Prior to Guild Wars 2, I had only ever played games on PlayStation and Xbox. While many of the games I played ran a similar course and dialogue (Halo, Modern Warfare, GTA, COD to name a few), I had little to no control over creating my character. For the most part, the characters were always set and one had to go along the storyline. Thus, when I had control over creating my avatar, it took me a lot longer than I expected.

At first, I was debating on whether I wanted an avatar that represented me. While reading a brief summary of the races, I felt perhaps human would fit the criteria. However, the array of choices prompted me to look further into one of the other races. Sylvari in particular stood out. They looked the most “human” but had special skills. I was initially drawn to them for their adventurous and quest-seeking side which I felt was more representative of myself. After selecting my race, I chose a female avatar and continued to contemplate whether I wanted to be a warrior, a guardian or a mesmer. I felt that I wanted my avatar to fight and protect their kind so I chose to be a guardian (their skilled weapon use and heavy armor was also an asset!).

As if there were not enough options, I then had to choose the nitty-gritty details of the appearance of my avatar. While deciding on the shape of her brow, width/length of her nose, and the fullness of her lips, I suddenly felt like she was no longer as unique as I had anticipated her to be. I was finding myself adding more volume to her lips, arching her brows, narrowing her face and trying to give her perfect proportions all the while making her more “human-like.” I had to actually pause for a few minutes and ponder on why I decided to go with Sylvari when I was only making my avatar look like the hypersexualized female “human.” After some tweaks, I felt she looked unique enough. While creating her, I had an image of an GOT character protecting the wall, hence the icy blue attire. I’m an avid GOT fan!

I decided to name her Aqeela Xanxar. Aqeela is a name often used in Asian and Middle Eastern culture. Aqeela is derived from Aql which means wise or one who is reasonable. Xanxar is apparently Albanian for untamed or wild. Thus, my avatar is a wild, wise and untamable Sylvari guardian! I felt the name in particular to be more representative of my personality as I’d like to think I’m quite the reasonable person but also an untamed free spirit!