Guild Wars 2

Ohoni.6057:

So long as these rewards have any value OTHER than as a token of accomplishment, such as either statistical OR cosmetic value, they cannot be treated merely as status symbols, and must also be considered as inherently valued, and desirable by those who have zero interest in the supposed “status” attached to them.

So what? Are you saying rewards and status symbols should never be aesthetically pleasing or function as decoration? That’s ridiculous.

Ohoni.6057:

There are very very very few items in this world that can be acquired ONLY through specific merit, and yet also have an inherent function as an object.

Except that’s complete nonsense. Not sure if you ever watch Tour De France but in that sport the person who’s currently number 1 gets to wear a yellow/golden outfit. No one else gets to wear a yellow outfit except for the best. That yellow outfit basically serves exactly the same purpose as an exclusive armor in GW2 for being the best at something.

Ohoni.6057:

It is. It is fun for you to have it, no denying that, but it would be equally fun for some other player to have it, even if he has no interest in PvP, and your fun is not more important than his fun.

He can have equally much fun by doing whatever he likes or is good at, and get his own exclusive rewards for that specific game mode, rewards that I’ll probably not have nor ever get.

Exclusive rewards is not unfair, no matter how hard you try to make it seem that way.

Ohoni.6057:

And they can do that, but if someone else really likes that skin just because they really like that skin, they should be able to get it too, even if they can’t do that raid.

No they shouldn’t. If they can’t do that raid then they don’t deserve that armor.

Ohoni.6057:

But that’s basically two ways of saying the same thing. It’s only exclusive because only the best can have it (in that case, at least). If everyone can get it, if it’s not exclusive, then you wouldn’t have to be the best to get it. So if you take pride in having a mark of being the best, then you are taking pride in that mark’s exclusivity.

What you just said makes absolute zero sense. Please try again.

Ohoni.6057:

Maybe not, but likewise none of those are as sad as not being able to get the skin you want, so you have to lose a little of your fun to make a bunch of other people happier, and I’m ok with that. It’s not about you.

It’s not about you either.

Those people who can’t get the exclusive piece of armor because they don’t want to do that specific content are just gonna have to deal with it. They’ll probably get other exclusive rewards that I personally will never get. And I’ll just be dealing with that, like a grown up, without complaining about how I think it’s unfair that some people have shinies that I don’t have. They have worked for it, I haven’t, so they deserve it, I don’t.

Ohoni.6057:

Yes, the typical mindset of the “haves” turn it all around that the “have nots” are the bad guys. I’m not impressed.

No, only the “have nots” who act like entitled spoiled little brats are the bad guys.

Besides, what makes you think I’m a “have” anyway? I might never get legendary raid armor myself. And I’m fine with that. Because I’m grown up, an adult, not an spoiled entitled little child.

Ohoni.6057:

And the false premise you have is that armor is not about customizing your look. If it were not, then why would it alter the way your character looks? If a player only wants a representation of accomplishment, as I’ve noted, there are numerous ways to do that which have nothing to do with character customization.

Euhm no, I never said that. Armor can be both. I can be a piece of decoration as well as a status symbol or a trophy. Even the cavemen knew that, who would often wear the skin of their prey as a mantle of pride and the teeth of their pray as a necklace to show off their kill-count.

Ohoni.6057:

Which is often completely arbitrary to the look itself. My semi-main guardian is wearing a Glorious helm. Is that because I’m awesome at PvP? No, I’m fairly middling at PvP so far as I can tell, but it wasn’t hard to earn a few pieces of Glorious armor over the months, and the Glorious helm looked slightly cooler than the Council Guard helm he had been wearing, and fit his “winged avenger” style quite well. Did the Council Guard helm indicate that I was a dungeon fiend? No, I ran CM like 5-10 times total, just enough to get him that helm and boots for my Ele. Haven’t been back since. He has Luminous gloves and boots, does that mean I don’t own the rest? No, I do own the rest, I just don’t like the design of them as well as the other bits he has on. Do I care that someone could look me over and guess at what I have and have not done? Not in the least. I do take some pride in the overall aesthetic of the ensemble, but not in any of the tasks I did to unlock the pieces themselves.

All you are proving is that Guild Wars 2 right now is too casual and doesn’t have enough rewards for actual real accomplishments.

Luckily, that seems to be changing with HoT, and I’m glad. Until that time, at least I have my dragon finisher and PvP titles.

Ohoni.6057:

Basically sometimes the game, and personal appearance as a factor of that, has to come before people showing off to people they falsely assume care what they’ve done.

Yeah no, I don’t agree with that.

And you might not care, but others do.

Girl: Let’s play investigators! I wanna be Kasmeer.
Boy: Okay. I’ll be Marjory.
Girl: (giggle) If you’re Marjory, you gotta let me give you a kiss.
Boy: (yelp)
Girl: (giggle) Come back!

