Equal opportunity in the game.

[mauried.5608]

This isnt really a lore question, but here its most likley to get answered.

Are the NPCs in the game who provide the services for players, ie the vendors, bank attendants, TP sellers etc equally represented in the game in racial form.

ie are there the same or similar numbers of Norn TP sellers as Asura TP sellers or Charr Merchants as Sylvari Merchants.

Reason for asking is that I quite often use the droppable TP vendors like merchants or TP sellers , and they are always either Human or Asura, never seen any other races.

tnx

 

 

[Dante.1763]

> @"mauried.5608" said:

> This isnt really a lore question, but here its most likley to get answered.

> Are the NPCs in the game who provide the services for players, ie the vendors, bank attendants, TP sellers etc equally represented in the game in racial form.

> ie are there the same or similar numbers of Norn TP sellers as Asura TP sellers or Charr Merchants as Sylvari Merchants.

> Reason for asking is that I quite often use the droppable TP vendors like merchants or TP sellers , and they are always either Human or Asura, never seen any other races.

> tnx

>

>

 

I think the Droppable versions default to the Human and asura models, ive seen Charr occasionally.

 

Overall though, there are plenty of every races merchants around the world, usually they fit into whatever race is the most populace for the area, but there are exceptions.

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

Every time I've used the Trading Post Express, it's been a sylvari, so I expect it's based on whatever character you're using the item with.

 

For NPCs, it mostly depends on what part of the map you're in. It works out to being roughly equal- humans might get a boost, thanks to Ebonhawke, Amnoon, and Elona, but in the core areas it mostly balances out.

 

EDIT: I just popped two merchant and two TP expresses on my charr character, and they came out as an asura, a human, a norn, and a sylvari. So it's not linked to race, but there _is_ a random element to it.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

You can use the wiki's semantic query tool to answer the question.

 

There are 163 articles on the wiki for human NPCs offering the "merchant" service.

>! `wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Special%3AAsk&q=%5B%5BHas+NPC+rank%3A%3ANormal%5D%5D%5B%5BHas+service%3A%3AMerchant%5D%5D%5B%5BHas+race%3A%3AHuman%5D%5D&po=%0D%0A&eq=yes&p%5Bformat%5D=broadtable&sort_num=&order_num=ASC&p%5Blimit%5D=500&p%5Boffset%5D=0&p%5Blink%5D=all&p%5Bsort%5D=&p%5Bheaders%5D=show&p%5Bmainlabel%5D=&p%5Bintro%5D=&p%5Boutro%5D=&p%5Bsearchlabel%5D=...+further+results&p%5Bdefault%5D=&p%5Bclass%5D=sortable+wikitable+smwtable&p%5Bsep%5D=&eq=yes`

 

There are 96 articles of norns with the same job, 29 skritt, 81 asura, 92 charr, 61 Sylvari.

 

For a do-it-yourself version:

* Start at the [semantic query page](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Special:Ask)

* On the left, type (or copy) the following (careful of Caps; they matter): `[[Has NPC rank::Normal]][[Has service::+]][[Has race::+]]`

* On the right, type (or copy): `?Has service` add a line break and add `?Has race`

* Submit

 

You can show up to 500 results at a time or download the results to a file. You can add filters, e.g. by substituting the first `+` with a service name (I used "Merchant," but you can check "Banker" as well, among many other services). You can also substitute a race for the second filter.

 

If you manage to get that far, chances are you can figure out most other tricks without help. Or ask in this thread (or via PM if you prefer).

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

That's a solid starting point, but it does skew the results. If the NPC doesn't have a name- and most Black Lion Traders don't- then it'll only bring up one article covering every NPC with that title, and have it show up once per race.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Aaron Ansari.1604" said:

> That's a solid starting point, but it does skew the results. If the NPC doesn't have a name- and most Black Lion Traders don't- then it'll only bring up one article covering every NPC with that title, and have it show up once per race.

 

Depends how you count and what you think is important. I'd look at NPCs with real names as one group and NPCs with generic names as another. The first group are the ones that ANet spent time thinking about, where proportionality (or discrimination) would come into play. The generically named ones... frankly I'd ignore them, because those are the ones that ANet added only because they wanted to add a service, without taking the time to name them.

