Guild Wars Diversity - Discussion of new Races in the GW Universe

That is the direction the game seems to have gone, and I actually find it refreshing. Of course, it doesn't satisfy everybody. Hence, another of these stupid threads.

well when you create your character there is Canthan and tryia...

but also the sub groups are black, pale, white, latinoish and some others..

so there are different races in guild wars technically

I would like to see new races, but no extra effects with them, that would totally jack everything WAY up. If new races were added then they should just be for looks

It wouldn't have a very dramatic effect on me either way, but I like that we can only be humans. It reminds me less of "Dungeans and Dragons" *Shudders*

For more appearance options, I'd rather they allow us to choose/scale the body type of our characters, and let any character use any hair style from that class/gender (styles between chapters).

I've noticed Lyra and I tend to have the same thoughts on a lot of matters. This is no exception. What she said.

...but I said I'd quit if they gave me more choices...

If races were ever implemented Guild Wars could do some of their own originals..

-Tengu
-Naga
-Dwarves

I would like to see non-human avatars in the game. They should have the same stats as human toons, just like male and female humans are equivalent.

The mechanics already exist

In order of preference:

1) Naga or Forgotten

2) Tengu or Avicara

3) Dwarf

4) Centaurs

5) Wallows! (I love Brutus and Sheena)

But no stinkin' elves, please.

Yeah this would be cool but no wallows please...

That would just be odd...

Agreed. The fact that everyone is beginning to look to everyone is somewhat disconcerning. I have a friend who would love to play characters that he has previously made in tabletop gaming, but can't because his characters are so heavily incorporated to race, specifically Dwarf.

YES! This would be freakin' awesome.

/signed

Drakes and Giants would also make a lot of people happy. Probably Charr and Skeletons as well. and Kirin.

The moment I saw Brutus, well, actually I was scared, because I recruited him as green text across the square and didn't see him until out in the mission. Then after settling down I thought "So, ArenaNet is taking a step toward other-specie-avatars."

I'm just fine with human avatars, but more styles of Armor would be great. Cantha added lots of choices, but they varied little from a basic theme. Some are not even Dyeable.

Basically, the choices are limited and everyones characters tend to look the same as everyone elses. Monks use the bun hair, warriors always look pissed off. eles either use that weird judy jetson hair, or the bun hair, warrior chicks either have the bun or the pigtails, etc etc etc. then you stick them all in the same 15k armor dyed black and really, without a name beneath them, you can't tell them apart. I would kill for facial customization, etc. Anything that morphs it into individual features.

Except for having to redo the armor for every potential new race, sure.

It's fine as is. I like a game that doesn't try to be as uberfantasy as it possibly can.

It would be fine as long as you could change your existing character =P

I would pay a monthly if I could get my character to be unique.

One of the reasons I don't think GW is worth a fee is the lack of customizations, and it is the only reason I would stop playing. Frankly I have been shopping and have considered WoW, /shudder, but no other game has as good of graphics, so I am staying. If another game comes along with as good of/or better graphics, and has a wider variety on character selection, monthly fee or no, consider me gone.

If the way they have it is for a reason, then maybe races is a good way to solve it, say pick your race (Tyria, Krytan, Maguuman, Cathan, Luxon, Kurzik, Dwarf, New), then where it is born (campain).

I would also like to see Non-human avatars, a Tengu with even just 1 skin for each gender and each profession would have been appropriate for factions, and they could have used the skins they already have.

Eventually the lack of characters will be a factor in my decision to purchase future chapters.

If they made new races I would want to be a Forgotten. Those are sweet. Just think of the trails I could leave on the desert with Escape!

I like the sound of new races, but they would have to implement it right, if they release the reces one at a time EVERYONE will be a tengu, or something like that. What I would want is a majority human with a mixture of other things among it, not just have waves of one race or something.

The problem is whatever I would like to be, it would have to be big and armoured , like an ettin in platemail. Or something that is unbelieveabley cool and evil, kind of like the nagzul in LoTR, just that dark cloaked look of evil. That dosent even have to be a new race even.... Just some nice warrior armour with a cloak over it would do for me....

