Still Charr, here. I mean... Charr are one of the things still keeping me interested in GW2.
I long for more unique races in RPGs and Guild Wars 2 has at least one.
Humans: I saw those and their setting in Assassin's Creed 2 (and so on).
Norn: I saw those in D&D and pretty much any game that's ever had a human or human-like tribal race.
Asura: Gnomes and the Exodar. Nothing new there.
Sylvari: Cool story, but visually they're still elf-like dryads, and the Grove is Darnassus.
Charr: ...I haven't seen anything like them anywhere. If I had, I would have played it. Their race and their city are both equally, completely unique. There are some races in books which are like them, but for games? This is a first.
The Charr define Guild Wars 2. Any identity GW2 has stems from the Charr. And for that reason the Charr will stnad out head and shoulders versus all other characters and locations. The Charr are the one thing that ArenaNet can truly say is theirs. And as a person with an imagination (terribly rare thing, I know), I'm a xenophile, and I'm drawn to things I haven't played a million times before.
Games are about escapism, not accounting, we should seek out the strange, bold, and new.
(Edit: Typos. And added some bullet-listing for easier reading.)
Charr all the way. I cannot wait to make a Charr warrior decked out in some of the armor I have seen in some of the preview videos.
It makes me wonder what the level 60 and above gear looks like I think highest level gear we seen of the char was 48 if I'm correct.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
Hm..I am a bit surprised I thought the Charr was going to be the great hit of GW2. Maybe it has to do with the Mesmer profession, many might think it doesn't fit the Charr very well and then Mesmer trumps the Charr? Maybe it has to do with the fact that these polls are not scientific.
I am human(at least to my knowledge), so I don't feal like playing one. I don't see the point in creating the Norn, they are like humans that walk around like giant birds etc. from time to time. The two little ones have some things going for them, so I might join their kind in the world of Tyria.
Asura Male Alchemist (I know they're called Engineers but dammit ALCHEMIST SOUNDS BETTER.)
Sylvari Male Necromancer
Norn Female Guardian
Charr Female Thief
Notice how there's a male and female version of each armor class so I can see what all the armors look like I may or may not already have names, backgrounds, builds and preferred armor already picked out for each of them *whistles innocently*
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Hm..I am a bit surprised I thought the Charr was going to be the great hit of GW2. Maybe it has to do with the Mesmer profession, many might think it doesn't fit the Charr very well and then Mesmer trumps the Charr? Maybe it has to do with the fact that these polls are not scientific.
I think it just puts most people outside of their comfort zone, which makes it easy to fall back on xenophobia.
It's human nature to go that way, unless you're a bit off the beaten track yourself. Just look at how most people react to spiders, and I have absolutely no idea why people have any problems with spiders at all. In fact, the common house spider can actually deal with many of the pests who could really do you harm. But no, human reactions to things rarely make sense. And often things that are inhuman enough in appearance get demonised.
If you consider that the charr are a military force with a pretty great understanding of technology and industry too, this further takes people out of their comfort zone. A lot of people just want generic, and cloyingly familiar fantasy settings, anything new and unusual in their setting upsets them. This is a factor generally attributed to autism, but really, it's pretty widespread. You have large groups of people who hate anything dicking with their fantasy setting, and that's the majority. The lowest common denominator would have us playing a recreation of The Bible with magic runes thrown in for good measure.
So the charr represent strange and alien beings on many fronts. The mind of the viewer expects them to be tribal because that's the way they've always been, and hypocrites love hypocrisy, so ArenaNet isn't allowed to innovate. I think this is why ArenaNet backpedalled on the asura and basically turned them into WoW gnomes. (Saddest thing I've seen happen to Guild Wars 2, I'll tell you that. It really is. That really got me.) Apparently, you're only allowed to innovate with your game mechanics.
Not to mention that in Guild Wars 1, the humans were actually the wolves in sheep's clothing, so to speak. They were horrible, warlike people just pretending to be the protagonists and using an empire of propaganda to convince everyone that all those inhuman creatures (and even a number of human nations) were just barbarous entities that the world would be better off without. Even when playing Guild Wars 1 I picked up on how this sounded like propaganda, like pious, self-righteous propaganda, and that there was more to it.
I guess I was right.
However, many GW1 fans can't break the programming of a game and realise that they were actually playing as the bad guys in Prophecies. At least they were up until the escape from Ascalon. But yeah, I mean, Eye of the North and the Vanguard proved just how crazy the Ascalonians were. I remember Gwen torturing the hell out of a defenceless Pyre and calling him a monster as she did it. Projection much? And worse, she had the gall to accuse him of being evil as he was freed from her wrath. Though I did love that Pyre cut back at her with though some of us are more evil than others. Quite right, too.
