Forum Icons

[DaughterofHope.1587]

Hello! I am rather new to the game and the community and well I came to the forums to look at things and I noticed there is a huge lack of diverse human female forum icons. There are no Elonian, Canthan, Luxon appearing females. I understand a majority of the icons are lore characters, but. . . are there no important Elonian females? Are there no important Canthan females? Considering how much work and effort there is to include LGBT characters into the game, into the lore. . . I figure this is something that wouldn't be such a glaring oversight.

 

It's very disappointing after thinking this game was supposed to include diversity, include things that would better represent me, but. . . this breaks my heart.

[Blocki.4931]

Would be weird to have Canthan figures on the forum about a game that has absolutely nothing to do with that part of the world. You've said it yourself, the characters that do appear have something to do with the game, be it vaguely. I don't believe this stuff needs to exist to discuss stuff about said game and personally this sounds like an overreaction to me.

[DaughterofHope.1587]

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

> Would be weird to have Canthan figures on the forum about a game that has absolutely nothing to do with that part of the world. You've said it yourself, the characters that do appear have something to do with the game, be it vaguely. I don't believe this stuff needs to exist to discuss stuff about said game and personally this sounds like an overreaction to me.

 

There are still Canthans that exist in the game.

And its only an over reaction because it probably doesn't effect you.

There is loads of LGBT stuff in every part of the story.

There are Canthan NPCs, Canthan faces.

It IS a part of the world, just because its not laid out in front of you doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

[Blocki.4931]

> @"DaughterofHope.1587" said:

> > @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > Would be weird to have Canthan figures on the forum about a game that has absolutely nothing to do with that part of the world. You've said it yourself, the characters that do appear have something to do with the game, be it vaguely. I don't believe this stuff needs to exist to discuss stuff about said game and personally this sounds like an overreaction to me.

>

> There are still Canthans that exist in the game.

 

Name one. Cantha might as well not exist in GW2. It's irrelevant. Too far away, no relation to anything happening on Tyria at this point in time. Would be fan service to include it on the forums.

 

> And its only an over reaction because it probably doesn't effect you.

 

Yes, I am not looking for representation of fictional characters and a lack thereof has nothing to do with me in real life. I can represent myself well enough, I hope.

 

> There is loads of LGBT stuff in every part of the story.

 

And that's perfectly fine. How would you portray that on the forums though? In a small avatar that isn't even supposed to be representative of the product at hand? I'm a Choya, because I find them cute. I wouldn't be outraged to not see them though, because it has nothing to do with what I am posting here.

 

> There are Canthan NPCs, Canthan faces.

> It IS a part of the world, just because its not laid out in front of you doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

 

See the first point I made.

 

Edit: I'm not arguing that representation shouldn't exist, but it should make sense. A huge majority of forum avatars are random creatures or (presumably) female characters, it's really hard to tell.

[Batel.9206]

...who cares?

It's a game that takes place in a fictional universe. Why does it have to reflect real life in such an unimportant way? What is *with* this emphasis on skin color? I genuinely don't understand...don't we have more important things to worry about - like saving the world from giant rampaging primeval entities called Elder Dragons?

 

[Edit: Oh whoops you meant about forum icons. Again, who cares? The icon doesn't represent *you*. If it was supposed to represent you, then I guess I am suddenly a male, blue-skinned, pink-haired living plant whose origin story is still unexplained. My previous avatar was Logan Thackeray, so I guess I was once upon a time a male human in his thirties who has a giant crush on the queen. Spoiler alert: I'm not.

Forum avatars aren't about DIVERSITEEEHHHHHH. They're about a fun, recognizable picture that someone can use to recognize your posts. They have nothing to do with representing real life. If they did, I demand to know where the charr and asura and sylvari and choyas and Joko's and dragons are hiding in real life.]

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Batel.9206" said:

> ...who cares?

> It's a game that takes place in a fictional universe. Why does it have to reflect real life in such an unimportant way? What is *with* this emphasis on skin color? I genuinely don't understand...don't we have more important things to worry about - like saving the world from giant rampaging primeval entities called Elder Dragons?

>

> [Edit: Oh whoops you meant about forum icons. Again, who cares? The icon doesn't represent *you*. If it was supposed to represent you, then I guess I am suddenly a male, blue-skinned, pink-haired living plant whose origin story is still unexplained. My previous avatar was Logan Thackeray, so I guess I was once upon a time a male human in his thirties who has a giant crush on the queen. Spoiler alert: I'm not.

> Forum avatars aren't about DIVERSITEEEHHHHHH. They're about a fun, recognizable picture that someone can use to recognize your posts. They have nothing to do with representing real life. If they did, I demand to know where the charr and asura and sylvari and choyas and Joko's and dragons are hiding in real life.]

 

Who cares indeed. This is why I have gotten rid of all those waste of space icons. \o/

 

Edit: wait ... does that mean I consider everyone to be inconsequential non-entities?

[sevenDEADLY.5281]

I can never tell if the people making these posts are actually serious about what they say, or are purposely being over the top dramatic just to rile everyone else up and get replies. I'm not being sarcastic, I genuinely wonder this.

