Although I'm not for complaining in forums I can say that I can agree with the above. I have seen the same people "RPing" under Atlas for hours on end, and although that's great and I've had some fun chatting with them it just doesn't seem to be the same kind of traditional RP that you find in other games. I played DAoC for awhile, and although I know there are those that despise or dislike that game, they made the RP quite realistic to the world that surrounded them. They put on little carnivals where people would share stories of bravery and courage whether about themselves or others. Some would even share stories of Arthur, which if you don't know is what the game is somewhat based upon.
Now with the RPing that is in CoH, I have no intention of making a judgement on any person's method of roleplaying but I do see a lack of "realistic" roleplaying out there. Course it might be able to help if there were some way to incorporate SG headquarters and what not. However, becoming your character or essentially acting as a character in a cinema or novel is truly what roleplaying is about.
Yes with HQ maybe things will get better 
It will add more flavor to the game at least!
I try to RP a hero comic book style, my SG is a well defined villian buttkicking machine. We don't have time to chat there is too many villians running amok and ruining the lives of the citizens in Paragon City. We RP amongst ourselves in battle about tactics and the next mission. We don't have time for coffee.
Romance? whats a better way for a tank to say "I love you" then provoking the villians to attack him instead.
A little love tap is always a great sign of caring between a hero and a villain. Always has been.
[ QUOTE ]
I think people have a misconception of what RPing really is.
[/ QUOTE ]
Is that so?
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I've been a RPer for 16 years now and alot of what I see in game is not RPing but nonsense. If you want to stand around and chat about made up issues then play the simms ,if you want to RP a hero then make one.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm so glad you're here to tell us these things. I mean, my god...some of us have been playing tabletop RPG's since, what, 1985. Some of us are even LARPers. Lord knows we haven't a clue how to RP, so, gosh, I'm so happy we have someone else here to police it for us.
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If you have to take a power for playabilites sake then do so, you can allways chose to ignore that ability when you RP or you can make up somthing different than the discription for how it works. A jet pack for super leap, who says you jump like the hulk, a invisable motor cycle for superspeed, who says you have to run that fast, wonder woman had an invisable jet.
[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, this I agree with. Not a half-bad idea. Too bad it's buried in with all this other stuff.
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Instead they chat away hours at a time and when they do happen to do a mission there has to be a 2 hour debrief on how the mission personally affected their heroe, leangthy debate on wether the color purple looks good on them and disscusions on their RP girl/boyfriend. Shure thats fun some of the time but I see more people centering the game around that instead of the game itself. It is a game and not a chatroom or story contest right?
[/ QUOTE ]
Actually, it's all that. That and more. It's just as viable to spend all night in the Paragon Dance Party and tell your female friend about how you and your boyfriend broke up because he went and got another girl pregnant, but it's awful because she still loves him, and doesn't know what to do...then, to alleviate the stress and get an emotional outlet, step outside and beat the snot out of some offending pack of Tsoo. And really...does purple look attractive on anyone? 
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RP is assuming the role of somone else and even in a fantasy setting is closely related to RL
[/ QUOTE ]
HUNH???
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and if in RL any of my friends got as indepth about themselves as some people get indepth about thier heroes I would go crazy. Heroes take action, not stand around talking about action, save the drama for the soap operas.
[/ QUOTE ]
*opts to refrain from discussing the comic-book style stories that crop up from time to time in the long-running soap operas*
[ QUOTE ]
I'm just commenting on what I have seen in game and I know not everyone plays like this, maybe I'm wrong about what a superhereo does. If you have fun doing this more power to you I don't want to spoil your fun, I just had to get this off my chest, hopfully you will understand my point. Does this make me an ********? yes but I don't care and you shouln't eithier.
[/ QUOTE ]
If you don't care about being an ********, why are you concerned about appearing like one? I wasn't going to call you names in this post, but if you insist... j/k
Look, I realize you're probably very well-intended with this post, and I appreciate your input, as I do *MOST* of the people who post on here. There is a great deal of creativity and good information to be gleaned from these boards, and I actively enjoy reading them and learning from them. HOWEVER...anyone who starts talking about "right" and "wrong" ways to roleplay... *eyes turn white, skin turns green, clothes ripping, eerie high-pitched music playing in the background* Flat out: There is no right way to roleplay. Period. The closest you can get to "wrong" is "I act like an a-hole because my character is an a-hole so it's just him." Is it drama? Yes. Is it overwrought sometimes? Yes. If it bothers you, move on. Or, there's always the ever-popular /ignore function. Please use it; it means the rest of us RP'ers don't have to listen to you tell us how "wrong" we are.
