Character diversity

We all know that we start with race of human
I heard that as expansion comes out, we can choose the race.
Is that means...we have to build our character all over again?
For example....

The game releases on April
So I bought it and started to play human (lets say even though I want to be an elf, I have no choice but to play as human)
With hard work and time input...reached level 20(with fancy gears)

Expansion comes out few months later
Ah...new races!! including elf

Do I have to build my character all over again?

Will there be racial advantage?
Like humans good at this, elves are good at that and so on.

Will expansions be standalone?
or do you have to buy all previous ones in order to play new expansion?

Please help me with these questions
thanks

you "heard"...
just remember a lot of people can be speculative and want to forsee what MAY be coming ...... simply put they can't know what's coming until either GW site itself makes something official or Gaille Grey / Alex Weekes says its offficial.... anything else would fall under rumor or hearsay.

your best bet is to assume the status quo... human only..and wait for them to decide if they add more.

Although i am unsure whether they will require the 1st chapter, i am fairly certain that expansions will not require you to buy anything else. you can choose to buy the 2nd, 5th, and 6th expansions and gain access to all the content that those provide. you will be unable to access any of the content from any of the other expansions.

[QUOTE=Davion]you "heard"...
just remember a lot of people can be speculative and want to forsee what MAY be coming ...... simply put they can't know what's coming until either GW site itself makes something official or Gaille Grey / Alex Weekes says its offficial.... anything else would fall under rumor or hearsay.

well...
I heard it from offcial guildwars support page
It's listed on page 4 of official support page:

What playable races are there in Guild Wars?

Question
What playable races are there in Guild Wars?

Answer
In the first chapter you will be able to play characters from the human race. In subsequent chapters of Guild Wars, you may be able to play members of other races

I know we "may" be able to play...but I though it would be a good question to ask

sorry if it was a bad question

in an interview it was stated that the initial game was mandatory but any and all additional chapters would be optional and you did not have to buy chapter 2 to use chapter 3 as each chapter builds on 1 and is a complete chapter in and of itself

as they said
NO CLIFFHANGERS to try to make you buy the next one

AS FOR ELF

it is a new character so yes you start it over

BALANCE the elf will not be uber etc

Personally, I like to think that Arena.Net is smart enough to not add "elf" playable characters.

In the event of new races, getting to level 20 is not really THAT difficult... doing all the missions should put you close. As for the equipment or items that you have... well, that's why they want to have Account Storage. While you will lose all the customized items if you erase your character, you could put anything else they have into your "storage" box or whatever they end up putting in.

If elves are ever put into an expansion, I'd skip that one. Sure, we're in the "fantasy" setting so it's not like what we're seeing hasn't been done before, but adding elves and/or dwarves is like admitting unoriginality, unless your franchise calls for it (Middle Eath-setting, Forgotten Realms, etc.).

Either way, I'm personally glad that there is only 1 "race" right now.

Ditto, except to the fact that if they would have built the game around having those 3 classes it might have worked, but as for adding them after it's released? That would be quite stupid of them.

Gaile said there is a posibilityof other races in future chapters and that would be possible since as stated eachchapter is supposed to be full game size rather than a expansion

she made a great point of full size chapters rather than a tacked on smaller expansion

chapters will also have a full size price

I hope they don't add other playable races. There are already NPC dwarves, so I would assume they would be a likely candidate for a playable race, and elves would be easy enough to add, but it seems pointless to me. Considering the game will be released with just one playable race, what will the other races offer instead of just new looks?

If they come with traits, strengths and weaknesses, then that would be unfair to the already established community playing the game. And if it is just for looks, why not create those alterations for release so people don't have to delete already made characters if they find a new race/look in an expansion that they like? I'm sure they will figure out the best answer IF they put in other races.

Maybe they will just be new professions?

it would be fair if the new characters were balanced against what was already available (which Gaile said would be the case of new chapters)

more variety new looks new challenge

sounds good to me

thanks all for great answers
but...I have one more question

Ok...lets say an expansion will be same as full game; and other race(s) are introduced.
So, if you are willing, you can start to build your new race character.
"But" I'm pretty sure some people will just continue with their character from previous chapter. (hey, humans are good looking too )
Now...I see little conflict when it comes to quest.

Lets say people who is staying with previous character is level 20
And lets say people who wants to build new race character is level 1...since they have to start over.
How monsters in expansion quest will be balanced?
It will either too easy for level 20 people if monsters are balanced for level 1 people; or too hard for level 1 people, if monsters are balanced for level 20 people.

I only could think of few things to fix this problem
1st option = magic formula

2nd option = everyone needs to start over for expansion quest. (previous character will only be available for PvP in expansion)

3rd option = Game will detect expansion with new race. Since buying 1st one is mendatory; you will be able to choose new race from 1st quest.

3rd option sounds good, but then people who went thru with human, but wants to change race will suffer; because they have to go thru 1st quest with new race character all over again.

Any thoughts?

I am pretty sure you will have to create a new elf if you want. Don't worry. Expansions are wuiet a while away. You'll want to start a new character tehn probably.

hehe.... kirbie,

the only bad question is the question never asked. Was just a flat answer. if it sounded cold its because it is FREEZING here. and maybe too that I work more than I live.. makes for wonderful dead man walking paradox.

just watch when somebody says "may" or "might".. its never final until they say it is

Um, could you please tell me what your talkign about so we al lknow? I'm confused.... I'm sure we all are...

I think he was saying that each new expansion will come with 1 quest, and that that quest will be too hard for a lvl 1 or too easy for a lvl 20.

