Dreconic said:It is the only race with no conversation whats so ever, are humans just that boring? :p
I was noticing this very thing recently and was hoping to see someone post something here ;) I feel very sad for the humans. Unfortunately since we are one in real life, people seem less interested in playing or role playing as one. I feel confident that will change in time. Thanks for bringing them some attention!
BlueEyedGator said:Dreconic said:It is the only race with no conversation whats so ever, are humans just that boring? :p
I was noticing this very thing recently and was hoping to see someone post something here ;) I feel very sad for the humans. Unfortunately since we are one in real life, people seem less interested in playing or role playing as one. I feel confident that will change in time. Thanks for bringing them some attention!
Funny thing is I feel the same way, but then once you get in game, just about any game, human is one of the highest played races...
Dreconic said:BlueEyedGator said:Dreconic said:It is the only race with no conversation whats so ever, are humans just that boring? :p
I was noticing this very thing recently and was hoping to see someone post something here ;) I feel very sad for the humans. Unfortunately since we are one in real life, people seem less interested in playing or role playing as one. I feel confident that will change in time. Thanks for bringing them some attention!
Funny thing is I feel the same way, but then once you get in game, just about any game, human is one of the highest played races...
So, maybe they aren't so boring after all.......just not as fun to talk about. Other races that are more exotic are easier to use our imagination with even if we ultimately choose humans in the end. ;)
I find it interesting that my most connected experiences with my characters has come with those that i make as human. I have played various races in a myiad of games but it is the simple human priest that held my attention for so long and let me define my game experience. After years i race/sex changed and the character just no longer felt 'right'.
I think one of the critical issues is that with other obviously different looking races the conversation can be robust about what people 'believe' a race looks like. This belief is born from our experience with fanatsy and is heavily influenced by the depcitions of others who were able to impact us the most. It is possible that because of our views about how different they are we are less inclined to focus on the peculiarities, perhaps (and this is not backed by anything) we don't agonise of toon creatio as much with characters that look different?
Tolkein for me laid a platform for so many of my thoughts of what races look like and how they act.
How do we make sure humans are not boring?
by ensuring that character creation is significantly varied and that there are options. Nothing worse than seeing 18 body type 3, hair type 4, face marking 3 human male warriors near the same vendor :)
For me, it's mostly that I like features that are unusual for humans. When games have multiple races, getting a character to be unusually short/tall, pale/dark, thin/fat, ugly/pretty, or whatever, is something I'm better off picking another race for.
The same goes for cultural aspects, too. I like extremes, I think.
Well I did play a human monk in EQ for 9 years. He was screaming the 8 pack stomach and powerful arms! He was pretty cool but for Pantheon, I am leaning toward the Skar or Dark Myr
It's the class that I cannot figure out yet... Guess that is what Alpha will be for!
Pyye
BlueEyedGator said:Dreconic said:BlueEyedGator said:Dreconic said:It is the only race with no conversation whats so ever, are humans just that boring? :p
I was noticing this very thing recently and was hoping to see someone post something here ;) I feel very sad for the humans. Unfortunately since we are one in real life, people seem less interested in playing or role playing as one. I feel confident that will change in time. Thanks for bringing them some attention!
Funny thing is I feel the same way, but then once you get in game, just about any game, human is one of the highest played races...
So, maybe they aren't so boring after all.......just not as fun to talk about. Other races that are more exotic are easier to use our imagination with even if we ultimately choose humans in the end. ;)
Nope, I dont find them boring. I tend to mostly play human characters and attempt to make them look like me during character creation. Its easier for me to live vicariously through my characters when they're human or at least humanoid. Sometimes I'll branch out and make an elf or something. Races resembling cats, dogs, and lizards are the least appealing to me. I just can't get into them from an RP prespective. Square peg, round hole. That kinda thing.
I play Humans in pretty much every MMO I've played or Elves.
I think it's just easier to play a class which has the same animations as a real person, elves aren't too different. I hate running around as a boulder like Ogres were in EQ1, couldn't stand them. Gnomes and Halflings are too short and frustrate me.
Humans all the way.
I always play humans because I like to create myself in the world. Plus humans have, at least stereotypically, to be the most widely diverse of the races. So you can have the complete DnD alignment grid for the entire human race where as other races tend to stick towards 3 or 4 squares on the grid.
As a race, yeah, humans are boring. But they usually get the most versatiliy in terms of starting stats and class choice. Plus they are familiar so they make a good fall back for people who may not be that captivated by the alternatives. I think they are an essential "safe" race in games like these.
internalprime8 said:As a race, yeah, humans are boring. But they usually get the most versatiliy in terms of starting stats and class choice. Plus they are familiar so they make a good fall back for people who may not be that captivated by the alternatives. I think they are an essential "safe" race in games like these.
Agreed. I think every game out there has a the humans as a late comer to the respective worlds and have a nutral footing on stats. Wonder if it is the fact we can relate to the characters we create vs. other races were we have to grow with our creation.
Ox
Humans are typically the 'base' race in most MMOs. Usually the most average in everything, not the strongest, smartest or fastest, with no special ability, but are able to be just about anything.
