The Stretch emote seems unfair

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

Hi everyone.

I don't normally complain but this time I felt I had to say something. I watched some videos on youtube to see how the stretch emote looks for all races and gender. I think the animations are unfair and here's why:

1- The male sylvari has the longest, most complex animation - a full yoga routine, one could call it - while the female has a much shorter, more simple, less interesting version of that. The difference between male and female is pretty obvious;

2 - The norn animations, both male and female, are much shorter than those of the other races, especially the female, which is over in just 4 seconds (the male sylvari takes +/- 16 seconds), and have little to no interest when compared to the others.

I can't stop thinking how unfair the animations for norn are, compared to the others (especially male sylvari), and also for female sylvari compared to the male version. After the exact same amount of work to complete the achievements and unlock the emote, a male sylvari gets a pretty cool animation while a female sylvari gets a half version of that, and a female/male norn a super short and not that interesting animation. It's just difficult to swallow and I had to at least share my views on this.

I'd like to read your opinions.

Thank you and wish you all the best.

[aspirine.6852]

I think the female sylvari is just lazy =)

*hides.....

[BlackBullWings.2734]

@aspirine.6852 said:I think the female sylvari is just lazy =)

*hides.....

literally a shorter version of the male stretch lol.I dunno I like them, but yeah some are clearly better than others.

[Kaliwenda.3428]

@aspirine.6852 said:I think the female sylvari is just lazy =)

*hides.....

I think the female sylvari are just more chill and relaxed overall...the males need a longer stretch to loosen everything up ;)

[SkyCake.4216]

@aspirine.6852 said:I think the female sylvari is just lazy =)

*hides.....

No wonder I've been on a fem-vari making spree lately. We seem to have much in common!

[Yggranya.5201]

Does this mean anet put effort into Charr and Asura version of it? I wouldn't use any emotes except sit/sleep, but still, that would be unexpected.

[Emberheart.8426]

@Yggranya.5201 said:Does this mean anet put effort into Charr and Asura version of it? I wouldn't use any emotes except sit/sleep, but still, that would be unexpected.

The charr one is very detailed, so yes they did actually put work into it.

[AgentMoore.9453]

The disparity in lengths is very bizarre, to say nothing of the fact that the Human female isn't stretching so much as just flailing her arms and then jiggling her chest. If they had called it /warmup or /exercise then maaaybe I could understand? But half of the emotes aren't stretches and are either too short or too long to feel right. The players often ask for new emotes, it's true, but if I asked for a car and you rolled up in the Oscar Mayer mobile, you'd get the same reaction from me that you're getting from this.

"..but why?"

Anyway, while I'm here, gimme the Sylvari male /crouch as a stand-alone persistent emote (for both genders). Honestly, the routine is so long you could also get /pushup /stretch and /callthechiropractor out of it too.

[Firebeard.1746]

I main a male sylvari, if my /stretch is nerfed, I'm going to be so mad about that sweet animation I lost after all that work.

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

@Firebeard.1746 said:I main a male sylvari, if my /stretch is nerfed, I'm going to be so mad about that sweet animation I lost after all that work.

I want the others to be improved, not the male sylvari to be nerfed.

[Vyr.9387]

Considering every single variant other than the male sylvari full yoga workout is relatively short, one would think those are the norm, with the aforementioned Olympic performance being more of a love letter (or, rather, a plea for forgiveness for the weaponless running animation, no matter the excellence at illustrating how ridiculous is variety for variety's sake; why do human males still run like they didn't get the memo about what and where their center of gravity is, though? :/).

I do agree, however, that, even ignoring the half of the floral fauna's pursuit of enlightenment, some of the animations are of rather questionable ideological quality (since the quality of the animations themselves is as magnificent as ever):

• the asuran stretches are obviously poking fun at the race's resemblance to tiny humans; no creature doing casual backflips on demand for dodging stuff in the heat of the battle would stretch with a routine made for human kindergarten frequenters
• the norn ones look absurdly underwhelming for folks with their entire culture and life style centered around mostly physical self-improvement
• and the humans appear to be 50 years-old teachers who had to fill in for a missing colleague last minute, trying to recall what they learned in their own kindergarten; no facial expression, no movement that would even remotely suggest a muscle presence, not to speak of muscle movement

The worst offender, in my honest opinion, is the absurd war on humanoid females being too "suggestive".As a man, I'm slightly biologically biased, almost of course, but women are gorgeous creatures by design, which means that they could - and would - evoke a sensation of attraction by doing literally anything, depending on the person - from breathing to, hell, even folding clothes. Sure, our beautifully hypocritical society - because naked is wrong, but skin-tight is completely fine - keeps hammering into our heads that women shouldn't move as naturally as they might feel, because it's indecent.

