Commander model in the trailer.

I must say that - due to my African ancestry - the trailer for the Episode 4: A Star to Guide Us raised some concerns for me. I do not want to preach, I do not want to cry. I am just interested - is using the current Commander model a deliberate choice that is aimed at pleasing more vocal persons of my race and the Social Justice Warriors or just an overlooked mistake? Once again, I don't want to preach, however, as far as my lore knowledge goes, even though darker skin colors did exist prior to PoF release (Which is nice, as a veteran player I was able to play a character that was a bit closer to me than usually) the combination of skin and hairstyle wasn't in the game in the time when the Commander witnessed Aurene's hatching and attempted to teach her 'to be good.' Not to mention the Sunspear Armor - it's something that had no chance of travelling from Elona to Kryta on those few caravans that did actually reach other human nations due to Joko holding power in Elona. It's design mirrors the current Sunspear 'fashion' and differs from the armors we could see in GW1, thus having this as a 'heilroom' passed down in Commander's family isn't an option either. Again, as I said, I do not want to create racial war over such a detail, however I am just concerned - there's too much conflict over race and attempts to ponder to people who won't be convinced nowadays, I'd rather see things I love to be true to themselves instead of becoming a walking contradiction because people see a need to please a crowd that won't stop shouting regardless of what we do to please them.

No, it is just a Sunspear model.

Or it could just be that theres many different Commanders and their appearance isnt set in stone and as such there are no issues with how this particular commander looks.

They could throw a Charr in one of their videos as the commander and it wouldnt affect anything.

Maybe that "commander" did what some of my "commander" characters did: use a Total Makeover Kit.

gurl.. stop.The commander seems to be represented by the current story he is in..when he goes to cantha he will probably be asian. chil.

@"Artyport.2084" said:gurl.. stop.The commander seems to be represented by the current story he is in

Came in to say this. ^

During launch, the commander was a female norn in T3 armor and during season 1 iirc. I don't recall the "representative" of HoT, but I believe during PoF and season 3 the model used for the commander is the one used in the trailer.

...And the issue is what, exactly? 'Cultural appropriation' just for showing someone dark-skinned? (Which, by the way, is perfectly logical as some have said?) Get real.

I'm confused how this would be cultural appropriation? Especially given that there has been a decently sized population of elonan descent living in Kryta for two centuries. The graphical options to represent this in a player character has been subpar prior to PoF, but that doesn't change the "canonicity" of a Commander with Elonan heritage.

Surely, it's common for us fans to share a vision for a PC with ANet's story writers and/or artists and/or marketing professionals.

Shortly after the 2012 launch, one of the long-time GW1 fans posted about their experience with trying to come up with the perfect (human) character design. They had an archetype in mind from before launch and admitted to missing out on some of the fun during Headstart, because they really wanted to get it right. Finally, they made their selection and started to play the game. 20 minutes in, they ran into one the ordinary, local color NPCs ... who looked exactly the same. The OP shared a picture of both and I couldn't tell the difference.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

There is literally nothing to get upset over. I remember in one of the ArenaNet videos they discussed the current model of the Commander, saying that it just fits thematically for Elona. Makes sense. They want to show off the cool new customizations (some of those hairstyles are awesome) and armor, and it makes sense, due to the story, that it's with an Elonian Commander. I don't see a problem. If the story goes elsewhere, the Commander might be represented by a charr (if we go to the Blood Legion homeland, for instance) or a sylvari (if we ever find out what happened to Malyck/explore the Maguuma Jungle further), or an asura, or a human who looks like they came from Cantha, or...anything else. "The Commander" is whoever fits the story at the moment.

cultural appropriation

:lol:

this is almost as funny as my posts

The current stand in for the player character has been like this since PoF. It's a sunspear model meant to fit more into the setting of elona which is inspired by different african and arabian cultures.

In the end, it's a fictional charater ina fictional world, from a fictional continent. I wouldn't wvae the apropriation flag here. The character is not represented in any particular way, neither positive nor negative.

Yes, it is annoying that Anet changes the look of the commander in their videos all the time

Whenever a new style releases they try to use them in their following videos. In this case it is some of the customization for a Sunspear-like character that was added with PoF, it is topical since they will play a bigger part in our upcoming story. Anet has been very subtle with their "diversity additions" and this is not one of them. They handle this pretty well actually, so kudos for that.

didn't this exact same thing get posted on reddit before the mods deleted it

I wonder what the complaint would have been if anet had used a blond Tyrian model for the Commander.

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:Surely, it's common for us fans to share a vision for a PC with ANet's story writers and/or artists and/or marketing professionals.

Shortly after the 2012 launch, one of the long-time GW1 fans posted about their experience with trying to come up with the perfect (human) character design. They had an archetype in mind from before launch and admitted to missing out on some of the fun during Headstart, because they really wanted to get it right. Finally, they made their selection and started to play the game. 20 minutes in, they ran into one the ordinary, local color NPCs ... who looked exactly the same. The OP shared a picture of both and I couldn't tell the difference.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

This one?

“I spent more than 30 minutes in character creation and this is the first male NPC I found”

I kind of wish they would use a consistent model for the Commander in trailers, just because I don't always realise that's who it is right away.

As for how the appearance is determined like other people have said it seems to be loosely themed on the current release and then I always assumed the person making the trailer picked armour etc. they think looks cool. Maybe that could be raised in a future AMA session or similar?

The player character shown in the

was Elonian also. Describing a choice that the game selects for a period of time as a race thing or a cultural appropriation thing is carrying it to far. The race/species/gender/armor of the Commander is all of the possible choices in game as all are used by someone at some time. Making the commander vary in appearance reflects that s/he has no set race/species/gender/armor and an Elonian with Sunspear armor is just as reasonable a choice as any other.

This thread reminds me of when we had to argue about Kormir's nose on her freaking statue....

I know this is click bait, and honestly I have trouble believing you’re really a black or African person, but all the things you bring up you aren’t even contextualizing as “cultural appropriation.” You’re just throwing around a “controversial” word to question why there’s a black commander in this trailer.

There have always been dark skin tones, as you say. People’s hairstyles CHANGE, like, that’s a thing that happens in game and IRL. We’ve seen NPC’s appearance or hair drastically change. Also the path of fire hair styles may have not existed at launch, but they were added to CORE when they were released.

Someone who bought GW2 today could have a commander with an Afro or braids from the very beginning. Same with the faces. They are NOT expansion exclusive. More over, these hairstyles were added before PoF was even released

In canon the commander has fought through all of Elona, so I don’t see why you’re surprised the commander is wearing Sunpear/Elonan armor lol.

@Dante.1763 said:They could throw a Charr in one of their videos as the commander and it wouldnt affect anything.

Ha! As if that would ever happen. ;)

In the Mists, there's infinite versions of Tyria.And that also means there's infinite versions of the Commander.Infinite possible futures.Infinite possible possible ends.

The Commander seen in PoF trailers is a human of Elonian descent. Players can actually make one if they choose "Dead Sister" in the biography, and then pick "Elonain" when asked about one's heritage. Deborah will have Elonian features.

As for the Elonian and Sunspear armors, we can get them by helping the Elonians and the Sunspears. And you know, characters do not have to stick with the armor they had at the start of the game. That's basically the whole point of the wardrobe.You help a bunch of refugees, then thank you with a hat, what do you do? Throw it away? Of course not. You put it on and see their faces light up when they see you accept their gratitude.

@Vash.2386 said:I wonder what the complaint would have been if anet had used a blond Tyrian model for the Commander.

They should of used a pale white female with dreadlocks as the commander, for maximum effect.