Jules L

pencil, on 24 August 2012 - 06:44 AM, said:

Akdklfklsdfklsfusdifdisf is that you? I remember you from some other games! How ya been buddy?

Firstly, I think it's important to note that homosexuality is a state of being and not a lifestyle.  Someone can be a homosexual and live a heterosexual life, and vice versa.  The fact is homosexuality/bisexuality exist, and that is independent of whether or not people act on it.

I noticed quite a few seem to think the charr would be most likely to have problems with it.  I disagree strongly and think the charr would be some of the least likely to care about it.  It's been stated that "fraternization within the ranks" is not any problem if it's not affecting a charr's duties, even if it's between charr of different legions.  It's also made quite clear the vast majority of charr in the game have a hostile aversion to dogma.  They mock religion frequently (in game religion) and emphasize practicality rather than the arbitrary.

I'm hesitant to quote everyone I'm replying to since it would get kind of spammy.  Another point was the reproduction thing.  Because the charr do not tend to be monogamous (some are) that's fairly irrelevant.  There are enough charr where it would be unlikely for there to be any problem with it.  A notion of females having a "duty" to reproduce would be a reminder of the inequality of the Flame Legion as well, I suspect.  A heterosexual or bisexual male charr could sire cubs with more than one different female charr (and this would not be societally unacceptable).  That would turn the "I think they would be more accepting of females together than males together" argument upside-down, since male same sex relationships, even an even rarer monogamous long term one, would have no effect on cub birth whatsoever.

A few people seemed to think the charr would be more accepting of it in females, and I really doubt they'd care either way.  Issues of "masculinity" would only remind of the scourge of religious oppression that once controlled all of the legions.  The charr are all about being efficient soldiers, and so an aversion to "showing weakness" for example would be about preventing enemies from taking advantage of you rather than an arbitrary value in being "masculine."  This is the primary reason I think the charr would be unlikely to care.  Most have been raised to hate what the Flame Legion indoctrinated them with in the past.

chuckles79, on 21 August 2012 - 03:31 PM, said:

Actually in the real world same sex activities are observed in felines.  There is no sign that the charr are driven by instinctual heat either of course, but I don't think a real world analogy works there due to the prevalence of observed cases of this in real felines.

Codeir, on 23 August 2012 - 05:28 AM, said:

This is confirmed to be false. To quote Ember, the charr "are not stone." They still have feelings and all the "stage drama" (another quote) that humans have in relationships.  You can hear several conversations that involve flirting around the Black Citadel as well, so you simply did not notice or they were silent when you were near them, off hand three examples: A male charr telling a female he would like to see her again, and her not being interested, a male charr calling a female "kitten" trying to woo her and her saying that "this kitten has a gun," and thirdly a male charr talking with another male charr about a female charr (a "What do you think about her? kind of conversation).  I'm not sure if some/all of those were from the same NPCs.  There is also at least one example of a charr mother and child caring about the father, and yet another in Lion's Arch in which a charr mother and father are debating whether to raise their cub on their own rather than sending that cub back to a fahrar.

The charr definitely have physical relationships usually casual but also sometimes romantic.  There seems to be a confusion between discipline and feelings here.  The charr are disciplined but they do still have feelings.  For example, in an interview it was said charr funerals are somber but not full of tears, but it was also confirmed that the charr do grieve in private.

This whole thing also reminds me of a random comment from someone claiming "a source they can't reveal" said that Rytlock is gay.  I very highly doubt the comment had any authenticity of course, but it would be a case of "Guild Wars 2 Dumbledore" for sure if it were true.  It's extremely unlikely because people under NDAs that high up face very severe consequences if they break them, so it was likely someone trolling for a reaction.

To wrap that perhaps too long post up, the one thing I am 100% sure about is that the charr do in fact have romantic relationships, even if most are short and casual.  That was directly confirmed by Ember.

Regardless, the topic at hand is officially confirmed: It's not typical but it's not something that is frowned upon either.  It's just something that happens in the world.  (I think I've read way too much lore about the charr at this point, so if I get anything wrong do correct me.)

Kokocat, on 22 August 2012 - 04:59 PM, said:

My guess would be because of a) the stigmatic assumption that gay = feminine male, tacked onto idea b) that the charr are all masculine, including the females, and spurn anything not masculine as weak.

Now, a) is flawed to begin with, because not all homosexuals are male, and not all male homosexuals are 'feminine', and b) the concept of femininity is yet another social construct bound to OUR society in the real world, not Tyria. The charr aren't masculine OR feminine by real world human standards. They're just charr. They're primal and warlike and ferocious. If the female and male charr express themselves differently at all, they'll have their own definitions of masculinity and femininity that have nothing to do with that base ferocity.

As a gay person, I find this... interesting.

I tend to find that in our reality, religion is the basis of all persecution against homosexuality, just as it is with abortion, and so on. There are a few religions that hold sway over a lot of right wing minds in our little reality, and you'll often hear bigotry and hate speech from people who tend to be like that. Not saying that all religious people are bigots, I wouldn't even go there, but I'm making the case that religion is the basis for all orientation discrimination.