For example, compare the male and female sylvari animations. They're virtually the very same, right 'till the middle where the male goes down and stretches out his chest, then jumps into a crouch with his knees spread. Can't have that on a woman. Womenz r evol. Can imagine they'd cut the bend, too, but they were left with not much of a stretch afterwards.And then there's the precedent for "inappropriate" female human stretching, with the

getting removed for being way too much for certain 12 years-olds (don't @ me with the official "looking bored while discussing serious stuff is not fitting"; I had a party of dancing choyas and a giant snowball running around during Trahearne's HoT finale a few months back, almost died laughing after recalling this excuse at said moment, with the camera slowly moving to show the entire group; GLORIOUS).

Naturally, I'm not saying the animations are bad. Again. The animations are, in fact, utterly magnificent.But pretending the only pretty and/or valuable part of a girl is her bosom (and/or crotch) is not only shooting the art team in their arms, but also perpetuating the nonsensical shaming (and desiring by deprivation) of certain parts of the human body.

TL;DR: everybody's obviously just jealous of the Male Sylvari Master Stretcher.And I still switched the sex of my only one to female, because I couldn't stomach the running animation. Go figure.

[kharmin.7683]

Out of all of the things that are "wrong" or need to be fixed in GW2, this would be near the bottom of my list. I'd prefer that Anet spend their resources elsewhere.

[Dreamreaver.4908]

The only thing that bothers me about the female sylvari stretch animation is the end of it, where the animation tries to transition into the female human default stance, then suddenly jerks back at the end like my character all of a sudden remembered she's sylvari.

[Strider Pj.2193]

@TheLadyOfTheRings.9148 said:

@Firebeard.1746 said:I main a male sylvari, if my /stretch is nerfed, I'm going to be so mad about that sweet animation I lost after all that work.

I want the others to be improved, not the male sylvari to be nerfed.

That’s not how Anet works...

[Veprovina.4876]

@"kharmin.7683" said:Out of all of the things that are "wrong" or need to be fixed in GW2, this would be near the bottom of my list. I'd prefer that Anet spend their resources elsewhere.

For as much as i don't like that argument usually, this time i have to agree.With everything that actually needs fixing, is the stretch animation really such a big priority?The devil is in the details, sure, but there's so many details to fix before this...

Besides, i looked at the animation, the female Sylvari one isn't the worst offender, it's the Norn ones.The Sylvari one just looks like she's doing a slightly different routine, and while yes, shorter, doesn't seem like a huge problem to me.

[Vyr.9387]

@Veprovina.4876 said:

@"kharmin.7683" said:Out of all of the things that are "wrong" or need to be fixed in GW2, this would be near the bottom of my list. I'd prefer that Anet spend their resources elsewhere.

For as much as i don't like that argument usually, this time i have to agree.With everything that actually

needs

fixing, is the stretch animation really such a big priority?The devil is in the details, sure, but there's so many details to fix before this...

Besides, i looked at the animation, the female Sylvari one isn't the worst offender, it's the Norn ones.The Sylvari one just looks like she's doing a slightly different routine, and while yes, shorter, doesn't seem like a huge problem to me.

It is of paramount importance.

Everybody, obviously, has their own vision for how the perfect Tyria would look, and where the focus would lie when it comes to activities therein.However, the very first step for every single one of those visions is the same: funding. For that, the devs need people, and, as the old saying goes, it's easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar (that's such a beautiful word, though, isn't it?), and, although player retention is a bit more important to subscription-based games, painting the most wondrous picture in the entire 'verse which nobody can see is ultimately completely pointless.If You're more into personal anecdotes, I'd played WoW's WotLK expansion on a now-dead private server - best scripting I've ever seen, even beyond Blizzard's own, but the admin was a crowned piece of fecal matter who, bit by bit, drove the entire project to the ground.

Here, the decision was made that emotes are a new "casual"-friendly end-game, being the main driving point to experience the entirety of an episode's content in lieu of simply going through the 2 hours of story and disappearing 'till the next release.Which, in my eyes, is a marvelous thing, because looking good (in any sense, not just physically) is an enormous part of being around other people - be it by personal expression, creativity showcase, or just flaunting all the things one has achieved - and may prompt other people to seek the same reward out, building into a chain reaction that, in the end, only helps the devs get more funding.

But, if you spend hours of playtime hunting an emote only to find out it sucks simply because you're playing the wrong race or gender, what good does it bring?In this sense, it reminds me slightly of the local philosophy of racial skills being useless so all the races mechanically fight on the same ground.And how it doesn't work in either case, because the company apparently doesn't care either for the tryhards - cough Build "Templates" are still TRIPLE-MONETIZED and a thing cough - or for the Fashion Warriors.Because Guild Wars 2 operates on a F2P model, since anybody who played this game for more than ten minutes is aware of how ridiculous of a steal is asking 30€ for all of it, meaning the more time a player spends in the game, the more likely it is for them to notice an imperfection in their attire or get coaxed by a sudden muse for a totally new one, leading in either case into the gem store.Besides all the "quality of life" solutions to artificial problems.(Here's Strife with

of how the sausage is made.)

