Why does GW2 need races?

You do realize that cosmetic changes are preferred for GW2 rather than racial selection affecting your character's effectiveness right?

Or let me simplify it for you in your language: "u looking different = good. making ur skills more powerful = bad."

I've been tainted by years of onlinegaming. Races suck. They usually don't add diversity but instead limit it. We don't know yet how GW 2 will implement it and can only hope that they don't go the same way as other games before. What races basically do is limit diversity. The way it usually is:

Race Elf gives a bonus on spellcasting
Dwarf gives bonus on fighting
Now both have chosen spellcaster and engage in a battle. Who will win? Hands down, the elf due to his bonus on spellcasting. How does this add diversity? Hint: It doesn't. It forces players to chose a certain race to be able to play at a higher level.
The only time when races don't fubar a game is when they don't get any special advantages in certain fields.

I also have seen quite a few clones of my main (my female ranger). Just today I saw someone with the same hair, same colour and all, same face, and even the same height. The only difference was the armour. I see clones of my character everywhere. That's why I try to avoid the main towns.

I think races will be a great addition. I admit when GW2 was first announced, I was feeling a bit down about leaving my characters behind, but I soon got over it with the thought of playing as a Charr. Can't wait to see what a female Charr looks like.

But the thing I look forward to the most is that hopefully the different races will each have a different storyline, at least at the start, and all the different branches will come together towards the end. So not only will we have more unique characters, but (hopefully) there'll be this great replayability to GW2.

Of course, that may be a bit too much work for Anet, and it may not happen, but I can still hope.

A-net will implement what players want.

And for sure, I thurst A-Net to keep it balanced...

I don't think so. I read somewhere else that they will have racial abilities. I can't wait what Anet has in store for us

By the way a lot of people like stereotypes in RPG fantasy worlds. For example: Savage brutal Orcs with axe, Ale drinking stubborn Dwarfs, ... etc. So they need the option to choose btween races.

Right. And Ranger class is good at lowering the cost of skills, Assassin is good at crits, Ele is good with any high-cost magic. Oh, you say those are classes and not races? I beg to differ - can you change your primary? No. That pretty much means you are stuck with what you choose, just like a race. It obviously gives you specific benefits, just like a race. Hell, they even have unique models, just like a race. Still think it will be sooo much different?

Many people like to be another race, if only to be alien in a way, some prefer to remain human, but i (and many others) like diffrent races, it also adds more variety to the appearance of players. You may not want that, but others do, and A-Net will want to cater to those others, there are many joys and benefits to having more then 1 race, benefits that outweigh the downsides.

Why do you think all other MMO's have multiple races?Because it works and people love it.

Why because...

1) People asked for them.
2) We have around 9+ human professions already - Its getting stale.
3) We've run out of professions, the next logical step are races.
4) Diversity, re-energise the game, alot more choice.

You have to assume that each race will be able to play each independant profession, just as humans do in GW1 at the minute.

That offers a much wider choice in terms of character build and design.

Something with GuildWars is aching for. Playing as humans is getting boring and the sheer fact that a fantasy game only has human players is a bit odd anyway.

If you dont want to play as a non-human, then dont. Thats the whole point. To give us a choice. Its hardly going to have a negative effect.

And who cares whether its WoWish and generic to use races in an MMO. Theres a reason why they all do it. Because its good.

And chances are that they wont use race specific spec boosts. Such as (in your words) elfs having a boost on magic and drawfs a boost on fighting. Why?

Because we already have profession based spec boosts. Ele's can use more energy and Necros can feed of death. They'l keep it that way. The races will just add a different athetic feel to the game.

I didn't know discussions over controversial topics and ideas was not allowed in this forum.

Regardless, I don't like the idea of races. The one thing I really value in Guild Wars is that all the professions are humans. I like being human. I don't want to be a charr. I don't want to be a dwarf. I enjoy being a human in games because, well, humans rule.

You are right. There is an interview with Jeff and crew on PC Gameplay. However it was stated that a Warrior from one race will not be more powerful than a warrior from a differant race. Which made me think that each race may have skills that are unique for that races profession class. That way it can still be balanced but also give each race a uniqueness instead of just cosmetic. Anyways Anet does have 2 years to work out any balance issues. I highly doubt Anet would make one race better at a profession than another race.

Then play as a human! Problem solved!

I laugh at comments like that, because you know for a fact within a month or two of playing GW2 you will start thinking "hmmm maybe I should try being a dwarf or a char", and you'l probably enjoy it.

People shouldnt comment about how bad things will be, until they actually get put into place.

Maybe races will be good, maybe they will be bad. But you dont know until you try it.

Its like watching a child cry that he doesnt like sprouts before hes even tried them.

