J. Gaffney had touched on race breakdowns and faction population. I can't pull up the exact quote since I'm on my phone currently, but he stated that the major reason they went with a human on both factions was because of the data they pulled from past games revealing that when given the option the vast majority of players would pick that. He said his belief was that the only reason early WoW populations were skewed so heavily in favor of the Alliance was due to people "not wanting to play on the faction full of monsters"
I hope I'm paraphrasing it right because what he said really made a lot of sense.
Racial popularity is directly correlated with how human the race is... and how sexy the females look.
Edit: Based on this, I predict the following rough popularity of the various races:
Dominion: Cassian, Draken, Mechari, Chua
Exile: Human, Aurin, Granok, Mordesh
Cavears: Mechari awesomeness may push them up, and I may be underestimating the appeal of undead. Space bunny chicks, however, are a shoe-in.
Granok/Mordesh looks about right. Granted we haven't seen Mordesh women yet so that's a coinflip.
I agree about Aurin, since they are basically the Night Elf analogue in the game. (Interesting note, Jeremy Gaffney confirmed that there wasn't any weird optical nonsense going on and that Aurin males are definitely shorter than the females)
Mechari vs Draken could flipflop. The robosexual vote is strong this year.
EDIT: I do think it is equal parts sad/hilarious that "How sexy is it?" is a valid qualifier for trying to figure out population balance in an mmo
Beezel on
PSN: Waybackkidd
"...only mights and maybes."
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BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
There's a video up of the new launcher's login screen + theme song floating around on the youtubes currently. I know people feel some type of way about that sort of thing in case they want to be surprised so be advised.
(Yes it is awesome if you must know and it gave me chub)
Yeah, the fugliness of most avatars (and all nonfemale avatars*) was a strike against WoW for me. I still think they made human guys ugly on purpose so homophobic nerds wouldn't accidentally have a gay moment and ragequit.
*until they randomly decided to make blood elf dudes not ugly, years later.
BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
edited November 2013
My beef with human males in WoW was that every single permutation you could think of made them look like they had a couple extra chromosomes under the hood. It was really bad. Maybe I wanted to be Fabio or Jamiroquai. I was a gnome instead. I know bodies aren't customizable for supposed gameplay reasons but I know Wildstar has facial sliders in the character creation process that people can tool around with. So, small favors I guess.
Beezel on
PSN: Waybackkidd
"...only mights and maybes."
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I think Mordesh will be higher on the list. Almost definitely ahead of the Granok.
Undead were hugely popular in WoW weren't they?
And these are much more attractive.
Also my opinion tends to fall towards what the rest of the world picks for whatever reason. And the only 2 races I'm interested in at this point are Humans and Mordesh.
It's not just how sexy the females look anymore I think, since there's more women playing MMOs now (or... well, more accurately, more women admitting that they play MMOs)
I know that a large majority of women I know who play Guild Wars 2 picked Human, followed by Sylvari, because the men of those races could be made to look like gorgeous waiflike bishounen beauties (one of them has her male Mesmer tricked out basically in full bondage gear)
~Anyway~ I think those race layouts look about right, though there IS actually art of a Mordesh woman here. They look kinda punk. Given that one of the Mordesh in those videos looked less zombie and more just "weird colored dude" I think they might end up more popular in the end. I also think that the Mechari might win out over the Drakken by sheer virtue of being more interesting, also do you know how many nerds have a robot fetish now thanks Pacific Rim and Transformers.
Yeah a lot of hairstyles in WoW if they had any sort of portion that went up and away from your head turned you into bare minimum Sinead O'Connor as soon as you put on a hat. Which, you know, I wouldn't have minded if I could actually pick that option but excuse me video game I picked the classy bun so that's what I want to have!!! I'm secretly hoping they change how they do hair in the model update to make those weird cases not exist.
I think Mordesh will be higher on the list. Almost definitely ahead of the Granok.
Undead were hugely popular in WoW weren't they?
And these are much more attractive.
Also my opinion tends to fall towards what the rest of the world picks for whatever reason. And the only 2 races I'm interested in at this point are Humans and Mordesh.
Undead popularity had a lot to do with the strength of their racials, though. When Horde had the reputation as the PVP faction, and Undead had the best PVP racials, well... After they were nerfed, and blood elves were released, and trolls and orcs were buffed, the whole thing balanced out a lot more.
It's not just how sexy the females look anymore I think, since there's more women playing MMOs now (or... well, more accurately, more women admitting that they play MMOs)
I know that a large majority of women I know who play Guild Wars 2 picked Human, followed by Sylvari, because the men of those races could be made to look like gorgeous waiflike bishounen beauties (one of them has her male Mesmer tricked out basically in full bondage gear)
~Anyway~ I think those race layouts look about right, though there IS actually art of a Mordesh woman here. They look kinda punk. Given that one of the Mordesh in those videos looked less zombie and more just "weird colored dude" I think they might end up more popular in the end. I also think that the Mechari might win out over the Drakken by sheer virtue of being more interesting, also do you know how many nerds have a robot fetish now thanks Pacific Rim and Transformers.