I dont think that is a viable issue, as each expansion will probably have more than 1 new quest, and the new charachter will be able to level up his/her elf before they go into the new quest(s).

Also I don't think we should get the standard rpg races, we should get to play some of the ingame races avalibly, like the charr possibly. This would open up some interesting race vs race options, and possibly raiding/raiding quests and the charr/humans taking/losing land to each other, changing the world. I have yet to play the game so i dont know if the story would allow this, it is just an idea.

i understand...so no worries

sorry...ill try my best to simplify
example:
-I decided to make a new race character. My new character is now level 1
-John Doe wants to stay with his previously built character. He is beefy level 20.
-John Doe and I decided to do expansion quest.

Problem:
-I'm having hard time with expansion quest...because monsters are too strong(because monsters are balanced for John Doe)
OR
-John Doe is sleeping while doing expansion quest, because monsters are having hard time putting dent on his armour. (Too easy because monsters are balanced for me)

hopefully this simplifies
sorry about confusions

this is straight forward and clear to understand right?

Ahh this I encountered..... my friend made a new character in pre-ascalon...I styaed with my lvl 8. It was like watching wind bend reeds... for me anyway.. I didn't get experience but he did ( he was lvl 1).. As far as Post-Searing ascalon.. (pre totorial land)... it may still hold to same setup... the monsters setting at the lower characters lvl of difficulty.. As for sure bet answer... I'd say deadroot might know.

Maybe somehow it will be like how they have pre-made 20s already. You make a RP 20 and you can access all three cities. You don't have to go through the low missions to get to the high ones. Maybe, depending on your character(s) lvl when you get the expansion, you have access to certain cities.

Or maybe there will be one main city that everyone can access, and there will be different paths of quests/missions for you to venture on. One could be for the freshly made lvl 1s and other low lvls, one could be for midlevel, and one could be for high lvls.

Just ideas. I'd like to think that I don't have to create a new character just to experience an expansion, though depending on the added profession(s), I will probably make new characters anyways. I'm hoping for an assassin/ninja.

the expansions will be the size of a full game so there is plenty of room for a small leveling area for a completely new character and who is to say an ELF for example couldnt START out as a level 5 (or higher) character to begin with and level up fast

sort of like an elf pre sear askalon then into the game with everybody else that is continung the human

i think they will add new races as a hook to attract new players and add something for continuing ones but i think they (hope they) will come up with something new and fun instead of the same old retread

Sorry Lovitar, I deleted my post becuase my info was wrong. (the part about lvl 20 expansions anyways). I misread the interview.

and i edited your quote on that part so nobody would be confused

(confusion to the enemy)

Once the game is actually released and we see the full content I am sure we will all have a better understanding of what may be coming in terms of races. Who knows, maybe there will be more NPC races like dwarves and charrs that will eventually turn into the playable races.

There's enough diversity from profession to profession (in style of play and looks), that, as Loviatar said, new races will probably just be a way to appeal to a larger community of gamers. I'm sure GW will be creative about it too, even if they just do a cool spin on traditional fantasy races.

!!!
By going thru this posts, and one hint given by guildwars official...I was able to come up with a possible conclusion.
Remember....this is only theory, so I might be 100% wrong.
You might need to read this slow and thoroughly in order to understand what I mean.

First...lets think of tree (tree and guildwars? )
Different races will symbolize different branches in a tree.
All the branches will meet on the same trunk(even though different location of the trunk). Trunk symbolizes quest. So we will build our new character until we meet the trunk.
The trunk will lead you to the root. The Root symbolizes the goal.
Therefore we go thru quests in order to achieve a goal.

Having this analogy in our mind...lets consider the hint given by officials.
-they said you can continue to play guildwars without expansions...and ""stay competitive""
which means character with no-expansion will not be less powerful than character with expansion(s).

Now, lets assume guildwars will release elf, orc, dwarf.
Different race will symbolize different deck of the card. In each deck...there will be different sets of cards(cards are skills).
Therefore there will be 4 different decks of cards.
Human deck, elf deck, orc deck and dwarf deck...all consists of different skill cards to make unique decks.

If expansion comes with elf race...I'll have a chance to build my elf deck.
Once branch reaches trunk of the tree, I'll have option to continue the quest with either human deck, or elf deck...and so on.

In PvP...person who has only human deck will still competitively fight with a person with human and elf decks.


==Idea==
If everything happens according to my theory...I have a great idea for 1v1 battle. Currently...if i have a monk character(focus on healing), I know I'll lose in any 1v1 battle. But what if I have 4 decks, and other person has 4 decks. We can do simultaneous battle of 8 decks(4 decks vs 4 decks simultaneously).
How do I control 4 characters simultaneously?
Well...we make guildwars real-time-strategy game!!!(but with only 4 units each side)
It will be like playing 4 heros in warcraft3 game.
Adding replay capability will allow us to watch how we did in 1st person/3rd person perspective after the battle.
we can perhaps call guildwars....
Real Time Massively Multiplayers Competitive Online Role Playing Strategy Game.
New genre= RTMMCORPSG ....lol

Sorry for such a long post

YOU WERE CORRECT BLACKARROW


In both terms of PvP and content that we will be realising both in the original games and in the upcoming chapter it will all be designed ascendant characters, (those are level 20 characters)

*Rolls up newspaper*
*Pops Kirby on nose*
Blademaster: NO, NO, BAD KIRBY.

obviously this is only for 1v1 who choose to use 4 characters simultaneously.
People will still be able to do 1 character vs 1 character match in role playing perspective.

what is that suppose to mean?

Well, they should make it where you start from scratch with the added on stuff from the expanson with the new race or whatever.