Unquestionably, the original Sylvari were lacking in identity. An elf with leaves is all that many considered them to be, with far too many comparisons drawn from other races in less stylistic games or fantasy worlds. Whilst Kristen Perry has clearly made great efforts to justify her approach, I wince a little when it is suggested that the Sylvari are entirely unique, not just to Guild Wars, but to the fantasy universe as a whole.
It is quite the proposal and though Tolkien can lay claim to pioneering Elves and Orcs, to suggest that the Sylvari will become synonymous to fantasy as much as Faeries or Ents isn’t impossible, but certainly not probable. Irrespective (and I don’t believe for a moment ArenaNet ever sought to have the Sylvari ingrained into universal role-play lore), I consider that the Sylvari will always be considered ‘green elves’ by those unfamiliar with ArenaNet’s approach and thought process.
It is understandably difficult to tread the line between something anatomically human whilst dipping into influences of Ents and Fae and all the while trying to remain truly original, without too greater influence from either source. To a large degree ArenaNet have achieved this, with the flow of plants and leaves spanning the bodies of Sylvari delicately and with perfect integration. My problem though, lies in one factor; gender and sex.
Were ArenaNet to truly challenge the status quo of fantasy design, the possibility to create a sexless race was never more present than here. Born from the pale tree as plants, the concept that they could have been entirely neutral beings, without gender identifiable anatomy, would have opened up odd yet unique possibilities.
Without doubt this would have been entirely uncomfortable for many. From my experience in massively multiplayer games, many people enjoy aligning their characters with their own sex and yet some (myself included) often play female avatars (and visa versa) to the curiosity of others. But to remove gender entirely and for the player to be greeted by a single “create Sylvari” option, for them then to define their appearance without a gender template to work from, would have been something traditionally unheard of.
For example, whilst many men may have created a Sylvari of a distinct height and weight and with dark bark to reflect their masculinity, there would have been an inevitable pause where they questioned their own thoughts on appearance and the perception of gender. The grey areas of androgyny that this may have created and the spectrum of character creations would have opened up entirely new prospects of lore and role play opportunities. This would pose new questions about how we approach our character in an online universe and how we want people to perceive us as individuals. I expect people will ask “if you can create what appears to be a male Sylvari, why not just have selectable genders?” and the question is more than valid, but whether you align yourself to a masculine, feminine or neutral appearance as a result of your characters customisation, you could never say you are truly male or female, just Sylvari.
The conceptualised image of Caithe realised in 3D is a great example of the topic I’m discussing, as she could so easily be categorised as androgynous were you to not know her gender. Many will surely disagree, stating she is so clearly female and yet if her breasts were hidden (as the obvious indicator) she could so easily pass for a young, delicate male.
Films such as Mulan, Boys Don’t Cry and Pitch Black highlight the prominence gender plays and all three to a certain extent explore the difficulties caused by those wishing to no longer be defined by the body they were born with, as the films pose questions and push barriers in how we perceive a person’s gender and their roles.
Many outside of videogames may be surprised at the reaction of some male players when they realize that the female avatar they are playing alongside is in actual fact female. Should it matter in any way whether the person behind an avatar is the same sex? Absolutely not, but why is it that people react this way? There is sadly no simple answer, but much inevitably depends on stereotypes and preconceived ideas we all have about those around us, with gender often at the forefront of such ideas. Fundamentally though, would all this serve a purpose? Would removing sex from a single race have any impact on Guild Wars 2 or the wider gaming scene?
Controversy aside, I think so. Some of the greatest stories told are those which challenge our preconceptions and ideals and though to many this will be a taboo subject, and although the risk for ArenaNet is undoubtedly too great for what is a commercial product, the possibilities from a lore standpoint alone and the opportunity to be truly unique, without fear of being pre-judged as a player, is surely priceless in a genre where originality and individuality is hard to come by.
Email the author of this post at lewisb@tap-repeatedly.com
I agree completly, I was very disapointed when they confirmed that sylvari did indeed have genders. However, the fact that their gender is for the most part irrelevant. From what we’ve heard, gender is much like hair colour. You may like one better than the other, but if you meet someone with a personality that matches yours you don’t care about their hair colour anymore. Among the sylvari it works the same way with gender. I agree that the race is less unique by doing this, but their culture is richer for it.
