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Poll: Ethnic heritage of human race in GW2?
mesmerise
Member UncommonPosts: 200
From the lore for GW2, I know that humanity at least for the released product is based out of Kryta, specifically, Divinity's Reach. Since travel is cut off between the Tyrian continent with Elona and Cantha and has been for at least a century since anybody has been able to leave Tyria. This being said Arenanet has established that there are refugees from Elona and Cantha that were residing in Tyria at the time of Zhaitan's rise, and the descendents of these original people have continued to live there. My question is, do you think or would you like to be able to play as a different ethnic race other than Krytan? At the very least Ascalonian, should be involved since they are established in the same area of the game (Tyrian continent) that Kryta is. I would also like to see Elonian and Canthan options added as both aesthetic options during customising physical appearance and perhaps another biography question to incorporate this into a personal story in some way. What do you think, is this something that the community would be interested in as well? Please feel free to qualify your response below!
M
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My biased opinion is no. I never play humans in RP games if given the option. It would not hurt others to have the variety, I guess. But selfishly, I want the developers to focus on other stuff such as more customization for the other races
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I'm the exact opposite then, I always play human if given the chance. I like to sort of project myself onto my character =P Maybe that's why I also always play goodguys (rebel, order, republic etc). That's me right there, that character moving around experiencing cool stuff. Well, its no weirder then RPing someone else I think
I dont care about ethnicity at all, just plain human is fine.
Nothing wrong with a biased answer! Mine is biased too because I want to able to play that type of human character! Of course, adding another option like this may show too much favoritism for humans as well or else more biography options would have to be added for the other races as well. I usually play humans, or half-elves in games so I like having different options in games. Currently for humans there is an option related to class/caste but I want more! What race do you intend to play Palebane?
I don't think an ethnic option is needed. The visual affect can be achieved through a well-designed character creation tool and anything beyond that is RP anyway. You can say you're the descendant of elonan immigrants or canthan refugees or whatever you like. We're all tyrian now anyway.
I like you, ormstunga, play mostly humans. I think it is the social scientist in me that I still find enjoyment in the diversity of humanity as it is without adding in creature-features. If other options are not added do you think that it should read "Human (Krytan)" during character creation? I am just wondering if they plan on adding Elonian or Canthan people back in during expansions if they should make it clear from the beginning that you are only playing as Krytans (and perhaps Ascalonians unless Ebonhawke is added as another starting area in the future) or just retcon the name if expansions are released for the other continents.
Man people have waaaay too much time on their hands.
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Remember this is set 250 years after GW1. After so long AND being entirely isolated from the rest of the world I imagine the different human races have been entirely assimilated into the Krytan populace. Effectively there will be physical differences, such as darker skin for those with Elonian heritage, but they will all be 'Krytan' as far as their place of origin is concerned. All of the current humans alive in GW2 will have been born and raised in Kryta...
I would actually be surprised if ANet didn't include elonian and canthan appearances in human character customisation though as there would realistically be humans with such features going on what the lore tells us.
I think it would be awesome if they put in an option for Krytan or Ascalonian and added features for each. (like the Krytan tattoos and such) But then again, it is 250 years later and the 2 different humans have probably intertwined a bit since they are all focused in Kryta now, excpet for Ebonhawke. I think they should hold off from adding Canthan and Elonans for now though.
A long time ago (and with that I mean a year or so ago) it was stated by Anet that humans could indeed specify their heritage (Ascalonian, Krytan, Canthan or Elonian), however no such thing was seen in the demo. This could mean that it was taken out during developement or it could mean that it was not finalized but it could also mean that it is part of the physical costomization which was not yet included in the demo so you have to wait and see. Personally I would like it but it would be far from necessary.
You do have a point, "anything beyond that is RP anyway". However, with the background that is supposed to bring the role of my character to the fore of the personal story and something like immigrant status could still impact relations between the different human factions. Are the immigrants in de facto quarters of the city or have they fully integrated into Krytan society? Do we know if the character creation tool will support this customization level?
I believe they are saving the other races for expansions. I remember reading from an interview that the other locations are currently cut off by a Dragon/ Flooding caused by a dragon.
I think they are doing so, atleast it stands in guildwars2 wiki that you be able to choose wich city out of 4 you where born. ((Don't be mad if i'm wrong, i just think i read it somewhere))
Well there are still ethnic districts in Divinity's Reach (kinda like China towns in many big western cities).
Thank you all for the comments and voting. I had read on the official GW2 wiki that originally a "heritage" question was planned but there has not been any news on it. While I agree that it should be a tertiary feature, it may add to the enjoyment of some people in the game, in particular for RPers. This could add another level of internal division for humanity to overcome, adding ethnocentrism/racism into the game would make it into a more credible world.
Good point! I thought that I remembered this from the map. I just went back to look at the map of Divinity's Reach and found two areas of interest: Rurikton and Ossan Quarter, probably the de facto areas of Ascalonian and Elonian refugees, respectively. Perhaps the immigrating people have still not settled down into Krytan societies after all!
According to the GW2 wiki on Divinity's Reach "The Ascalonians, Canthans, Elonians, and Krytans each have their own districts in the city, and the other two districts belong to stores and festival activities."
Your home instance is the Salma District named after Queen Salma, which makes it the Krytan quarter.
So while I appreciate the OP's position and think it might be interesting to have those kinds of heritages available, the way they've set it up with that section of town being instanced makes it more practical to limit players to only Krytan heritage for now.