Not saying the devs have to now ask each and every player about their preferences and tailor every reward to be absolutely form-fitting - the notion is as ridiculously beautiful as it is beautifully ridiculous - but "HAHAHAH, nope." shouldn't be the response evoked by looking at the final reward of a long meta achievement.

In the end, if one doesn't care about the carrot at the end of the stick in the first place, there's a real problem with the carrot.Especially if we keep on walking with such perseverance for this long a time regardless.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If Chapter/Episode meta rewards must be perfect, then, as others have suggested, perhaps the priority is former rewards, rather than the latest./shrug

[Xanadrine.4352]

@"AgentMoore.9453" said:The disparity in lengths is very bizarre, to say nothing of the fact that the Human female isn't stretching so much as just flailing her arms and then jiggling her chest. If they had called it /warmup or /exercise then maaaybe I could understand? But half of the emotes aren't stretches and are either too short or too long to feel right. The players often ask for new emotes, it's true, but if I asked for a car and you rolled up in the Oscar Mayer mobile, you'd get the same reaction from me that you're getting from this.

"..but why?"

Anyway, while I'm here, gimme the Sylvari male /crouch as a stand-alone persistent emote (for both genders). Honestly, the routine is so long you could also get /pushup /stretch and /callthechiropractor out of it too.

Whats new.

[robertthebard.8150]

@Vyr.9387 said:

@Veprovina.4876 said:

@"kharmin.7683" said:Out of all of the things that are "wrong" or need to be fixed in GW2, this would be near the bottom of my list. I'd prefer that Anet spend their resources elsewhere.

For as much as i don't like that argument usually, this time i have to agree.With everything that actually

needs

fixing, is the stretch animation really such a big priority?The devil is in the details, sure, but there's so many details to fix before this...

Besides, i looked at the animation, the female Sylvari one isn't the worst offender, it's the Norn ones.The Sylvari one just looks like she's doing a slightly different routine, and while yes, shorter, doesn't seem like a huge problem to me.

It is of

paramount

importance.

Everybody, obviously, has their own vision for how the perfect Tyria would look, and where the focus would lie when it comes to activities therein.However, the very first step for every single one of those visions is the same: funding. For that, the devs need people, and, as the old saying goes, it's easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar (that's such a beautiful word, though, isn't it?), and, although player retention is a bit more important to subscription-based games, painting the most wondrous picture in the entire 'verse which nobody can see is ultimately completely pointless.If You're more into personal anecdotes, I'd played WoW's WotLK expansion on a now-dead private server - best scripting I've ever seen, even beyond Blizzard's own, but the admin was a crowned piece of fecal matter who, bit by bit, drove the entire project to the ground.

Here, the decision was made that emotes are a new "casual"-friendly end-game, being the main driving point to experience the entirety of an episode's content in lieu of simply going through the 2 hours of story and disappearing 'till the next release.Which, in my eyes, is a marvelous thing, because looking good (in any sense, not just physically) is an enormous part of being around other people - be it by personal expression, creativity showcase, or just flaunting all the things one has achieved - and may prompt other people to seek the same reward out, building into a chain reaction that, in the end, only helps the devs get more funding.

But, if you spend hours of playtime hunting an emote only to find out it sucks simply because you're playing the wrong race or gender, what good does it bring?In this sense, it reminds me slightly of the local philosophy of racial skills being useless so all the races mechanically fight on the same ground.And how it doesn't work in either case, because the company apparently doesn't care either for the tryhards -

cough

Build "Templates" are still TRIPLE-MONETIZED and a thing

cough

- or for the Fashion Warriors.Because Guild Wars 2 operates on a F2P model, since anybody who played this game for more than ten minutes is aware of how ridiculous of a steal is asking 30€ for all of it, meaning the more time a player spends in the game, the more likely it is for them to notice an imperfection in their attire or get coaxed by a sudden muse for a totally new one, leading in either case into the gem store.Besides all the "quality of life" solutions to artificial problems.(Here's Strife with

of how the sausage is made.)

Not saying the devs have to now ask each and every player about their preferences and tailor every reward to be absolutely form-fitting - the notion is as ridiculously beautiful as it is beautifully ridiculous - but "HAHAHAH, nope." shouldn't be the response evoked by looking at the final reward of a long meta achievement.

In the end, if one doesn't care about the carrot at the end of the stick in the first place, there's a real problem with the carrot.Especially if we keep on walking with such perseverance for this long a time regardless.

