Wordmaker

My opinion is, almost every roleplayer fancies themself as an actor or a writer. The creativity just goes with the hobby. Unfortunately, writing and roleplaying are two very different things and should, in my opinion, stay that way. A good RP scene is very different from a good written scene.

I have noticed it in a lot of roleplaying done over text-based mediums, probably because it feels more like writing than face to face roleplay, which is more like acting, and you often get people starting to mimic their character's physical traits and speech patterns.

I think, a certain amount of "narrative" can help get across emotion and personality in text-based RP, to make up for the lack of tonality and body language. It needs a careful balance, however, because not everyone has the patience to read paragraphs of description and character exposition in roleplay. I know I don't

Looks like Sunday it is. Grand, because I'm not going to be in-game tonight...so tired

I'll be with the babe in the wheelchair

I say we converge on the NC Soft stand and take over!

Argh! Double-posting finally got me!

Probably wouldn't fit.

Besides, you said you wanted to avoid politics. You don't get much more political than a national anthem!

She can ask.

The more the merrier as far as I'm concerned. If asked, Nevermore will be happy to have her along, so long as she stays safe (Doc scares him )

That's really nice of you guys to say, and really is appreciated.

Okay peeps, we have info from our GM! Gina Pelham is indeed the head of DTR Pharmacuticals. The company lists its business as 'research into novel drug regimes produced via transgenic bacteria'. it was founded about a year ago and has, so far, shown no signs of producing anything. The registered address is in Baumton, which we learned was being used as a mail drop address. Clearly, it's a dummy corporation being used as a front.

DTR do, however, hold a lease on an office/workshop/laboratory-type building in Independence Port.

Niall's up for running us through the investigation of the location IC and in-game. He just needs an evening we're ll free to do it.

So far, due to moving and stuff, Jen and I have the following nights free for this:

Saturday
Sunday
Monday

Anyone have any of those nights they can't make? Any delay between now and when we get to play it out can be explained by the information simply taking longer to acquire. As Niall said to me, just because he's given the information Nevermore was looking for, doesn't mean Nevermore got it all in one go.

It'd be difficult to protray. Traditionally, Communist characters in comics have been the villains, so you've got that hurdle to overcome. Communism is seen in most forms of fiction as going hand in hand with dictatorships, so the SG will have that stigma to contend with.

Original, yes. Difficult? Very.

Choosing to avoid the political side of things is a very wise move. Also something to watch for is heroes who may have fought in the Cold War.

All right, I admit I probably shouldn't have made a public post about this. Perhaps I should have just kept quiet altogether, because all that seems to have happened is people have taken this completely the wrong way. I'm going to ask for the thread to be locked, because I don't think anything constructive can be added. I'm more than happy to discuss the matter privately, and would very much like to, but right now, this thread does nothing for the image of the CoH community.

So please, please, anyone who has any concerns about the things I've said, any opinions, advice, or just wants to tell me to shut up, please PM me or grab me over MSN or in-game. I'll discuss it privately, or even over the GGOOC channel, just not on the forums.

Okay, I've had coffee, taken some painkillers, and I'm starting to think more clearly.

I want to apologise for the tone of my initial post. I can see how it can come across as a rant at people. I'm honestly not trying to sound bitter, give out, or guilt-trip people. That's clearly how I came across to several people, and for that I am sorry.

I don't know what to post right now. I've been sat at my PC for half an hour trying to figure out how to phrase this, and I can't. The fact that I'm ever so slightly hung over means I probably shouldn't, anyway.

I'll gather my thoughts for a while and post later.

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Think of it as being the Golden Age, and let us Silver/Bronze/Tin Age heroes join in with the RP

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It's not a case of having any problems with new players going to GG. It's just an observation of the change that's hapening, and how it's affecting me and my characters.

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I think it would also help if it was acknoweldged in some way that RP goes on (esp on Union) by the Devs et al.
I'm sure a few RP-friendly features wouldn't go amiss

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There is. There's a thread on Union, and a link to it in a sticky at the start of the Union Forum.

But yes, the game lacks any RP content.

Apology accepted

Interesting stuff about your character there. I think you could do a lot of good stuff with some juxtaposition between how she protrays herself to the public, and how she feels internally. Perhaps like, having her act the part of the hero in public, and when she gets home she collapses into tears over the loss of who she was. Maybe she had a boyfriend or lover before the incident, who is now threatened by her powers, feeling less a man when around her, and leaves her? She could struggle with the loss of what she views as her own femininity, and learn through the course of the story that she can still be feminine and strong at the same time.

