Crimson_Archer_EU

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It's certainly an interesting discussion - would be a shame to see it locked.

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I agree, but as I have already politely asked for the off-topic posts to stop, and they didn't, I see no other option.

Perhaps we can start again somewhere and hope that people remain on-topic second time around.

Okay everyone, it's clear that the discussion about g*y superheroes in the game City of Heroes has been thoroughly hijacked by gender politics in the real world, so as of now I'm contacting Bridge and asking him to close this thread as the topic is dead.

Thanks to everyone who contributed with some interesting on-topic posts.

Peace.

Please, this thread was started to be about g*y superheroes in City of Heroes. If you wish to start a seperate thread to discuss a far wider range of gender politics in the real world, then please do so, but can we [u]please[u] bring this derailed thread back on course, before I claim the original topic as dead and ask Bridger to lock it.

Thank you.

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As for Crimson, I'd say that there's things you could explore without a relationship. For example, I know that he's had to turn down several ladies who were interested in him due to his orientation. What would happen if they didn't take no for an answer? What if they fell for him? Could he find himself attracted to a hetero hero? Or even worse, falling for a girl?

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So far, he's managed to avoid actively turning anyone down, as he's still largely in the closet as far as the wider world goes! He has become a little more adept at side stepping the issue though...so long as he isn't drunk!

I have actually given all of those questions some thought in the recent past, and while I have some answers I hope it'll be more fun to play them out in-game and see how Crimson reacts. Why do we love putting our boys/girls through so much angst!?

Best story I heard along a similar vein was a man holding a door open for a woman to pass through. She says "You're only holding that open becasue I'm a woman"

"No ma'am," says the man, "I am holding it open because *I* am a gentleman."

ZING!

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Who actually thinks about a toon's sexual orientation before he starts playing that toon, especially if the toon happens to have the same sexual orientation as the player?

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As I imagine that as the majority of Alts (even RP Alts) are pretty much cteated off-the-cuff, or with a generalised theme or half formed backstory, this is probably true. Sexuality tends not to be the big THING when creating a character. It certainly wasn't for Crimson Archer. He was originally created because I'm a huge fan of Green Arrow and liked the idea of make GA into a bigotted redneck. The two things that defined Crimson in the beginning was him being both a homage character and an [censored] who didn't like mutants.

But, as RP alts do, he grew. Inside my head he started to mess with the plans for him. I hoped to have him involved in a three way love triangle with a couple of other SG characters, but he just wouldn't play ball in my head. For ages I couldn't figure out why this character wouldn't behave, until I realised that his backstory, his personality, and all those little inspirations that come about through playing were making him g*y. And that was it, he fitted in my head!

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, strive for realism. Play a character, don't write them. If you try and micro-manage a character then there's little room for growth, and the joy of roleplaying (for me at least) is in that growth. The little surprises that get thrown up by your character from time-to-time which make them a wonder to play.

(Okay, this has turned into abit of a ramble, and I'm now not sure if it's on-topic or not. Either way I'll post it, and you can set the pandas on my later if it makes no sense!)

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The thing is... Sexuality is just one dimension of a character. There are many others.

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Please can anyone thinking of making a g*y toon read this and take it to heart. WHen I started this thread it was out of genuine curiousity and frustration born of feeling like I'd have to give Crimson a forum only boyfriend.

Sadly, I'm now more worried that Pocket D is going to filled with Graham Norton or John Innman act-a-likes dressing in bondage straps and various shades of pink apparel!

Please don't take this from one extreme to another in the name of "fair" roleplaying...

You don't make Teleport Beacons, you find them... like badges.

Each zone has a set of beacons locations, and if you visit all the locations of a zone (while in supergroup mode), then you acquire the teleport beacon to add to your teleport pad.

You can find maps of where the beacons are located on any of the CoH map sites (;ike vidiot maps), and ParagonWiki
will give you map co-ordinates if you use the /location window.

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but i expect you could always say Crimson has an NPC partner for a while? although obviously it ain't the same

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The sad thing is that if I want to either give him a stable homse life, or introduce some "relationship tension" to his story, then I may have to do just that!

Sometimes I watch with an air of jealousy those characters who have got other player characters as boy/girlfriends, as the relationship can play out as more real.

If I have to resort to inventing an "other half" then it just feels kinda..well..contrived.

Actually, I've never been able to get inspired myself to play a villian, so maybe we can inspire each other!

Drop me some details at your leisure, and maybe you can help me get inspired to be EVIL!!

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lol - I thought this thread about the general censoring that goes on and how weird it can be.

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Yeah, this thread was called "G*y Heroes" when I created it, but, as the majority have now figured, the filter stepped in and ruined things for me.

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He is deffiantely one of my favourite characters to play, more to do with his personality than his orientation. The problem I've found, as others mentioned, is having almost no other homosexual characters to RP with. So Ray is likely to stay single for a looong time yet.

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That's one of the main problems. I love playing Crimson, and I'd like to be able to play him with a full, in-game life, but if I want him to get any real physical closeness, then I have to use short stories or Forum RP.