And then, there's the positive alternative: Make some popcorn, sit down, and admit (strictly in private, to yourself, of course) that you enjoy this guilty little pleasure and watch your friends make virtual fools of themselves.
So there you have it. Is this a flame? It wasn't intended to be, but who knows? I've lost track. Am I trolling? Again, not intentionally. Did I piss you off? I do apologize; it wasn't my intent. Did I make you stop and think?
Yay me.
<<A jet pack for super leap, who says you jump like the hulk>>
Actually, ignoring comics for a second, power-assisted leaping for power suits or robots is pretty common in games. Rifts has the Triax Terrain Hopper, BattleTech's battlemechs have jump jets, et cetera et cetera.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think people have a misconception of what RPing really is.
[/ QUOTE ]
Is that so?
[ QUOTE ]
I've been a RPer for 16 years now and alot of what I see in game is not RPing but nonsense. If you want to stand around and chat about made up issues then play the simms ,if you want to RP a hero then make one.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm so glad you're here to tell us these things. I mean, my god...some of us have been playing tabletop RPG's since, what, 1985. Some of us are even LARPers. Lord knows we haven't a clue how to RP, so, gosh, I'm so happy we have someone else here to police it for us.
[ QUOTE ]
If you have to take a power for playabilites sake then do so, you can allways chose to ignore that ability when you RP or you can make up somthing different than the discription for how it works. A jet pack for super leap, who says you jump like the hulk, a invisable motor cycle for superspeed, who says you have to run that fast, wonder woman had an invisable jet.
[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, this I agree with. Not a half-bad idea. Too bad it's buried in with all this other stuff.
[ QUOTE ]
Instead they chat away hours at a time and when they do happen to do a mission there has to be a 2 hour debrief on how the mission personally affected their heroe, leangthy debate on wether the color purple looks good on them and disscusions on their RP girl/boyfriend. Shure thats fun some of the time but I see more people centering the game around that instead of the game itself. It is a game and not a chatroom or story contest right?
[/ QUOTE ]
Actually, it's all that. That and more. It's just as viable to spend all night in the Paragon Dance Party and tell your female friend about how you and your boyfriend broke up because he went and got another girl pregnant, but it's awful because she still loves him, and doesn't know what to do...then, to alleviate the stress and get an emotional outlet, step outside and beat the snot out of some offending pack of Tsoo. And really...does purple look attractive on anyone?
[ QUOTE ]
RP is assuming the role of somone else and even in a fantasy setting is closely related to RL
[/ QUOTE ]
HUNH???
[ QUOTE ]
and if in RL any of my friends got as indepth about themselves as some people get indepth about thier heroes I would go crazy. Heroes take action, not stand around talking about action, save the drama for the soap operas.
[/ QUOTE ]
*opts to refrain from discussing the comic-book style stories that crop up from time to time in the long-running soap operas*
[ QUOTE ]
I'm just commenting on what I have seen in game and I know not everyone plays like this, maybe I'm wrong about what a superhereo does. If you have fun doing this more power to you I don't want to spoil your fun, I just had to get this off my chest, hopfully you will understand my point. Does this make me an ********? yes but I don't care and you shouln't eithier.
[/ QUOTE ]
If you don't care about being an ********, why are you concerned about appearing like one? I wasn't going to call you names in this post, but if you insist... j/k
Look, I realize you're probably very well-intended with this post, and I appreciate your input, as I do *MOST* of the people who post on here. There is a great deal of creativity and good information to be gleaned from these boards, and I actively enjoy reading them and learning from them. HOWEVER...anyone who starts talking about "right" and "wrong" ways to roleplay... *eyes turn white, skin turns green, clothes ripping, eerie high-pitched music playing in the background* Flat out: There is no right way to roleplay. Period. The closest you can get to "wrong" is "I act like an a-hole because my character is an a-hole so it's just him." Is it drama? Yes. Is it overwrought sometimes? Yes. If it bothers you, move on. Or, there's always the ever-popular /ignore function. Please use it; it means the rest of us RP'ers don't have to listen to you tell us how "wrong" we are.
And then, there's the positive alternative: Make some popcorn, sit down, and admit (strictly in private, to yourself, of course) that you enjoy this guilty little pleasure and watch your friends make virtual fools of themselves.
