Favorite Race Part II

Favorite Race

  • Sylvari

    Votes: 1 5.6%

  • Norn

    Votes: 2 11.1%

  • Asura

    Votes: 4 22.2%

  • Charr

    Votes: 1 5.6%

  • Human

    Votes: 10 55.6%
  • Total voters
    18
  • Poll closed .
ursen

ursen

Officer SOE/LoE/Where's "here"?
Ok now that we are several months into the game, and we have tried most of the races, let's have a poll on favorite race. I realize that a few are new to the game and haven't tried all of them, and there are even a few (like me) who started one race and stuck with it, even though we have toons of all races. So here we go, vote for the Salad Faces, The Lumbering Bjuffoons, The Arrogant Shrimps, The Mangy Flea Bags, or the Perpetually Weak in One Area or Another.
 
What, you don't want to turn this into another Charracter assassination thread? :D

I have a hard time deciding on a favorite. I really enjoy the Asura and Sylvari. Before launch, I thought Sylvari was going to be my least favorite race because I was anticipating some ridiculous nature-worshipping Fern Gully cliches. Then I found out they are more inspired by the Sidhe and Arthurian legend, and was won over.

I want to like the Charr. The character customization is great with all of the different fur colors and patterns. I love the idea of a cat-like thief. Unfortunately, they're just to hulking for me. Their animations make me feel like my character is in slow motion all the time. I wish I had made my Guardian a Charr, because I think that would probably have fit better than trying to play a zippy class like thief with a lumbering cat-cow-gorilla.

The Norn are probably my least favorite. I don't like the way the males look (more gorilla!) and am totally disinterested in their "I'm Legendary! Let's kill an animal and drink some beer!" culture.

And I ended up with a human as my main. I guess I get too much fantasy fulfillment out of the game not to want to play an idealized self, rather than a comic character like an Asura.
 
Side note...I did vote charr just to help out the underdog (undercat?), but my favorite race is actually norn. I just love their personalities and how they don't back down from a challenge, even to a fault. :)
 
I'm surprised, Ryan!

I voted Norn since I love beards and rock a Norn-ish big beard myself. I'm surprised that so many people chose human - I figure it's a bit boring since I get to play human every day ;)
 
before my barrage of punns i just would like to say;
i found out the Tyrian suicidal bird is called an emoa

Why aren't the Charr allowed into Heaven? Because they go to purr-gatory instead
How do you get a charr out of a tree? Call your local fireman
What do you call a charr thief ? A cat burglar :p
How do you get a one-armed charr out of a tree? Wave at him.
What does Gwen use to cook her meats? Charr-coal
What do you call a Charr that's been blown into the air? Cat-apult

Q. What do you call a sylvari spy?
A. A plant

Q. Why do hylek hate parking in restricted areas?
A. They're afraid they will be toad

Q.How do Tyrians keep up appearances?
A. With a lawn moa

I was reading in the paper today about this Asura that got pick-pocketed. How could anyone stoop so low?


ok i think i will paws before im asked to leaf.
last time i made an asuran joke people got short with me :cool:
 
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I will admit to having a Charr Necromancer. It is lvl 3 and stands around at the Guild Bank taking care of Quartermaster duties, couldn't think of a better use for it.
 
I have a Charr necro too... and he's awesome. I figured everybody was going warrior or engineer, so I wanted to do something a little unique but still in character. I love how he growls when he talks and you can hear his teeth snap just a bit. With staff equipped, he has a fantastically sinister stance... almost Bela Lugosi... And with the right cowl and robe combo and eyes that glow in the dark... He's fantastic!

I took him to 80 and really enjoyed playing him (especially once I stopped trying to work somebody's templates and just went for minion builds because I like them).

Grimm Graveblade.jpg
 
RyanB said:
Side note...I did vote charr just to help out the underdog (undercat?), but my favorite race is actually norn. I just love their personalities and how they don't back down from a challenge, even to a fault. :)
Click to expand...

the only challenge i have found a Norn to never back out of is a drinking challenge
Scholar Brogun told me that and he does most of his research at the pub
 
I'm going to have to vote Asura. The combination of tiny and arrogant is hilarious.