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Like a few have said, I'd love if they added it, but won't be torn up if they don't. Having 'racial' districts in Divinty's Reach, RPing and being able to create physicalliy Elonian/Kanthan humans would more than suffice for me. But if they added it as part of the backstory, I'd be pleased, esp since the humans I'm planning on playing are going to be sisters of Elonian descent :X
What features or options would you like in an ideal situation?
Different voice set, different starting clothing, just small flavor inhancements like that. Nothing monumental :X
I like the idea of having an option to play as a Ascalonian/Elonan/Canthan character, it would be good for RPing (for example, slightly different dialogues with different NPCs).
I wouldn't want anything too major though, maybe different starting armours and/or a few different dialogues (like I mentioned above).
While it might be nice, I'd rather see the developers work on other things, to be honest. It'd be like me asking for more tail options for the charr or something, a bit silly, yes? I have that perspective because I rarely (if ever) play humans in a game where I have the option not to. I'd have to be the most boring person in the world to do that.
I see the gorrmless buggers every day, why then, in the realms of sanity, would I choose to play one in a game about fantasy?
So I'm not at all invested in them, and because I don't have that bias, specifically because I don't have that bias, I don't see adding human ethnicities to be any different to adding extra charr tail options. It's just a silly cosmetic demand that there's no real need for. Consider that the humans are equal in options in regards to cosmetic choices and factions to all other races, and if you add anything to one race, you must then add to them all to keep things equal.
If you're asking for inequality, I refuse and refute that request, personally. Guild Wars 2 has always been designed to be about equality in options. If you're asking for changes to be made to all the races just to have human ethnicities, then I'd rather not, as development time could be spent on better things. But really, keep in mind that if you add something to the humans, you must then add something to everyone.
It is like tail options if those tail options have socio-cultural impact in the game world and not just aesthetic appeal. When I say ethnicity I mean more than just different colour pallettes. I am fine with other options for the other races as well but I am not sure what options we could add. Perhaps more choices for warband/legion/fahrar to have impact in story, dialogue and appearance. However, do we need something to add to the non-human races to compensate? If as you point out, that it is boring to play humans in fantasy game then perhaps fleshing them out with cultural heritage options from Cantha and Elona would mean that more people would try out humans!
There are three things to consider, here:
1.) Ethnicity in the world of Tyria isn't at all relevant, because there have been no ethnicity struggles like those of our world, the humans in Tyria tend to war over whatever desire for power or egomaniacal whimsy their kings have (check out the lore on the guild wars that went on between the three nations, hence the name). But ethnic inequality has never been a 'thing' for their world, it's not something that they wanted there.
In fact, the first case of differentiation we've seen is classes, but they don't even paint different classes in a negative light, all are shown to be positive. For example - the difference between commoner and noble isn't considered a bad thing, because both are valued by the people of Divinity's Reach. The difference between the two seems to be no different than the differences between the Iron Legion and the Blood Legion. And there's a reason for that, that reason brings us to...
2.) Personal significance means nothing versus equality of options. Each race has a set number of options available to them. What I'm getting at here is that if you add something like human ethnicity, you must then go to each of the four other races and add something similar, otherwise you're creating an inequal environment where options are available for one race that aren't available to others. ArenaNet has gone to great lengths to make sure that that isn't the case.
ArenaNet has made huge efforts to balance what's available to you, so that the race you pick isn't going to be a caveat or boon. In fact, outside of the lore and the racial abilities, if we look at game mechanics alone then the race choice is almost purely cosmetic because anything you can do with race X you can do with race Y. And that's what I was getting at. Because ethnicity struggles have no place in Tyria, having ethnicities underlined would be no different than extra charr tail options. Savvy?
This brings us to the third consideration...
3.) Anything you add to one race you must add to all. If you add a weighted topic like ethnicity and ethnicity differentation in a significant way (which is what you're asking for), including perhaps different personal storyline options for each ethnicity, you then need to go and add even more options to all the other races. You need to come up with something like ethnicity for the charr, asura, norn, and sylvari. It's just not realistic, because it's a shedload more of personal storyline variables that could screw everything up.
Just think, adding ethnicity would be as weighted a thing as adding the charr legions, the asura schools, the sylvari cycles, the norn spirits, or the human classes, and you'd need to add a lot of content to make it work, content that would interact with content they've already got in the game. And again, you'd have to add something like ethnicity to all races, not just the humans, to keep the balance in check that ArenaNet has worked so, so hard to achieve. So you'd have to do this for the personal storylines of every race.
End result? This could add another six months (if not more) worth of development time to the game. I'd personally rather see them concentrate on bug fixing and polishing, they're so close to releasing the game, the last thing they need now is a six month setback. Maybe somewhere down the line, as an expansion, it might be possible to add 'ethnicities' for every race, however that would work for some of them, but at this point in time it's just not realistic.
And before you say that it only needs to happen for humans, remember what I said about balance, there need to be equal options available for everyone. Providing the humans with ethnicities would be as controversial as making the Engineer a charr-exclusive race. ArenaNet are developing this game in such a way where anything one player can do with their choices, another player can do with theirs. So... yeah, see my point now?
1. There have been ethnic tensions and even wars though and there are major cultural and economical differences between human nations. Some important tensions/wars are: Ascalonians versus Krytans versus Orrians (during the guild wars), Kurzicks versus Luxons, Canthans versus Kurzicks/Luxons and Kournans versus Istani/Vabbians.
2/3. Of course there has to be balance but as I said earlier Anet themselves have said a long time ago that they would implement it. If this actually made it in however remains to be seen. Besides, people here are only asking for slight differences and the character options to physically look like Ascalonian/Krytan/Canthan/Elonian are very likely to be in (since they are basically look like real world humans from different ethnic groups).
^This.