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Imba.9451

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Posts posted by Imba.9451

  1. 4 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

    The difference is that we haven't seen any jotun that are stated or implied to be female, and have in fact been told that jotun females and children are typically sequestered away from the eyes of outsiders. And that's before we even consider that Dagda is a thousand years old and is thus a thousand years better off when it comes to jotun physical and mental decline.

    I consider proportions to be pretty minor. Real-world humans can have different arm and leg lengths compared to their body. So the main differences between asura and humans apart from that are in hand structure, foot structure, skin tome, and head structure. Mursaat have different hand and foot structure based on their armour, while their heads are conveniently masked but there is concept art indicating that their head structure is inhuman (which might be part of the reason why they wore masks when pretending to be divine beings... or in Mabon's case, trying not to frighten people). And there are those tendrils, which you claim to be 'just added on' - but any such feature still implies differences in the structure, muscles, and nervous system of the back at least, especially if they're more than purely decorative. You're basing your assertion purely on the muscle structure of the arms and the side of the chest. While... you know you can go into character creation, load up an asura, take off their armour, and apart from the lack of the prominent mammaries you want on mursaat so much, the asuran torso is pretty close to being identical to human? It's not as defined, you don't see asura sporting sixpacks (but that's generally bodybuilding for aesthetics rather than bodybuilding for strength anyway), but you can tell the underlying structure is largely the same.

    They could very easily have not given any mursaat feminine names or titles, thereby leaving the "we haven't seen females" argument open.

    And... let's say they did take the "we only had one model then, but now we're taking a more complete approach" argument... this might turn into a "be careful what you wish for" for your "muscle mommy" fantasy. If they pulled a "they were always there, we just didn't have the model" for something as difficult to miss as female mursaat having fat-augmented milk-producing structures, they could very easily make other changes as well. If we were to take humans as a basis, women usually have significantly less upper body musculature even if they are bodybuilding, and bodybuilding is less common because the "bodybuilder look" is generally far more desired in men than women. Just like humans, male mursaat might have the big muscles because that's their ideal aesthetic for a male form, but their women might be more like anime waifs or something (they already rely on magic and jade constructs for just about everything, it's not like physical strength is likely to be a priority for them apart from health and aesthetics, and sharply defined musculature is more of the latter). We've already seen something much like this with how male norn are typically much more heavily muscled than humans, while female norn can be proportionally similar to humans. Adding forward-projecting lactating regions is already a big enough change that if they were going to do that, they could go much further than you expect. Heck, they could draw on the bird comparisons that are often made with mursaat and make colour a primary distinguishing feature. 

    You are overthinking this way too much imho. We already crossed the line of headcanon and went to outer space.

    Also, combining the notion that color could be a distinguishing feature with the notion of "be careful what you wish for" is a bad choice of words, even though I am sure that the possible implication of this was not your intent.

     

    I don't think I can add anything else to this thread anyway, so unless anything substantial is added as an argument to this theory, that doesn't throw occams razor out of the window, I am out.

  2. 5 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

    To be fair, Dagda is centuries old and is from before the jotun were as deformed as they are now. In the midst of their decline rather than after it. We technically don't know what a modern female jotun would look like, and an ancient male jotun from Dagda's time would be less deformed than those we get to see (even the ghosts who are basically same ol' modern model sadly).

    Wich is basically the same situation as with Mursaat. We didn't have a female model until we had one.

     

    3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

    You want, but that's basically all you have. And there's no way you're ever going to get to play it.

     

    So exactly what I already said. I know Mursaat are never going to be a playable race. Doesn't stop me from wanting female models.

    3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

    Asura are close enough to human

    By that logic, EVERYTHING that appears humanoid is close enough. Still doesn`t Take away from Asura being way further away from being human-lookig than Mursaat.

    3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

    Mursaat are at a similar level of difference (no, I really don't think limb proportions are significant - that's the main difference between a human and a dwarf, after all). The feet are clearly different - you wouldn't fit a human foot into those talons. Humans typically don't have feathery tendrils. We've... possibly seen mursaat heads in concept art, but if that art is accurate, their heads are more Protoss-like than human. There's enough difference that their sexual dimorphism, if any, might also be different. G

    Yes, the foot claws are a difference. But a minor one, considering the overall proportions (And like somebody else said, dwarfs also had no female models in GW1). And the tendrils are an extra, not an alteration of existing human feature.