Now I'm going to throw in my two shiny pennies in regards to the charr: They've been through a lot of shit, to the point where currently they've got an interesting society and culture where everyone has earned their right to equality. They have true gender equality, for example, with the only definition between a man and a woman in charr society being what's between their legs. They can hold the same positions, they can do the same tasks, and they are equally capable.

What does this mean, though? It means that the charr likely don't give a shit about orientation. It's not that they have any opinions, either positive or negative, but rather that it doesn't matter to them. Since men and women are equal, and there is no religion, there is nothing dictating that charr should have to exist within certain groupings. In fact, due to the nature of charr warbands, for those out in the field, I'd even go so far as to say that marriage is likely uncommon. To the contrary, the charr may adopt a 'friends with benefits' approach.

It seemed to be a more 'friends with benefits' relationship that the two charr in the story Ree told for charr week had. They didn't seem to be official, they just cared about each other and decided to take that a little further. But I can add even more to this. The charr, culturally, borrow heavily from the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire didn't really give a damn about same sex reationships - but there were some issues involved with gender, and the woman being considered the submissive partner, thus the gay man being penetrated would also be considered submissive and might lose some rights. However, this is one aspect the charr did not borrow. As I mentioned, they have gender equality.

So it would basically be like the Roman Empire, except without the worry of the person being penetrated being seen as submissive, because the act of being penetrated isn't considered submissive for a woman. They don't look at it that way. (Which is a good thing, if you ask me.)

I will say that sexual activities when a charr is on duty are obviously frowned upon, as any leisurely activity would be. However, warbands tend to have a lot of freedom (this is mentioned in-game) and they do have downtime. So what they do on their downtime is their own business. If two men or two women wanted to get together, the charr would likely not give a rat's arse, because the gender barrier is damn near non-existent for the charr.

For a charr, the only difference between a straight or homosexual relationship would be that one creates cubs, the other doesn't.

---EDIT---

Besides, Gron and Bonwor were totally gay lovers. We all know what they were doing back there in the bushes to pass the time.

/mildly_facetious

tallanx, on 20 August 2012 - 04:16 AM, said:

Being gay doesn't mean you want to be a woman!

*nods* What we do know:

1. ArenaNet's writers and developers are politically progressive. As someone else said in this thread, it's not that hard to figure out. Being a fantasy world, Tyria will probably wind up reflecting its writer's views in some way. It might not be GOOD writing to have all  the good guys agree with your worldview but it's very possible the chips will fall that way.

2. We have no signs of homosexual stigma in Tyria. Leaving alone the question of whether homophobia is natural or instinctual or not (I've seen it argued both ways) the people of Tyria are very different than we are. Different cultural history, different religions, etc.. I've said in passing it's even possible, maybe even probable, the humans of Tyria aren't even biologically identical to Earth's humans. We do know some "bad" factions are horribly sexist, so it is fair to speculate if we do see eventually homosexual stigma it won't be coming from a credible source.



If anyone gives you grief about the way you RP or your character's orientations, they're not really doing it because "it doesn't fit with the lore". They're passing judgment based on their own values and are attempting to use the lore to justify it.

That's why this topic was important to discuss. To try and disarm those people in advance because they are out there, I'm sure.

You have to press the sensors button to get the sensor window to show.

Jules L, on 12 August 2012 - 04:44 AM, said:

the MSI 2ae0 is your motherboard. So under the MSI tab, you see temperatures which is ur motherboard temperatures. I am jealous since my laptop's motherboard hits 70 degrees(damn laptops)

the Hitachi temperature is your HDD. Remember, if the HDD gets too hot, there is potential problems. But 33deg is alright.

the AMD 6600 is the graphics card.

strange, i didnt see any CPU temps

Yeah, that is strange, try with another monitoring program, there is definitely no CPU reading and one sensor isn't being read properly. No way you got something at -24C in there. HDD and GPU temps seem to be pretty normal though.

The important part is the CPU and GPU temperatures. You should be able to find the max temps they can run at without it causing damage in whatever manuals came with the computer and your video card, if not you can look them up online pretty easily. For example, my graphics card can run at a temperature up to 104C, and HWmonitor shows that currently my card is at about 40C. My CPU should stay below 70C, and it's at 36C right now. And so on.

Other temperature monitoring software (free ones) include HWiNFO, speccy, core temp and speedfan. I'm a fan of HWmonitor and HWiNFO.

Jules L, on 12 August 2012 - 02:41 AM, said:

I use HWMonitor from CPUID which is able to tell you the temps from hard drives, CPU, GPU, and Motherboard all in one screen. Can find it here:  http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html

tijo, on 12 August 2012 - 02:36 AM, said:

Hey not bad looks pretty clean.

Power Supply
Internal 300W (100V-240V)

• 
  Form factor: Internal ATX
  
• 
  Total wattage: 300W
  
• 
  Nominal input voltage range: 200-240V/3A (50-60Hz)
  
• 
  Dimensions: 150mm x 140mm x 86mm (5.9 x 5.5 x 3.4 inches

It might be a proprietary Power Supply in that only HP uses that exact model, but as long as it's Standard ATX format you should be able to fit any standard PSU in that case.  I would recommend a modular unit if possible since there isn't going to be a ton of space for cable management in there.

If you go here, you can see that this PC uses a standard 24 pin power supply connector.
It's also not a small form factor case. I don't see a reason that a standard ATX power supply wouldn't work.