Chainsaws.

Tl;dr- Buy chainsaws.

Dang, that’s scary… I think I’d kitten myself if I saw that in RL…

cDKI.8352:

I think the real problem is that your husband lacks creativity. I am one of the few who has a male Mesmer, and I have never been told that my character is “girly”. Why, you may ask?

Chainsaws.

Look at my character, with the armor and weapons he’s wielding. Seems girly, right?

http://imgur.com/4AslkG5

Now look at my character; the difference is like night and day.

http://imgur.com/oleM1yX

Chainsaws will always make characters look manlier, and that’s a fact.

You want to know something else? As a Mesmer I can summon three more characters with chainsaws, so my character uses eight chainsaws. Can you think of something manlier that a guy with 8 chainsaws? No?

THAT’S BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ANYTHING.

No amount of glitter, butterflies, or pink can hold up to the manliness of 8 chainsaws.

When I wvwvw, there are a lot of players who will either run away me or jump off cliffs to their imminent demise because their mind cannot comprehend the manly manliness that is 8 chainsaws.

So you should tell your husband to ditch that character and make a manly Mesmer. With Chainsaws.

Tl;dr- Buy chainsaws.

From wikipedia:

The ancient Greek word for “butterfly” is (greek letters that forum can’t reproduce…) (psyche), which primarily means “soul” or “mind”.

The mesmer is an illusionist class that affects other peoples’ minds. Butterflies represent the pysche. The clouds of butterflies could literally be interpreted as your opponent’s mind exploding…

As for the colors, pink/purple was the color scheme assigned to Mesmer skills in GW1. Because that game had like 1000+ skills and two classes active at the same time, color coding was practical in terms of recognizing and using the right skills.
Now WHY they originally chose that color scheme for the Mesmer, I can’t say. Maybe it was one of the last classes developed, and the other base colors had already been assigned to other classes.

Emiko.3217:

Nausicca.6038:

Emiko.3217:

Just a note here.. in real life, the only symbols of butterflies I’ve seen were on the packaging of feminine products and feminine clothes. Never seen it used for boys or men.

Annnnd? Should I understand that a woman “supposedly” symbol is something bad or inferior?

Absolutely NOT!
I just stated what is out there as far as how things are being marketed. I do not believe women are inferior in any sense of the word. Each gender is different, with their own unique roles and abilities. Neither gender is superior to the other, and if someone thinks otherwise, they seriously need to get back to reality.

Yeah, but I’d say that while each category is different (i.e., feminine and masculine), the actual differences between real genders in terms of personality and preferences are not set in stone. I fail to see why the relatively subtle feminine effects of butterflies worry some people and the extremely masculine effects of warriors and most other professions does not necessarily worry people. There’s little room for other professions to be feminine yet when there is some femininity in one profession people are quick to call it out and ask for a masculine alternative.

(Marketing towards men and women is really silly, by the way. “This is for women and it’s PINK! More expensive because of PINK and flowing lines and oh yes the men’s product is better but this one is somehow built specifically for women” & “This is for men and it says: FOR MEN. NO WOMEN. MANLINESS GUARANTEED. YES YOU WILL STILL BE MASCULINE MAN PERSON AFTER USING OUR PRODUCT.” I would find it more amusing if it didn’t perpetuate gender roles and limit the options of both women and men in expressing themselves.)

Although I fail to see how butterflies are feminine. What’s this person worried about, that he might be seen as fast and fleeting as a butterfly? Nothing’s more manly than a person who isn’t too worried about how masculine they appear to be for fear of somebody viewing them as feminine. Oh no what terror of femininity.

As to the aesthetics of the masculine and feminine, sure you can choose between them or even combine them due to personal preference. But in this case butterflies themselves are not really feminine per say, as many have linked them to the soul, illusions, chaos, etc. If we had an option to change the effects for mesmers, we’d have to add flower effects for warriors and pretty stuff for necros, which just ain’t happening. I like each profession’s effects, it gives them great and distinct looks that speak to how their magic (or pure physical ability) functions.

I would personally like more feminine armor for men and more masculine armor for women in this game. Especially more feminine looks for asura and charr. Like…wow, way to go with masculinity.

On a gameplay note, having one set of effects for each profession allows them to be noticeable and distinct from one another without the confusion of multiple effects for the same profession. Being able to distinguish between professions is very important for both open world PvE and specifically WvW & PvP.

This great purple butterfly,
In the prison of my hands,
Has a learning in his eye
Not a poor fool understands.

cDKI.8352:

I think the real problem is that your husband lacks creativity. I am one of the few who has a male Mesmer, and I have never been told that my character is “girly”. Why, you may ask?

Chainsaws.

Look at my character, with the armor and weapons he’s wielding. Seems girly, right?

http://imgur.com/4AslkG5

Now look at my character; the difference is like night and day.

http://imgur.com/oleM1yX

Chainsaws will always make characters look manlier, and that’s a fact.