    PPersonally, I think this whole theory is based on nothing substantial, besides filling up holes with headcanon. The simplest answer to why there is a female Mursaat name without a female body is, that Anet didn't bother to create a female model. Guessing that they put this as a hint towards sexual dismorphism seems very far fetched.

  3. 12 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

    Eh, asura are basically small humans apart from the head and the feet. We can see that mursaat don't have human feet, and we don't know what their heads look like under the mask. They could well have different dimorphism than humans. Maybe their style of dress is covering up the most dimorphic parts, similar to human clothing styles.

    They certainly can't pull the 'we just didn't see their females in GW1' card because we did fight mursaat with clearly feminine names.

    Apart from the head, and feet, and face proportions, and overall proportions, and ears...

    There is a BIG difference between the appearance of Humans and Asura and between humans and Norn/Sylvari/Mursaat. Heck, even Jotun got a clearly female distinguished model with Dagda. I see no reason for Anet to bruteforce this theory into the game.

    Also I want big, floating, magic using muscle-mommys.

  4. 16 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

    We do have precedent in both charr and asura females lacking... prominent bumps in the chest region. Both do have other physical markers of masculinity and femininity, though. Mursaat might well have noticeably different faces, for instance, but when they all wear masks, you can't tell.

    Asura and Charr are clearly distinguishable from humans though.

  5. 1 hour ago, mandala.8507 said:

    This seems to imply that you don't believe female Mursaat look the same because the Mursaat models we have are too buff. Was that your intention, or do you mean something else?

    Not my intention at all. Just wanted to point out that Mursaat are basically buff humans. And from an artistic standpoint, it would seem weird to me to have a basically human looking race with no female models, without any other distinguishing features.

    Heck, if anything, I'd have loved to create an even more buff female Norn. So I am totally down for female Mursaat who come packing.

    Edit: My intention was to joke that for Mursaat, basically every day seems to be gym day, despite them being magic users.

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  6. Considering Mursaat already look like bigger humans who are buff af but still prefer throwing lightning at you than you pick up weapons with the giant anchors they've got for arms, I really have a hard time buying into the "they just look the same" argument from an artistic point of view. And considering the reason for only male models existing in GW1 was likely due to other reasons than the theory described here, I'd probably dislike Anet going "Uhm... yeah, sure, that was TOTALLY what we hinted at!"

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  7. 8 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

    I don't see a game encouraging people to play it, or rewarding them for playing it regularly being an attempt at manipulation.

    The line is very thin here. Especially when optional monetization is included.

     

    8 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

    That's like saying stores putting stuff on limited time sale is an attempt at manipulation. There are a lot of stores, there are a lot of games. Stores are trying to sell you something, but if they're honestly just lowering the price of something to get you to shop there, it's not manipulation. 

    That absolutely IS an attempt at manipulation. Because why do you do that? because you want to evoka a certain emotional reaction: Buy now cheap, else you may have to pay more if you want to have the product.

    Just because one may associate the term "manipulation" with some evil puppeteering does not mean that provoking an emotional response outside of certain extremes is not manipulation. It's in the term itself.

     

    8 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

    This Wizard's Vault has got me playing more, because the rewards are better, but people have complained about the rewards in this game for ages. A cynical person would say that Anet is just trying to manipulate us, because they want us to log in, but they're not charging us more for that. Another person might say that Anet has finally given us better rewards. If it's fair, then it's necessarily an attempt to manipulate. 

    I get why people would be sensitive to others trying to influence them, but in this case, even the Fomo is minimized by the way it's set up. 

    I kinda agree on you here. It's not one of those battle passes that need you to be playing 4hours a day so you don't miss anything after you paid for it. Even further, it isn't even that different from the system before. The rewards are way better per time spent than with the daily login system anyway.

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  8. Ever played Endless Space?

    There is a race of a single dude who was such an egomanical narcicist, that when he found cloning device, he simply cloned himself to create his own Horatio-nation. Maybe thats what the Mursaat did 😄

    Jokes aside, I always thought of Mursaat simply not having female models yet. And considering I still dream of having Mursaat as playable race, I do need to keep entertaining this idea, as all of my characters are female.

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  9. 12 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

    They way you interpret it is wrong.  It's much simpler than that.

    Unless you think you're going to overcome misinformation, advertising, psychology, change human nature, alter the people around you, and basically rewrite everything that exists, you're going to have to build up some defenses just to live your life. You're going to have to learn to question advertising if you want to have some semblence of control. You're going to have to learn to fact check and not take everything you hear at face value.

