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

I would LOVE to play a Margonite, as there were atleast a few Margonites which switched sides. But they have the face problem I guess, that will their faces be masks or would they have fleshy faces which you would edit, and most of their headgear would be masks? Either way I'd like to play one .

NO!!!!!!make aliens or maybe ants or rats or anything small!!!

Ugh. Dear lord no. If i wanted gnomes, night elves, and all that crap I'd actually play WoW... or that Lotr online game they'll eventually attempt to make. In WoW/Lotr at least they fit in with the previous WoW themes.

I could only see Tengus/Dwarves/Margonites/Muursaats/Seers (since they at least look appealing) or things that are already in the game.

The only races I see fitting for new things would be:

Tengu
Dwarves
Charr

Perhaps in GW: 4 the Charr could even be the main people. See from there point of view for once. Or maybe not. They could just team up or somethin =D

please, for the love of god, no new races, that's what makes GW cool, none of that stupid elf crud, just good ol humans.

Aside from dwarves, tengu and centaur would be good starting points. They have a strong presence over multiple chapters including roles as henchmen, heroes, and mission allies. The Angchu tengu and a few groups of centaur are all on friendly terms with humans.

One way to introduce races as a significant gameplay element would be to just make the race act as a locked primary profession, maybe with only one attribute. Another possibility would be to lock a number (1-3) of racial skills onto the character's skill bar. A combination of the two would be best, with a tengu's "Tengu" attribute modifying the character's tengu skills.

As a tengu Ranger you'd be forced into Te/Ra and have a limited number of slots available for Ranger skills, but if ArenaNet were smart the tengu racial skill(s) would be broadly applicable (example: balanced skill that briefly doubles the range of missile weapons and spells) so the challenge would be to build a Ranger around your tengu's racial skill.

Retroactively, the human's racial skill is sort of in not having a racial skill (being able to use eight from two professions) and the ability to have two real professions.

So you're proposing that races act the same as professions......If that were so, then wouldn't humans be superior in combining two professions? If non-humans only have 2 or 3 unique skills and one profession to master, then they are at a major disadvantage. Now improving upon the usable skiills of non-human races would start to mix up the line between "race" and "profession". I don't know about this idea, I suppose if anet chose to work on it they could make it fit, but at the moment it's too unrefined...

How about Grimlins? ya, you guys who have seen the movies know what i'm talking about, imagne a small green monster (looks like a grentiche) walking into battle and pwning you with a hammer, thats a happy thought right ther .

Here is an old thread about several ways that race could be/might be done.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...5&postcount=28

Now seeing as so far the first three chapters of guildwars takes place on the same planet it would be only logical to incoporate in a later expansion a new continent that includes other races such as elves and dwarves as playable characters. I say elves and dwarves only becuase these are two of the most classic and beloved races of all time.

Though they arent "new" races in the general sense of the word they would be new to this game as playable and would therefore open up new areas of play and build creativity with the new races having an effect on the types of professions that could be taken on by that character. Elves are notorius as Rangers and Magic Users which could open up new types of weapons (crossbows and staffs) while Dwarves are the true tank of the fantasy genre being both infamous as warriors but also as shamans and weaponsmiths (opening up a new type of play such as quests involving the learning of skills required to craft weapons, quests that would be available only to this race).

These races could be used to further improve the storylines of the previous chapters in numerous ways which im sure the infinitely creative developers would have no trouble in implementing.

Well, If guild wars did use any other races then humans, it would definatly have to be either Generic races and races that GW created.

An idea that i have is that certain races could be restricted to certain charecter classes, something like this:

Warrior: Human, Tengu, Dwarf, Charr, Lizardman.
Elementalist: Human, Imp, Elf.
Ranger: Human, Tengu, Elf, Dwarf, Charr.
Mesmer: Human, Elf, Imp.
Necro: Human, Undead, Dark Elf.
Monk: Human, Elf, Angel.
Assassin: Human, Tengu, Lizardman.
Ritualist: Human, Elf, Undead, Dark Elf.
Dervish: Human, Undead, Dark Elf, Charr.
Paragon: Human, Elf, Angel.

Thats how i think they should do it.

Out of all the postshere there are a few that go to the extreme. But that is not why I am putting in my 2 cents worth.

On new races:
1 Dwarves: dooable, they are already within the Guild Wars database and wouldn't be too hard tomake them playable.
Problem with dwarves: gonna be real hard to distinguish between males and females.
Assets: now we could hit below the belt and not be penalized for it (joking)
Having gotten the joke out of the way: Possibility of infiltrating several hostile dwarf camps without raising suspision.

2 Elves: Possibile to do, not much of a change has to be made to the main models that Guild Wars has for the Humans, as Humans and Elves are similiar.
Assets: The tallest race in the game, possible new profession due to their oneness with nature and abilities to use majic (Mythology states that Elves were one with the spirits of everything: trees, water, earth, and so forth and very skilled majic users). The ultimate rangers, in most movies and fokelore you almost encounter Elves with a bow and arrow and most cases a "companion".
I will not get into he Dark vs light Elf thing.