Hmmm.
It could be considered sidestepping those very issues to make the race without gender. If sylvari have no gender, then that is why they don’t conform to gender roles. By giving them the apearance of gender, the fact that gender roles do not exist for them is brought into sharp contrast.
As for a missed opportunity, it may have been a more obvious path for plant people (although plants do have gender, none are genderless, but some are hemaphrodites) but they would have turned too many people off playing sylvari, more than they would have gained anyway.
When discussing sylvari it’s generally a lot less confusing if you use more specific terminology – that is, to use “sex” to refer to physical characteristics and “gender” to refer to identity.
Giving the sylvari sexes WITHOUT gender is, I think, far more progressive than making them completely androgynous. The former allows ANet to subtly challenge stereotypes and question what defines gender, while the latter would simply make the sylvari yet another species with almost completely alien biology.
I for one am glad ANet wrote them the way they did. It’s refreshing to see fantasy writing that breaks down our ingrained link of gender to physical sex.
My dream of playing a David Bowie plant person have been dashed again!
Great article Lew, and couldn’t agree more with the points you make. I won’t go so far as to blame the devs for not taking that risk, but they sure did miss out on a unique opportunity.
Regardless of what some players might want for gender-politics reasons, given the lore specifying that sylvari are physically imitation humans (due to early influences on the Pale Tree, both in the form of Ronan and his family’s bodies), it would be a little peculiar for sylvari bodies to externally imitate humans’ in all ways except for one of the most obvious ones.
I’m often a little disappointed that video games haven’t engaged sex and gender issues (because Qing Guang is correct, “sex” is really a biological term while “gender” is more of a psychological or sociological one), especially given the obvious ability to explore it in ways other media can’t, as much. With players identifying with an avatar – whether in an MMO like Guild Wars 2 or a single player experience – there is potential for asking how we identify with that avatar, and why.
I know there are certainly strategic reasons for choosing an avatar sex in MMOs these days because of how other players react to you. Still, and even more so in single-player experiences that let you decide, like, say, Dragon Age, can we somehow delve into this more fully than just defining which NPCs we can have romance subplots with? (Of course, even Dragon Age 2 has sort of done away with that by making every character bisexual, which I guess speaks to a different issue entirely, but not exactly one that RPGs hadn’t allowed for in the past.)
Like the Sylvari, perhaps, I feel like Mass Effect‘s Asari have so far been a bit of a missed boat on this count. They usually are portrayed a little more like their peculiar (to us) sexual/gender makeup is sort of kinky, rather than at all profound or enlightening.
> Many outside of videogames may be surprised at the reaction of some male players when they realize that the female avatar they are playing alongside is in actual fact female.
This has nothing to do with the fact that the player has the same sex of her avatar, just that the player is female, period. Gaming is male-dominated, after all.
And while the presence of sex blocks of some possible stories, the lack of direct reproduction in combination with that allows for others – as with the situation of Caithe and Faolain.
In the end, ArenaNet has its own stories to tell, and it’s not worse off just because they didn’t choose the story you would have preferred them to tell.
There is absolutely no point in making the Sylvari genderless. What’s the point in making people think about a genderless race? There is none. It’s just pointless. To challenge just to challenge, or to innovate just to innovate isn’t what ArenaNet is trying to do.
ArenaNet was never going to redesign the race and make them genderless because it would simply contradict the lore. The Sylvari are planet people influenced by the humans because Ronan(a human) is the one that is responsible for the Sylvari’s existence by planting the seed of the Pale Tree. If ArenaNet changed the Sylvari to a genderless race, you change the entire existence of that race.
If Sylvari was genderless it wouldn’t be a big deal. But there’s no point to it. And considering that the lore was already in place for the Sylvari, it wasn’t going to happen. ArenaNet didn’t miss out on anything except for being the first one to do something as pointless as making a genderless race. There’s nothing particularly special about it.
As a female gamer, though, I totally understand what he’s getting at. I can’t count the number of times people have invoked the “no girls on the internet” rule in some irritating PuG or a dungeon or whatever; gaming is way more misogynistic than the outside world, and though I think Lewis is being a bit hopeful about it (I still think I’d be disbelieved) I would like one day not to have to go out of my way to find a guild with a lot of girls in it (as I have, thankfully).