First of all races wont make characters more diverse or eliminate clones. Instead of one race (Human) with 36 different appearance options you're going to get 6 races with 6 different appearance options each. Instead of 36 armor models for 1 race you're going to get 36 different armor models, 6 for each race. Seriously, be realistic. It's not like we are suddenly going to see 6 times the number of armors because of races.

Secondly races are stupid and pointless. They are nothing more than 1 dimensional sterotypical archtypes of humans. What is a dwarf if not a short guy with a beard and an attitude? Why not just let us make short humans with beards. What is an Elf if not a slender good looking human who loves magic and nature. Why not just give us more options to make humans look the way we want?

I am sorry, but races are just the tip of the iceberg. GW2 will be a generic EQ clone just like WoW. Every change they are making, is being done so they can be just like every other MMORPG on the market. GW has established it's name, now it's looking to cash in.

Why not? Why assume the worst? The fact is no-one knows what kind of character creation process Anet will implement, but since lack of customization had been a major complaint against Guild Wars from the beginning, I'd like to believe that Character Creation (arguably, one of the most important parts of a "role-playing game"), will be upgraded considerably in Guild Wars 2.


Again, how do you know they won't? While I'm sure GW 2 will not be "Spore" or anything, I can imagine a system with some customization.

(Besides, there are no Elves in Guild Wars 2... only Sylvari. Completely different! )

And here we go. Races was not your primary concern at all, it was just a hook to lure people into another rant that "OMG, GW2 is just like WoW and EQ."

Yes, Anet is using some popular features from other MMORPGS to make more money. Nothing wrong with that, it's how business works.

As long as GW2 remains monthly fee free and casual friendly it will sell millions of copies.

And guess what? You can totally ignore it and keep playing the original Guild Wars. It really is a no-lose situation, agreed?

Controversial? It's only controversial if you make it controversial and make a big deal out of nothing. So basically you can whine about anything in that case.

And did I say it wasnt allowed? There's a difference between thinking that some topics are ridiculous and saying that it shouldnt be allowed to be discussed.

If you dont like other races, then DONT PLAY THEM. Problem solved so stop complaining.

gw1 had armor... its just like every other mmo
gw1 had levels... its just like every other mmo
gw1 had magic... its just like every other mmo
gw1 had towns... its just like every other mmo
gw1 had bags & banks.... WHY WHY do they make it just like every other mmo.
I think you get my point.. it's not the feature that makes mmo's similar, its how they do it that makes it unique. I have faith in the Anet team to make unique & cool use of races and higher levels and everything else people are saying they cloned and sold out on.

I have faith in Anet to do a good job but I agree with SwordofaVirgin that inevitably the number of appearance options you would have had for humans will be divided by the number of races, which is going to exacerbate the clone problem. WoW offers evidence that most players will choose the 'pretty race' over the 'ugly race', meaning lots of people playing Humans and Sylvari with fewer face/hair options for each to choose from. I don't foresee a lot of 'post your sexy Charr' threads in the Screenshot exposition.

I don't know about the alternate race fans but I'm wired to recognize human faces and I can distinguish subtle differences between the human face choices in Guild Wars. In WoW, it's hard for me to tell the difference between two Taurens unless they're different colors, even if they do feature slightly different faces. To me, the less humanoid the race the more I'm not going to catch subtle differences in hair and face combos. I suspect once I've seen one Asuran I'll have seen them all.

Even if they avoid the 'racial bonuses force me to make my Warrior a Charr' trap, I still think the variety of player apperances is going to suffer compared with GW as it is now. I love the breadth of armor designs in GW compared to most other MMOs, where I end up wearing a technicolor hobo outfit made up of the best drops I can find. I can't really get excited about three varieties of harness for my centaur the same way I do about mixing and matching possibilities from three or more times that many human outfits. Ideally I'd like to see them carry over all the armors from GW into GW2, but there are probably too many differences in the engine and asset requirements to make it worth their effort. Plus people would accuse them of trying to resell the same content, even if the new armors were less inspired.

there was an overwhelming request for new reaces with each new release of GW1. The devs felt it wouldn't mesh into the game they had made, but feel they can integrate it well in the next game (GW2) if they do so from the start. This was essentially implied in the PCGamer article. I suggest reading it. It's pretty good. If you don't wish to buy it, you'd be surprised at the magazines that your local library subscribes to.

This really depends on whether the races are merely cosmetic or if they actually carry and special abilities or buffs.

Charr for example might have some sort of ability that make them better warriors so every other class would be inferior.
This would end up in alot of pre-game planning where you have to sit down and plan out your character perfectly before starting, something I had hoped to avoid in purchasing guild wars.