I really wish they'd stick with just humans and let us just enjoy the other races as npc allies like the Tengu however in the future they said if they couldn't think of new professions they would turn to new races and Tengu would be first on the list I'm sure...

That said it could work I suppose though I'm not a huge fan of the idea. However depending on how they got the armor to look plus different looks for each profession like they do with humans it's a lot of added work... depending on what it looked like would determine if i was for or against it.

Considering the fact though that each profession has it's own set of apperances I almost look at that as different yet similar looking races on it's own accord.

Been covered a few time. Try looking here http://www.guild-hall.net/forum/showthread.php?t=36183


Most people won't want to read the whole thing, so I'll sumarize here:

Tengu: A clearly civilized race, highly intelligent, with a stable society and history. They have a history of conflict with humans, as well as any other intruders.

Charr: A savage, but technologically semi-developed race.There's large portions of north-eastern Tyria still unexplored. Their storylines could revolve around the incursion of humans into their ancestral lands, and their culture after seeing their gods slain by mere humans.

Dwarves: They're already in the middle of a civil war, with humans traipsying about in their mountain homes, undead and monsters swarming up from the south and west, and who knows what coming from underground. Maybe a displaced colony of Dredge, demons, or worse.

Centaurs: Defenders of nature, they can be found across most of tyria. Capable of forging advanced weapons and armor. Large tracts of north western and western Tyria are unexplored, giving ample room for building the Centaurs into a thriving people.

Forgotten Ones (maybe with some influence of their degenerate Naga cousins). They once controlled most of Tyria. They were blessed by the Dragon/prophet Glint and charged with ancient knowledge. They have been hunted, slain, and displaced from their ancestral homes, forced to live in the barren wastes of the crystal desert. Now that the Flameseeker prophecies have been fulfilled, what will their purpose be? Will they still serve Glint, or will they be abandonded to their fates?

Wardens: Once human, they are now something completely different. Changed by the Jade Wind, they serve as twisted protectors of their petrified home. How does Shiro's return affect them? Can they reconcile with sharing their home with humans, or do they continue their xenophopic campaign?


Now, some people might criticize use of non-humans. Especially if certain races gained benefits that humans don't. I propose a balance to any benefits. Look at each of the races suggested. What is something each race has never been seen doing? That's right, taking a secondary class. If the various races each had a race specific bonus, then they'd need something to balance it out.

Some people will suggest the Mursaat or Prophet race, but each of those is far too powerful. We need to keep it on the "mere mortal" level, on par with humans.




/my $0.02

The only way I could see something like this working where you could change your current chars is to make it some "magic" armor (yes, armor) in some other GW chapter. There could be some magical type of armor you could buy somewhere that is expensive, and give no added bonus while fighting or anything, but, like the obsidian armor in proph, it changes your look, but to another race's look. It would work, and, if its expensive, like the obsidian armor, it will be rare, so most people would look like humans, but it would be a goal to get it so you can change your look.

Another idea I have for this is there is a optional quest/mission in one of the later GW chapters, and if you do this quest/mission then you are brought to a special place, that can only be gotten to if you do the mission/quest. Floating castles above the sea anyone?

Those are currently the only 2 ideas that I have as far as being able to be different races, without your alredy made characters being left out.

Whether you can change your already made characters or not,
/signed to different races.

I wana be a tengu! Go BirdMen!

These 2 ideas would also make it so you can look like just about any race, but not have to deal with any balance issues.

I'd say implement new species as new classes instead. In other words, instead of being able to choose your species, then your class, just add on the newest classes as depicted by a different species.

So if in Chapter 3 we get a bare-knuckle brawler (as has been rumored), maybe it could be a Troll brawler.

This is actually not true. Wardens were never humans. They were always servants of the Forest Spirit (Urgotz) and were actually peaceful and only attacked wrong-doers. However, Urgotz got corrupted by the Jade Wind and now wants to destroy everything (for the most part).

