TonyV

I'm just saying that lying about your RL gender != disruption, aggravation, etc. They're totally separate, and I think that deliberately causing disruption, aggravation, etc. isn't okay in any form it takes. I'm re-reading what you said and thinking that you could put anything in the "People who [insert verb here] for the purposes of disruption, aggravation, etc." and it would be true, but that in no way reflects on the moral validity of the [insert verb here] part.

[ QUOTE ]
Tony, you made it very clear you like guys who pretend they are female earlier in this thread. We get it....we do.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, nice misrepresentation of what I said. I neither like nor dislike guys who pretend they are female for that sole purpose. I simply don't care one way or another. This is a role-playing game, Einstein. I expect it to happen, both in-character, and to maintain the immersion, out of character as well. If I like or dislike you, it will be for some other reason, because I don't find that one relevant. I'm sorry you have such a problem with that.

Wait, strike that, I'm not sorry at all. It's your issue to deal with, not mine.

[ QUOTE ]
EVERYONE has agreed with you that people who lie about their gender IRL -for the purposes of disruption, aggravation, etc- are a bad thing.

[/ QUOTE ]
No no, I don't agree. I think it's perfectly acceptable to lie about your RL gender to other people playing this game for two reasons: 1) it's none of their business what your RL gender is, and 2) in my opinion they have no valid use for that information. I also lie to telemarketers about my name and address. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, either.

I'm not saying that I do lie about my RL gender (I do have a Faces pages, after all), but if someone else does, or for that matter lies about any other RL information to random Internet strangers, I have absolutely no problem with that.

If someone is disrupting the game or deliberately aggravating you, especially if it is regarding inappropriate sexual comments, they should be reported, period. That's neither a roleplaying nor gender issue, its explicitly forbidden in the rules of conduct and the EULA.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Actually I think the genre is MMOG...not MMORPG. Massively multiplayer online game, not necessarily Massively multiplayer online ROLEPLAYING game.

So roleplaying is actually not the focus of the genre. just to be clear.

[/ QUOTE ]

It says MMORPG right on the box, by the way, just to be clear.

[/ QUOTE ]
It also says it in the in the ad copy. I don't think there's any question that the game was designed and is marketed as an MMORPG, not just an MMOG.

[ QUOTE ]
If you can get past all the farming missions, the Mission Architect has some pretty neat stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]
Tip: Use the Mission Architect tags to find the types of missions you want.

[ QUOTE ]
Is there any reason why Atlas has a Vault + Wentworth's and Galaxy doesn't? I prefer the comparative quiet of Galaxy but was just curious.

[/ QUOTE ]
The lease rates in Galaxy City are simply killer. I was going to open a sandwich shop there a while back, but I couldn't clear enough profit just to pay the rent on the building.

Personally, I blame the Arena. They build this fancy new stadium, and who do you think pays for it? That's right, local businesses. "It will create jobs!" my [censored].

You could do what I did to beat the fast answerers once: post a quick reply that says something like, "Placeholder," then edit it with the real answer.

(Back in the day, I swear that there were some folks who sat there all Oracle-like just hitting refresh to answer questions. I wanted to be first just once. )

[ QUOTE ]
DAMN IT!!!YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]
You know, it's still months away. (Personally, I think it's at least a year away, but I digress.)

Start saving up today. Put aside like ten dollars a month, and you'll easily have it covered. You'll probably even have a bunch left over. Once it comes out, start setting aside only two dollars a month, because then you'll be ready for the next expansion a few years down the road. Hell, if it is on the same timeframe as this expansion (Oct. 2005 - Jun. 2010 est. by Tony), you'll have way more than enough.

To sum up, don't panic. It's not that much, and as mentioned, CoH is actually a lot cheaper when it comes to expansions than other games. Cut 'em some slack.

If all else fails, tell people you want money for Christmas and your birthday. You'll easily get enough to cover it.

[ QUOTE ]
Please, take care of yourselves. Get some exercise. Eat leafy greens and other vegetables. Get regular check-ups from your physician and follow his or her advice. And encourage your friends to do the same.

[/ QUOTE ]
You know, that's good advice. I'm not 40 yet, but I am pretty sedentary, and my diet is pretty crappy. Lately, I've been exercising more and eating a little better. Nothing earth-shattering yet, just a half hour or so on the treadmill and buying decent meats, cheeses, and breads at the grocery store instead of making Wendy's runs, but it's a start.

I have a doctor's checkup next month. So far, I've been lucky in not having high blood pressure or other non-trivial health maladies. I'm hoping my good luck can keep up just a little longer while I work on a few lifestyle changes so that I don't need so much of it.

Hopefully other gamers will read this and, if they have the sedentary thing going too, will make a few changes, even if little tiny ones at first.

