Guild Wars 2

To the devs who worked on Taimi, who wrote her and created and animated her model:

I want to thank you for Taimi. I live with multiple sclerosis, and while I was only diagnosed a handful of years ago and am looking forward to a future where I won’t be trapped in my own body, I value characters like Taimi more than you can know.

My greatest trouble spots are my legs, specifically the joints in my hips and knees. There are days that I wake up and I can’t get out of bed. I’m young (in my 20s) and I walk with a cane and have a handicapped tag for my car – and I get nasty looks from people all the time because I’m young and, clearly, I shouldn’t need a cane or a handicapped space. I’ll never forget the day a pregnant woman berated me outside a grocery store for taking the handicapped space she wanted.

When I play games, it’s usually as an escape. I like to imagine that I’m the perfectly healthy Commander Shepard, or some outrageously good looking Final Fantasy character on a quest to save the world with magic. Games take me out of my situation and, for a little while, allow me to be someone else. Maybe this is why I play a hyper-mobile d/d Elementalist.

But when you introduced Taimi, I was overjoyed. I didn’t play the Marionette weapon testing update, so I didn’t see Taimi until just recently when I was mucking around the refugee camp in Gendarran. The friend I was playing with pointed her out, and I think I shrieked loud enough to wake the dead.

I don’t know where you’re going with Taimi. But honestly I don’t care. Because now, in Tyria, I can imagine having a giant golem cart me around when I can’t feel my legs or when they hurt too badly to walk. Now when I get derisive or pitying looks, I can take a minute to imagine I’m sitting on a golem’s shoulder like a complete kitten.

So thank you for thinking of people like me. Thank you for thinking about how someone with a disability might get along in your world. And thank you for making her awesome.

Christina

PS Since I’m incapable of fanart of any kind to show my appreciation, I bake. If your office would like to receive a tupperware full of cookies, I’d like to bake them for you as a thank you.