I mean the whole “progressive” in-you-face overplayed romance between the two most boring characters in the game was already getting on my nerves, but having to hear those two kids harping on about it every time I’m at the bank in LA is REALLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYY annoying.

phys.7689:

Ohoni, the false premise you have, is that armor is only about customizing your look. Some armors are more about what they represent than how a player wants his/her avatar to look.

which isnt to say people shouldnt be able to get them, but rather they should be able to wear them, when they can represent what the armor is supposed to represent.

basically sometimes the game has to come before the personal appearance.

Exactly.

I mean how far do you want to take this “inclusive” approach Ohoni? Do you think the exclusive dungeon armors (that you can only get by grinding the specific dungeon that the armor belongs to) should no longer be exclusive?

What about the Order armors (Vigil, Whispers and Priory armors), should they no longer be exclusive to the specific Order they belong to?

What about the Tequatl weapons that you can only get from Tequatl’s Hoard, a box that only drops from successfully killing Tequatl?

Or what about the Triple-Trouble Jungle Wurm armors?

Obviously a piece of armor is much more than just a fancy decoration item. Sometimes a piece of armor represents something. Sometimes it sends a message. Sometimes it shows off that you have done a specific activity and sometimes it shows off you’re the best at something.

That’s what makes armors fun and it greatly enhances their value.

Ohoni.6057:

But it also means that players who don’t care about that “identity” and just like the look of that armor or weapon, do not have the choice of being able to wear that look without participating in that content, which they may not want to do. I believe that their inability to have that appearance trumps any value in “identity.”

It absolutely does not trump any value in identity.

Exclusive rewards are like medals. A medal is something you have to earn and sometimes that means being the best at a specific activity. Just because you don’t like said activity but like the specific medal that comes with it doesn’t mean you should get that specific medal handed to you through some other kind of activity. The world doesn’t work that way and neither should GW2.

Ohoni.6057:

So why not just rock a PvP-based title? If I see someone with a difficult to earn PvP title, I’ll know they PvP. If I see them in fancy armor, I’m far less likely to know off the bat where that armor comes from. More importantly, in either case, I will not care in the slightest.

A shiny piece of armor is much more impressive than a title. Getting some exclusive swag that allows you to show of your dedication feels much more rewarding than just a title.

Ohoni.6057:

Again, why would a title not serve this purpose?

Again because some actual visual swag is much more fun than just a title. It adds more identity to your character. It visually shows: “this guy is a PvP boss”, which makes the character more interesting and gives him/her more of an identity that says something about the character or the person playing it.

It’s much more fun to see your accomplishments visually reflected in your character than just getting and wearing a title and you know this, otherwise you’d be against exclusive titles as well. But you and I both know that titles aren’t as impressive or fun as visual shinies. We both clearly care less about titles than the visual shinies. That’s why you complain about exclusive shinies but not about exclusive titles.

Ohoni.6057:

No, but if you have to have the item to take pride in your accomplishments then you are clearly taking pride in something other than your accomplishments themselves.

O really? And what would that “something other” be then?

The pride comes from pulling off an impressive feat. The sense of reward comes from the exclusive prize that comes with it.

The impressive feat would not feel as rewarding if it didn’t have a nice prize and in turn the prize would also not feel as rewarding if it was easy to get through multiple means.

I mean lets use the current legendary weapons as an example. I’ve made several legendaries so far: Sunrise, Twilight and Bolt. I obviously like them and enjoy having them, but I don’t really take pride in any of them. Why not? Because it wasn’t really an impressive feat to get them. All it took was mindless, boring grinding for gold to buy the precursors and T6 mats to craft them. Not really an impressive feat right? Not really something to be proud of.

Right now, legendaries are a grind and poorly implemented in the game. You have to grind to get them and people only do the grinding because they want the legendary skins, not because they like grinding so much.

I want it to be the other way around. I want people to play the game-modes they like, become good at it and eventually have a nice exclusive reward to show off for it, something they can show their friends and say “look what I got, isn’t it shiny? I got it for beating this incredibly difficult raid”.

Ohoni.6057:

If you say that you do not actively “gloat” then I believe you, but on some level you must feel good that you have these things, and that other people do not. If you take pride in the accomplishment itself, then you would take that pride whether the game rewards you at all or not. The reward itself should have nothing to do with your pride in accomplishing somethign difficult.

We both know that’s BS. Yes I take pride in the accomplishment itself, but merely achieving an impressive accomplishment without being rewarded for it gets incredibly boring really fast.

Being able to show off your accomplishments through exclusive shinies is half the fun. It greatly extents the amount of joy I get from the accomplishment and I’m sure that you all feel that way too, each and every one of you. Lest be honest, who doesn’t like to receive a big golden medal and wear it proudly on his chest after proving that you’re the best?

Ohoni.6057:

If everyone had the item, would you value it as highly? If not, then you are taking pride in ownership of the item, and in other people not owning it, rather than in whatever task you had to complete to earn it. Ironically, this is not an impulse that you should take pride in.

If everyone would have the item then clearly I wouldn’t value it as highly. However, the reasons for not valuing that item as much has absolutely nothing to do with what you just said.