[ QUOTE ]
To those that have provided more to this topic than just where they choose to eat and quips, replied with people that probably have more business sense and knowledge of how corporations work than I do (Arcanaville, EvilGecko, ArachnosElite and InfamousBrad, the rest, shame on you).

[/ QUOTE ]
Hey now, what about me? I didn't talk about my food choices and gave a pretty serious and honest answer! (linky) I want to make the list!

[ QUOTE ]
Why? because I'd rather look at an attractive female than some guy for 50 levels.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, but that only lasts for like the first character or two. I dig the hot superheroines, but honestly, for my own character, I don't care. Besides, you don't actually need to play a female heroine, there are plenty out there to gawk at. In fact, if that's your thing, you don't really even need to get out of the costume creator.

Most of my recent characters have been male because, pertinent to the topic at hand, it's easier for me to roleplay them.

Whoa, we can call dibs? In that case...

Fusionette.

I don't care if you hate her, and I don't care if Jimmy Temblor has the hots for her too. How many times has he rescued her? Yeah. She knows that whenever she gets into trouble, she can count on me.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know, I can't cite the source at the moment, but at one point, the devs said that they would never give away anything that people paid for, in relation to people asking for stuff like some of the add-on pack perks as veteran rewards.

[/ QUOTE ]
<cough>character slots<cough>
<cough>respecs<cough>

To be fair, they did actually say something along those lines but it seemed to be in relation to costume parts and/or powers. Clearly, MA slots are more similar to character slots (which you CAN buy), than they are to costume parts or powers.

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, I'll buy that— er, I mean, sure, sounds good to me, although I'd point out that those things were designed to be given/sold as they were from the beginning, not retroactively decided to be given out only after being sold for a while.

Of course, they're not selling story slots quite yet, so maybe there's time for them to implement something like this before going live and having it set in stone. I honestly hope they do. Like I said, I didn't agree then with the policy, I still don't, and I think that giving them out as a reward for something would be the best.

If someone asks if I think they should be given out as veteran rewards, I'd say sure. (Though I'd like to see maybe a trial or something to earn them instead, but as veteran rewards will work fine, too.) If someone asks if I think they will be given out as veteran rewards, my honest answer is if it goes live with them only being sold, no, but it hasn't gone live yet, so I'm leaning around 90%/10% against them being given out as rewards given that they haven't mentioned any plans to do so, but I hope they change their minds.

[ QUOTE ]
My question: When scrubs ask to pay me for sitting in my missions, should I take the heroic approach and say "Go away, scrub!" OR do I take the villainous approach and try to price gouge him?

[/ QUOTE ]
Heroic approach every time. It accomplishes two things: 1) it lets them know that what they're asking for is not acceptable, and 2) if the devs ever decide to enforce no power-leveling as they've enforced no farming, you won't be caught in the cross-fire.

Take the high road, man. Just say no.

I don't know, I can't cite the source at the moment, but at one point, the devs said that they would never give away anything that people paid for, in relation to people asking for stuff like some of the add-on pack perks as veteran rewards.

I don't necessarily agree with that philosophy, but under that rationale, we won't see story slots as veteran rewards.

P.S. The helmets and prestige sprint powers don't count. The rationale provided at the time is that you weren't charged extra for the pre-order, so technically, they're not pay-for items.

<QR>

Don't panic. I suspect this is a lot more innocent than it sounded. I seriously doubt that CoH money is going directly to, for example, the Aion team, the Lineage team, and so on.

However, I am pretty sure that some percentage of CoH money goes back to NCsoft corporate into a general pot of money they maintain for handling various administrative functions, such as paying investors, maintaining the web sites, paying the CEO, marketing, fulfilling debt obligations, R&D on new games, etc.--stuff that benefits all of their games.

After all, you can't really develop any new games if you don't have any money, unless you go out and borrow it. And borrowing money (and paying interest on it) when you have an existing revenue stream to draw upon is generally a boneheaded business move.

If it makes you feel any better, rest assured that CoH does indeed benefit from the money that Lineage/Lineage II makes for the company. Without that money, the game would never have been developed, or at least if it were (since Cryptic was the company that developed it, not NCsoft), it would never have been marketed like it was or reached the audience it did. Also rest assured that City of Heroes does make money, and as a revenue-generating source of income, I don't think they'll let it be underfunded anytime soon.

To my knowledge, nothing you have described is intentional, with the possible exception of some new animations for powers. It sounds like you've got some bugs. You might want to try updating your video card drivers or tweaking around with your graphics settings to try to resolve the issues.

Also, Freedom has a reputation for less than mature players. Not that everyone there is a jerk, mind you, but because the population is so high, there are more jerks there.