Hell I know a roleplayer or two who play female Sylvari as crossdressers just because the two genders have so little sexual dimorphism they can get away with it.
At release time I'm guessing time and cost. They need to make unique animations for every class ability for every race and humans are the only race where they can reuse them.
Hell I know a roleplayer or two who play female Sylvari as crossdressers just because the two genders have so little sexual dimorphism they can get away with it.
Read an article about the sexual dimorphism in WoW once. It's pretty outrageous.
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
Day one Voxine clone scientist 5ever.
Only variable now is whether I get to be an Engineer or play spin the wheel of lore permissable classes.
At release time I'm guessing time and cost. They need to make unique animations for every class ability for every race and humans are the only race where they can reuse them.
Almost definitely the case.
That said, I'm not convinced I would prefer this over full access to all classes with all races accompanied by some reused animations for multiple abilities.
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
They could put in the effort and pretend that they care about their arbitrary limitations by arbitrarily limiting the humans as well.
0
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
edited November 2013
Mechari should be everything because they can be programmed new skills easily, are supposed to be adapted to surviving alone self sufficiently in the wider galaxy as agents of the Eldan's will, and presumably have long lives filled with many experiences and accomplishments.
Not to mention the reason they have genders at all besides the obvious nerd robot fetish appeal is that, in the lore, they are supposed to be aesthetically appealing to organics so that organics are more likely to want to tell them/teach them stuff.
Mechari should be everything because they can be programmed new skills easily, are supposed to be adapted to surviving alone self sufficiently in the wider galaxy as agents of the Eldan's will, and presumably have long lives filled with many experiences and accomplishments.
Not to mention the reason they have genders at all besides the obvious nerd robot fetish appeal is that, in the lore, they are supposed to be aesthetically appealing to organics so that organics are more likely to want to tell them/teach them stuff.
They need to do what Starbound did with gender icons for the character creation.
From the bottom of the above linked page, in tiny letters:
Our subliminal messaging within this article has compelled you to return on Wednesday. Also whenever you hear the phrase “butt-kicking for goodness!” you will send us a box of doughnuts.
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BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
edited November 2013
Esper has me pretty excited. From the stuff I heard it's basically a medium range burst/aoe specialist in its dps role
(This was just a PSA from them coupled with the usual sadistic dick teasing regarding beta they do)
(ps how do you do that crazy twitter embedding thing)
EDIT: My -guess- is that they are currently in the middle of the account migration they were talking about.
BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
So If people haven't figured it out yet, invites did indeed start going out. For both old and new testers. I would suggest that you go a looking for that
So If people haven't figured it out yet, invites did indeed start going out. For both old and new testers. I would suggest that you go a looking for that
I checked my spam filter and saw a new message. For just an instant I had hope. But then it was crushed.
I hope you're happy. :P
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Dr_KeenbeanDumb as a buttPlanet Express ShipRegistered Userregular
Wait. Emails are going out? Has beta started again?
It hasn't -started- started but I think they wanted to get this part of it out of the way and test their new mailer due to the sheer volume going out
So basically, what I'm hearing is, keep that boner at the ready over the next few weeks because that cock tease is going to be disappointed every day until the last day possible, guaranteed.
My beef with human males in WoW was that every single permutation you could think of made them look like they had a couple extra chromosomes under the hood. It was really bad. Maybe I wanted to be Fabio or Jamiroquai. I was a gnome instead. I know bodies aren't customizable for supposed gameplay reasons but I know Wildstar has facial sliders in the character creation process that people can tool around with. So, small favors I guess.
Gets worse!
At some point early in development human males looked very, very different. You used to be able to see what they looked like, the model was reused on some assassins in the old Deadmines (before the instance proper). I don't know if those NPCs survived cataclysm or not, and I can't find the picture anymore. But they looked much, much less ridiculous and inbred.
My beef with human males in WoW was that every single permutation you could think of made them look like they had a couple extra chromosomes under the hood. It was really bad. Maybe I wanted to be Fabio or Jamiroquai. I was a gnome instead. I know bodies aren't customizable for supposed gameplay reasons but I know Wildstar has facial sliders in the character creation process that people can tool around with. So, small favors I guess.
Gets worse!
At some point early in development human males looked very, very different. You used to be able to see what they looked like, the model was reused on some assassins in the old Deadmines (before the instance proper). I don't know if those NPCs survived cataclysm or not, and I can't find the picture anymore. But they looked much, much less ridiculous and inbred.