I once again will bring up legendary weapons and how they’re currently implemented in the game. I don’t really value legendary weapons all that much and I don’t take much pride in having them, despite the fact that not everyone has them and many more players don’t have them.

The pride and value doesn’t come from the exclusivity, it comes from being the best at something and having something nice to show for it.

Ohoni.6057:

And again, if it is not about taking pride in the object, if it is about taking pride in the accomplishment, but you want some physical representation of that accomplishment, then there are plenty of alternatives to weapon and armor skins. The simplest and most humble would be the achievement, just a box ticked that yes, you did that difficult thing, and now you know that. Then there’s also the title, all the braggadocio of a fancy skin, but without depriving anyone of a desired look. Then there’s also the potential for an inventory object, like the Flames of Kryta torch, which you could wave around and show off to people that you’re special and have a thing. Or there could be a trophy placed in your Home Instance or Guild Hall, to show that you did a thing to anyone who saw it.

There are plenty of ways to mark off that you did a thing, without having to get armor or weapon skins involved.

And none of those are as fun as having an armor or weapon skin that I can wear on my character. You know it, I know it, we both know it and we both know that’s the only reason why you’re so vehemently against exclusive armor and weapon rewards.

You sir, strike me as either a very jealous type of person or a very greedy type of person, or both. You want all the shinies you like and you want them your way. In your world people are not allowed to have exclusive shinies that show off their accomplishments because you might not have them and you might not be willing or able to put in the effort to get them.

You might complain about people enjoying exclusive shinies that they can show off and gives them bragging rights, but your behavior is much worse. I rather deal with a bragger who actually earned his bragging rights than a spoiled jealous type who feels he’s entitled to all the shinies.

Windsagio.1340:

Lucos: My position is that exclusive rewards are basically ok – but they should all be of equal quality and prestige.

No, the quality fo the reward should be on par with the amount of skill and/or dedication needed to get them.

But if you’re saying that other game modes should also get their own way of obtaining their own unique exclusive legendary armors then I agree.

Windsagio.1340:

Lucos: My position is that exclusive rewards are basically ok – but they should all be of equal quality and prestige.

No, the quality fo the reward should be on par with the amount of skill and/or dedication needed to get them.

But if you’re saying that other game modes should also get their own way of obtaining their own unique exclusive legendary armors then I agree.

The only elite I’ll likely be playing on a regular basis is the Heralt. I really like the Heralt and I feel it really adds to the Revenant, especially in teams.

For all my other classes? Likely not.

I hoped elites would fill up some gabs in the classes (because some classes do have gabs, such as thief who really needs a proper ranged weapon) but sadly that is not the case.

Right now, the elites feel like a gimmick and nothing more. The only elite that really adds something to the class ON PAPER is the Dragon Hunter. Guardians really did need a proper ranged weapon so longbow is a welcome addition to the Guardian. Sadly, everything about Dragon Hunter sucks except for the longbow. I don’t like the traps, I don’t like the traits and I don’t like the overhauled Virtues.

I really wish I could play a regular Guardian with a longbow, without all the other Dragon Hunter fluff that I don’t want nor need.

I didn’t read the entire thread, but I saw some people were talking about rewards in MMOs, the exclusivity of such rewards ad whether those rewards should be exclusive. I’d like to give my 2 cents on that.

So, should specific content have specific rewards exclusive to that content? Absolutely. Why? Because it gives the rewards and the players wearing them a stronger identity. It makes the rewards more meaningful, it makes both the rewards and the players stand out more. Let me explain with an example.

I’m a big PvPer. I love PvP. I do it a lot and I’m quite good at it. Being a dedicated PvPer is something I take pride in and something I’d love to show to other people. When other players see me, I want them to think “hey, that guy loves PvP and he’s probably quite good at it!”.

This can only be achieved through PvP exclusive rewards, which the game luckily has. I can get my PvP-exclusive titles, PvP-exclusive armor skins and soon I’ll be able to get a PvP-exclusive legendary back item. That’s great!

When I get my legendary PvP back item, I’ll be able to show everyone that I’m a boss at PvP. Not only that, but I’ll be able to recognize other dedicated PvP players. When I see someone else with the legendary PvP back item, I’ll know that he’s a PvP veteran too, which would be an incentive for me to chat him up, ask him about his experiences, share tips and builds and maybe become friends.

Exclusive rewards is a great way to spot like-minded people and make new friends.

Now imagine if these PvP-exclusive rewards would be made available in PvE or worse, make them items that can just be bought with gold, meaning basically everyone with enough gold can get these items. All of the sudden the Glorious armor sets, the Champion titles , PvP rank finishers and PvP legendary back item would completely lose their meaning. No longer will wearing it be an indicator that you’re a dedicated PvPer who loves PvP. No longer will it be a way to stand out from the other non-PvP players. No longer will I be able to spot like-minded dedicated PvPers based on their gear, titles or finishers.

If this were to happen, it would suck, big time.

So yes, having PvP-exclusive rewards is a great thing and that should never change.