New races are needed to make this game fun again.

mega Mouse

I cannot hate an idea more than this one. One of the things that makes GW better than other RPGs is that you dont see people playing stupid elves, halflings, orcs, zergs and w/e other lame stuff around.

Pls keep the players human only, otherwise there will be some bs like innate race special features ruining the game balance (which is already struggling to keep itself from breaking with countless new skills and professions).

Elves blow. I don't even like Dwarfs, but oh well, already in the game. It would be pretty cool if they offered expansions to each chapter, or a special race pack which offered a new race based on each chapter. Dwarves are allies in Prophecies, Tengu were allies in Factions, and Centaur are Allies in Nightfall. If they add them by chapter it there should be plenty of options, and if they ever allie or offer enemy races, we always have Forgotten, Naga, Char, Dredge, Wardens, Arcavia and more.

As for creatures like Undead, Afflicted, and Demons, those are really abominations and 100 percent enemy, I don't really see them offering these as playable characters, because they arn't even species, they are ghouls.

As for all that "Elf" crap, if they are going to add a Highborn race which has a remotely elf look, I would perfer vampires. Please go with something a little more facinating than Elves, Elves are just weak, Forgotten already poses all the features predominant to Elves anyway.

As far as originality goes, copying Elves, Gnomes, Goblins and Orcs is very weak. But on the flip side, Dwarves are not original, and Humans are the most generic characters ever, copying ourselves without even a thought. I think that making other races, which already fight along side you, into playable characters would make character customization much more enjoyable. Leave all the balance alterations aside, because it is just a recipe for disaster. But I would also like to see more than new races and new professions, and see a step taken into radically original options.

Nightfall is perhaps the best out of the 3, yet it is the one I have afforded the least time to pursue. The general gameplay of GW is getting stale, even though Nightfall had more original content than Factions (with heros), it isn't nearly enough to retain my interests. Withouts some outstanding Professions, Race identities, combat mechanics, or even better to reignite my interests, I woln't follow GW much longer. Those who like the content already available will continue to play whether the game improves or not, those who want more will seek elsewhere unless they are satisfied, the game has got to evolve to maintain and gain players.

And the one good thing about GW is not that all the characters are human, that's bullcrap. GW is a good game because it offers gameplay which doesn't stress grind and character development, and instead fosters superiority in strategy and talent. It is also a good game because the developers respect what the players desire and satisfy their customers, that is just good buisness. Imagining GW will exclude whatever select people arn't interested in is nieve, the success of a commercial game is satisfy everyone, you can play human, we shouldn't have to as well because of what you want.

Races are the next logical step to Guild Wars. A-net isn't stupid, the more traditional mmo features they throw in, the more people switch over. They want to make Guild Wars as appealing as possible to the widest audience possible, because that's what sells games.

and I'd like to end by saying this: Guild Wars is an RPG game, and those that cannot or will not accept this simple fundamental fact need to go back to playing Counterstrike and let the natural evolution of this game take place.

Ugh.... No elves please!
Anet should think of something more original, like....err...... Half-Dredge!
You get the picture

The game is almost 2 years old, has 2 expansions, 3 campaigns and NO new races were used. So, I don't see where did you find ANY hint of new races being the next "logical step to Guild Wars".

You need to understand GW has its own features to be a different game, i don't see why people come here to give suggestions like these, it just looks like people want to bring WoW, NWN, or w/e other generic medieval rpg game into GW. LET IT BE ON ITS OWN, it doesnt need (more) clichès, for those who want to play stuff that are already on another game, i think you might know where you can go play it.

And, your post works better on the reverse way. If people can't accept that GW is a MMO where you cant play underdark half-ZOMGWTF's, they need to go back to play their games and stop annoying people who play this game because it isnt just like everything else.

Well, there is no problem with having to keep things original. If they REALLY wanted to add new races they could. We already have the frames, artwork, models, and alot of armor artwork, for at least 3 or 4 races. We could have dwarves, centaurs, tengu, and I saw a suggestion of maybe charr at a later date (a charr rit would just be bad ass ^_^)

However, I'm not gonna cry about not having races. They are not needed. If they are added, that's cool. If they are not added, who cares.