You want to know something else? As a Mesmer I can summon three more characters with chainsaws, so my character uses eight chainsaws. Can you think of something manlier that a guy with 8 chainsaws? No?

THAT’S BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ANYTHING.

No amount of glitter, butterflies, or pink can hold up to the manliness of 8 chainsaws.

When I wvwvw, there are a lot of players who will either run away me or jump off cliffs to their imminent demise because their mind cannot comprehend the manly manliness that is 8 chainsaws.

So you should tell your husband to ditch that character and make a manly Mesmer. With Chainsaws.

Tl;dr- Buy chainsaws.

Oh my gosh, that is truly the most horrific thing I have ever seen! What server are you on? Perhaps one day, my character will encounter you in WvW. And then promptly pee his pants

Violet = bringing spiritual awareness to a higher level of thought
Butterflies = chaos theory (butterfly effect)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

So it seems perfectly fine to me. All this talk of masculine/feminine is pretty silly in my opinion.

I like the butterflies. Always brings a smile to my face watching the “manly” warrior swinging wildly away at illusions and finally dieing in a cloud of purple butterflies. I’ve never been a fan of characters that solve problems by bashing their heads into them.

Astral Projections.7320:

There are male butterflies. They don’t consider themselves feminine or effeminate. And pink used to be considered a masculine color until about the turn of the century while blue was a feminine color. http://forgottenhistoryblog.com/pink-wasnt-always-considered-a-feminine-color-and-blue-wasnt-always-masculine/

In other words what a culture thinks is feminine or masculine is arbitrary and can turn on a dime and reverse itself.

This.

Aveneo.2068:

Violet = bringing spiritual awareness to a higher level of thought

Mhm, I always relate blue/white with spiritual- or self-awareness :P. Purple is still an amazing color for butterflies, though.

Astral Projections.7320:

There are male butterflies. They don’t consider themselves feminine or effeminate. And pink used to be considered a masculine color until about the turn of the century while blue was a feminine color. http://forgottenhistoryblog.com/pink-wasnt-always-considered-a-feminine-color-and-blue-wasnt-always-masculine/a

In other words what a culture thinks is feminine or masculine is arbitrary and can turn on a dime and reverse itself.

Ok, so here is a random question… Do you do Astral Projection in real life? I’ve been really into it lately, and I kind of want to know what I’m getting into, before I get into anything… I’m not sure if the sites out there are trustable, so I’m kind of looking for someone with experience I can talk to :P.

And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, never mind xD

“…such as maybe a puff of smoke, ravens, skulls, etc that would be less effeminate for male players?”

Black Ravens like Itachi from Naruto…

If that happened, I would never complain about another thing in gw2 EVER! My gw2 experience would be complete Haha

I think there’s nothing wrong with butterflies. If someone doesn’t like it, he shouldn’t play it. Butterflies are symbolic to mesmers and I wouldn’t want that to be changed because someone wants a “masculine” effect on his male mesmer. That’s nonsense. :P
I don’t see why ravens or skulls could symbol mesmers… That’s absurd. xD

And yeah, as someone wrote before, straight male insecurity is always fun to watch.

Alissah.9281:

Aveneo.2068:

Violet = bringing spiritual awareness to a higher level of thought

Mhm, I always relate blue/white with spiritual- or self-awareness :P. Purple is still an amazing color for butterflies, though.

Blue is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection.

Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.

So it still feels that Purple/Violet would be the best match for Mesmer imo

Well like some said, “more manly effects” often get applied to female characters and women get over it … so I don’t see why the reverse shouldn’t be applied aswell.

It’s actually refreshing to have a class that isn’t gender locked that is on a more feminine side of the spectrum.

If he can’t deal with it it’s because he has a lack of confidence in his manhood and perhaps even a slight latent machist attitude that thinks feminity is something bad.

Male energy is ok for women but feminine energy is not for men ?

I know this is strongly due to cultural bias but that’s exactly why it shouldn’t be changed.

Learn to embrace it and if he can’t it’s still a nice experience for him to end up playing a female toon for a change.

P.S. I See No Tomorrow

I reckon butterflies get associated with females in many cultures because perhaps butterflies are flashy and colourful and have a certain refined aesthetic that generally the women in our society possess more than men.

A bit like peakittens and other colourful birds which per se aren’t the first animals one would associate with typical in your face attributes seen as manly in humans in the traditional sense. The way they look is more in tune with the image of the “idealised” female than the “idealised” male

You can always roll a big muscly Norn mesmer with a manly but pink beard and pretend you have a sense of humor and open mind.

Deim Hunir.8503:

It’s actually refreshing to have a class that isn’t gender locked that is on a more feminine side of the spectrum.

Very much so, yes.

You can make anything look manly, if thats an essential point for you.
Here my main sylvari mesmer with a dress and a mask.

Tipp: If you don’t like don’t like the way your clones explode, take the “crippling dissipation” V Domination Trait.