    I would love to change the world. It would be fantastic. Businesses can stop advertising and give up their power. Politicians can stop lying. And people won't make games with FOMO. It's possible that will happen. But the reality is we live in a world where that is happening all day every day all around us.

    By all means, try to change it if you think you can make a difference, but within the context of that taking time and probably not happening at all, learn to take a bit of personal responsibility. Game makers are always going to add things to involve you in their games. Always. Because there's so much competition and everyone else is doing it.

    Anet did this in the best way possible. They gave us a ton of currency we can get. They gave up options, particularly now, on how we get that currency, they've added currency, they don't charge real money and they'll have a legeacy vault for cosmetics.

    If you're going to rail against change, by all means do so, but this isn't the change to rail against. This is an example of it being done right.

    I am not railing against it and made it very clear in my first post, that I think it is done in a fair way.

    Yet I share my thoughts. I neither bash the system, nor do I say "it's on you, it's optional", because it isn't that simple. People are different. And acting as if everyone can achieve to get thick-skinned like you suppose would be nice. It is unrealistic though. So I simply advocate for awarness regarding this. Being met with an "it's on you"-attitude does not help. Because by this logic, every predatory mechanic in games can be dismissed by basically saying "haha, weak ppl fell for it. It's their fault for being weak.". Weaponizing "human nature" and "psychology" against people is not the most moral thing to do in my book, and should not be handwaved away.

    Again, I even side with you on the topic of it being rather fair. I agree, that people should be informed, critical thinkers that can manage to defend themselves against manipulation attempts. That doesn't mean that such attempts should be excused. (After all, if someone gets shot, wou wouldn't say "Well, should have owend a gun yourself and shot first" either. At least I hope so.) After all, it is and will be player retention first and foremost though, built to create habits. Assuming anything else (like pure benevolence) is naive. And thinking in such black and white categories of responsibility, guilt and developer intentions is quite contrary to being an informed, critical thinker.

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  10. 6 minutes ago, Vayne.8563 said:

    This doesn't change a word I've said. People try to manipulate people all the time. You can be aware of it and compensate. Getting angry is not an issue, because everyone gets angry. Not everyone strikes out on rage though. Taking responsibility for your actions is what we all should be aiming for. Blaming circumstance when we do the wrong thing is pretty prevalent, but it's not ideal.  

     

    Why not both?

    Just because something happens "all the time" doesn't mean we have to accept that. Because the way I read this, it can also be interpreted as "Be stoic, don't give a kitten and move on." It`s possible to aknowledge my responsibility to look my doors, so I do not get robed, while also calling out the crooked morals of people who break into other peoples houses. And yes, I get it, what I just described is legally forbidden while Anet is in their right to implant even the worst mobile crap if they wanted to, I just wanted to illustrate the point.

    Also, again, let's not act if our personal perception of the world matches that of everyone else. People are built different. Literally. Neurological differences make different people way more suceptible to certain things than others.

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  11. While I do think that the WV is designed in a very fair way, let's not act as if it wasn't created with certain interests in mind. Mainly player retention. Hence why I do get the "FOMO" argument. Acting as if there aren't any hooks that a game tried to catch you with is naive. And acting as if addiction doesn't exist or can be overcome by simply not being a "weak person", as some people in this thread semmed to suggest, is also incredibly far from reality.

    Personally, I found myself logging in in the last week just for the dailies. And when I realized that I only did so out of a feeling of obligation, I actually felt bad. Daily login-routines form incredibly fast, without realizing that what you are doing might not even be "fun" anymore. Goes actually beyond gaming and can apply to many habits in life.


     

    Quote

     

    Fear of missing out isn't something games to do you, it's something we do to ourselves.


    If you have FOMO from this, that's absolutely your problem, but FOMO always existed in this game. Always. From day one. This is not an evolution toward fomo.  Don't log in during Halloween, the goodies are gone till next year. Don't check the cash shop, the item that you wanted was on sale and gone, till some random time when it might or might not be available again. Don't participate in a bonus event, you miss the rewards from it.

     

     

     

    By that logic, nothing anyone ever does that evokes a reaction from another person is his fault. Yes, on a biological and neural level, stuff happens within us. But let`s not pretend that knowing about the human psyche does not enable a person to get certain reactions out of them. Even if you believe in free will, this hardly matches reality.