Easter holidays I guess? That helps for those who're in college etc. But the rest of us poor schmoes who have to work for a living...

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Cheer up Wordy, when the holidays approach it'll pick up again.

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The holidays? Why would that make a difference?

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Well, on top of my regular job, I work as the creative director for a local theatre company, and write scripts that mean I...y'know...get to eat real food, as opposed to live on sandwiches. Does that count?


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Yes, it does. It also, however, makes me a little confused. You work in theatre, you write scripts. Have you never read or written a script with prominent, developed, female characters, who suffer from the sort of discimination you wish to portray?

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Write what I know. Well, that's kind of the point. You see, I don't actually know what it's like to be a woman. Funny, that.


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Neither do the majority of successful writers in the world, but they can still write women well. With the experience you've told me you have, which I couldn't have known, even looking at your forum profile, you should have a wealth of material to use as inspiration for how women are portrayed in fiction.

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However, continuously asking me the same question over and over again does nothing but leave me frustrated, and try to find different ways of saying it. Maybe it isn't that I've phrased it poorly, but that you just don't grasp what it is I'm looking for

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Perhaps I don't. But I'm not the only person who has been unclear as to what you're looking for from your questions. On the one hand, you're asking how to portray a woman. Given your background, you probably have better research material to work with than most of us could provide. On the other hand, you ask how players feel about in-game flirting. I don't personally see how that relates to writing fiction. Fiction and roleplaying are very different things, and shouldn't be treated as the same. Your questions have gone back and forth frequently, and I'm sorry for being unable to determine what exactly you expect of us.

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See, that's just it. She isn't more attractive just to be attractive. It's a by-product, a symbol of the fact she's been, for wont of a better phrase, "reborn" as a superhero...

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Okay, excellent, that works really well. There's more, themaically, to her change in appearance than what you initially presented, which was, in all fairness, that she used to be rather plain, and is now really attractive, and will get hit on more. The only thing we have to tell us what you mean and intend with the story, is what you tell us. If you tell us you want help with sexual discrimination, and then drop the reconstructive surgery element with no other reference to its role in the story, we can't possibly realise why you're putting it in there.

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I apologise for not phrasing my questions in the exact, precise way you like, Word. From now on, I'll be sure to not ask anything.

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I apologise for offending you, but the majority of responses to what I've said have been "thanks, but that's not what I'm looking for." It does get frustrating. I'm sorry for my comments.

Edit: And yes, as ShadowGhost says, don't stop asking questions because of me.

Okay, I'm going to reply to a lot here...

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I've no plans to leave after Ellie gets to 50, she's at 42 now and I'm not really in any rush to get those last 8, but I can understand other people that haven't yet achieved that magic number wanting to make the final push. BTW: on Novastar, running 8 man teams, it took me 4 days to go from 44 to 50, playing 3 hours a night, so it can be done quickly with a big team.

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I'm just basing my estimates on how long I've seen the 40-45 run take. From what I've seen, it was about a month for the 40-45. 45-50 would, I imagine therefore, take longer.

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I've also found all the newcomers a little daunting myself. Well, not the players themselves, but more the fact that local is spinning by so fast that if you look away for a second, you'll miss something someone you're talking too said...

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Yeah, I've noticed that. I've een found myself missing things a lot more. Used to be I could follow everything happening under the statue. Now I only manage brief glimpses at things I'm not part of.

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Sounds like it isn't dying so much as some of the regulars moving on and newcomers taking their places - not much comfort when it is your friends and storylines that suffer.

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That's exactly it. Perhaps I chose the wrong wording for the title. Everyone seems to be hung on on the word "Dying" which is not what I wanted. My characters are all involved in relationships and plots with other characters. Relationships and plots which must now be put on hold while everyone else does different things.

GG is changing. Developing. Growing. Evolving. However, the characters mine have grown with aren't there.

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I am trying really hard to sympathise here, but am finding it difficult. Surely, like life, situations change and evolve...

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This is a game, not life. It's a game I pay to play, because I find it fun. If it stops being fun, I'll stop playing, because I'm not going to spend money on something I don't want, need, or enjoy.