Type in WoW old human model and you'll find plenty of examples.
Wildstar is a million miles away from this and the current state of race models in WoW, which explains why they are cautiously updating them for WoD.
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
So I am grinning from ear to ear for no particular reason.
Posts
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
"...only mights and maybes."
Granok/Mordesh looks about right. Granted we haven't seen Mordesh women yet so that's a coinflip.
I agree about Aurin, since they are basically the Night Elf analogue in the game. (Interesting note, Jeremy Gaffney confirmed that there wasn't any weird optical nonsense going on and that Aurin males are definitely shorter than the females)
Mechari vs Draken could flipflop. The robosexual vote is strong this year.
EDIT: I do think it is equal parts sad/hilarious that "How sexy is it?" is a valid qualifier for trying to figure out population balance in an mmo
"...only mights and maybes."
(Yes it is awesome if you must know and it gave me chub)
"...only mights and maybes."
Why?
Ugly protagonists have always been the outlier. If i'm going to spend 600 hours working on a character, he better be hot.
"...only mights and maybes."
Turns out you're actually bald underneath it.
*until they randomly decided to make blood elf dudes not ugly, years later.
"...only mights and maybes."
Undead were hugely popular in WoW weren't they?
And these are much more attractive.
Also my opinion tends to fall towards what the rest of the world picks for whatever reason. And the only 2 races I'm interested in at this point are Humans and Mordesh.
I know that a large majority of women I know who play Guild Wars 2 picked Human, followed by Sylvari, because the men of those races could be made to look like gorgeous waiflike bishounen beauties (one of them has her male Mesmer tricked out basically in full bondage gear)
~Anyway~ I think those race layouts look about right, though there IS actually art of a Mordesh woman here. They look kinda punk. Given that one of the Mordesh in those videos looked less zombie and more just "weird colored dude" I think they might end up more popular in the end. I also think that the Mechari might win out over the Drakken by sheer virtue of being more interesting, also do you know how many nerds have a robot fetish now thanks Pacific Rim and Transformers.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Yeah a lot of hairstyles in WoW if they had any sort of portion that went up and away from your head turned you into bare minimum Sinead O'Connor as soon as you put on a hat. Which, you know, I wouldn't have minded if I could actually pick that option but excuse me video game I picked the classy bun so that's what I want to have!!! I'm secretly hoping they change how they do hair in the model update to make those weird cases not exist.
Undead popularity had a lot to do with the strength of their racials, though. When Horde had the reputation as the PVP faction, and Undead had the best PVP racials, well... After they were nerfed, and blood elves were released, and trolls and orcs were buffed, the whole thing balanced out a lot more.
Hell I know a roleplayer or two who play female Sylvari as crossdressers just because the two genders have so little sexual dimorphism they can get away with it.
Because fuck fun.
Twitch Channel
Read an article about the sexual dimorphism in WoW once. It's pretty outrageous.
Only variable now is whether I get to be an Engineer or play spin the wheel of lore permissable classes.
Almost definitely the case.
That said, I'm not convinced I would prefer this over full access to all classes with all races accompanied by some reused animations for multiple abilities.
Not when human animations will almost certainly mirror for each faction. It's a win win.
But humans are special and not limited by restrictive cultural baggage. They can be all the things.*
*At least, that's what I've learned from Star Trek and other sci-fi. :P
- Robert Heinlein
Best two chapters ever.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Not to mention the reason they have genders at all besides the obvious nerd robot fetish appeal is that, in the lore, they are supposed to be aesthetically appealing to organics so that organics are more likely to want to tell them/teach them stuff.
They need to do what Starbound did with gender icons for the character creation.
From the bottom of the above linked page, in tiny letters:
(This was just a PSA from them coupled with the usual sadistic dick teasing regarding beta they do)
(ps how do you do that crazy twitter embedding thing)
EDIT: My -guess- is that they are currently in the middle of the account migration they were talking about.
"...only mights and maybes."
Guild Wars 2: Tyreh, asura Warrior
"...only mights and maybes."
I checked my spam filter and saw a new message. For just an instant I had hope. But then it was crushed.
I hope you're happy. :P
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
"...only mights and maybes."
So basically, what I'm hearing is, keep that boner at the ready over the next few weeks because that cock tease is going to be disappointed every day until the last day possible, guaranteed.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Gets worse!
At some point early in development human males looked very, very different. You used to be able to see what they looked like, the model was reused on some assassins in the old Deadmines (before the instance proper). I don't know if those NPCs survived cataclysm or not, and I can't find the picture anymore. But they looked much, much less ridiculous and inbred.
Type in WoW old human model and you'll find plenty of examples.
Wildstar is a million miles away from this and the current state of race models in WoW, which explains why they are cautiously updating them for WoD.