Unfortunately to people like me, the absolute number of jerks (higher on Freedom) is much more relevant than the relative number of jerks to other players (about the same as on other servers). It's like a screaming baby in a restaurant. All it takes is one to ruin a good meal. Likewise, if you're trying to host or take part in an event, the same thing applies. It only takes one or two griefers to ruin it. Although every server has its share of griefers, because there are more on Freedom and they seek out fun to ruin, it's a lot more likely that you'll run across them.

Similarly, there's a lot more farming, power-leveling, channel spam, etc. on Freedom than any other server. If you're not into that and just want to play the game normally, I'd recommend avoiding Freedom. If you decide you want to go there anyway because of the higher population, I'd recommend quickly seeking out a supergroup there that matches your play style so you'll have some more-or-less instant friends to hang out with instead of leaving your fate up to the general population.

Honestly, for newer players, I usually recommend Infinity. It's got a good-sized population, but doesn't get overloaded during events. It also has a generally nice player base, and of course, a very active group of Taxibots, who like to be kind of a welcoming committee for new players.

Random thoughts on posts here since my last post:

First, I won't pretend that the South in general doesn't have way more than its share of people like War_Admiral. The Southern redneck is a stereotype for good reason, and especially once you get out of the large cities, there's no telling what kind of attitudes you'll find. However, please don't lump us all in together. I was raised in Alabama, I live in Atlanta today, and I'm a white heterosexual male who lives a relatively conservative lifestyle. However, my beliefs are considerably liberal by American standards. I have several good friends who are gay, I support equal rights for ALL people (and no, not "separate but equal," but really equal), and many of my Southern friends are just like me. Please don't let War_Admiral convince you to make the same mistake that he's making, assuming that just because someone is from the South that they must be homophobic. (Or racist, or stupid, or any other adjective that has plagued us for a couple of centuries.)

Second, I wish people would stop mixing up "role-playing" with eroticism. They are NOT the same. I role-play a lot. I never ERP, period. I don't get how that confusion arises. Not every movie is a porno, right? So why would you think that RP always involves raunchy sex talk? That's stupid. So please stop acting like all RPers are sex-crazed weirdos. In fact, according to the Rules of Conduct, "You may not use sexually explicit...language." The EULA also specifically says that you're not allowed to use inappropriate or vulgar language. Technically, ERP isn't even allowed in the game. Personally, I don't care what people talk about amongst themselves if they are consenting adults, but if it bothers you that much, just tell them to stop, and if they don't, report them and be done with it.

Third, about the whole "lying" thing, again, it's really none of your damn business what gender the players playing the characters are. Like I said, this isn't a dating service, which, given what I said about ERP above, would be the only valid reason you should have to know. If they choose to share that information with you, then fine. If they lie about it, whatever. In my opinion, they are under no obligation whatsoever NOT to lie about it, because like I said, it's none of your business. If you feel like you're entitled to know the honest answer for some reason, you are wrong. If you're curious, I can understand that, because I've been curious too about some people. But why someone would be mad because someone lied about it is beyond me, unless that person were engaging in ERP, which I suppose would make it a little awkward. (Which is also why I highly discourage ERP and actively avoid it myself.)

Even if it were an issue with someone, this sounds like an internal drama issue within War_Admiral's supergroup to me that has pretty much zero to do with role-playing. His anger is misdirected. It's pretty stupid to judge role-players and role-playing by what he's saying here.

By the way, this is exactly why I have never volunteered to set up Teamspeak/Ventrilo servers for my supergroups. If someone wants to roleplay being female, 6'-4" tall, Serbian, a mute fish, or whatever they want (a 6'-4" tall Serbian mute female fish?) and they don't want the illusion broken, then more power to them.

At various times, I've roleplayed several females, a couple of robots, a gay guy (but not "flaming" and without ERP; my gay guy friends don't dress in pink or describe their sexual exploits to me, and neither does my gay character), a human-looking extraterrestrial, an obnoxious teenager, a black woman, a Mexican-American mercenary-type, a slick PR guy, and probably a bunch of stuff I can't even remember. If you can't accept my characters at face value, then I have no desire to play with you. If you want to know about me as a player, then just ask. If it's something I don't mind telling you, I'll tell you. But if it's something I don't want you to know or don't feel comfortable sharing, I won't, or I might (gasp!) just lie about it if I don't want to deal with a bunch of follow-up questions.

[ QUOTE ]
From where I'm from, guys dont pretend to play girls. Obviously from where you're from, they do. I'm sorry you have to live around those types of "boys"...I really am.