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Perhaps those with higher level heroes should start to act like the icons they are supposed to be; encouraging the newer heroes. Too often GG feels like a private club that you've stumbled into by accident....

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How many times do you just walk up to a stranger and start talking to them? Relationships don't just happen. They develop over time. They take effort. I'm not saying I should be able to expect new players to just walk up to me and start talking. Just as I, when I was a new player, did not expect to be suddenly treated like a trusted friend. My point is, I've invested time in my characters, and now the individuals who make up their circles of friends aren't around. If you've got a favourite bar where you and your friends hang out, and your friends stop going, do you keep going to that bar alone?

Electron_Kid, you seem to think I couldn't be bothered talking to the new players, just because they are new. I want to put you straight. This is NOT about new players. This is about older ones, the very reason my characters go to GG. I do have a new character, which I can use to make new IC friendships. My worry is that, down the road, the same thing will happen again, and my issue is that I have to put most of my other characters on hold for the time being, with no indication of when I can continue their development or plots.

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GG isn't dying, it's changing, it may even be restarting after a year, but it's not dying.


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That's fine, change is inevitable. If things don't change, they stagnate, and become boring. At the moment, however, the change that's happening means I can't draw upon what's happened in the past, what's already been established, nearly as much as I'd like to.

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This week (with Aisla on late shift), I'm not getting a lot of evening time to do anything, so I may choose to mission later, but I'll turn up at GG sooner or later. Or I might not, like last night, because I felt lousy, or I'm not in the mood.

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There's nothing wrong with that. I'm seriously not trying to place blame on anyone, nor am I asking people to change what they're doing. I'd much rather people went and did what they enjoy rather than doing something else just because they feel sorry for someone. If people enjoy missions, or private roleplaying more, then fine. It's their subscription to use as they please.

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When the Vigil was at its height, you lot would decamp to a rooftop and have private RP sessions. The Rooftop Generation sucked practically everyone out of GG after about 10:30 every night to go street hunting and RPing in King's Row.

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Okay, yes, fair points. But, to put things in perspective here, this is back in the days when GG would regularly wrap up for most people at about 11pm. I remember back when GG ended at 10! I remember the first time I heard about GGers managing 3 whole hours of roleplay. These days, GG regularly makes it to midnight and beyond. It didn't always. There was a time when the Rooftop Generation left GG close to when we knew from past experience most people would be leaving anyway.

Also, yeah, we left GG at around 10:30. But we were still there for an hour and a half before that, at the busiest times for GG. Even with the Vigil, we still acually went to GG. Lately, people either don't show up to GG at all, show up for as few as five minutes before leaving again, or arrive so late that most people have already left anyway. It's a lot easier to know that people will be around at 9pm for, say, an hour and a half, than hanging around or going off to do something else for a while, hoping that they'll eventually show up, and hoping that you're not caught up in something and ca't get away from it.

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So, sorry to say this, Wordy, but I think you'll find it's just your vision of GG that's dying. GG has probably never been quite the way you thought it was, and now it's changing again. That's all.

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I can well imagine you're right, Birdy. People come, and people go, as we've both said. Things change. I just think things may change to the point where it's not fun for me anymore. Right now, it's not fun. I'm not making any rash decisions. I'm not quitting yet. I just think that saying "it'll all settle back to normal" is naive, because after a long time away, things will have changed. Ask anyone who has left and come back. Also, I don't feel that I should have to wait until people are ready to roleplay with my characters to develop them. Right now, I do have to wait.

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but it seems that the tone of posting here is that the effort isn't worth making because it's "only" new people, and unless there's prior history then no one is worth talking to

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You got the wrong end of the stick. Big time. I would never hold that view of new players. Ever.


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But GG isn't struggling, the problem is key members of ppl's plotlines are MIA.

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That's pretty much right on the head, Finn.

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Quite a few characters I know of will not go to Pocket-D because it is a night club, or because it allows villains in as well as heroes. I strongly suspect that a lot of people quietly ignore the fact that their character wouldn't be seen dead with a villain in order to go to PD.

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Same here. Of my characters, Memory would go to Pocket D. But he has a very different view of the world than most. Nyteshade is a teenager, so wouldn't get in. Alcatraz workd for Freedom Corps, and due to certain parole restrictions, can't go outside the city without an escort. He'd never go unless someone asked him or brought him. Nevermore...wouldn't go to a nightclub.