So it's a mix of all of the above, and it amounts to closed-mindedness/small-mindedness. To contrast, I'm a xenophile and I'm fed up of basic fantasy settings, unintelligent beast races, and all that rot. I'm sick of playing essentailly the same game over and over. Aren't we playing GW2 so that we're not playing the same game over and over? Then people who aren't me need to stop being flaming hypocrites, because casting aside the charr due to how different they are is just begging that GW2 were just GW1 or WoW instead.
I think the charr should be much more popular, because they're unique and interesting. But that's human nature for you. It's different, it's weird, it's new, it's refreshing, and rather than revel in the newness the majority will go and cower in the corner.
----
To speak on this a bit more: The charr are only militaristic because they won't roll over and die like good little kitties.
Essentially, they were originally tribal, but they were forced to organise due to many affronts by the human gods. First sending the forgotten to try to brainwash the charr into worshipping them (and all life on Tyria), and then having the forgotten try to eliminate them when that didn't work. Then they lead the humans into charr lands and convinced them of the evil of all other life, even other human life, thus turning them into warlike, xenophobic bigots. (I'm looking at you, Balthazar.)
They fought the charr like the zealots they are, but the charr, now organised, were actually winning! Sadly, the gods blessed an assassin with the ability to slip past the charr unnoticed, and that assassin killed the charr leadership, causing them to dive into chaos. We know this now as ArenaNet has told us so. Most human nations in the real world would go crazy if their government was killed. So the humans force the charr out of their own lands, steal charr lands, and build the great wall to keep the charr outof their own lands. The charr are pretty pissed off about this.
A sneaky group of charr (The Flame Legion) manage to take over the charr, believing that the only way to fight the humans are with human-like tactics - trickery, brainwashing, and having gods. So that's what they did, and they pretty much brainwashed the other legions to fall into line, taking power for themselves. That's who you fought in Guild Wars 1, pretty much - the Flame Legion. And it's just been a clusterfuck for the charr. They eventually managed to win their freedom, outcast the Flame Legion, kill their own gods, and now they're still fighting - just for a bit of bloody peace and quiet.
And now they even have the ghosts of Ascalon to deal with, thanks to mad, old Adelbern who couldn't even let the spirits of his own men rest in peace. (Hooray for human zealotry!)
But really, despite all that, the charr aren't completely warlike. Even though they've been forced into a militaristic structure to survive, they do have other sides to them. Reeva, for example, proves this. In the biography questions you get to choose your ally, and one of them is Reeva. Here's her text: Reeva fights hard and plays hard. Nothing gets her down. She always jokes that her best weapons are her engineering tools and a sharp sense of humor. To Reeva, life isn't worth much if it isn't fun.
That may not sound like the charr you know, but it sounds like the charr I know! And I'm invested in them. I really like them. Sometimes their unpopularity really bothers me, since it's just xenophobia, really. They're a well written, storied, interesting race. Possibly the most so in the entirety of Guild Wars. But people aren't going to play them for either petty and xenophobic reasons (the GW1 fans), or just for xenophobic reasons. Bleh. I suppose some people can't let go of their humans and elves, even just to try something different.
I'm actually a bit amazed that alot of people voted for asura, didn't think they were that popular, but eh.. have you seen them role on the floor laughing ^_^ pretty awesome.
I'm equally amazed that so many voted for human, it's a fantasy game so i can't imagine why people would want to play a human. strange. hehe
Sylvari ranger is my first choice for now, fresh start with new and young race. Norn is also interesting and we cant forget disliked charr, which certainly many people will try and this is great opportunity to see there point of view, there stories and what drive them as a race.
I'm actually a bit amazed that alot of people voted for asura, didn't think they were that popular, but eh.. have you seen them role on the floor laughing ^_^ pretty awesome.
I'm equally amazed that so many voted for human, it's a fantasy game so i can't imagine why people would want to play a human. strange. hehe
It depends what you prefer; I think humans may still look the best as race. Some people want to identify with their characters while others rather roleplay. :-)
I'm equally amazed that so many voted for human, it's a fantasy game so i can't imagine why people would want to play a human. strange. hehe
Not to put down the game, but I just feel the other races are rather ridiculous looking, so human all the way here, and yeah a bulky thief would look just as ridiculous to me, so no to Norn as well.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Comments
Still Charr, here. I mean... Charr are one of the things still keeping me interested in GW2.
I long for more unique races in RPGs and Guild Wars 2 has at least one.