In EQ I think the human had the largest class selection of any race, but stats which were decidedly middle of the road. And I imagine this is the route that Pantheon will take; which I am quite happy with.
Does that make humans boring? Well no, but not super interesting either!
Humans were originally supposed to have the bonus exp in EQ1 (short lived race learns faster) I heard, which is understandable. But Halflings got it instead due to a mix up.
I go into a lot of games with intentions of playing a human, but games always make them so average stat wise that it's hard to make them specialized ( like real high wisdom or str ) so I end up choosing a race that better fits the stats for the class I want to play. Perhaps its the drawback devs give them for being a race that can be any class.
For most (earlier) games, Humans are intended to be the 'base' (read: no bonus / average). Later games scrapped the race differences to such a degree that they were merely cosmetic.. people thus chose whatever flavour of eye-candy they wanted.
On the assumption (correct me if I am wrong) that races are to have 'real' differences (as with EQ1) then there will be a difference in choosing race based on class. Certainly in EQ1 some combinations of class/deity were only possible for Humans.
So the real question should be ....
... What bonus / difference *should* Humans get to make them 'meaningful' ?? (as per Elves with Night-vision, Trolls with Regen etc)
PS: There is no need for Humans to be an homogenous blob of a race either! Once you choose Race:Human, you could be directed to choose subRace:Northman or subRace:DesertNomad etc which may have (smaller) variations to whatever overall bonuses/differences the Human race normally gets. For purely illustrative example puposes:
subRace:Northman might get an addition +2" height, +3% carry-capacity, +5 ColdResist, +15% alcohol-tolerance, +5% dog-handling skill .... while
subRace:DesertNomad might get -1" height, Complexion:PaleWhite=disallowed, WaterConsumption=95% normal, +1 extra language at 20% ability .... and so on.
Evoras said:PS: There is no need for Humans to be an homogenous blob of a race either! Once you choose Race:Human, you could be directed to choose subRace:Northman or subRace:DesertNomad etc which may have (smaller) variations to whatever overall bonuses/differences the Human race normally gets. For purely illustrative example puposes:
subRace:Northman might get an addition +2" height, +3% carry-capacity, +5 ColdResist, +15% alcohol-tolerance, +5% dog-handling skill .... while
subRace:DesertNomad might get -1" height, Complexion:PaleWhite=disallowed, WaterConsumption=95% normal, +1 extra language at 20% ability .... and so on.
This is a really great point to work with. It reminds me very much of how Humans were handled in Vanguard. Stats and racial bonuses, along with aesthetics, changed based on what region they were from. In the case of Vanguard it was classified by which of the three continents the Human was from, Kojan, Qalia or Thestra. You can see sub-race choices like this for many of the races in D&D as well.
My primary characters are always human, as for me, they are and extension of me in the virtual world. As time goes on, I will make alts of other races, but tend to stay away from the Ogres (to blobbish), Trolls (oddly shaped for my taste), and the fuzzy Cat people (cats,dogs,cows[WoW-Tauren] I can't play animals :) ).
I enjoyed Iksars, but hated Frogloks when added.
I played a Halfling (Foregoing the height issue) but just couldn't get into the Gnomes.
I preferred Wood Elves to High Elves. I enjoyed my Dark Elf Necro, but I absolutely loathed Neriak.
But in the end, I just tend to like Humans.
Humans are fine folk, generally good at telling tales and singing songs, but they always seem a bit skittish deep underground in a twisty tight confusing dungeon when their torch suddenly goes out. Then it's always 'ooo it's dark in here!' and 'Wow, I can't see a thing, anyone got a light?'.
Personally I always have at least one human alt, usually a crafter. But my bard main is something more exotic, since I can play a human by day.
Fulton: My primary characters are always human, as for me, they are and extension of me in the virtual world. As time goes on, I will make alts of other races...
My first MMO character is always human. I never thought about why until now. Its now become a tradition for myself. The races I then create are usually then halfelf type, then either a high elf or a more exotic race then whatever the game race takes my fancy. It was never a planned thing, I just ended up with this kind of setup. Thinking about it, I guess it is human first so I get a good grounding without worrying about my little pointy ears or my vulnerable furry tail. Halfelf because I usually like the lore they come with, then exotics because by then I like to experiment.
My usualy race/roles tend to be human/ranger, halfelf/rogue, then randomness.. one of my fave combos was kitty/beastlord.. ahhh.. so much fun back in the day.
I don't think this is going to change now.. <-- old timer set in his (mmo) ways.
I agree with Evoras and Nikademus in that the human race could (and should) be a starting point, then tailoured to the environment that they find themselves living in. So hardy, northmen, mean, big, battle hardened (from the elements as much as war). Desert nomadics deal with heat, less relient on water maybe, etc, etc. I totally want to see variations in human design, lore and stat tweeks depending on where you are from. I would love to see this applied to other races too. Maybe dwarves who live in a lava enviroment would be different from those living in the frigid north.
Variation is the spice of MMOs.