"You're dumb. You'll die, and you'll leave a dumb corpse." -Asura combat quote
 
Main is a human (Necro)
4 alts are human (Ranger, Ele, Thief, Guardian)
3 alts are Charr (Warrior, Engi, Mesmer)

I tried to like the other races, but I could not handle even getting to level 5 with them and I knew I did not want to spend hundreds of hours looking at and listening to something I did not like.
Tried an Asura several times...just do not like them at all (sorry Asura lovers) - I think the ego was a real turn off for me...and the starting area.
Tried Norns several times...Not sure what it was, just did not groove with them
Tried Sylvari several times...Meh, nothing wrong with them, just did not connect with the race.
 
It's pretty interesting, Anet struggles to make unique races with a lot of interest and what do people choose? Human! The closest one in this survey can't even manage to quite hit 2 to 1 mark in favor of humans. Sneaky humans are sneaky. Even down to Divinity's Reach will never pass away.
 
At the end of the day, we're all a little racist and identify with something close to ourselves or something we wish to identify with.
 
Racist might be a strong word for it, but, yes, it's easier to project yourself into a character that is similar to you.

ANet has also put a lot of humor into the Asura and Norn, and to a lesser extent the Charr, which means they are less likely to provide fantasy fulfillment. I'll admit the teenage boy in me still wants to feel like slick and dangerous playing a video game, and it's harder to do that with the bouncy, goofy Asura or the lunk-head, braggart Norn.
 
RyanB said:
At the end of the day, we're all a little racist and identify with something close to ourselves or something we wish to identify with.
Click to expand...

hope your not getting the wrong idea from the punns
there is a line between joking about video game races and real world
in video game races feelings aren't hurt and people are not the victims of hate crimes
in the real world i believe we are all GOD's children and he wouldn't have said preach the gospel to "all nations" if he was in favor of being racist
 
I apologize for being a tad deep and ambiguous on my use of the word "racism". I'm certainly not comparing preferring human over charr with anything people would typically consider racism. I was actually more pointing to the fact that humans tend to identify with people we perceive as "like us", whether that has to do with race, gender, or how we dress. It's a comfort and identity thing. GW2 race choice is a very benign example of this, but I do think it's a good example when you have more than half of us preferring 1 race out of 5. Brave Sir Ryan was my first character, and is human.

Bias is unavoidable - it's just all about understanding the biases we have so that we can overcome them when they do matter.

For the record, I find GW2 race puns hilarious...shoot, half my character names have them. :)
 
Yeah, it's a very charged word. Normally it's used to mean looking at people who are different as inferior in some way, rather than just identifying more with people who are like you.

It makes a lot of sense that people would create an idealized self that is similar to themselves, without necessarily having a bias against people who are different.
 
Ryan I certainly understand what you are trying to say, but to one who grown up with marches, race riots, Governor Wallace at his worst, and seen Whites Only signs, the term racism has a tendency to push buttons. It can be as startling to me as discovering the immense emotional baggage that I still carry from the Vietnam War. I think you have a very valid point that GW2 in very mild way shows that desire to identify with the familiar and reject the unknown in all of us. Yes I have characters of all races, but lean to the human, a very, very, very mild form of racism.
 
The discussion got me thinking while I worked for the afternoon, and there's a certain amount of human bias built into the game itself. Humans are the default race around which some design decisions have been made.

For example, one of the complaints I've heard from people explaining why they don't play Asura is that the game, to an extent, revolves around cosmetics. With the small size of Asura toons, however, you lose the detail in your weapon and armor choices. Similar comments about Norn "taking up the whole screen" are also made. The camera pivot and zoom parameters are built around a human sized toon.

The same is true of movement speed. Character movement is supposed to feel natural for a human-sized toon. In order not to give gameplay advantage, the larger races move at the same rate, so their animations have to be slowed down. The Asura, on the other hand, have had "air time" deliberately designed in, as stated in a dev post, to keep them from looking like they are moving ridiculously fast as their small legs cover the same amount of ground as the taller races.

The game itself encourages players in small ways to play Human, because it's designed around them as the middle-ground or normative.

I feel it with the Sylvari. In spite of the fact that I tend to choose the more alien faces and skin colors, it's easier for me to identify with them.
 
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