 

Regardless, it's clear that humans outnumber the other races, at least for merchants.

[mauried.5608]

Thanks all for the info.

Ive seemed to notice that humans seem to outnumber the rest , which seems a bit odd as if they all work for the Black Lion TC you would think that most would be charr.

Its really rough for the spawnable merchants who only live 15 minutes.

Not much point giving them names as no one will ever remember them.

As an aside in Rata Sum at the bank , the asura NPC Tekk ,who runs the bank makes interesting comments occasionally such as

I have the best prices around , and I have everything you need.

I didnt know that banks sell things, and even so as all the merchants in the BLTC sell everything at the same price all the time , the best prices around is a bit of a ripoff.

 

 

[Aaron Ansari.1604]

> @"mauried.5608" said:

 

> Ive seemed to notice that humans seem to outnumber the rest , which seems a bit odd as if they all work for the Black Lion TC you would think that most would be charr.

Part of that is that we have more zones set in human lands than anywhere else- about four nations worth, against one a piece for the other races. As far as the BLTC goes, though, part of that is also that the trick... doesn't seem to work for them. It only lists one charr NPC, for instance, even though the trading house in the Black Citadel by itself has two. (Also unique to the BLTC is that it's based in Lion's Arch and spans all the nations- while it might be led by a charr, his right hand is a sylvari, and their actual employees are a pretty even mix of the five races.)

 

> As an aside in Rata Sum at the bank , the asura NPC Tekk ,who runs the bank makes interesting comments occasionally such as

> I have the best prices around , and I have everything you need.

> I didnt know that banks sell things, and even so as all the merchants in the BLTC sell everything at the same price all the time , the best prices around is a bit of a ripoff.

That's generic merchant NPC dialogue, which gets added to pretty much any service provider. You can get the same lines from merchants, weaponsmiths, armorsmiths, I think even the crafting NPCs.

 

[Amaranthe.3578]

Why does it matter?

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Amaranthe.3578" said:

> Why does it matter?

 

The OP was curious about it. Why does it have to have any implications beyond that?

[Amaranthe.3578]

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> > @"Amaranthe.3578" said:

> > Why does it matter?

>

> The OP was curious about it. Why does it have to have any implications beyond that?

 

It doesnt have to. Which is why I asked.

[mauried.5608]

As a matter of interest , I did a wander around most of the TPs in the major cities just to see who mans them all, as TP merchants dont have individual names and this is the result.

Rata Sum has 2 x Asura and 1 X Human

The Grove has 2 X Sylvari and 1 X Asura

Div Reach has 2 X Human and 1 x Norn

Holbraek has 2 X Norm and 1 X Charr

Citadel has 2 X Charr and 1 X Asura

Lions Arch has 1 X Sylvari and 1 X Asura and 1 X Charr

Ebonhawke has 1 X Asura

So a good effort here in equal opportunity.

There are some other places in the game with TPs which I will check out today like the Priory,Vigil Keep and Chantry of Secrets,and POF which I havnt explored much so dont know where the TPs there are.

As to why this is interesting to me , is because I like exploring and and MMO economies , and Im sick to death of killing monsters.

 

[Jimbru.6014]

Remember: for much of Tyria's known history, humans were the dominant race up to the time of GW1, with multiple kingdoms spread across continents. Those kingdoms were highly interactive, connected by trade and migration until Charr invasions, the Jade Wind, et al broke them up. So for humans to be the most common merchants or race seen in the game shouldn't be taken as unusual. Especially in Lion's Arch, which used to be the human capital of Kryta, and has always been a significant hub due to its relatively central location between Kryta, Ascalon, and the southern kingdoms across the sea. So again, not unusual to see large numbers of humans working for BLTC.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"mauried.5608" said:

> I did a wander around most of the TPs in the major cities just to see who mans them all,

Under the circumstances, perhaps "who staffs them all" might be more appropriate. ;)

 

The query above can be modified to include the city, unless you were just interested in who is at the official 'hug' locations for services.

 

PS Each WvW zone has its own set of NPCs, including Obsidian Sanctum. And there are also mercantile hubs in the open world besides Ebonhawke, including in each starting zone, Sparkfly Fen, and I'm sure others.