[CedarDog.9723]

> @"DaughterofHope.1587" said:

> Hello! I am rather new to the game and the community and well I came to the forums to look at things and I noticed there is a huge lack of diverse human female forum icons. There are no Elonian, Canthan, Luxon appearing females. I understand a majority of the icons are lore characters, but. . . are there no important Elonian females? Are there no important Canthan females? Considering how much work and effort there is to include LGBT characters into the game, into the lore. . . I figure this is something that wouldn't be such a glaring oversight.

>

> It's very disappointing after thinking this game was supposed to include diversity, include things that would better represent me, but. . . this breaks my heart.

 

I know, it totally sucks! The forums are completely unusable without those icons. Like you can't even post or anything. And what's up with the lack of male charr forums icons? They don't have a bunch of colors, horn shapes, hair styles, facial types, etc. And don't get me started on the other races/sexes/etc. They should make each race and sex have tabs and have hundreds of icons on each one so I can find one that represents me. They better fix this super important issue. :(

 

Also, what's with the default forums icon? It's just some dragon. They should change it to something more interesting.

 

 

[TheJokester.4672]

These posts kill me haha I'm just gonna sit here with popcorn and watch the soap opera begin!! I demand a uhhh idk Dervish icon yea!! I need it in my life! *sits and waits*

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

There are a lot more avatar icons than there used to be; thus, there may be more in the future.

I'm waiting (patiently) for a frog that isn't representative of SAB.

 

Good luck.

[CedarDog.9723]

> @"TheJokester.4672" said:

> These posts kill me haha I'm just gonna sit here with popcorn and watch the soap opera begin!! I demand a uhhh idk Dervish icon yea!! I need it in my life! *sits and waits*

 

Yeah, the forums are totally unusable without one, right?

[TheJokester.4672]

> @"CedarDog.9723" said:

> > @"TheJokester.4672" said:

> > These posts kill me haha I'm just gonna sit here with popcorn and watch the soap opera begin!! I demand a uhhh idk Dervish icon yea!! I need it in my life! *sits and waits*

>

> Yeah, the forums are totally unusable without one, right?

 

Yeah but I just noticed I can be tengu here, the likely only thing that will bring me back to the game. So I dream one day I'll return to forums months if not years later and see they are playable. Until then I frankly feel as though I wasted hundreds of dollars but I suppose it could be worse eh?

[ReV.6097]

This thread is gold.

 

In all seriousness though, I am just surprised that after all this time they haven't added an option to log on using your social websites, instead, as an alternative.

We all have FB groups or other site groups where we browse GW2 memes and screenshots. This way, you'd find familiar pals, help boost certain threads, causes, and more relatable people would join disscussions you're involved in. Plus your profile pic could be used if you chose to.

 

 

[DiabolicalHamSandwich.8756]

Oh lord......could we possibly **not** go down this road? ........please?

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"DaughterofHope.1587" said:

> > @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > Would be weird to have Canthan figures on the forum about a game that has absolutely nothing to do with that part of the world. You've said it yourself, the characters that do appear have something to do with the game, be it vaguely. I don't believe this stuff needs to exist to discuss stuff about said game and personally this sounds like an overreaction to me.

>

> There are still Canthans that exist in the game.

> And its only an over reaction because it probably doesn't effect you.

> There is loads of LGBT stuff in every part of the story.

> There are Canthan NPCs, Canthan faces.

> It IS a part of the world, just because its not laid out in front of you doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

 

While we don't have specific Canthan residents in the icon base (with story-related reasons, as Blocki mentioned) we do have a person of Canthan descent -- Marjory Delaqua -- represented in the icons.

 

The forum icons represent diversity amongst all the five core player character races of Tyria, including images of iconic NPCs, creatures, professions, holidays, and more. We don't have forum icon additions on the charts for the near future, but when we do add more we could try to tap into Elona and other regions -- I agree that would be very nice. However, I should mention that adding those would address only diversity within the *human race*, and we have a lot of human icons already and five diverse races to represent: Charr, Asura, Sylvari, Norn, and Human. The icons show a cross-section of diversity even amongst the diversity of the five races themselves. Then, asking specifically for one gender amongst a race, amongst a group within the race... well, that makes the request even more fine-grained. Having said that, though, I think there's a lot of liking for Sayida the Sly, and others, such as Spearmarshal Zaeim and Captain Rahim, could make a good additions for humans. We'll see -- maybe it's something we can do in the future.

 

> @"ReV.6097" said:

> This thread is gold.

>

> In all seriousness though, I am just surprised that after all this time they haven't added an option to log on using your social websites, instead, as an alternative.

> We all have FB groups or other site groups where we browse GW2 memes and screenshots. This way, you'd find familiar pals, help boost certain threads, causes, and more relatable people would join disscussions you're involved in. Plus your profile pic could be used if you chose to.

>

The ability to upload images includes a heavy moderation requirement. While it would be nice if people used appropriate images for their avatars, in fact they might choose something entirely inappropriate. And if you're head a "been there/done that" tone in my post, you're absolutely correct! ;) In truth, I've dealt with user-uploaded images in the past, and the cost in moderation time is pretty significant. I totally understand the ask, but I also know the possible outcomes. As an alternative, I think it's great that members have a choice from about 100 images related specifically to the game on the game-based forums.