So, now that we’re getting raids, I fully 100% believe that raids also should have their own exclusive rewards. Not only should these rewards be exclusive to raids, they should be hard to get as well, only available to the most dedicated raiders. That way, when I see someone in legendary raid armor, I’ll know that he loves raiding and is good at it. I know that he was among the few people who managed to beat the hardest PvE content in the game. I’d have a sense of respect for that person.

And who knows, maybe one day I’ll give raiding a shot too. Maybe I’ll even become good at it and get my own legendary armor and count myself among the few people who managed to beat the raids and have something to show for it.

So I’m VERY HAPPY that Anet has announced that raids will get their own exclusive legendary armors as rewards.

And who knows, maybe one day Anet could add other legendary armor sets to the game for other difficult content. If they do that though, the other legendary armor sets should look different and be a clear visual indicator that you managed to beat that specific content that this specific legendary armor set belongs to.

Atmos.8105:

Everyone who is moaning about WP cost keep saying that it isn’t much to them.

If it’s not much to you, why are you moaning?

For lower level players the WP cost is reduced.

If you are using W3 or HoTM to get around the WP fee, then the WP fee isn’t negligible to you.

Argue your own case not other peoples.

I don’t use HoTM or WvW to get around the waypoint fee, but for convenience. I can hop in and out of HoTM/WvW for banking or crafting and still be exactly where I was in PvE, which in incredibly convenient, especially when you’re doing map completion. Not having to pay the waypoint fee is just a very minor bonus.

Zaron.1987:

Should Waypoints really have a fee?

yes. cause one of the last remaining gold sinks in game

No it isn’t. It’s not one of the last remaining gold sinks in the game.

The waypoint fee is hardly a gold sink. For a veteran player like me the +/- 3 silver per teleport that I have to pay is absolutely nothing, I don’t even notice it.

Not to mention that I can easily circumvent the teleport fee by simply using WvW or HoTM for my crafting and banking needs, which is what I do 99% of the time when I need to craft or bank something.

On the other hand the teleport fee is quite a big annoyance for new players. I remember when I just started playing GW2 that I was constantly running out of money because of the teleport fee. It’s highly unfriendly to new players.

I’d say get rid of the teleport fee.

Yeah I was about to say, what the OP requests is already the case. The skins of the weapons and armors you throw in the forge already get unlocked.

Toasty.9134:

Stop crying, thief staff is awesome and its pretty much a given, Staff makes 10000% more sense than a stupid rifle.

How?

Thief + rifle = sniper assassin

Thief + staff = ….?

And before you say thief + staff = martial artist, think of how many staffs we have in GW2 that would be completely impractical for a martial-arts melee approach.

Flakkenmarsh.6573:

Just for interest sake: Your first screenshot and some background info on it.

This is mine, taken on the 27th of August, 2012.
My very first character, and still my favourite. She has since undergone a complete makeover and rename. (Her hair was never supposed to be gray.. I chose the ..frost blue thing #sadface)

I hope your computer has also been upgraded since then so you no longer have to run the game at potato quality?

zenleto.6179:

Lucos! Looks at the dates. Not that there’s anything wrong with the sentiment of your replies.

Sorry I didn’t realize this was a necro thread. Someone else before me necro’d it.

kimeekat.2548:

I feel bad when someone says “I made the character I like to look at” and it’s white. I feel like… if I make only white characters am I contributing to a culture telling non-white people that their skin isn’t as pleasing or beautiful etc? Because it seems that way. I think about that a lot.

No offense, but that is pure nonsense. People tend to prefer people of their own skin color, especially when looking for a partner. There is nothing racist about that, it’s just biologically ingrained in us and it’s not something to be apologetic about. Black people usually prefer black people, asian people prefer asian people, etc. etc. and they’re not apologetic about it, so why should us whites be apologetic about preferring white people?

When we make white characters to express our preference for white people, we’re not telling black non-white people that they’re not beautiful, we’re just telling them that we prefer our own skin color, just like they prefer their own skin color.

I’m not sure if you’re American or European, but I’m European, and in our European culture which is predominantly white, you’re obviously going to see more white people represented in the media than people of color. I know North-America has a lot more people of color than we have in Europe, but I’m pretty sure that even in North-America white people are the majority, which means you can also expect the majority of people in your media to be whites.

Again, there is nothing racist about this. Just go to Asia and see how many white people are represented in their media. I’ve been to Japan a couple of times and you pretty much see exclusively Japanese people in their media (whenever you see a white guy in Japanese television they’re usually playing the bad guy, lol!), with the exception of anime and Japanese videogames perhaps (then again their anime and game characters are often so cartoony that you can’t really tell what the ethnicity of the characters are). Yet no one thinks Japan is racist nor do I see anyone demanding Japan to add more people of other ethnicities to their media.

So please, don’t feel sorry for preferring people of your own skin color and don’t feel obligated to make characters of other skin colors. If you enjoy playing as characters from other ethnicities then that’s great, more power to you! But you shouldn’t feel obligated to play characters of other skin colors because you’re afraid you’d otherwise be racist, because you aren’t.