GG was established last year when Prize rallied heroes to strike against the Council on Striga. It has remained a meeting place for heroes to socialise and exchange help and information in honour of those heroes uniting. It has all the reason it ever needs to be a regular meeting place for heroes and those who know them.

Ah, Ravenswing got there first

I can't believe how much time I've spent writing this reply....

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Okay, I admit my ignorance, but if I didn't know that there was a valid in-game reason for meeting then how are my characters supposed to know?

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Read the thread on Union. It's always in the first or second page of the threads, and there's a link to it in the What's On Union sticky. Go there, say hi, and ask questions.

Yeah, going up to the new players and starting from scratch with my characters is intimidating. I've put a lot of work into developing my characters, creating friendships and relationships. I would like very much to further their plots. But right now, if I do, the only people who'll be there to see are most likely to not know the character in question, and ignore it. So, I have to go through several more weeks and months of development just to get to a stage I got to months ago. In all honesty, it feels like a lot of effort, which may just lead me to the same situation I'm in now.

The thing is, I know GG is changing. It has changed, a lot. The problem is, the characters with whom mine have changed aren't there anymore. So the other areas of GG have changed so much, it's like starting from the beginning again.

The 40-45 stretch took, if I recall, over a month. 45-50 will probably take even longer. Can you really assume everything will be the same, that the community will have just, paused, while that happens?

Besides, who's to say people won't get bored once the big Five O is hit?

GG refers to the roleplaying meetings under the statue of Galaxy Girl in Galaxy City, which happen on the Union Server at abour 9pm every night.

IC: In Character, dialogue and actions undertaken by your character, rather than being your own opinions and thoughts

OOC: Out of Character, anything said by you, the player, rather than through your character.

Jackhobo...when did I make comics????

I've been noticing a trend lately, among all the older GGers I've roleplayed with. Basically, I think they're spending less and less time at GG, in general. People are roleplaying in their Bases, or at Pocket D, in-game in CoV, or doing IC and OOC missions more. And, to be honest, the more I see it happening, the less I feel inclined to go to GG.

I've spent months developing relationships with the characters of players I've come to know and count as friends. And now it feels like I have to start all over again with the newer players. I'm not saying that getting to know the newer GGers is a bad thing, just that it can be a little frustrating, that because of how I've chosen to play the game, and chosen to roleplay my characters, and the other choices I make, that I miss out on other things that are going on.

Now, before anyone starts, I'm not trying to get at anyone. I'm not blaming anyone for this, just observing an occurence which causes me some concern. I do not begrudge anyone for deciding to enjoy the game as they see fit. I just, sometimes, a lot more often lately, find myself either standing idle at the statue, all too late realising that everyone else is in Pocket D or on missions, or worse, feel completely disinclined be in-game.

I'm not a huge fan of missions. I could probably quite happily pay my fees just to play with the costume creator and roleplay. Missions bore me after an hour or so. I'll probably never reach 50, and I don't care. I'm starting to wonder, is all of this a fad? Will interest in Pocket D die off when the lag and tools become too annoying? Will mission-going die off once everyone hits 50? And more importantly, will there be any roleplaying left to be had once this happens?

I, for one, am not really willing to hang around waiting for people to come back to roleplay with the GG crowd. I can't develop my plots and characters properly, because their friends and loved ones aren't around anymore. I don't want to have to start all over again with them, only for this to happen again down the road. I'm stuck. Most of my characters are stuck.

Like in real life, when your friends and loved ones stop hanging around a certain place, so do you.

I'm not asking people to change their behaviour. I'm not trying to say "come back to GG or I'm leaving." I'm just expressing how I feel right now, voicing a concern that I have. Highlighting a potential problem.

CoH isn't a good enough game to keep me playing on its own. The roleplay was why I stayed. The worst bit of news I had today was that the DC MMO wasn't due out until 2008, and that the D&D MMO seems to be more like online dungeon crawling than anything else.

Is GG dying? How much longer before most (if not all) people I know in CoH move on? Will we be celebrating the second Real Life GG meet up at the Bristol comic expo in May, or having a farewell banquet?

Right now, the situation looks like this, to paraphrase someone we're all fond of talking about:

People come, and people go. Such is the nature of Galaxy Girl.

In answer to Pious:

No, I haven't written comics before

I'm an aspiring writer, and am working on a novel.

I'll be happy to check out your stuff. Just, not after I've been sharing a bottle of wine with my fiancée.