So there you have it. Is this a flame? It wasn't intended to be, but who knows? I've lost track. Am I trolling? Again, not intentionally. Did I piss you off? I do apologize; it wasn't my intent. Did I make you stop and think?
Yay me.
[/ QUOTE ]
Very dramatic response. No I'm not pissed.........ROFL 
Don't hate me because I'm beautiful
Don't hate the player hate the game
Since our last episode Prisonlove experienced his first gangrape in the prison showers. Will he call his mother, beg big J for forgivness or pass his new experience on to other inmates?
Prisonlove sits silently on his bunk ..........((This program has been interupted to remind you that upnme is looking for a empath to assist her team in positrons task force))..........We now return you to scheduled programing.
Interesting...OP makes a statement, I place my stance on the matter comfortably in opposition to his, and in response, OP...hangs a hard left, leaving squeal marks on the pavement, straight through the department store window.
HUNH?!?
I guess, when you don't have a leg to stand on, all that's left to do is flallop around a lot. Okie-day...moving right along...
Maybe that's what RP is to you. Do you have the right to say what other people are doing is wrong? I don't think so... Your opinion is valid, but it becomes ignorant and arrogant when you claim that your opinion is the only one which is correct.
[ QUOTE ]
Maybe that's what RP is to you. Do you have the right to say what other people are doing is wrong? I don't think so... Your opinion is valid, but it becomes ignorant and arrogant when you claim that your opinion is the only one which is correct.
[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm just commenting on what I have seen in game and I know not everyone plays like this, maybe I'm wrong about what a superhereo does. If you have fun doing this more power to you I don't want to spoil your fun, I just had to get this off my chest
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, I do have the right to say what other people do is wrong (constitution, bill of rights, freedom of speech) although that is just my opinion. Is it ignorant or arrogant? Only if you dissagree with it, if you agree with it then you find it correct.
Whats your opinion on the matter? I am open minded enough to listen. Elighten me, I just might reconsider my stance.
Prisonlove sits silently on his bunk contemplating his next move. He wanted revenge for this violation of humanity. There was Shiver and Shiver owed him a favor, the price would be a carton of smokes...........
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Is it ignorant or arrogant? Only if you dissagree with it, if you agree with it then you find it correct.
[/ QUOTE ]
Correct and arrogant are not mutually exclusive.
In the case of something which has no rules (Roleplaying) you can't say that person X is doing it wrong, merely that they are doing it differently.
Imagine you're an artist who paints landscapes, someone comes along and introduces Cubism to you; it's not wrong as a type of art, it's merely different.
To say "I do not think Cubism is a valid art-form" is an opinion and is valid, to say "Cubism is wrong" is arrogant.
Does that clear things up?
Then I stand corrected, I am arrogant on this matter for I still do think it is "wrong" to RP that way in this (COH) setting.
My sig,
Read it
Know it
Love it
Praise the Stabby!!!
[ QUOTE ]
I think people have a misconception of what RPing really is. ..... If you want to stand around and chat about made up issues then play the simms ,if you want to RP a hero then make one. ....... Instead they chat away hours at a time and when they do happen to do a mission there has to be a 2 hour debrief on how the mission personally affected their heroe, leangthy debate on wether the color purple looks good on them and disscusions on their RP girl/boyfriend. Shure thats fun some of the time but I see more people centering the game around that instead of the game itself. It is a game and not a chatroom or story contest right?
[/ QUOTE ]
So, from how *I* interpret this, your main issue is with people who do almost nothng but? (I can see where if that were the case, the conversations/discussions would be very chatroom-like, and kind of pointless in Paragon City, since the "heroes don't really do anything)
[ QUOTE ]
RP is assuming the role of somone else and even in a fantasy setting is closely related to RL and if in RL any of my friends got as indepth about themselves as some people get indepth about thier heroes I would go crazy. Heroes take action, not stand around talking about action, save the drama for the soap operas.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yet, that is what people in RL do as well. Just because you hang out with people who don't (because, as you said, it woudl drive you crazy), that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
[ QUOTE ]
I'm just commenting on what I have seen in game and I know not everyone plays like this, maybe I'm wrong about what a superhereo does.
[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe. I know a lot of people who do hang out for hours on end chatting and such (I myself do upon occasion) but they also do missions and stuff. Continually do I see the lvls of people I "RP" with go up, which means they also play the game. They have complete personalities, as well as their own, character-specific storylines, which often also include ridding the world of the different factions of enemies in the game.