Ashabhi.1365:

My Necro is a Black Norn. She is a decendant of an Elonian Paragon and a Norn Monk.

No she isn’t. According to the lore norn and humans can’t interbreed.

If you want to roleplay, at least do it right.

King Noob IV.3560:

norn women are way hotter than human women

Quoted for truth.

What’s a troll-cursor?

The death animations aren’t tied to your weapon of choice but rather the type of attack you used to kill the mob.

EroticAndHeretic.7398:

Well, most of the human faces are doll-like, anyway.

Quite true. Still, it’s possible to make a decently mature-looking human female with the options we have. I added 2 of mine to this post.

EroticAndHeretic.7398:

(I didn’t take your message personnally, of course, just wanted to give my point of view about this.)

Good cause it wasn’t meant as a personal insult to anyone.

Eudaemons.1596:

My warrior is—by far—the most beautiful human female in all of Tyria.

I prefer your warrior over most of the other characters posted here.

Is she super pretty? No. But she actually looks like a capable warrior and her scars and flaws actually give her character.

Your character looks realistic and believable, unlike all those 16-years-old skinny teenagers with incredibly skimpy outfits that the other people are posting here.

I actually prefer the GW2 UI over the GW1 UI. The GW1 UI looks amateurish in comparison.

As for GW2’s graphics. I think they look fine. The only thing I’d like to see added is SSAO. Right now I’ve added SSAO through the Nvidia control panel, but the SSAO added by Nvidia is barely noticeable.

My norn guardian:

lordkrall.7241:

I have studied Norse mythology quite extensively, and I have yet to come up to a single situation where the praying to spirit animals happen. Which is basically what most of the Norn society is built around.

You’re right but then at the same time you’re also wrong.

You’re right that the Norse people who worshiped the Æsir didn’t pray to spirit animals. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen though. Not all Norse tribes had the same religion. Not all of them worshiped the Æsir.

When you studied Norse mythology, you probably only studied one specific Norse religion (Odinism). But there were other Norse religions as well and some of the Norse religions were build around nature worship, including praying to the spirits of their ancestors and praying to spirit animals (in fact I’d say nature worship was older, more common and more wide-spread than Odinism).

So yes, the Norn culture is very much taken from ancient Norse culture, including the worship of nature and spirit animals.

The more you know.

Baolun.8316:

No comment on the hairstyles, but Charr horns can’t be gender-unlocked because they actually are supposed to look different for males and females.

Look at the range of options for females and males – male horns tend to be larger and curve forward, while female horns are mostly smaller and swept back. The only female exception I can think of is the Rox horns, which have always looked wrong to me. And look at the way they connect to the head – males have a serious brow ridge where the main pair of horns connects, while the females don’t have that at all, and in fact their main pair of horns emerges much farther back on the skull. Putting male horns on a female skull, or vice-versa, would not only remove one of the main gender distinctions, it simply wouldn’t work without a lot of remodeling.

You’re right. And this is also the case for humans and norn, though the difference in the shape of the skull between males and females is more noticeable with the norn than with the humans.

On top of that I think the vast majority of us (lets say 95% of the playerbase, if not more) would agree that gender-swapping hairstyles would look just downright awful and silly. I don’t want gender-bending and cross-dressing in GW2 and neither does Anet. It wouldn’t fit the aesthetics of the game.

If you want to do gender-bending and cross-dressing, go play Fable or Saints Row or other silly games that allow you to do that sort of stuff.

dietzero.3514:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

dietzero.3514:

Ashen.2907:

Foes in GW2, including dragons, are defeated by characters swinging sharpened pieces of metal. Unless Anet has decided to kill off the game that trend will likely continue.

If a group of random guys with bits of pointy metal can do the job then a modern military force would not even break a sweat. Keep in mind that no foe in this game takes more than a hundred or two (not sure exactly how many people can be in a map) people using iron age technology to defeat.

They are people wielding magic and magical items, in a magical world. Your comparison fails.

His comparison doesn’t fail. While it never actually happened, I’m sure a full map of only warriors who have no inherent magical abilities or magical weapons could defeat Tequatl.

Also how did we defeat Zhaitan? Was it with magic? No, it was not, it was defeated with pure and simple superior technology. So that proves elder dragons can be defeated with superior firepower, no magic needed.

If some fancy cannons in GW2 can defeat an elder dragon, I’m pretty sure our vastly superior modern military equipment can take care of an elder dragon as well.

Zhaitan was defeated with specially designed magical anti-Elder Dragon shells, fired from an airship that our modern military cannot create.

Warrior weapons, armour and accessories are magical. Also their Signets, and probably other things. As is the giant Asura death cannon that fires on Tequila Sunrise…

His comparison also failed by calling them Iron Age, which he clearly does not know the meaning of.

Nowhere in the game or wiki does is that the cannons used to defeat Zhaitan were magical or magically-infused in any way.