Ironically, I see it as irrelevant in the extreme, because I've never actually used it. Not even after reading this thread, to see what the fuss was about. If that was the only carrot on the end of the stick, I'd have been gone permanently years ago.

[Veprovina.4876]

@Vyr.9387 said:

@Veprovina.4876 said:

@"kharmin.7683" said:Out of all of the things that are "wrong" or need to be fixed in GW2, this would be near the bottom of my list. I'd prefer that Anet spend their resources elsewhere.

For as much as i don't like that argument usually, this time i have to agree.With everything that actually

needs

fixing, is the stretch animation really such a big priority?The devil is in the details, sure, but there's so many details to fix before this...

Besides, i looked at the animation, the female Sylvari one isn't the worst offender, it's the Norn ones.The Sylvari one just looks like she's doing a slightly different routine, and while yes, shorter, doesn't seem like a huge problem to me.

It is of

paramount

importance.

Everybody, obviously, has their own vision for how the perfect Tyria would look, and where the focus would lie when it comes to activities therein.However, the very first step for every single one of those visions is the same: funding. For that, the devs need people, and, as the old saying goes, it's easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar (that's such a beautiful word, though, isn't it?), and, although player retention is a bit more important to subscription-based games, painting the most wondrous picture in the entire 'verse which nobody can see is ultimately completely pointless.If You're more into personal anecdotes, I'd played WoW's WotLK expansion on a now-dead private server - best scripting I've ever seen, even beyond Blizzard's own, but the admin was a crowned piece of fecal matter who, bit by bit, drove the entire project to the ground.

Here, the decision was made that emotes are a new "casual"-friendly end-game, being the main driving point to experience the entirety of an episode's content in lieu of simply going through the 2 hours of story and disappearing 'till the next release.Which, in my eyes, is a marvelous thing, because looking good (in any sense, not just physically) is an enormous part of being around other people - be it by personal expression, creativity showcase, or just flaunting all the things one has achieved - and may prompt other people to seek the same reward out, building into a chain reaction that, in the end, only helps the devs get more funding.

But, if you spend hours of playtime hunting an emote only to find out it sucks simply because you're playing the wrong race or gender, what good does it bring?In this sense, it reminds me slightly of the local philosophy of racial skills being useless so all the races mechanically fight on the same ground.And how it doesn't work in either case, because the company apparently doesn't care either for the tryhards -

cough

Build "Templates" are still TRIPLE-MONETIZED and a thing

cough

- or for the Fashion Warriors.Because Guild Wars 2 operates on a F2P model, since anybody who played this game for more than ten minutes is aware of how ridiculous of a steal is asking 30€ for all of it, meaning the more time a player spends in the game, the more likely it is for them to notice an imperfection in their attire or get coaxed by a sudden muse for a totally new one, leading in either case into the gem store.Besides all the "quality of life" solutions to artificial problems.(Here's Strife with

of how the sausage is made.)

Not saying the devs have to now ask each and every player about their preferences and tailor every reward to be absolutely form-fitting - the notion is as ridiculously beautiful as it is beautifully ridiculous - but "HAHAHAH, nope." shouldn't be the response evoked by looking at the final reward of a long meta achievement.

In the end, if one doesn't care about the carrot at the end of the stick in the first place, there's a real problem with the carrot.Especially if we keep on walking with such perseverance for this long a time regardless.

You do you, but i don't recall saying it's irrelevant, just not a super priority.This doesn't affect gameplay, just player immersion - which is important - but not before stuff that actually impacts gameplay.

So that paramount importance, and this entire thread is a bit of an exaggeration...

[Ashantara.8731]

The male sylvari one is the only one worth getting the /stretch emote in the first place.

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

@"Veprovina.4876" said:So that paramount importance, and this entire thread is a bit of an exaggeration...

You call it an exaggeration, others call it discussion (hence the forums and "Guild Wars 2 Discussion") :)

[voltaicbore.8012]

Just chiming into say that I, too, could care less about this emote inequality. This is not at all diminishing your larger points about inequalities between the races in other areas (which exist in painfully large scale at times), but I'd be surprised if anything approaching a majority of players care at all about this.

[Veprovina.4876]

@TheLadyOfTheRings.9148 said:

@"Veprovina.4876" said:So that

paramount

importance, and this entire thread is a bit of an exaggeration...

You call it an exaggeration, others call it discussion (hence the forums and "Guild Wars 2 Discussion") :)

Exaggeration and discussion are not mutually exclusive. It's just the intensity of that statement that i disagree with - and what do you know - it's still a discussion...

[Vancho.8750]

All can be forgiven if Norn gets the best /flex emote and i'm talking Jojo bizarre adventure type pose.