You would of course know this if you actually read the quest description for the Wicked Wardens quest (which I personally created the Guild Wiki article for).
Wicked Wardens

Well, it would have to be something arab/north african themed. A Genie from the bottle? (Djinn) A Forgotten/Naga would be logical.
Some things that pop into my mind thinking about this:
a Whirling Dervish (fighter with 2 swords, but thats kinda like assassin...)
a Scorpion/man monster, or a medusa-like snake monster...

But I degress. Yeah I'd like to see non-human characters as well

/signed

That's very nice. Now read the guildwiki articleabout wardens themselves. I'll point out the important part:

"They may have been humans (druids or shamans perhaps) at some point, but have merged with the spirit of the forest and are now something different than humans. As a group they were driven to the edge of insanity by what happened to the Echovald Forest on the day of the Jade Wind. To see life extinguished in the forest and the entire place petrified, yet they survive to witness all of that, made them more fanatic than ever. They reserve the right in their traditions to seek vengeance against Shiro Tagachi for what he did to the forest. They secretely work to find a way to reverse the petrification, but until then, they remain a threat to any humans traveling the forest."

uhm I'm not too bothered about other species but charactar alterations besides height, hair color and small ranges of face types would be nice. Say more 'chunky muscles', 'spindlier limbs' pure speculation there but come on human shapes do come in different shapes and sized.

A haircut would be nice 2..... perhaps when considering monks buns (yes I have a healbot 2) maybe the scalp designs could alter the appearance? Maybe a bit of jewelry adornment? Having a choice to get rid of the flappy white thing?

Seriously, it's like deja vu all over again. How many times has this been brought up? The mods should really put a sticky or something at the top so we don't have to restate ourselves every week or two.

There are actually quite a number of good candidates for playable races. Ones that have, you know, culture, technology, language, and sentience for that matter. The other important quality is profession choice. Nobody's ever seen a Tengu with a secondary profession, but let's just assume that's due to lack of training. We've got Dwarves, Tengu, Charr, Naga, and Centaurs who seem to have all the qualities.

There's the Forgotten and Mursaat (unless we killed them all, which is possible) as well, but since they don't seem to have any physical capabilities (that is, no warriors or rangers) I don't think they'd work. Because an enchanted lump of rock isn't exactly what you'd call conversant, not to mention cognizant.

/signed
Let's assume that we are stuck with the current facial features because it is not economically feasable with the current buisness model, thats cool. We are buying character slots, why not sell races as well.

sticking with pure human there are currently 6 human races, 2 of wich are playable:
Tyrian
Cathan
Ones that could be purchased:
Luxon
Kurzik
Krytian
Magumman, (the jungle NPCs do look diffent than the Lion's Arch NPCs)

Now if Nightfall, or what ever campain 3 will be called, follows the same pattern, they will introduce 1 playable race and 2 non playables.

Some may consider these expansion packs; but also, just like slots, they can be also considered bonuses, and in no way will the change the metagame play. If a person doesn't want to make a new character look Luxon they don't have to, just like if you are happy with 6 slots you don't have to buy 2 more slots.

And I would still be willing to buy a Tengu, Dwarf, Warden, Dredge, or a Naga (I'm not so sure about Wallow, but if we made peace with the Charr, they could be included), even if I could only choose the gender of each profession. Of course Non-Humans might be just a bit to much, and make it to hard to decide a new Character.

Assuming that this would happen I doubt it would be retroactive.

A-Net your in the buisness to seperate us from our money, here is another way to do it!

/puts on Pyromance Armor (just in case)

BTW how could a Naga do the male ele dance, and do we really want it doing the female rit?

I would love having different nationalities. Kurzick and Luxon would be an awesome start... I'd rather have a diverse human race then non-human races. Or atleast thats my opinion.

I think they should stick to humanoid races, the wallows are rather interesting, but I really don't want to see every unusual looking creature made into a character, and I would rather have unique attributes and abilities with non-humanoid characters instead of the same skills as normal humanoid classes.

If they do start making Wallows and Drakes playable characters, they should be available only for a single class, Wallows are necromancers, Drakes are elementists, basicly as a new skin for that class in a creature form, not an avatar that can be used for any class.