It seems odd to me that people (particularly male roleplayers) will easily, even eagerly, embrace the idea of roleplaying a lesbian, asexual, bisexual, or straight character, but the male homosexual seems to largely be a RP taboo.

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Perhaps there are more than you think, but the subject of sexuality doesn't come up much in RP? There's a difference between being openly [censored], and randomly blurting out, "I like men" during PLOT.

All the ICly lesbian characters I've come across are only obvious by the fact that they all seem to have partners being RP'd.

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Hmmm...maybe that's the point. It's eaier to FIND a lesbian partner in RP for a character than a g*y one, which (combined with them percieved as being more attractive to play for male players) makes them "easier" to play if you're looking for interaction?

I mean in the past, Crimson has hung out in Pocket D, checked out the heroes & villians, listened into conversation, and even spoken to barstaff, all in the hope of getting a hint whether a character might be "available".

However, he's unpowered and in a world where a punch might be replaced with a radiation blast, just walking up to a guy and telling them you think they're hot has the potential for far more serious RP consequences!

I don't know if this a contentious subject or not, but here goes...

Having RPed in CoH for abou two years now I've seen more lesbian heroines than I can shake a spandex clad stick at, but realised the other week that I haven't noticed many openly [censored] heroes.

Are there any [censored] heroes out there besides Crimson Archer? and why is it that lesbian characters seem to be so much more prevelant in MMO RP than [censored] characters?

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PLUS why can I use the word "Lesbian" openly on the CoH forum, but I can't use the G-word?

I think Pocket D may become a haven away from the fighting, somewhere that battle weary heroes and villians can actually rest, take stock and not have to worry about attack from the Rikti, before heading back into the war.

But can Oil Slick Arrow be slotted with enhancements to the Defense Debuff? Or are we stuck with the default and slotting for recharge and damage? :P

I have to admit that I also found my Trick Arrow/Archery Defender to be hard going all through his "teens". Now he's lvl33 he's a lot more fun to play, but I nearly gave up several times during those "growing pains" which are largely to do with the powers on offer with the sets.

I'd like to nominate Zurra's portrait of Royal Flush for the Creative Genius Award.

In part I'm nominating because I want to encourage Zurra to do more work like this, but in the main it's because this is just a damn fine piece of art!

If you mean The Militia forum community, then just register on our forum and introduce yourself!

It is mostly for Militia members, but if you're interested in joining The Militia too, then we can discuss that. Just remember that we are a Roleplaying Supergroup.

There's certainly no shortage of creative juices amongst CoX players, as a quick scan of the Creative forum shows!

Sometimes people will post their bios on the forums, but generally if people are inclined to post then they tend to expand them into full stories. The important thing is that people want to share their creativity. If you're proud of your bios then share them!

It's also worth remembering that if you're into RP, then many RP Superroups have their own forums where members post stories, bios, and other works to share and to help expand on the character they play. Our RP Supergroup, The Militia, does exactly that and I like to think that we have quite a thriving creativity community!

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...Bargain Hunt would be awesome

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You could make it exactly like Bargain Hunt by having teams of two heroes running round the city zone for an hour before hand trying to find the best salvage to sell at the auction at the end of the programme/event!

Loved it!!

Does he need a sidekick?!

My guess is that Pocket D was largely ignored by all but the RPers because it didn't have any benefit to going there... No badges, no missions, no interest.

However, as soon as Events started being hosted in Pocket D, the interest started. Because of this we had OOC and IC clashes, people who were "just players" colliding with "IC characters" in a location which the RPers regarded as theirs, but was suddenly part of the larger game.

I think we ended up with a bit of a p*ssing contest, and I don't think it's improved much...

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Alas, CoH isn't actualy an MMORPG. If you check, the R is missing from the description...

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But it is often refered to as a Roleplaying game by the devs themselves in interviews, I think the last one was Positron during the "Ask The Devs" questions/answers session.

Regardless of whether the game is sold as an MMOG or an MMORPG, hopefully if the developers percieve and work on it under the assumption of it being a roleplaying game (as some of then certianly seem to do), then we are more likely to get RP orientated content to reflect this.

Sadly though, this doesn't affect the actions of tools...

I don't think Pocket D as a place has gone down a notch, after all there are more places to RP there than just the main bars, and moving away from those lowers the tool quota significanyly. However, I do feel that player ettiquette has gone down lately. Unsolicitied and non useful Tells in an RP environment, random AoE powers and broadcasts are all examples of this, and I think that some of it may be linked to a percieved influx of new, inexperienced and younger players.

I hope that as the shine wears off and these players start to just enjoy the game without the "puppy bouncing" of it being new, these things will start calm down until the next influx during the next Issue release...

Perhaps we need an additional room in PD; a chill out room. Not just no fighting, but with a power dampening field and no pets rule too.

I'm coming to the conclusion that Flash Arrow might actually be MORE useful at higher levels, both for a thriple slotted accuracy/perception debuff and as a signal to the rest of the team.

Grappling Arrow is definately not getting the look in on team play as it once was. It's still useful in solo play, but I think that having Flash Arrow is starting to stretch the lead slightly for a more team oriented, 30+ character.