[/ QUOTE ]
If I said to you what I feel like saying, I'm pretty sure it would get me banned from the forum. I think I'll just leave it at, I think I see what the problem here is, and I'm not the one who needs to be felt sorry for, and I'm sure as hell not going to be the one whose 50-year-old mores are going to cause me to log off.

[ QUOTE ]
Btw...I have a female toon. Thats not anything that bothers me. I dont care when guys have female toons, thats not the issue at all. Its being told you're female when infact you're male. Thats the issue I have.

[/ QUOTE ]
So what business is it of yours? Why did you want to know in the first place?

And more to the point, so a random Internet stranger who has no obligation whatsoever to tell you the truth about a completely meaningless question lied to you. So what? And you are telling us to get a life?

Sheez.

[ QUOTE ]
Are you tring to compare actors who get paid millions to act to people on the internet paying $15 a month?

lolz

Oh.....my......lord.

[/ QUOTE ]
Another gem of wisdom. Role-playing is only okay if you're making millions of dollars doing it then?

*sigh...* I give up. If you have some kind of insecurity, that's your problem, and I doubt that random Internet strangers are going to be able to fix whatever your hangup is. At least I have the comfort in knowing that you're well in the minority of people that the concept of boys playing girls and vice versa bothers.

[ QUOTE ]
From that point on...I just assume punch RPers in the face. They're useless if you ask me. Dudes RPing as chicks......get a life. Seriously.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's one of the most stupid things I think I've ever seen anyone ever write on these forums.

So some guys pretended to be female, it really bothers you that much? I used to play Taxibot Belle, and I tried not to let on that I did because frankly, it's not of your damn business what gender I am. (Which later became kind of amusing when I was called a liar for honestly saying that I don't now, but I digress...) I've played other female characters too, about half and half. I've run across several guys who roleplay female characters, and yes, even females who play male characters.

Interesting point of fact, back when I was playing Taxibot Belle, one of the other long-time members in the garage was actually a girl playing a guy character. A really good-looking one at that, who didn't like playing girl characters because she didn't like people (probably people like you, I'm guessing) constantly asking her, "r u hot irl?" Nowadays, as far as I can gather, there is around a 50/50 split of males/females in the Taxis, and both have been known to play Taxis of the opposite gender.

It's not limited to games. Robin Williams played a guy playing a woman in Tootsie. Martin Lawrence has played "Big Momma." In ancient theater up until even the time of Shakespeare, men played all of the parts, including women. Julie Kavner (a girl!) does the voice of Bart Simpson (a boy!). Erin Chase (a girl!) is one of the actors/actresses who has voiced Charlie Brown (a boy!).

You are obviously willfully oblivious to the very concept of what role-playing is. Having a problem with guys playing female characters while accepting that it's okay to pretend to be able to fly, shoot lightning from your hands, and other such silly stuff... One could just as easily tell you to get a life. Seriously.

You don't like RP in an MMORPG? Picked a hell of a genre of game to play there, Einstein. I'm sorry, were you expecting a dating service?

[ QUOTE ]
What do people do in RP? I see so many people talking about them but i still don't really know what they do. Do they like really get into there toons and always talk like a hero or something like that?

[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly.

In college, I took an acting class. It was by far the most fun class I ever took. Throwing yourself into a role and pretending you're someone else is very liberating and fun. I also made the standard rounds with AD&D (good ol' pencil-and-paper RPGs).

When you think about it, playing the game as a true RPG is really the way to go. People complain about there not being enough to do in the game. When you play it as a true RPG, there's always something to do, as every RP session is necessarily different.

Give it a try sometime. You don't even have to dive all the way in. There are plenty of "light" RP groups out there where people are in RP mode part of the time but still go out of character (commonly denoted by ((double parentheses)) or the letters OOC) to handle the mechanics of playing the game.

Some people are into "ERP," or Erotic Role-Playing. I don't go for that, I think it's kind of silly. If you're offended by that, you might want to make sure you have something in your biography like, "NOT an ERP player!" just to hopefully cut off potential problems before they start.

[ QUOTE ]
Lovin' the art in this week's Scoop.

[/ QUOTE ]
You know, I don't know anything about Turbo Ski, the player or the character, except that whoever it is has a lot of artwork of her. And pretty much every one I've seen has been awesome.

[ QUOTE ]
Come on, noone sees the funny in making a character for his set of anti giant monster, but a character for your mom? Cause she is a giant monster.

[/ QUOTE ]
Don't listen to them, I thought it was amusing.

[ QUOTE ]
9) Yo momma is so lazy even Rest costs her endurance to use.
18) Yo momma is so dumb she obeys the "no trespassing" sign on the cave mission door.
20) Yo momma is so dumb she keeps asking Clockwork what time it is.

[/ QUOTE ]
Those are hilarious.