Male Norn need some love!

[Ashantara.8731]

Yes, the females look ridiculously well built (physically) and even move like super models (all the animations, even the idle one, do not suit the race at all, but at least the player models look good). Norn boys are also very handsome:

However, as adults...

Why o why do male Norn have to look like deformed Neanderthals? While kids, they still look normally shaped, just like the girls. But once grown up, adult males transform into Neanderthals, sporting an ugly shaped chest, an awfully crooked posture (i.e., absolutely asymmetric), arms that remind me of a gorilla, short legs, and feet three times their head size, while the head on the other hand is tiny in comparison (even max scaled). You have to work wonders (i.e., search for the right armor, hair and beard combo) to try and cover that fact when creating a male Norn character.

How about adding a few more options for the player base, ANet?

Example:

[Artemisa.9013]

I've never seen that new look, but I agree...! Does it come with PoF?

[Zenith.7301]

No, it's photoshopped.

The OP has good suggestions. Male norn as they currently exist are simply deformed and quite ugly, so you need to use armor to mask their deformities.

They have undersized heads for the size of their torso, and the muscular neck and hunchbacked shoulders give a triangular shape instead of a straight, broad shouldered position. The male norn model has also this crooked posture where the body tilts to one side, and in addition it has a drooping chest and large thigh gaps due to undersized legs compared to the body.

I hope it's addressed at some point because male norn feel like a joke model compared to female norn who look far more dignified and polished.

Even the hair and face options for the male norn are mostly scraggly hobo or scraggly old man while female norn all have youthful looks.

[DebraKadabra.5278]

It's almost like they made female Norn models so good that they just gave up on character physics for male Norn.

[Dawdler.8521]

I am fairly sure that the Norn need even less love than the Asura. They are not a lovable race.At best, they need beer.

[Endless Soul.5178]

Have you seen their stumpy running animations? That is one of the many, many reasons why I don't have a male norn.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Zenith.7301 said:The OP has good suggestions. Male norn as they currently exist are simply deformed and quite ugly, so you need to use armor to mask their deformities.

"Deformed" was the term I was looking for, thank you.

They have undersized heads for the size of their torso, and the muscular neck and hunchbacked shoulders give a triangular shape instead of a straight, broad shouldered position. The male norn model has also this crooked posture where the body tilts to one side, and in addition it has a drooping chest and large thigh gaps due to undersized legs compared to the body.

This. :+1:

I hope it's addressed at some point because male norn feel like a joke model compared to female norn who look far more dignified and polished.Even the hair and face options for the male norn are mostly scraggly hobo or scraggly old man while female norn all have youthful looks.

I wouldn't mind a "rougher" look on female Norn, especially regarding their animations -- standing, sitting , running, it all looks like they were little princesses and not stout warriors. However, fixing the male models in my eyes has priority.

@Endless Soul.5178 said:Have you seen their stumpy running animations? That is one of the many, many reasons why I don't have a male norn.

True, but the female one is worse IMO (see previous paragraph).

P.S.

@Dawdler.8521 said:I am fairly sure that the Norn need even less love than the Asura. They are not a lovable race.At best, they need beer.

LOL! I am all in for adding hairstyles and faces for the other races, too -- Asura, Charr. However, that is a diffrent story, at least they don't look deformed compared to the opposite gender. So, I am afraid beer won't solve the issue with the male Norn body :p ... unless you suggest that we should drink beer until they start looking better. ;)

[LightningWolfTigerBear.672]

Theyre probably proportioned the way they are to emphasize the fact that they're not human. I like their cartoony, ape-like builds myself, it's like I'm playing Johnny Bravo or Bluto, but I can understand if that doesn't appeal to everyone. You could always just play a Human.

[Ashantara.8731]

@LightningWolfTigerBear.6725 said:Theyre probably proportioned the way they are to emphasize the fact that they're not human. [...]

You don't get my point at all, do you? Please re-read what has been criticized. It's their deformed, tilted body, and especially the fact that their female counterparts look like human (!) super models (and not the least bit like Norn). No one was criticizing that they look "bulkier", but you can create a bulky humanoid body that doesn't look like an ugly, crooked ape (and especially since their females don't look that way at all).

Also, "Johnny Bravo" is a cartoon and has zero to do with a nordic race of hunters.

You could always just play a Human.

Hah hah, very funny. "I like pizza." - "Then go have a burger!" Really?

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

Here's how to fix them.Allow a body type to not look like a meathead.Allow them to not have hair on their bodies.More/Better hairstyles.More/Better faces.

That's all they need.All male Norns should not look like Oleg in cosplay as something.

[Jin.8501]

Honestly coming from GW1 i'm confused how they managed to ruin male norns. Some NPCs like those hostile ice norns have same bodyshape what norns had in GW1, muscular/slim and very tall. GW2 turned them in to wood stumps

[LightningWolfTigerBear.672]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@LightningWolfTigerBear.6725 said:Theyre probably proportioned the way they are to emphasize the fact that they're not human. [...]

You don't get my point at all, do you? Please re-read what has been criticized. It's their deformed, tilted body, and especially the fact that their female counterparts look like human (!) super models (and not the least bit like Norn). No one was criticizing that they look "bulkier", but you can create a bulky humanoid body that doesn't look like an ugly, crooked ape (and especially since their females don't look that way

at all

).It's a shame you find the Norn's appearance to be unsightly, but what is and isn't ugly is entirely subjective so I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish with this thread beyond just venting a bit.

Also, "Johnny Bravo" is a cartoon and has zero to do with a nordic race of hunters.I brought up Johnny Bravo because the Norn's builds are evocative of the super muscular charicatures you often see in cartoons and I happen to find that enjoyable.

You could always just play a Human.

Hah hah, very funny. "I like pizza." - "Then go have a burger!" Really?Really really, because i don't see ANet dedicating man-hours to tweaking models that have been in-game since launch just to suit your own personal preferences.

[Veprovina.4876]

I actually really like how norn are built. They're more than just "really tall humans" and their physique emphasizes that, they're meant to not look human in terms of human proportions because they're not human, they're a different race. The photoshopped image that's supposedly better is actually just slimming norns down to human proportions. But you have humans for that, norn are meant to be different.

[Brimstone.3807]

I disagree. Male Norn look like Norn. They don't look human, they look like they are part giant. It's the females that look weird. They are proportioned like humans.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

I've always thought the females looked a mixture of human males and amazons merged into one.

[Noa.7490]

The current shape of male norns is the main reason I don't have a male norn in my roster, so yeah, I agree with OP.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

Imagine how painful it would be for a norn to go through puberty and hit their growth spurt; especially the male norns.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

@Tekoneiric.6817 said:Imagine how painful it would be for a norn to go through puberty and hit their growth spurt; especially the male norns.

Well look at the children males actually.They look like those football fratboys in college.

[Ardid.7203]

So, the idea is to make them even more like mere scaled up humans?

[Dyfinz.2348]

@Ardid.7203 said:So, the idea is to make them even more like mere scaled up humans?

No, just a little less ogre in the male Norns considering how nice the females look.

[Dashiva.6149]

I have no problem with the current Norn bodies. If anything I wish we had more cultural armor and outfits, and that the racial skills and elites becomes WAY more useful in pve. Norn transforming was pretty huge in the lore, but has sadly never really been reflected by gameplay.

[Rauderi.8706]

@LightningWolfTigerBear.6725 said:You could always just play a Human.

Except Human dudes have some of the same problem, especially matched in how the chest was rendered.

@Dashiva.6149 said:I have no problem with the current Norn bodies. If anything I wish we had more cultural armor and outfits, and that the racial skills and elites becomes WAY more useful in pve.

The transformations for the Norn (but all transformations, really) are chunky, have long cooldowns, and yeah, don't really connect to the lore. Revenants don't even get them. They should have been done more similarly to kits, with a cast time to get into them and a short-ish cooldown when leaving them.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Ayumi Spender.1082 said:Well look at the children males actually.They look like those football fratboys in college.

They do.

@Dyfinz.2348 said:

@Ardid.7203 said:So, the idea is to make them even more like mere scaled up humans?

No, just a little less ogre in the male Norns considering how nice the females look.

Exactly.

[Kerivek.5740]

They just need to google Hafthor Bjornsson and model the male Norn after him.

[Veprovina.4876]

@Dyfinz.2348 said:

@Ardid.7203 said:So, the idea is to make them even more like mere scaled up humans?

No, just a little less ogre in the male Norns considering how nice the females look.

Yeah that's kinda the problem, females should look more like norn males in terms of proportions, and not like perfectly buff supermodels. So because female norns look like supermodels, and more human like, male norns by comparison look like ogres, but human anatomy shouldn't be a reference point on how norn look since they're not human. If they made females a bit more broad shouldered and broad waists and hips, they'd look more in line with the overall norn design. Now they just look like big human females, while male norns have their own design and don't resemble male humans much. There's a disconnect between male and female norn design, that's why it looks weird.