Here's my thought about the idea. Now, when I found out that players can only play as humans it was part of the reason why I got the game in the first place. The game made sense to me when I found that most of the games aspects were based on different cultures around the world. Although some things like some of the monsters were entirely fantasy related, I think the game is best when it has some stuff based on reality. I feel that if there are alternate races for people to play, it might bend things into fantasy a little too much. A little is ok, like what the game has done already and to me the sole option of being a human is just fine. However, if the majority of people are still too anticipated on being another race than I would suggest to Arena Net to come up with a class (name of it would probably be a Shifter) to allow the player to change into a different being for maybe a long period of time. Also, make some image alternating goodies like possibly a potion so that anyone in the outposts and towns can change into a different being there. Much like those potions that were offered in the Halloween and Christmas/New Year special events that were held in Guild Wars. More likely, it could be a good idea that the makers of Guild Wars make a shifter class or make more shape changing potions to turn people into alternate races, even for a long time, while still being true of the games theme that it has right now. Which is an elegant fantasy game with some aspects from it that could relate to the real world. That should keep it's original feeling in the game. By the way, I understand if there are some people here that feels the same way as I do and are just listing the race ideas just for fun. I just like for game to keep it's originality.

I'd rather see more races than more classes. There's a limit to everything, and there's a limit to how many classes you can get before stuff copies into another.

And in that area, it would also be good for an npc that can change your character's race once.

Tengu- bonus for ranger class
Human- small, general bonus for all classes
Dwarf- erm... bonus on nec?
Charr- bonus on warrior
etc...

Yeah Drizzt!!!!! He is the man...I mean drow...you get the idea! I really would like to see more races in GW though, it would give us a lot more variety for character creation and just make the game more interesting.

I would **** my pantalones if A-net added darkelves.

Still waiting on those tengu.

Half-Dredge would be nice lol. Or perhaps a Warden alike race. That would be cool

I want it to stay all as humans. I think this is a good point in GW. I think it will become more like WoW. WoW has diff races, and GW has 1ts and 2nd prof, imo this is a main point about the games not being the same.

OK i have an idea to solve this problem.

Have an expansion pack that introduces different races...

Thus, people who like the current human system remain happy and get to fight the Charr characters etc in combat during PVP or conjoined elite missions...

Let's say for example the new chapter is released with 3 different box sets, Charr, Human and Undead. All three have separate missions and the stories only collide during set elite missions that intertwine each respective story.

Also, for those moaning about the lack of space in pre searing, an expansion pack could be provided giving the account of the Charr, say 10years before the searing...

Just a thought...flame away

I am still hoping Anet will make Moa Birds a playable race, but thats just me. Aside from that, playable races would add a new style of customization to the game, and they could be capable of adding so much more. Such as unique skills to races or racial traits, but by doing this Guild Wars would become increasing alike to World of Warcraft. If Anet is able to find a unique way to add races to the game, and a creative way to implement differences among the races, then I am all for new races. Otherwise, I do not want Guild Wars to become a World of Warcraft clone.

it would be cool to play new races... but ive put so much into my guy... maybe you could change your race by doin a quest or useing some magical orb or somthin... well have a nice day

I think they are really really really cute and I want to be a heket. can they make some of the favorite old GW1 races playable too?

We don't yet even know for a fact that any races will be playable.

/notsigned on the basis this whole idea is contingent on unconfirmed information

hekets are the vermin equivilent of Elona. You just can't kill them all.

I hate Hekets.
For me it will be good idea to play as a Dwarf. There are a lot of Dwarfs in Guild Wars now and it will bo not so strange. Same Centaurs.

I just hope there wont be any stupid elves or darkelves, i dont care about that shit or any other cute stupid races.All i would like are charr ,Tengu and Centaurs.

I once had an idea for an MMO-style game. The structure was similar to Guild Wars as far as the first entire game was based around humans and their struggle in this vast world. Then, each subsequent expansion/game added to the world was a new race and their perspective in the world.

If Guild Wars did this, I think it would be awesome. It's already similar with Cantha and Elona and their semi-parallel storylines that mush together in the end with people from different lands. It would be like that, except same world (access to all continents, all the time), and different races from different lands experiencing the same stuff from different perspectives.

So, yeah, I vote for GW2 to have humans in the first, initial release, then every chapter introduce a new race with a new perspective/storyline.

If there are no benefits to playing as a new race, then they really shouldn't be added at all. The manpower it would take to implement for a purely cosmetic change like this would be staggering. It wouldn't help gameplay any, it wouldn't have an effect on the game at all, so why waste (and it would be a waste) all that time on it?

Adding a single new race means putting in animations, customization options, armor sets, across 3 campaigns. And still, it wouldn't be enough. All common sense aside, people would be crying if they couldn't play their Charr warrior in pre-searing Ascalon, or their Naga ritualist through Shing jea monastery. In my opinion, is just isn't worth it.

If new races were added to GW, that weren't really new races but humans with a different model, I'd just shake my head. The whole POINT of having other options like races is that they are different. Even in the game as it is now, races have specific vulnerabilities and strengths.

Now for a completely new game, maybe the GW2 that everyone is excited about, I'd love to see Charr, Avicara, and especially Forgotten. Built into the game from the most basic level and with the game balanced around the races first. To add playable races that are actually new races and not re-skinned humans at this stage of the game's life is just asking for disaster.