Not really…it behaves exactly like a player…it runs to its ship without regard for the activites and locations of other players, and then takes off and boosts ahead of the other players and goes off on its own…one of the players chooses to follow the Gek. On top of that it wears obvious player gear and appears in a player group photo…that’s definitely 100% a player:
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Ok. Cool. I will play as a Traveller (or human) anyways 
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That’s fine…I’ll probably end up playing as a Korvax myself.
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I want to be one a cute but vicious genocidal alien.
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What if its a player with a gek helmet? 
Or… it may be a NPC that you can give orders like in Abe’s Oddysee. (I know, i’m old)
I mean, they could have said ‘Wait’ to the gek and then posed beside him for a group picture.
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Very doubtful…if you look at the height and overall body shape, that’s definitely a Gek.
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I am just going to wait and see, as I have yet to see proof of any of the assumptions made. Sure we are all excited and let ourselves easily get carried away with all the possibilities this update may hold.
More than likely an NPC, as I can imagine having a companion, following suit and ability to command. Maybe it is our overseer who now has an active role instead of waiting at our base. Perhaps our other hirable NPCs will act similar and join us in a more active roll.
Lore wise it would be easiest to assume the Gek is an NPC. With only the Gek being shown, it further complicates imagining the 3 other races available. It would change our understanding of the lore quite dramatically if we get to play them all. All I have seen to be said proof of being a playable character, can be easily explained away.
Possibly a playable character, due to the realistic look and feel of animation, not going to deny. The Gek seems to behave like a player, almost like a life of its own. This shows how well this is done, convincing to say the least.
Whichever it is going to be, NPC or playable, I am fine with it though, don’t get me wrong. However, in all honesty, I actually hope for NPC, as it would make most sense. I am not going to expect otherwise until the update releases. I have yet to be convinced.
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“Customise helmet/suit/species - first person view adjusted lower if a short species like Gek”
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Yes, just after I wrote my reply above, I saw the reply in another topic.
Speculation had not convinced me yet, but the article from IGN clears it up.
I do find it awkward from a Lore perspective though, but I am sure it will be fun 
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Yeah lore wise atm it seems strange but we are getting new lore, maybe we travellers find a way into the atlas’s source code and learn to activate “God Mode” I used to love doing that in sonic the hedgehog with a game genie and playing the game as an enemy (@iBood17 showing my age here too haha, loved the odd world games, shame they never got to see their vision to fruition and we only got munch and strangers wrath)
If we aren’t getting NPCs we can assign as followers here’s hoping it’s one of the future additions down the road. While we haven’t exactly seen how the games economy and resources will be rebalanced to account for multiplayer shenanigans, an NPC sidekick would be beautiful news to the ears of those playing solo and continuing thusly. That is, assuming for them, the economy is gonna be super nerfed to account for system wide mega farms.
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Come on guys, it’s obvious the new story will be the races uniting to battle the…Abyss
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And people everywhere will be base building underwater…
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Will the fourth race be available?
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They didnt mention it so I would guess no 
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We have no clue about the Abyss and the Abyss was never a major character…if anything goes down I much sooner expect it to be with the Sentinels.
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I just like saying it
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Oh wow…I just saw actual gameplay of the character creation and I have to say the options are really vast for all races…you don’t get gimped on options if you happen to prefer an odd race like the Gek…and actually there’s one more option of race for our characters to be….we can be Travelers…the traveler race refers to all the types of travelers we saw in 1.3 from the echo ones that look organic to the odd mechanical-looking ones like Apollo and null…the human type characters we see in the trailer for NEXT are not part of the Traveler species, they are a different species called Anomaly.
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Cool! I think I like them the most… wish they all (but korbax) also got cool helmets to go with them.
I still think they would make for great native sentient humanoid species to the planets out there, Star Trek style.
There are all kinds of good hopes for so much to come, if not in Next, further down the line!
There’s a piece of leaked footage on youtube that showcases the character customisation a bit.
Probably better if I don’t post a link here. You can find it in the last reply to a comment on cobras “I’ve seen gameplay” video. The comment being replied to is “Where can we watch this?”. Note that this is not the footage Cobra was talking about, but so far it’s the only publically available leaked footage I’ve found.
And yes, you can also play as a traveller.
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