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  12. 2 hours ago, Eekasqueak.7850 said:

    Aurene's VA never really bothered me personally, most of the VA that does kinda bother me was in GW1 and core. Though some of the awful VA work in factions was at least fun to laugh at.

    I run Dragons End regulary. Not even Yaos constant snappy comments during Kaineng Meta became as annoying as hearing Aurene to me. Although I have to admit, Soo.Wons dialogue during the final fight also could have been taken out of a 13-year olds attempt of writing exercise. I try to avoid the use of the word cringe when possible, but it just fits perfectly here.

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  13. 5 hours ago, Netrizhul.3429 said:

    Actually I'm glad Mabon died not because of lore reason but voice actors. Liam is doing one thing, making Illidan voices in all characters. Dude has no range. Just one voice.

    Check count Waltz from eternal Sonata. he can do different voices.

    But I get what you mean. I noticed that he has the same issue as Aurene: being an incredibly benevolent character, with a constant gasping voice. My personal conspiracy theory: Someone in voice direction during recording sessions stubbornly clings to the false notion that constant gasping adds tension. I blamed Aurenes voice actor before, but I am not so sure anymore that my disdain was directed at the right person.

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  14. On 9/27/2023 at 2:50 PM, Kalavier.1097 said:

    Hard to do a redemption arc of somebody whose relationship with the majority of the rest of the world is "Super wanted criminal for being in charge of forces that massacred civilians and ransacked Lion's Arch for loot."
     

     

    But thats exacty the point of a redemption arc. Some characters from the The Expanse come to mind. Or A Song of Ice and Fire. Or Lord of the Rings (even if Boromir is another case of "redemption through death", yet it was set up very well and got a great payoff, wich in itself was a setup for Aragorn character arc.) Or Portal. And probably some more books, shows and games that I can't think of spontaneusly.

    Mai Trin was terribly wasted. Having her as a disillusioned, dark-humored ally would have greatly improved that character interactions imho, as most people are just different versions of goody-two-shoes. Simply killing her off in the middle of EoD was incredibly unneccessary. And Ankka being built up as another antagonist, just to be killed an hour later was a prime example of why the pacing in EoD felt so incredibly off. Neither got time to breathe, to make herself part of the story. Wich is a shame, because I think both of them were rather promising.

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  15. 21 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

    Hey all, I am sorry I missed this until now. Luckily, other people did not--I asked around and learned that someone is already looking into this bug. Sorry it's been going on for so long but we are chasing down the issue so we can figure out a fix!

    While I am not happy that this seemingly flew under the radar, I do appreciate the honest response instead of some "We hear you!"-PR-bullcrap. Thats rare nowadays.

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  16. 33 minutes ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

    A funny thing really thinking about it. Zojja has always placed great importance on Snaff after his death, to the point (IIRC the early Asura story I did) of having her barging into a place to defend his work or the Snaff prize being met with "Of course, Zojja's here. because Snaff. Ugh." When generally Asura society doesn't seem to care about heroes that much. Did an important thing, get a prize/thing named after you, everybody moves on.

    So then she basically dies, and Rata Sum immediately moves on. They don't invite her to speak at any colleges anymore. Nobody wants her opinion on golemancy or lab stuff. She's basically put into her house, an aide told to make sure she gets food/water, and left to rot away and die.  It's not even about falling behind on tech, society itself has deemed her a dead hero and moved away. 

    Before SOTO I made a comment of "If they require her to pass an intelligence test before rejoining Rata Sum public, like that one jailed for being stupid... she may never pass the test with her injuries." I made the mistake of treating "She's addled, drooling." as if she was a human, where she's basically non-functional, vs as what an Asura would consider that, which could very much still be intelligent and active, but not to "Asura" inflated levels of ego and smarts.  Another case of "Asura don't really have health-care or medical systems" like how Taimi showed.

    True. One could go on and find dozens of ways to describe how this works as an allegory on western society, broadly speaking (staying "relevant", being "diligent", being "loyal", etc.). Individuals are measured on how they contribute to their society, based on societal values, not on their own merit and rarely get the chance to develop a sense of self. (Actually, this makes Asura not too dissimilar from the Charr in that regard). And such expectations do take their toll on all those left behind for whatever reason. I really liked how they shed a light on the darker side of Asuran society, apart from the funny Technobabble goblins. Come to think of it, the wizards court are to Zojja what the Olmahkan are to Rox.