Also, a superhero can't be fighting ALL the time. Even they have down time to do things like regular jobs (ex: she-hulk), get into fights/conflicts with other heroes (for any number of reasons), and/or just generally relax. A lot of the discussions I get involved in are about fights (missions) people have just come from, or need to take care of, as well as more common everyday, average person, type stuff.
[ QUOTE ]
If you have fun doing this more power to you I don't want to spoil your fun, I just had to get this off my chest, hopfully you will understand my point.
[/ QUOTE ]
I do give you much props, however, for being willing to let us continue on our merry little way, and not harass us just because you don't agree.
P.S. (one last cent, I promise) I hang out on Virtue, and it looks like you hang out on Champion.. Perhaps since I have heard Virtue called the "unofficial RP server" the people I RP with are more inclined to include everything- down time, personal character stuff, AND missions and CoH baddies- as part of their RPing. *Just* a thought, and in no way meant to offend anyone on other servers, because I am positive that there are people like this on EVERY server.
I have to say I agree wholeheartedly. I heard Gemini park was the place to find RolePlayers on virtue, but everytime I've swung by there I've not seen any real roleplaying, just a bunch of guys in pajama's sitting around and talking about subjects that have little or nothing to do with Paragon or the setting in which their characters have been placed.
'Roleplaying' a hero doesn't mean sitting around talking politics or discussing what's for dinner, if you're a HERO you fight crime!
Heroes don't all stand around talking about the everyday stuff, sure you do that when you're in your civies or just sitting around the hall of Justice waiting for a national emergency, but you don't do it for hours on end in a city park while a group of hellions is in plain sight stealing a little old ladies purse.
I have to say I've actually gotten very selective about who I RP with because, honestly most of the people I've found who claim to be RPers don't act like the heroes they supposedly are, they act more like patrons at a starbucks sitting around sipping their mocha's. It's a very disheartening thing to see in a RPG where the entire player base is supposed to be made up of heroes - and it's even sadder when you can have a better RP experience grouping with people who aren't even RPers than you can have sitting around with people who are. 
What I like about CoH is that both roleplaying and adventuring are possible activities. I can do both at once, I could do one or the other, or I could switch gears when it suits me. This game isn't like a first-person shooter or most adventuring games where the entire point is to make it to the next level or to kill/destroy everything in sight. When I'm in the mood to have my characters kick some butt and get some XP, I have them undergo their missions. When I'm in the mood to interact with other heroes ways that don't involve hitting things, I have the characters head to Gemini Park or some other place where fellow players are gathered, and I hang out.
Some venues offer nothing but adventuring, and some involve nothing but RPing and chatting. If a game (like CoH) offers both, and the freedom to switch gears, I'm going to take advantage of that fact.
I suppose if I did nothing but level my characters up, I'd have seen what levels 40 and 50 look like by now (so far, none of my characters have hit level 20 yet), but I've never seen that as the point anyway. It bores me. When I get tired of the XP debt or the treadmill in general, I hang out with other heroes to unwind and shoot the breeze -- or even dance. When that gets tiring, I go bust some heads. That approach has worked out for me so far, though I suppose it must annoy other players who insist I should be busting heads every moment I'm logged into the game. I'm sure the very idea of dancing must annoy both the adventure-minded people and the roleplay-minded people, but my characters happen to enjoy it -- and if they do, so do I.
It probably sounds unheroic to have heroes who aren't dishing out or receiving a beatdown for the entire time I'm playing them, but again, I don't see that as the point anyway. Even a brief look at actual superhero comics reveals that the characters therein don't spend the entirety of every issue "leveling up". Rather, there's often personal character stuff interspersed with the action -- and several issues can go by without any action being seen! So what are they doing the rest of the time? Some are in their civilian identities engaging in activities that lead to superhero action; others without secret identities are often unwinding or doing something else that might be just as (or more) interesting than adventuring. In both cases, the characters (unless they're brooding or sleeping on-panel) are interacting with others, and building the stories that way. This is why I've gone through the trouble to include backstories for most of my characters, and even a secret identity in one case. It gives the characters something to talk about or deal with, and that's what leads to storytelling possibilities.