I think that if we do get non-human it should be linked to the campain, such as, in Factions we have a treaty with the Tengu, so a Tengu avatar would be appropriate, in Prophecies the Dwarves were prominate, so a Dwarf would have been appropriate. If chapter 3 deals with Nagas as allies then Nagas would be good there. But I don't think it should be what ever race we can come up with this week.

The game is new so some limits are acceptable, but we are getting more than a year odd, it is time to expand the character base.

I agree, kind of. I think that the races they make available to all classes should be of the sentient inhabitants of Tyria, and no 'monster' types should be included. For monster types...maybe a shapechange spell for rangers or something, but no more than that. Personally I'd get annoyed at someone having a drake on my team, partly because I hate drakes and partly because I like to play with people, not monster look alikes that shout "n00b" in the chat window... ^^

Old Hat

and btw, the Jade Armor took up the warrior and ranger end of the Mursaat Cjlr

I've in favour of human-like races.
I never want to see somebody playing as a Snow Wolf, though. Never.

Of course, that assumes that they can manage clipping on armour and issues like that. I have a feeling that this would take MAJOR work and would probably require the investment of an expansion to find the money for it.

/signed for two-legged races.

Two legs good; four legs bad!

Tengu is possible. With all the new Tengu skins we can see in Aerie (Merchant, Weaponsmith etc).

I still hope for a Shapeshifter if they put only humans as race.

Maybe other non humans race we must pay to get it.

Why not elves? :'(
I would be happy with just a different set of heads (with pointed ears)...

Of course, we would have to demand that ANet then also disable any variation of the name 'Drizzt Do'Urden', or give us high powered rifles to shoot all the 'Driszt Du'Orden' or 'Driss Dourden' or any other misspelled attempt to mimik the name.

/signed

always wanted to play one of those stone submit Dwarves, i even got the matching weapons and shields set stashed away for the day.

Which those aren't black skin and white hair to mimic him? We have more originalities race (some for the look) in GW than Tolkien races game like WoW. Tyrian's Rangers are those who can look like Drizzt (just put Shiro Blade on one of them).

Dude as if. Tengu. thats the only race I see becomming a playable one.
Tengu ftw.
weve seen them as just about ever class, and unlike dwarves they never ride around on animals. they fight EXACTLY like humans.
being a big bad arse bird would be so cool, just look at the way they hold swords backwards. heck ya!
and dude, they apparantly can be any class.
Appart from a player being able to look different from others, he would have the choice of tengu armors, armors that would be slightly different from human ones, giving some variation to the pplaying style of the races.
perhaps tengu would be different in other ways.
tengu could be given extra hp and attribute points but limited to only their primary proffession.
just a though.
yeah, as far as I could guess, Id say tengu all the way.
admit it, they are bad. you know you wanna be a ten foot tall chicken.

Why the hell did you pull this coprolite out again?

Should have waited two days to do it, and then it could at least have been exactly one year since the last post. As it is, a 363 day bump isn't as impressive. Well, it is a palindrome.

But seriously. There was probably already a thread that was more recent. In fact, I guarantee that there were quite a number of them.

Now that we've experianced the ability to gain territory and faction in alliance battles, I think it would be cool to add new races or nations to the game. It would have to come in an expansion pack, because its probably a huge thing. I don't know what races there would be just to choose from, because GW is getting along fine with just humans, but what about the ability to be a Charr, or a Dwarf, fighting for territory in Ascalon or the Shiverpeaks, a constant battle between the Summit and the Deldrimor. A way to throw in more factions and give more choice and territory battle to the game. Being a Charr, I admit, is probably a bad idea, I just wanted to throw that out. But I think it would be cool to be a dwarf and pick between Summit and Deldrimor. You could even start the game in a different town depending on if you're human or dwarf. Ascalon for Humans and........i dont know, Droks for Dwarves. Something with armor would have to be done though, so a rich lvl5 couldn't get plate. It's something to think about, and continue the Tryian saga of Guild Wars, which at the moment is a little unfinished.