New Races!

[Mintie]

I am eager to start playing guild wars 2 after playing 6 and a half years on wow as a hardcore player and am simply bored, as i'm sure many of us are!

One thing that I'm really struggling with is the character selection and class selection, there's so little to
choose from!

I remember the first time logging in after hours of installing wow, and been given the difficulty of selecting the race I wanted to play, and then the class, knowing that I was going to put my life into it.

The Feeling of picking the race and class simply isn't appealing in guild wars 2.

Is it just me? or do others feel the same?

I understand that expansions will probably deliver.

But I think from a point of sale perspective, releasing at least 2 more races before the release date will reach out to an even wider target audience and will defiantly be more profitable to the game, and the community.

Thanks for reading!

Mintie

[Centaur]

Hi Mintie, welcome to these forums.

With 5 races to choose from and 8 possible professions, 7 of which have been released so far (in other words, any 1 of 40 possible combinations), I don't think the selection is limited. Ofcourse, it doesn't have nearly as many races to choose from as WoW currently has (after 7 years of millions of people paying monthly subscription fees), but then WoW doesn't have a different personal story and fully voiced dialogs for each race. And there are a lot of MMO's out there with similar numbers (or even less choice).
We currently don't have any idea what ArenaNet are planning for future expansions, but you're right, they might add additional races (with full voice recording, their own starter areas, their own personal quests, etc) or (which I consider more likely) additional professions.

Adding 2 (or even 1) more races to the game at this stage (before release) could easily delay the game for several more months, and from what we know, ArenaNet have absolutely no intention of doing so. Compared to Guild Wars 1 (which had only 1 race and 6 professions when it was initially released), 5 races and 8 professions is already a large improvement. So I definitely hope that you will be able to make your choice from this selection, and enjoy what is being offered now.

[ComplexNuber]

Adding 2 (or even 1) more races to the game at this stage (before release) could easily delay the game for several more months, and from what we know, ArenaNet have absolutely no intention of doing so.

Would probably take at least another year considering they'd have to find a place to jam them in the world, create their story, change all the cut-scenes to include mention of them, voice act them, add content for them, etc. It'd be much easier to create a separate campaign/continent so the stories don't merge so much, which is possible in the future. I'd definitely prefer more professions over more races though, and I can't think of many good GW races to be made playable.

[Centaur]

...and I can't think of many good GW races to be made playable.

Well, Charr turned from enemy race to playable race, so why not centaurs... who have a very similar history, and who were already friendly to the player in Elona (Nightfall).

[roshamjoe]

I think with the amount of content that's going to exist with just the first five races and eight professions the game will be entertaining for a long time to come. The idea of more races never really sparks my interest unless the animations, voice overs and how the armor sits on them is that much better. Take into account though that this is the opinion of someone who played games where race never played a huge role after the starting zone when everyone got smashed together anyway. With the personal story allowing you to progress nearly to level 80 it might actually prove fun to run through all five races and then start again with a new race when they were made available.

The more professions they add the better as long as they can stick with the model they're aiming for now where any class can fill any role based on the situation. You might lean towards sticking to specifically one role, say ranged dps, but the option to change at a moments notice is there. You might be set up to range dps extremely well, but in the midst of a fight you can take over support or control roles based on what's going on with your party.

Off topic:
A class I would always love to see in any MMO is a summoner profession. They would be required to summon pets constantly rather than summon 1 to have out at all times and then dps like an elementalist/necro. Instead of attacks, their skillbar would be filled with commands issued to their pets and would change based on what pet is summoned.

[Centaur]

A class I would always love to see in any MMO is a summoner profession. They would be required to summon pets constantly rather than summon 1 to have out at all times and then dps like an elementalist/necro. Instead of attacks, their skillbar would be filled with commands issued to their pets and would change based on what pet is summoned.

That actually sounds like the necromancer with his army of minions...

[roshamjoe]

Similar, but the necro can still function without having any pets at all. My thought would be, summon pet which is on a set timer and use it to attack things, protect you, control mobs etc. You would need to "chain" your summons together so they overlapped or you might be left without a pet and at a very large disadvantage. A huge micro management nightmare but something I think that would add a little diversity.

[Ruse]

Yeah, as much detail as Anet puts into their races (giving them a real place in the world, not just a half-assed background story) I don't see it happening.

I'm curious, are you more disappointed with the number of choices or just the races themselves, Mintie?

[Mintie]

Hello, cheers for the welcome!

I'm just disappointed only being able to choose out of the 5 races.

I am not a fan playing a Humanoid race, such as the Human, Norn, and sylvari.

So my 2 choice's would be to play the Charr (Tauren) and Asura (Gnome) races.

Obviously the 2 races have a massive size difference, and having focused my main chars on wow as
Undead, Orc or Troll, there isn't anything similar to this on a fantasy perspective in gw2.

I understand for the majority this probably isn't a big deal, but I really want to get the feeling I got when I was sucked
into wow.

Now thinking about it, not having race's similar to the 3 different personalities we got from undead, orcs and trolls has
really left a 'hole' in the target audience that would be the majority of 'horde' in wow.

By know means is this going to stop me playing gw2 on the release date... haha, I mean the engine in this game and the work already gone into it is phenomenal and I can't wait to experience it!! But it could well stop others from really
absorbing into the game.

When I look at the 5 races on the gw2 website, you can't help but think there's something missing as a finished product.

Other than this, I agree with the above! Adding more professions is i'm sure there way of earning money in expansions, as well as new races!

But I really hope they release a new race before the release date. ( and not another human class ) >.<

Thanks again for reading

Mintie

[roshamjoe]

While I do agree with you Mintie that humanoid classes in general are overused. The main way I see of getting away from that is to do something like Centaur had suggested and go with something like centaurs. Maybe trying to create some type of Spore engine built into MMOs which would be a programming nightmare I'm sure. I think it's an inevitability when playing a fantasy mmo that you will end up running into humans, elves, dwarves, ogres, minotaurs, undead etc. Things that are bipedal, have two arms and have the basic facial structure as people do (2 eyes, 2 ears, nose etc).

I think it's the little things about the races that are going to make it difficult to choose. Not because I'm trying to choose between which one I dislike the least, but which race I want to try out first. For instance, the original idea for Sylvari was elf like people with an affinity for nature. ArenaNet dropped that idea and created an entire lore for the Sylvari, redesigning the race so instead of being elves who dress up in leaves and flowers, they became plants who are born from a tree and mimick human form. If you haven't seen anything on them you should check out this link from the Guild Wars 2 website.

Just my own insight, glad to see that no matter what you're still interested.