Humans: I saw those and their setting in Assassin's Creed 2 (and so on).
Norn: I saw those in D&D and pretty much any game that's ever had a human or human-like tribal race.
Asura: Gnomes and the Exodar. Nothing new there.
Sylvari: Cool story, but visually they're still elf-like dryads, and the Grove is Darnassus.
Charr: ...I haven't seen anything like them anywhere. If I had, I would have played it. Their race and their city are both equally, completely unique. There are some races in books which are like them, but for games? This is a first.
The Charr define Guild Wars 2. Any identity GW2 has stems from the Charr. And for that reason the Charr will stnad out head and shoulders versus all other characters and locations. The Charr are the one thing that ArenaNet can truly say is theirs. And as a person with an imagination (terribly rare thing, I know), I'm a xenophile, and I'm drawn to things I haven't played a million times before.
Games are about escapism, not accounting, we should seek out the strange, bold, and new.
(Edit: Typos. And added some bullet-listing for easier reading.)
It makes me wonder what the level 60 and above gear looks like I think highest level gear we seen of the char was 48 if I'm correct.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
Hm..I am a bit surprised I thought the Charr was going to be the great hit of GW2. Maybe it has to do with the Mesmer profession, many might think it doesn't fit the Charr very well and then Mesmer trumps the Charr? Maybe it has to do with the fact that these polls are not scientific.
I am human(at least to my knowledge), so I don't feal like playing one. I don't see the point in creating the Norn, they are like humans that walk around like giant birds etc. from time to time. The two little ones have some things going for them, so I might join their kind in the world of Tyria.
Just one?
Human Female Mesmer
Charr Male Warrior
Human Male Ranger
Sylvari Female Elementalist
Asura Male Alchemist (I know they're called Engineers but dammit ALCHEMIST SOUNDS BETTER.)
Sylvari Male Necromancer
Norn Female Guardian
Charr Female Thief
Notice how there's a male and female version of each armor class so I can see what all the armors look like
I may or may not already have names, backgrounds, builds and preferred armor already picked out for each of them *whistles innocently*
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Asura Elementalist, i loved ele in GW1 ..
orrrrr
Asura Guardian, loving my warrior tank in WoW (my mate is going warrior, so not picking that)
I DON'T KNOW .. but i do know that it's gonna be asura
(since there are no dorfs !! 
)
Sylvan Elves .. I mean Sylvari ..
Cast your vote: The importance of character customisation
will always have a main human ranger
but i really want to play around with a charr too so that will most probs be my alt 
I think it just puts most people outside of their comfort zone, which makes it easy to fall back on xenophobia.
It's human nature to go that way, unless you're a bit off the beaten track yourself. Just look at how most people react to spiders, and I have absolutely no idea why people have any problems with spiders at all. In fact, the common house spider can actually deal with many of the pests who could really do you harm. But no, human reactions to things rarely make sense. And often things that are inhuman enough in appearance get demonised.
If you consider that the charr are a military force with a pretty great understanding of technology and industry too, this further takes people out of their comfort zone. A lot of people just want generic, and cloyingly familiar fantasy settings, anything new and unusual in their setting upsets them. This is a factor generally attributed to autism, but really, it's pretty widespread. You have large groups of people who hate anything dicking with their fantasy setting, and that's the majority. The lowest common denominator would have us playing a recreation of The Bible with magic runes thrown in for good measure.
So the charr represent strange and alien beings on many fronts. The mind of the viewer expects them to be tribal because that's the way they've always been, and hypocrites love hypocrisy, so ArenaNet isn't allowed to innovate. I think this is why ArenaNet backpedalled on the asura and basically turned them into WoW gnomes. (Saddest thing I've seen happen to Guild Wars 2, I'll tell you that. It really is. That really got me.) Apparently, you're only allowed to innovate with your game mechanics.
Not to mention that in Guild Wars 1, the humans were actually the wolves in sheep's clothing, so to speak. They were horrible, warlike people just pretending to be the protagonists and using an empire of propaganda to convince everyone that all those inhuman creatures (and even a number of human nations) were just barbarous entities that the world would be better off without. Even when playing Guild Wars 1 I picked up on how this sounded like propaganda, like pious, self-righteous propaganda, and that there was more to it.
I guess I was right.
However, many GW1 fans can't break the programming of a game and realise that they were actually playing as the bad guys in Prophecies. At least they were up until the escape from Ascalon. But yeah, I mean, Eye of the North and the Vanguard proved just how crazy the Ascalonians were. I remember Gwen torturing the hell out of a defenceless Pyre and calling him a monster as she did it. Projection much? And worse, she had the gall to accuse him of being evil as he was freed from her wrath. Though I did love that Pyre cut back at her with though some of us are more evil than others. Quite right, too.