And what makes you think the warrior weapons and armor are magical? Is that just your assumption or do you have some evidence/sources to back this up? I don’t think the warrior’s kitten nal is inherently magical unless you use sigils/runes with magical abilities such as the sigil of fire or sigil of air.

That said, even if everything in GW2 was magical, does that mean it would therefor be better than our real-world armor and weaponry? What makes you think magic is inherently better or more powerful than sufficiently advanced technology? To give an example, as awesome as an elementalists’ meteor shower is, I’m pretty sure a real-world nuke is a lot more powerful.

You’re right about Tyria’s technology/weaponry not being similar to the Iron Age though, Tyria is more advanced than that. I’d say the humans in Tyria are somewhere between the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period.

dietzero.3514:

Ashen.2907:

Foes in GW2, including dragons, are defeated by characters swinging sharpened pieces of metal. Unless Anet has decided to kill off the game that trend will likely continue.

If a group of random guys with bits of pointy metal can do the job then a modern military force would not even break a sweat. Keep in mind that no foe in this game takes more than a hundred or two (not sure exactly how many people can be in a map) people using iron age technology to defeat.

They are people wielding magic and magical items, in a magical world. Your comparison fails.

His comparison doesn’t fail. While it never actually happened, I’m sure a full map of only warriors who have no inherent magical abilities or magical weapons could defeat Tequatl.

Also how did we defeat Zhaitan? Was it with magic? No, it was not, it was defeated with pure and simple superior technology. So that proves elder dragons can be defeated with superior firepower, no magic needed.

If some fancy cannons in GW2 can defeat an elder dragon, I’m pretty sure our vastly superior modern military equipment can take care of an elder dragon as well.

I approve!

Make it happen Anet!

fluffdragon.1523:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

(PS: I’m a freelance 3D artist myself who studied 3D visual effects and I’m currently studying game art & development, I’ll be getting my Masters degree next year if everything goes well.)

Please continue to wave your “credentials” around. It’s truly so very inspiring.

I’m still amazed you haven’t caught on to how the very faces and “skulls” in the game you’re talking about even work.

At least I have some credentials?

I know exactly how the faces and skulls work on this game and that’s why I know that you can’t simply put a hairstyle designed for the skull of a male norn on the skull of a female norn with the click of a button. You’d have to alter the hairstyle or in the worst case, completely rebuild it.

Considering the fact that artists in this line of work get paid $50,- per hour on average (at least that’s what I get paid and many of my colleagues too), “simply removing the gender-lock” is gonna be a very costly undertaking. That is time and money Anet could better spend elsewhere.

Ephemiel.5694:

I’m pretty sure that if the tech created by Charr and Asura combined with MAGIC doesn’t really work, i highly doubt our modern military can even last.

What makes you think magic is inherently more powerful than technology? Having magical abilities doesn’t automatically make you Superman or God.

I’m pretty sure if I were to 1v1 an elementalist in real life and the elementalist would have all his skills/abilities from GW2 and I would have a military automatic-rifle available (for example a M16), I’d kill that elementalist in merely a couple of bursts from an automatic-rifle. Fancy fireballs or ice-cones won’t do jack against superior firepower. Before that elementalist could cast his fireball I’d already have emptied half a clip of bullets in him.

lordkrall.7241:

Unlikely.

Considering how easy it took out the whole Pact Airship-fleet it is unlikely that air-support would be possible. The fact that it can also sprout vines more or less everywhere would make a land-assault rather dangerous as well.

You forget we have nukes.

We can just nuke the bejesus out of Mordy, maybe throw an atomic bomb or two on the Maguuma jungle and then we’d be fine. Mordy wouldn’t stand a chance against us.

Edit: Nevermind, I just saw the OP stated that nuclear weaponry would not be allowed in his hypothesis.

I guess without nukes it would be difficult to take on Mordy but we’d probably still kill him faster than Tyria could.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

If you’re going to ask to remove things that give the different sexes flavor and uniqueness, why not ask for the ability to wear armor across both sexes also? Considering we’re all playing digital avatars with their own fantasy lives in a make-believe game world, there hardly seems reason to stop us from representing ourselves and our characters as we see fit.

There are some reasons to stop us from representing ourselves and our characters as we see fit. I for one would not want to play a game were you’re not sure if the person (avatar) in front of you is supposed to be a man or a woman. I think many people feel that way and that is the reason why they prevent us from representing ourselves and our characters as we see fit.

I wouldn’t mind if Anet unified some of the armors between male and female (I vastly prefer the male version of the Phalanx Warplate armor and I wish I could wear that version of my female toons as well) but I don’t want to see cross-dressing being a thing in GW2. If you want that stuff go play Fable or something.

You mean like women wearing pants? That’s actually cross dressing. Are you against that? It wasn’t too long ago that women wearing pants were viewed with the same general distaste as men wearing female clothing. In fact, it was considered an abomination and against God. Literally.

In other words, it’s all what your culture tells you is acceptable.