That's what it's about for me: telling stories with the characters I create. If that somehow offends other players who have a different idea about how I should approach the game ... again, it's not up to you. :P
Well, you know, once in a blue moon I do broach subjects in character like the crimnial justice system, and so on-- things that at least are serious relevant issues for superheroes. But for the most part, that part of "the scene" has not been set well enough for it to come up in conversation. (I posted something here about that once. Wonder if it's still up. Edit: yes it is: Citizens Crime Fighting Act )
Talking interior design is a weak alternative. But. :shrug: Presumably heroes do have conversations about it, at some point.
Comic book superheroes exist in a medium very unlike an ongoing-time enviornment of CoH. They're part of a planned story, and we don't waste frames on Heroes doing nothing but making sandwiches, with no Superheroic events close on the heels of the sandwich. Oh well.
Likewise, it's weird to stand around in a public place in spandex with a bunch of other people in spandex.
I can nearly see the rationale for the "under the Atlas statue" situation, if it were actually mostly RP. But seriously, the spot is for superheroes quite significant. It genuinely is in some ways, perhaps along with the safest zones of Paragon altogether, the Mecca for superheroes worldwide.
Anyway, that's the way I look at it IC.
Just like we might make allowances for Superspeed being a motorcycle, we make allowances for the absence of private superhero bases, etc etc.
It's a balancing act, I guess is my point. Superheroes in the comics tend to be less than three-D personalities at first glance, and exist in breif frame sequences that are carefully planned to make a certain impression and leave the rest to the imagiation.
That's just not to be had if you're gonna RP on CoH.
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters
Oh, one other thing.
That opinions and tastes differ somewhat does not mean they differ infinitely, nor does it mean that we should tolerate people using words to mean anything they want, nor that someone who defends playing Poker as "roleplaying" in a conversation about what is expected out of RP in a game like CoH shouldn't be dismissed (with prejudice).
The thing is, if the Picasso of RPing is on CoH, there's at most one of him, and I'm willing to let him suffer being misunderstood and dismissed, for the sake of preserving conventional RPing, which in any event the Picassoesque breakthrough will NOT widely and lastingly replace.
Because RPing doesn't mean "anything you want." RPing is about putting forward a coherent, believable illusion of a personality, in sync with accompanying events and setting. Some things are so necessary to that, for such a large majority of people, that nobody who cares about RPing would ignore them. Likewise, some things are so likely to ruin it for such a large majority of people, that nobody who cares about RPing would do them.
I realize most people won't want to talk that out long enough to arrive at which things are which.
I also realize that there're folks who think calling something "wrong" is simply out of the question. The real reason they say that is suspect, though-- it's an attempt to salvage people's feelings, not an effort to get at what what's workable or not. But people's feelings don't need that much salvaging, and these folks I'm talking about are, after all, wrong! ^_^
Ha! 5:30 AM diatribe! I've been playing too much CoH to write many such, lately.
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters
For what it's worth, why not just look at it from a role-playing perspective? The heroes being complained about in the original post -do-, in fact, stand around talking about themselves. The hero whose player is doing the complaining is the gung-ho, no-nonsense, "feelings-we-don't-need-no-stinking-feelings" kind of hero quite frankly thinks all those other types are no kind of hero at all. There: different personalities, different world views, co-existing happily within the setting.
I think people have a misconception of what RPing really is. I've been a RPer for 16 years now and alot of what I see in game is not RPing but nonsense. If you want to stand around and chat about made up issues then play the simms ,if you want to RP a hero then make one. If you have to take a power for playabilites sake then do so, you can allways chose to ignore that ability when you RP or you can make up somthing different than the discription for how it works. A jet pack for super leap, who says you jump like the hulk, a invisable motor cycle for superspeed, who says you have to run that fast, wonder woman had an invisable jet. Instead they chat away hours at a time and when they do happen to do a mission there has to be a 2 hour debrief on how the mission personally affected their heroe, leangthy debate on wether the color purple looks good on them and disscusions on their RP girl/boyfriend. Shure thats fun some of the time but I see more people centering the game around that instead of the game itself. It is a game and not a chatroom or story contest right?
RP is assuming the role of somone else and even in a fantasy setting is closely related to RL and if in RL any of my friends got as indepth about themselves as some people get indepth about thier heroes I would go crazy. Heroes take action, not stand around talking about action, save the drama for the soap operas.
I'm just commenting on what I have seen in game and I know not everyone plays like this, maybe I'm wrong about what a superhereo does. If you have fun doing this more power to you I don't want to spoil your fun, I just had to get this off my chest, hopfully you will understand my point. Does this make me an ********? yes but I don't care and you shouln't eithier.