So it's a mix of all of the above, and it amounts to closed-mindedness/small-mindedness. To contrast, I'm a xenophile and I'm fed up of basic fantasy settings, unintelligent beast races, and all that rot. I'm sick of playing essentailly the same game over and over. Aren't we playing GW2 so that we're not playing the same game over and over? Then people who aren't me need to stop being flaming hypocrites, because casting aside the charr due to how different they are is just begging that GW2 were just GW1 or WoW instead.
I think the charr should be much more popular, because they're unique and interesting. But that's human nature for you. It's different, it's weird, it's new, it's refreshing, and rather than revel in the newness the majority will go and cower in the corner.
----
To speak on this a bit more: The charr are only militaristic because they won't roll over and die like good little kitties.
Essentially, they were originally tribal, but they were forced to organise due to many affronts by the human gods. First sending the forgotten to try to brainwash the charr into worshipping them (and all life on Tyria), and then having the forgotten try to eliminate them when that didn't work. Then they lead the humans into charr lands and convinced them of the evil of all other life, even other human life, thus turning them into warlike, xenophobic bigots. (I'm looking at you, Balthazar.)
They fought the charr like the zealots they are, but the charr, now organised, were actually winning! Sadly, the gods blessed an assassin with the ability to slip past the charr unnoticed, and that assassin killed the charr leadership, causing them to dive into chaos. We know this now as ArenaNet has told us so. Most human nations in the real world would go crazy if their government was killed. So the humans force the charr out of their own lands, steal charr lands, and build the great wall to keep the charr outof their own lands. The charr are pretty pissed off about this.
A sneaky group of charr (The Flame Legion) manage to take over the charr, believing that the only way to fight the humans are with human-like tactics - trickery, brainwashing, and having gods. So that's what they did, and they pretty much brainwashed the other legions to fall into line, taking power for themselves. That's who you fought in Guild Wars 1, pretty much - the Flame Legion. And it's just been a clusterfuck for the charr. They eventually managed to win their freedom, outcast the Flame Legion, kill their own gods, and now they're still fighting - just for a bit of bloody peace and quiet.
And now they even have the ghosts of Ascalon to deal with, thanks to mad, old Adelbern who couldn't even let the spirits of his own men rest in peace. (Hooray for human zealotry!)
But really, despite all that, the charr aren't completely warlike. Even though they've been forced into a militaristic structure to survive, they do have other sides to them. Reeva, for example, proves this. In the biography questions you get to choose your ally, and one of them is Reeva. Here's her text: Reeva fights hard and plays hard. Nothing gets her down. She always jokes that her best weapons are her engineering tools and a sharp sense of humor. To Reeva, life isn't worth much if it isn't fun.
That may not sound like the charr you know, but it sounds like the charr I know! And I'm invested in them. I really like them. Sometimes their unpopularity really bothers me, since it's just xenophobia, really. They're a well written, storied, interesting race. Possibly the most so in the entirety of Guild Wars. But people aren't going to play them for either petty and xenophobic reasons (the GW1 fans), or just for xenophobic reasons. Bleh. I suppose some people can't let go of their humans and elves, even just to try something different.
I'm equally amazed that so many voted for human, it's a fantasy game so i can't imagine why people would want to play a human. strange. hehe
Norn for my Warrior main and ranger alt
Asura for my guardian and ele alts
Human for Engi and Thief alts, and possibly mesmer if i decide to try one
Charr for my Necro alt
Sylvari is the only thing I don't plan to try because I really don't care for them at this point.
Got to love the variety this game is going to offer , Get to try a little of everything and it all looks incredibly fun wish it was releasing sooner..
Human Warrior for my main, why because i always play warrior and i can pretend i'm him =D.
Thief for my alt but undeicded on race, probably charr tho.
Sylvari ranger is my first choice for now, fresh start with new and young race. Norn is also interesting and we cant forget disliked charr, which certainly many people will try and this is great opportunity to see there point of view, there stories and what drive them as a race.
It depends what you prefer; I think humans may still look the best as race. Some people want to identify with their characters while others rather roleplay. :-)
Cast your vote: The importance of character customisation
Human cause they'll probably put the most effort into designing the human storyline.
Sylvari - they best match my character's personality.
Not to put down the game, but I just feel the other races are rather ridiculous looking, so human all the way here, and yeah a bulky thief would look just as ridiculous to me, so no to Norn as well.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson