If dwarves were playable...

[ethanzephyr.7298]

What would it take to get them ingame? What customization options would there be? How would making a new dwarf character be different? Could it in some way be lore-friendly?

What does a girl dwarf look like?

As a lover of most kinds of dwarves in most fantasy settings, the Guild Wars version is particularly cool to me. Having played since Prophecies, I've always wanted to play as one. I never got the chance, as they all turned to stone and went underground. I know Guild Wars 2 has touched on them a tad, bringing up how rare the sight of a dwarf on the surface was, to the point where it was inspiring to see one of these stony dudes fighting in your army.

It is also mentioned how the dwarves can't reproduce anymore, and how they seem to fight a losing battle against Primordus. This begs the question: does the Great Dwarf want the entire race to die? Surely someone along the line would realise how important it would be to continue to be able to reproduce, even when just talking about the logistics of the war they've waged, let alone about survival.

I think that this would be a good launching point to how the dwarves could perhaps make a return to the surface, flesh-and-blood life, or even just become a playable race. As an aside, would you prefer fleshy dwarves, stony dwarves, or perhaps make stony-ness a racial skill?

[Alga.6498]

I would love to have Dwarf as a playable race, they've been away from the game for so long and we still don't know so much about them!But the first thought I came up with whenever I am thinking of a Dwarf in GW2 is similar how WoW dwarves are looking alike.

Their height should be abit higher than Asuras since they're basically Gnomes if we should compare.I would love to have lots of cool-looking beards, similar to Norns and lots of braided hairstyles!

Any new races are welcome to make this game fresh again!

[Ayrilana.1396]

Assuming that there is a “Great Dwarf”.

I don’t think that dwarves can be added unless Anet retconned some things. I think pretty much all of them were bashed to pieces or melted when fighting Primordus and the destroyers.

[Martimus.6027]

This game absolutely needs a new playable race. Not to the level of ridiculousness like WoW, but I think two more playable races would help quite a bit. I ONLY like humans and Sylvari. The others are fugly. Dwarf would be nice, or a bird race or reptilian one.

[Alga.6498]

@Martimus.6027 said:This game absolutely needs a new playable race. Not to the level of ridiculousness like WoW, but I think two more playable races would help quite a bit. I ONLY like humans and Sylvari. The others are fugly. Dwarf would be nice, or a bird race or reptilian one.

Totally agreed. GW2 need something new, fresh and unique start, especially a new or two races would be awesome and a great thing to do!I am still hoping for a bird race, the Tengu since they can do so much with them!The other race I would love to play as is probably Largos or perhaps even a whole new race that we're not aware of.

ANet, hear our pray and listen! :mrgreen:

[Martimus.6027]

@Ayrilana.1396 said:Assuming that there is a “Great Dwarf”.

I don’t think that dwarves can be added unless Anet retconned some things. I think pretty much all of them were bashed to pieces or melted when fighting Primordus and the destroyers.

If only ANet could just....write a story in which a huge underground vault of dwarves was waiting until they got turned back into flesh and emerged again...

But I guess they don't have total lore control over their own franchise or something....oh wait.

[Ayrilana.1396]

@Martimus.6027 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:Assuming that there is a “Great Dwarf”.

I don’t think that dwarves can be added unless Anet retconned some things. I think pretty much all of them were bashed to pieces or melted when fighting Primordus and the destroyers.

If only ANet could just....write a story in which a huge underground vault of dwarves was waiting until they got turned back into flesh and emerged again...

But I guess they don't have total lore control over their own franchise or something....oh wait.

That’s retconning.

[Ayakaru.6583]

If dwarves were playable, anet would gave to randomly select 1 out of 25,000 acounts to be eligible,because face it.. there can’t be more than a handful alive

[Ayakaru.6583]

@Martimus.6027 said:This game absolutely needs a new playable race. Not to the level of ridiculousness like WoW, but I think two more playable races would help quite a bit. I ONLY like humans and Sylvari. The others are fugly. Dwarf would be nice, or a bird race or reptilian one.

Anet kinda made it impossible to ever add new races, because of Orr, Pact, commander, destiny’s edge, etc.A new race would need its own story entirely, from start to finish, ever.How would a tengu or dwarf become a pact commander, befriend destiny’s edge, get into Elona?The story just made it impossible unless they retcon it like a skritt would retcon Tarir

[Martimus.6027]

Then they should retcon it. They are going to eventually have to add a new race at some point. It's inevitable, from my perspective.

[Jumpin Lumpix.6108]

@Martimus.6027 said:Then they should retcon it. They are going to eventually have to add a new race at some point. It's inevitable, from my perspective.

It will probably be tengu

[Martimus.6027]

@Jumpin Lumpix.6108 said:

@Martimus.6027 said:Then they should retcon it. They are going to eventually have to add a new race at some point. It's inevitable, from my perspective.

It will probably be tengu

And that would be pretty amazing. Would love to be a birb Firebrand

[Jumpin Lumpix.6108]

@Martimus.6027 said:

@Jumpin Lumpix.6108 said:

@Martimus.6027 said:Then they should retcon it. They are going to eventually have to add a new race at some point. It's inevitable, from my perspective.

It will probably be tengu

And that would be pretty amazing. Would love to be a birb Firebrand

would be pretty cool, especially if you could make their feathers different colors.

[Martimus.6027]

[derd.6413]

i'm pretty sure anet killed of the dwarves because they were 'generic fantasy'. so i doubt we'll see many dwarves in the future.

[Ayrilana.1396]

@Martimus.6027 said:Then they should retcon it. They are going to eventually have to add a new race at some point. It's inevitable, from my perspective.

I don’t see it as inevitable. The benefit gained from it is fairly low compared to the resources spent when they could be doing something else. Adding a new playable race doesn’t really add anything to the game other than a slightly different visual and a little more for those that RP.

[Tachenon.5270]

Perhaps our characters reside in the only region of Tyria not currently dominated by dwarves. Or even (evil laugh) elves.

[joneirikb.7506]

The problems with adding new races:

• Make a new race City
• Possibly make a smarting map (level 1-15, before being gated into another races 25+ maps)
• Redoing all the story to give them a new story until they join the orders (level 10-30 story)
• Redoing all the story after that to fit in, including going over LS and expansions (level 40+ story)
• Ret-con parts of the setting/history to suddenly have a race retroactively been with us all the time (lots of npc's and text etc)
• Paying voice actors for voicing every single line of this (including the multiple voices for a city+map+all the story, not just the race)
• Making all new race animations, including adapting all existing armor to fit them (and a whole new level of clipping problems)

All of these take Time and Money, and lots of it. Basically this is starting to sound like an entire expansion pack worth of work, and so ANet has to consider if all those costs are worth it ? Because, outside of a new city to explore and a new starter map, this isn't really adding any more "Content". It would essentially be a "Fashion War" addition, and with all the danger of clipping etc, and how a new body type tend to mix poorly with all the armors, even that is dubious.

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Specific problems with adding Dwarf:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dwarf

Basically, they've become a plot tool to fight and hold back Primordus. Numbers are so few, and their minds has been altered, so it likely wouldn't be setting appropriate to play them (As it can be argued they don't have a own free will anylonger).

Tengu would have been the most likely race, and I keep hearing rumors that ANet themselves said they originally planned to add them. But I can't confirm.

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Personally I'm ok with not seeing any more races. I wouldn't be sad or complain if a new one came out, would be cool to see, but not something that is important for me (as I don't feel it adds very much to the game).

If I where to wish for a race however, I'd like to see Lizardmen. Love the reptile look with scales, and would like to see something with colorable scales, and crests etc. But I haven't found a single reptilian race in-game I've liked the look of yet, so not holding my breath.

[Ashantara.8731]

I don't see why there can't still be normal dwarves that have not turned into stone. I am sure there were many dwarven kingdoms or at least colonies, so there is no reason why this can't be the case. They might have withdrawn from the rest of the world for some reason. I'd love being able to play a dwarven character. <3

@ethanzephyr.7298 said:What does a girl dwarf look like?

Dwarven women are hairy. They sport beards as well.

[DarcShriek.5829]

I like the fact tha GW2 doesn’t have the same boring races that a thousand generic fantasy games have. I would be majorly disappointed if the added dwarves, elves, gnomes, or halflings as player races

[Lucentfir.7430]

I'd like it to be Tengu, the real problems of adding a new playable race is how the PC is going to fit into the current storyline without feeling a huge disconnect with the storyline that came before it with the 5 other races. I wouldn't count on Anet to add new voice lines for all the old content from launch to now unless they already had the voice lines on hand. So Zhaitan arc introduction PS wouldn't be a good route to take it. This means Tengu would have to sacrifice that core experience of the PS. Though this doesn't mean there isn't another way they can go about this. What I think they can do is as a expansion feature of a new playable race they can add the DoW racial city, and a entirely special arc revolving around what the tengu have been doing (level 2-80) since Zhaitan era to current time, and upon reaching the current timeline somehow becoming the leader of Dragon's Watch for future LS episode releases. If we can do that then the last biggest hurdle would be working on implementing all the armor and outfits to fit Tengu along with the PC customization features. It's a enormous amount of work and they'll have to add to a additional two model types to the current 10 (male/female) for the races they already have to work with.

[Martimus.6027]

Do you people not want additional races or what? Are you arguing against more flavor, fun, and game options just to argue against it?

Come on. So far, all I'm seeing from people for there not being another race added is, "it's like, super haaaaaaard tho" as if you speak for ANet.

Well, yea. It's hard. We don't do complex and intricate things because they're easy. Yea it would take money and time. So maybe not devote resources to more skins and outfits and all that stuff and shift it to adding a new race in an expansion. I would buy it. Wouldn't you guys?

[joneirikb.7506]

@"Ashantara.8731" said:I don't see why there can't still be normal dwarves that have not turned into stone. I am sure there were many dwarven kingdoms or at least colonies, so there is no reason why this can't be the case. They might have withdrawn from the rest of the world for some reason. I'd love being able to play a dwarven character. <3

From the wiki I linked above:

Dwarven society continued on regardless. During this time, the remaining Stone Summit rejoined what remained of Deldrimor and the two communities lived together in peace once more. However, about fifty years after the Rite of the Great Dwarf was first performed, the last of the flesh and blood dwarves felt the call to undergo the Rite themselves. Now, no longer interested in maintaining their solidarity as a race, the last dwarves scattered across Tyria, finding battles to fight in the deep caverns or making new homes in far-flung hills, ever-watching the borders where caverns emerge into the surface world. Those few individuals who can rightfully claim to have met a dwarf in their lifetime are rare, and all speak of the strange, driven passion that consumes these few survivors. It is unclear how many dwarves survive.

So, there are not any "non stoned" dwarves left, and if it was, it would likely count in the insignificant numbers.

ANet could of course re-write it, it's their game world and all that. I'm actually not one of those lore nuts that insists that everything must be the way it's written in obscure texts :p Just stating that it would be a whole lot of work for ANet, and I honestly don't see the gains (as in economical gains), compared to the costs.

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And as others have mentioned, ANet specifically wanted to avoid the standard fantasy races (Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Halflings etc), so I honestly don't see them ever adding one of those. If anything it will be one of the existing races like Tengu. And considering they made a Kodan tonic then Kodan is likely entirely off the table. Nor do I see a bunch of the other races as likely (Quaggan, Hylek, Ogre, Centaur, Grawl, Jotun, Harpy, Krait, Largos, Troll, Skritt).

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@"Martimus.6027" said:Do you people not want additional races or what? Are you arguing against more flavor, fun, and game options just to argue against it?

Come on. So far, all I'm seeing from people for there not being another race added is, "it's like, super haaaaaaard tho" as if you speak for ANet.

Well, yea. It's hard. We don't do complex and intricate things because they're easy. Yea it would take money and time. So maybe not devote resources to more skins and outfits and all that stuff and shift it to adding a new race in an expansion. I would buy it. Wouldn't you guys?

Personally I just don't really care one way or another if we see a new race or not (as I clarified in first post).

It adds more flavor sure, fun is subjective, but a new race wouldn't really add any new game options (which is one of the main arguments against it, it's essentially a "Fashion" feature).

And the reason people are arguing the "it's hard/cost money/takes time" argument, is because ANet is a fairly small company, without a set monthly income (subscriptions, instead relies on gemstore sales), so they have to be more careful about what they spend resources on (money, time, manpower etc). Thus if they start developing new races, then a whole lot of other things (that we might care more about) will not get resources/be worked on.

Basically put, there are a lot of other things I'd much rather like to see than new races. Which in my opinion doesn't add much to the game other than a couple of new maps, and some new skins/looks to a character. But as said before/above, I wouldn't be against it, if that is how ANet wants to spend their resources.

(Unless they make me a lizardman, which I really doubt.)

[Martimus.6027]

Ok so to recap:

"It's hard, and -I- don't care enough about it for -you- guys to be able to get it."

[Moonlit.6421]

@"Martimus.6027" said:Do you people not want additional races or what? Are you arguing against more flavor, fun, and game options just to argue against it?

Come on. So far, all I'm seeing from people for there not being another race added is, "it's like, super haaaaaaard tho" as if you speak for ANet.

Well, yea. It's hard. We don't do complex and intricate things because they're easy. Yea it would take money and time. So maybe not devote resources to more skins and outfits and all that stuff and shift it to adding a new race in an expansion. I would buy it. Wouldn't you guys?

Man you did not read through all the replies did you. Not even my thread and I had the decency to read through most of em. First off I'll start with my personal opinion. I don't think new races are needed, let alone inevitable. Would I buy a new expansion for that? Yes but only to support the game itself, as I do love the game, however I'd be disappointed in the direction it took. I have 42 characters and I adore lore and fashion wars but I would not want this waste of resources.

Now as for what I've seen in this thread there are some incredibly logical arguments for why a new races should not be added. Is it possible? Technically yes. Would it require rewriting/adding things to every portion of the game, creating new starter maps, voice lines, racial abilities, changing the lore, and making sure all current armors could fit them? Yes. That is a huge load, maybe even more than an expac, all for a very small addition to the game. I would much rather get more skins, new maps, and improvements to our current game modes any day, not because I "hate more fun and flavor" but because I see what a waste of resources it would be.