    41 minutes ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

    So we have this interesting part of Zojja being lifted from what has been a life of just misery, isolation, and rage at the world since Snaff's death, embraced by a new group who encourages her to explore her stunted magical powers (I personally loved the line about how the Asura have great magical protentional, but suppress it by constantly going into Golemancy and tech). She's almost explicitly offered to become one of the Wizards, an incredibly rare gesture from Isgarren and the court. And then she's torn because it's what she wants, and these people around her (even moreso then Destiny's Edge perhaps) truly accept her, but the idea of her memories fading or going away slams into the Asura upbringing. Her achievements, her papers and inventions. Losing all of that is hell for Asura, but she's already died in the eyes of Rata Sum.

    I don't think that is Asura specific though. Losing your memories is losing yourself. Even though they tried to adress this by "It's not really gone, it's just put away", the thought is still scary.

  17. 19 hours ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

    I'm not sure what the hell this thread descended into but I agree with the OP. 

    The setting and characters for SOTO are a significant improvement from EOD and seem to actually have depth to them. There are darker aspects of the "good" Wizards faction hinted at and Peitha is evidently intended to be a lighter aspect of the "bad" Kryptis faction. 

    That said, I doubt the writers at Arenanet will be able to actually follow through. Already in the story we can play through now, what's being set up is a very straightforward good vs bad plot where the good Wizards beat back the Evil Eparch. All the nuance is brushed off so Zojja can have a guilt-free new "Found Family" (actually voiced in-game, that was real cringe).

    • The commander is super supportive of Zojja memory wiping herself voluntarily, which is really quite messed up
    • Mabon is a super nice guy but in the Skywatch meta, the second Lyhr remembers anything about his past, he gets outraged about what he has lost, which the Commander supposedly has no opinion on
    • Waiting Sorrow (Dagda's mentor) is never actually mentioned on the Golden Path story content, despite having quite a fleshed out backstory hinting that the Wizards faction is not all good, so I doubt we'll see any pay off regarding that

     

    I think they followed up very well on Zojja. They kinda even made her absence into an integral part of her character arc: She felt isolated. Ignored. Not fitting into the world anymore, while others were out there doing great deeds. I dunno if this is a personal thing you need to have experienced, but watching others getting ahead on life while you seemingly are not moving forward can hit hard. Especially after having suffered from a critical life incident. So for her, finding people she felt a strong connection towards, a found family doesn't sound cringe to me at all. To me, it was rather wholesome. (And if you haven't already, read her journals. Unlike the Gyala-episodes, I think Anet portayed depression rather well here.)

    Also, the open enden things you described can still be expanded upon in the following content releases. I am fine with not having all parts of the puzzle yet. Doing some setup work that does not get resolved immediatly is a sign of writers actually thinking things through. If they follow up, that is, but we will have to wait in order to see how this plays out.

    And lastly, we do have Peitha, who hints at a demon society that, while still being rather feral, isn't what Eparch forces them to be. With her being an ally, that we will help with stirring up a civil war against Eparch, the Kryptis are set up to be alot more nuanced than the Elder Dragons have ever been.

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  18. 1 hour ago, mandala.8507 said:

    This is the GW2 forum, right? I feel like I'm on the GW1 subreddit reading through this thread right now.

    Thats on you then. You want to see the writing on the wall when there is not even a wall to begin with. Windmills. Don't try to antagonize people this way.

     

    40 minutes ago, Laken.9018 said:


    I just got the impression in recent years they want to be unburdened from the past but in a weird kind of way I also feel SoTO felt like them going back and trying to fix some of the more egregious attacks and fix them (such as bringing Livia, Mursaat and Dwarves all back into the fold after they were kinda rapidly brushed off screen). I've been super impressed by SoTO it feels like a more mature story and less soap opera.

    Feeling the same. Truth be told, bringing back Mursaat and Livia is blatant fanservice for people like me, so I have to admit that I am very biased here.

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  19. 1 hour ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

     

     

    You and I seem to read that comment differently it seems. Personally, I see the sentiment of undermining whats there in order to have what the new writers put atop of it seem bigger being called out, based on the debate that give this comment you quoted context, as did the debate about how the narrative around the gods and Balthazar shifted.

    You seem to read this as: "I think the developer are mean gremlins that create flipcharts in order to determine how to kitten off players most" (exagerrated ofc)

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