Stalemate

Mentor Project Signs up 100th Mentor

As I looked into my GMail account today I noticed we had another registration, and when the spreadsheet opened before me I realized that Tog was our 100th officially registered volunteer mentor.

Folks, I can't begin to express how proud I am to see players of all ages and experience offer up their skills, knowledge and time for the benefit of other players.

This may have been a grassroots movement, but it has grown by leaps and bounds ever since the idea was introduced to the CoX community.

Well done folks.

I personally think that any person who strives to stand above the masses in matters of upholding what's right and doing the right thing has 2 effects.

1. Their decision to live according to a higher moral code will make them targets as others consider their motivations to be arrogant, self-righteous, even holier-than-thou.

2. When a failure occurs, there is an immediate association that this is directly linked to the aforementioned decision. I.E.: "the reason he failed is because he was unwilling to compromise his ideals" or the other end of the scale "failure was inevitable because he was hypocritical about his morals/code of justice".

Personal observations:

About Point #1: I find more and more (on Protector at least) that truly heroic characters are less and less common as time goes by. This is the same for comic book characters so the influence may stem from there. Anti-heroes and vigilantes always seem to draw more interest when the time comes to create a character (be it in a MMORPG or pen and paper). For these, "looking out for number one" is an underscore to their actions.

Examples: Wolverine, Punisher, Spawn, Midnighter (and the whole Authority team), Magneto (sometimes), The Boys, etc.

Yet, it's the truly heroic oriented heroes who garner the most attention generally - and even more so if they're dealing with some personal turmoil which they have to overcome.

Example: Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, etc.

The line isn't always clearly defined between these 2 types of superheroes, I'll admit. But depending on their motivations at any given time they can fit in either of these categories.

The difference is when Point #2 is added to the equation:

Anti-heroes are less likely to be publicly chastised for errors in judgement or downright F* ups. After all, it's expected of them.

Hero-centric characters will have entire arcs scripted when they make a mistake, and how public opinion has turned against them.

Why is this?

I personally think it's because, as flawed human beings, we actually don't want to associate with the lofty ideals, justice and morals of the hero-centric characters - while secretly admiring them.

That is, until...

The hero's fall occurs and we take a little guilty pleasure as spectators out of the experience: "I knew it would happen", "what a hypocrite" and "I told you so".

In real life, I've noticed a tendency for people to adopt a Bad Boy or Bad Girl façade as a defense mechanism to protect themselves for those times when a personal failure occurs. They appear to revel in being bad, if only to diminish the expectations of others towards them. The upside is they can also pretty much do as they please, adopting any behavior (however destructive or even anti-social) while retaining some approval from their peers.*

After all, they're "keeping it real" and living their life their own way, bu their own rules

This is not so of the one who tries to live according to a set of morals. That person retains public appeal only as long as the behavior is flawless. Since this is impossible, peers and bystanders will wait for the opportunity to catch this person in an act that is counter to the lifestyle they profess to live by.

So in reality, as in fiction, we tend to gravitate towards people and characters that reflect our human duality and moral dilemma more closely.

That is not to say we don't secretly aspire to be better, to act morally,and even sometimes admire those who daily strive to live this way. But the fact is we feel more comfortable around others who have a similar outlook on life and the world around us.


*NB - It's interesting to note that, if the hero is castigated against for his failures in living up to his ideals, the anti-hero or villain is not chastised in the least for failing to live up to theirs when, say, they take personal risk to rescue someone or anonymously help another. And yet both have acted against their professed ideals and are hypocrites in that sense.

Probably wiped out during the last DB conversion / upgrade / whatever, like everyone else.

I've found HS to be particularly useful when running characters with buffs / debuffs or even on mélée toons where I want to keep an eye out on longer recharges to better coordinate everything.

When that empath *swears* he gave you fortitude, HS can confirm it.

In PvP, it can even help you know when to run, or when to get ready for a particular attack chain.

Here's a list of everything else it can do, besides update your badge acquisitions: http://www.herostats.org/screenshots.html

Personally, I prefer to use the unstable (beta) versions as they often take into account the latest game updates and new badges (for a while, the unstable version was the only one able to update badge conts at badge-hunter.com during the database transition).

Inter....

Aw dammit!


*hands Major T some inf

Things went superbly well for the KHTF, with Justaris taking the star since (from lack of planning) I didn't have any characters that could start it.

Thanks for stepping in Justaris.

We completed the TF and someone (Carnada I believe) spotted that the GMs were out and about, so we just had to take them out, you know - for kicks. Badges ensued.

Short recess, character swapping, and then Sister Psyche. This one didn't go as smoothly with mutiple deaths and such, but still we kept at it and completed it.

Great group of tenacious people to run with. Thx for getting me some points with the wifey.


Of course, since her (current) badger still needed a few TFs, when someone announced wanting to take a stab at the Augustine TF we jumped all over that.

The first team announced in PV got filled up too fast and so we had to start a second one. Jessie stepped up to the plate and amazed us all with her movement speed in that zone while I just kept screaming louder and louder at my useless GPS. A couple of SG mates and some new Victory friends with alts on Protector rounded off the team.

A good time and merits were had by all.

Nice.

Thanks guys.

Catch you later today.

Sunday July 11 in late PM (3-4PM eastern - aiming for 3:30) wife and I will be running Katie Hannon's TF followed by Sister Psyche's.

There are 6 spots available.

No preferences as to what AT you'd can bring - go with what you like.

These will be on casual, laid back runs with no particular strategy (speed runs, stealth, etc.).


1. Cassiopea = Lady Cryostat (lvl 50 ice/emp)
2. Stalemate = TBD
3. Justaris = Maxwell's Demon (50 fire/kin) // Whirligig (20 elec/elec)
4. Mr Grey = TBD (if online)
5. DJKyo = TBD
6.
7.
8.

Was great running with all you guys.

*shines new badge muttering "my preciousssss..."

Congratz Shining Storm!

Was that today?

Happy Birthday!

I can ask wifey to bring her ice/emp or plant/therm?

I think you've met her.

I'm with Sooner.

There better be a badge.

Also, yay.