New Races...What's Your Opinion?

As everyone who plays Guild Wars knows, so far you can only play as one race... human. However, in other MMORPG's - actually I'll change that to other fantasy games - you can choose from many different races to play. Orc, Dwarf, Halfling, Undead, Tauren, Gnome, Elf, Half-Elf, Troll, Rat People, etc.

So why should GW be so limited in it's scope of races when other games have such a broad range to choose from? There's already plenty of good races in the GW universe that could possibly be used, so new races wouldn't have to be added. You could play as a Charr, or a Centaur, or maybe Undead. Also, depending on your race, maybe you'd be new skills, or prehaps different unique class attributes, or maybe some new sort of bonus system altogether.

I know already that the odds of this idea actually coming into play in the game are close to nothing, but I still think it'd be an interesting change of pace.

If you have any ideas for playable character races in Guild Wars, I'd be very interested to know them. And if you would give them anything different from the human race in the game, what would it be?

I'm very fond of the human only style. This may be just me, but I remember when Halo 2 came out and I had to play as a friggin' Covenant bastard. Screwed with my head for weeks.

I wouldn't mind rocking bodies as a Charr.

Personally I'm happy the way it is. I wouldn't mind other species, but it's not a priority at all.

No. Absolutely no. Let's not try to get them add a bunch of Tolkien-ripoff cliches to EVERY single fantasy game. Again, no.

I'd rather see more professions instead of some minor appearance modifications that do nothing to make the game more interesting. Stop it.

Quoted for great justice.

Only if they do something original, I'm sick of the same crap over and over, like what Bast said. Also it is not a priority.

I'd like some new races. Humans are boring.

Playing as Mursaat would rock.

new race could be cool, but as long as its race that are already in the game, like dwarfs or Krytans.

I would much rather see new professions than races. 3 or 4 new professions is much more important than the typical cliche you get in fantasy games;

Dwarf (short and fat human)
Halfling (even shorter human)
Elf (tall human with big ears)

You see what I mean, it's just padding/eye candy. Much rather have real professions with skill sets. In fact I would rather see new weapons and armor than races.

But each races could have a specific bonus for a specific profession. But again, i dont think new races like elves or D&D stuffs should be used. Just keep the existing races. In fact, just adding ONE race like dwarf could make a huge difference. Sure, its lot of eye candy, but lot in this game is about that, i.e. haviong a nice armor, dying it etc etc

Wow. You definetely said "no" in some way or another a few too many times, but I am feeling your point there. Too many times "races" are just added to a game to make the appearance of the characters look different. Nothing really exciting is done in terms of gameplay, so it really is just eye candy. Not that I have anything wrong with eye candy, as so much of Guild Wars is just that. I often times take pictures of the gorgeous enviornments that GW has to offer just because it looks so darn good. I also feel that the character models in GW are the most gorgeous of any MMORPG out there.

But I digress. Firstly, they wouldn't have to the a-typical Tolkienesque races of elf, orc, dwarf. GW offers plenty of races as it is that are original and different from the status quo. Suggestions for the mursaat and charr have already been made, and I think that'd be pretty tight.

Further, new races could have new bonuses to them. For example, currently human warriors have the bonus attribute of "Strength", which gives them armor penetration as a passive ability. Maybe a charr warrior could instead have (umm...think think think...) "Fury", which affects how quickly they get adrenaline and allows for adrenaline to reduce the energy cost of certain warrior skills. By giving different races different class specific bonus attributes you could be creating almost an entirely new class! Almost...

As for your adding of classes, I couldn't agree more. GW's current classes are great, and almost perfectly fit into every concievable class there could be. (after all, there are 30 different class combos) But still I want more! However, this is neither the thread nor the time for discussing new classes. PvPX has begun! Wohoo!

I would like to see more skills, equipment, and another continent/world than more races.

EDIT: Yeah, people want more levels, but as A.Net has told, they want every player be equal in power, but in skills, is the player's decision.

Ack! Desthe, you copied me!

On topic:
Personally, I don't see how being able to play other races would fit into the storyline. We're supposed to be from a human kingdom now defunct fighting for the survival of our people. There may have been stragglers and settlers of a few other races living in Ascalon, but the lore clearly states that Ascalon, Orr and Kryta were human kingdoms. Maybe Anet has some really interesting plot twists to make playing other races pertinent to the storyline, but right now I don't see it.

My personal wish is for the story to take us into Charr territory to kick some butt for killing Gwen. On second thought, maybe we should join up with them for that. We change allegiances every other mission anyway, why not join the Charr too?

I'd probably always pick human...maybe a halfling, but I would much rather have more professions, skills, and equipment (decent wands!) more than that.

Because Anet doesn't charge a monthly fee and they probably didn't have the resources build all that. You can't get something for nothing.

They should sell gold on ebay.

i think we should have difent races. om anyhting in the game and out game like nomes high elfs, elfs, and even new clases like druids wizerd, and skills with the serten races and extra skill points in a certen area on that race..

New races would just complicate the game further and mess up the storyline. Like, why would dwarves start out in Ascalon city? And to all these people wanting elves, gnomes, and other WoW ripoffs do you see them current in GW? If not, Anet will have to make new countries, new cities, etc. etc.

/agrees.

* I would not like it if everything started to resemble WoW.

-cheers.