Women wearing pants isn’t cross dressing and never was. Women wearing pants used to be seen as inappropriate, but it was never cross-dressing, considering the fact that women’s pants are different from men’s pants. It would only be cross-dressing if the woman would buy a pair of men’s jeans and wear that, or a man wearing a pair of women’s jeans.

Just like men wearing skirts isn’t cross-dressing either, as long as it’s a men’s skirt they’re wearing and not a women’s skirt. Ever heard of the kilt? It’s the most manly thing ever and it’s a skirt.

Culture has jack to do with this. My culture doesn’t tell me anything. I’m smart and independent enough to make my own decisions on what I find acceptable and what I don’t find acceptable.

While I’m not inherently against cross-dressers, it’s not something I’d like to see in GW2. For the same reason I don’t want to see clown outfits in GW2 even though I have nothing against clowns.

If you want to force players into a traditional trinity you’re gonna have to introduce mobs that can dish out unblockable and undodgeable hits. When specific heavy-hitting attacks can no longer be avoided through active defenses (blocking, dodging, reflecting, blinding) only then will you maybe see GW2 going into a trinity direction.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

If you’re going to ask to remove things that give the different sexes flavor and uniqueness, why not ask for the ability to wear armor across both sexes also? Considering we’re all playing digital avatars with their own fantasy lives in a make-believe game world, there hardly seems reason to stop us from representing ourselves and our characters as we see fit.

There are some reasons to stop us from representing ourselves and our characters as we see fit. I for one would not want to play a game were you’re not sure if the person (avatar) in front of you is supposed to be a man or a woman. I think many people feel that way and that is the reason why they prevent us from representing ourselves and our characters as we see fit.

I wouldn’t mind if Anet unified some of the armors between male and female (I vastly prefer the male version of the Phalanx Warplate armor and I wish I could wear that version of my female toons as well) but I don’t want to see cross-dressing being a thing in GW2. If you want that stuff go play Fable or something.

fluffdragon.1523:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

fluffdragon.1523:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

[…] they’d have to adjust them to fit the female head shape, and vice-versa. The time it takes to do that could just as well be used to create entirely new hairstyles, which they are doing now.

Goodness, as though the technologies of having mappable bone structures that allow us to dynamically change the size and shape of the head and facial features (that themselves can cause things like the scalp, forehead, and even temples to change drastically) do not exist! Surely they must have developed 1000+ variations of each hairstyle to explicitly fit the shape of all these combinations of head and face sliders! I suppose the hair styles that move and bob too must have a dozen or so different shapes to provide the illusion of motion, as most certainly they too are entirely static!

You don’t know what you’re talking about. Being able the scale your head and therefor scale the hairstyle with it is entirely different than having to accommodate for the fundamentally different shapes of the skulls between male and female.

Welcome to blend shapes and morph targets! Using these allows you to take a skeleton and animate it in hardware through the use of programmable shaders, thus letting you skin a mesh. It’s how we handle lip-sync in speech, fluid and cloth animations, and a bunch of other things.

http://antongerdelan.net/opengl/blend_shapes.html

Blend shapes would not be useful here, as you have to model each shape separately, so it’s not going to save you any work. It even says so in the link you posted.

Like I said, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

(PS: I’m a freelance 3D artist myself who studied 3D visual effects and I’m currently studying game art & development, I’ll be getting my Masters degree next year if everything goes well.)

fluffdragon.1523:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

[…] they’d have to adjust them to fit the female head shape, and vice-versa. The time it takes to do that could just as well be used to create entirely new hairstyles, which they are doing now.

Goodness, as though the technologies of having mappable bone structures that allow us to dynamically change the size and shape of the head and facial features (that themselves can cause things like the scalp, forehead, and even temples to change drastically) do not exist! Surely they must have developed 1000+ variations of each hairstyle to explicitly fit the shape of all these combinations of head and face sliders! I suppose the hair styles that move and bob too must have a dozen or so different shapes to provide the illusion of motion, as most certainly they too are entirely static!

You don’t know what you’re talking about. Being able the scale your head and therefor scale the hairstyle with it is entirely different from having to accommodate for the fundamentally different shapes of the skulls between male and female.

Scaling your head bigger, wider or longer is merely a matter of changing a variable number. No matter how much you customize your male or female character, he/she will always have the same base-shape for her skull, which means the hairstyles made for that shape will always fit as long as you scale the hairstyle with it. Changing the fundamental shape of the skull means having to change the hairstyle itself beyond simply changing a variable number.

Cause the shape of the female head is not the same as the shape of the male head, especially with norn. Meaning they can’t just copy over the hairstyles for the males to the females, they’d have to adjust them to fit the female head shape, and vice-versa. The time it takes to do that could just as well be used to create entirely new hairstyles, which they are doing now.

I rather have hairstyles specifically made for my characters instead of poorly copy-pasted hairstyles that don’t entirely fit my characters.

It’s not like the males and females have entirely different hairstyles. For most of the hairstyles available to male, the females have something similar available and vice-versa.

This game already has a trinity, it just happens to be gear-independent, making Berserker gear the ideal gear for all PvE content because you’ll be able to preform your trinity role(s) while also doing maximum DPS.

GW2’s trinity is:

1. Damage
2. Control
3. Support

Another difference in GW2 is that classes don’t have dedicated roles. Despite there being a trinity (and it’s definitely there), you’re not just performing 1 of the 3 roles. You’re contributing to all 3 aspects of the trinity to different degrees regardless of your class, but each class does have a focus on one of the 3 roles.

A guardian for example focuses heavily on support and control, but he brings damage to the table as well.

The elementalist will provide the party with DPS buffs and will mostly bring damage to the table, but offers some support too.

Etc. etc. etc.

I love the idea OP and I would take it a step further and suggest that each “tab” will also have their own trait and utility setup linked to it.

So for example if you switch to the Zerker PvE tab, you’ll automatically equip the traits and utility skills that you previously selected for that set.

azizul.8469:

can’t you just mix and match ? berserker + nomad . yes not exactly not the same numbers for the stats, but more or less….

armor = full zerker
trinkets = mostly nomad + 1 or 2 zerker.

It’s not the same. Celestial actually gives you higher stats in total, that’s why it’s so good (in pvp).

If you PvP on a regular basis you can get your celestial armor that way. You should be able to get 2 armor pieces a week through PvP (choose the glorious reward track), which will save you a lot of time especially if you get half of your armor in PvP while crafting the other half the traditional way.

Then if you get ascended trinkets instead of crafting the exotics you’ll be done even faster.

There are 2 beards for humans that I’d consider to be actual beards. 2 beard options is not enough.

As a bearded guy, I feel underrepresented in GW2! Anet, please give us more beards!

I’d drop ten-thousand bucks on gems and convert that to gold (i’ll be one rich mo-fo both IRL and in-game!).

The other 990.000,- bucks I’d spend on other things than GW2, probably invest some of it while putting the rest on the bank.

heartless.6803:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

heartless.6803:

Animations are generally better

This is one thing I disagree on.

I’ve rarely seen female characters in games properly animated. Either their animations are overly sexualized (Guild Wars 2 is guilty of this too) or the devs just copy-pasted the male animations on the female character’s rig, making her look weird and too masculine (this is particularly the case in Mass Effect among other games).

To me it came from playing a lot of wow, where most male models just absolutely stink. I played a Female Human, because males looked stupid and had stupid animations. It carried over here when I made my guardian.

To be honest the women in WoW looked no better than the men. If anything, they looked worse, cause WoW was low-poly, so lots of straight-hard edges, which looks okay on male toons cause angular shapes are percieved as masculine, but it doesn’t look so good on female toons.

RoseofGilead.8907:

LucosTheDutch.4819:

May I ask who those female heroes are? Famous people or people you know in real life?

Because I have to shamefully admit that I don’t remember any noticeable female heroes in our human history. I don’t think there were that many to be honest. First and only one that comes to mind is Joan of Arc and truthfully she wasn’t really all that heroic.

http://www.historynet.com/famous-women-in-history

That link has a fairly decent list, featuring some of the women I consider heroes. There are also the female figures from legends, such as Boudica, the Valkyries, and the Amazons. And then you have women such as Catherine of Aragon, Joanna of Flanders, Agustina de Aragon, etc.

Famous women =/= female heroes. Though I suppose that list also contains a fair share of what I’d consider female heroes (I just glanced over it real quickly).

Hannelore.8153:

Believe it or not, there’s not alot of longbow classes in vanilla GW2 either, just one more than the rifle.

What? I can only thing of 2 longbow classes, warrior and ranger. There are also only 2 rifle classes, warrior and engineer. Am I missing something?

I truly hope thieves will get a rifle with their specialization.

Loverboy.9417:

For me, most of the “heroes” and people I looked up to in my life were females.

May I ask who those female heroes are? Famous people or people you know in real life?

Because I have to shamefully admit that I don’t remember any noticeable female heroes in our human history. I don’t think there were that many to be honest. First and only one that comes to mind is Joan of Arc and truthfully she wasn’t really all that heroic.

heartless.6803:

Animations are generally better

This is one thing I disagree on.

I’ve rarely seen female characters in games properly animated. Either their animations are overly sexualized (Guild Wars 2 is guilty of this too) or the devs just copy-pasted the male animations on the female character’s rig, making her look weird and too masculine (this is particularly the case in Mass Effect among other games).

Ferik.3127:

18 of my 36 characters in?

Dude, what the hell do you do with so many characters?

In any case, I have 9 characters myself, half of them being male and half of them being female.

I like to mix it up a little and I like the looks of some of the armors more on female than on male, hence I decided to make half of my characters female.

My males:
- human guardian (main)
- human warrior
- norn warrior
- human necromancer
- sylvari ranger

My females:
- norn guardian
- human thief
- human mesmer
- human elementalist

is that the 0/0/6/4/4 build that GotBoons also uses?