All fairly good rationalizations. In fact, the only one I find a little doubtful is:
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a vigilante acting outside the law with the cops well pleased to have someone who can deal with super powered villains
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Why would the cops suffer an illegal vigilante in a city stuffed FULL of registered superheroes? 
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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Also it just doesn't make sense Vanguard would want you to go get a Security Rating rather than just trial you, especially when they're assigned by Freedom Corp. Which Vanguard don't particularly get along with, what with them occupying the same warzone in a rather bitter rivalry.
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Security Levels are assigned by the FBSA, not Miss Liberty's Freedom Corps. The FBSA branches DATA, SERAPH, MAGI etc have branch offices in both City Hall and the main Freedom Corps building, but the major difference, according to Paragon Wiki, between Freedom Corps and Hero Corp is that FC don't charge for their services.
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise 
; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
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I don't think we're objecting to thier existance, I think it's the slightly vindictive argument that people can't POSSIBLY join Vanguard without having them assigned is my objection. Or that people are somehow unable to work out how powerful someone is unless FC has tagged a number onto them!
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Well, I quite agree that it should be possible to do almost anything, as long as you can fudge a good enough excuse. What I, personally, am against is the idea that Vanguard will just let anyone who says they want to fight the Rikti into the Warzone and their organisation. If you want to say you snuck into the Warzone and talked the Vanguard into letting you join, that's fine by me. It just has to be plausible.
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Also it just doesn't make sense Vanguard would want you to go get a Security Rating rather than just trial you, especially when they're assigned by Freedom Corp. Which Vanguard don't particularly get along with, what with them occupying the same warzone in a rather bitter rivalry.
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Hero registration is carried out by Freedom Corps? I was under the impression it was more of a government thing. I'm quite open to correction, though.
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
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All fairly good rationalizations. In fact, the only one I find a little doubtful is:
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a vigilante acting outside the law with the cops well pleased to have someone who can deal with super powered villains
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Why would the cops suffer an illegal vigilante in a city stuffed FULL of registered superheroes?
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Every hero helps?
And give how useless the PPD are I'd say anyone who pulls their [censored] out of the fire while a bunch of Arachnos take pot shots at them would get a clean slide at least from Officer Dibbs and Jenkins whose [censored] were just saved.
Brawling Cactus from a distant planet.
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a vigilante acting outside the law with the cops well pleased to have someone who can deal with super powered villains
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Why would the cops suffer an illegal vigilante in a city stuffed FULL of registered superheroes?
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Every hero helps?
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But an unregistered hero raises the question: why not? Of course the character has their reason and on the one hand it may be (mostly) innocuous. But if it's because they were too mentally unstable, too dangerous to others, or unwilling to work within even the vague legal limits of a registered hero (Punisher-type stuff) then the PPD couldn't justify letting them run around unsupervised. And if it's because they happen to have a sideline in taking stuff from crime scenes that goes beyond the apparent "right of salvage" heroes have... well, that's not vigilantism, that's theft.
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And give how useless the PPD are I'd say anyone who pulls their [censored] out of the fire while a bunch of Arachnos take pot shots at them would get a clean slide at least from Officer Dibbs and Jenkins whose [censored] were just saved.
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Those of us who actually play PPD officers might take offense at that...
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
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Those of us who actually play PPD officers might take offense at that...
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Tell your fellow officers that standard response to a villain attack is not to run around with the arms in the air performing Jazz hands. 
Brawling Cactus from a distant planet.
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Why would the cops suffer an illegal vigilante in a city stuffed FULL of registered superheroes?
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You're correct, and it's a weak part of my rationalizating, ergo the mask would be a good idea... BUT!
If it means registered heroes will add two + two (hostages letting it slip it was a four feet tall white cat who rescued them, despite being told not to tell the cops, or those found tied down describbing the same person, and no records of such person being registered) and come knock at Lea's door, then... more RP!
Yay! We wuvs the RP =^^=
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Why would the cops suffer an illegal vigilante in a city stuffed FULL of registered superheroes?
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You're correct, and it's a weak part of my rationalizating, ergo the mask would be a good idea... BUT!
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Well to be fair, a four foot tall white cat with a mask is still fairly recognizable! There's only one fuzzy half-pint white cat in the city!
Y'know, that's actually something I've though about and the previous reason why not using the mask. How many four feet tall white cat who speak with a thick/rolling accent and have pink pom poms of death exist out there?
"No that wasn't me officer, it could have been anyone."
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And give how useless the PPD are I'd say anyone who pulls their [censored] out of the fire while a bunch of Arachnos take pot shots at them would get a clean slide at least from Officer Dibbs and Jenkins whose [censored] were just saved.
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Well, if you go by this.. heroes are just as inadequate at their jobs as the PPD are.
How many team wipes have you seen?
Also, why hasn't the crime rate lowered AT ALL?
Why are there STILL after 4 FRIGGIN YEARS still Hellions snatching purses in Atlas park?
Also, the villains aren't very effective either... how many buildings did they try to blow up and nothing really shows?
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
*holds out a large box of fudge*
Fudge anyone?
No? Ok then, can I say that this whole thing from my point of view appears to be going around in circles, slowly moving from one thing to another but still coming to down to one thing: The game's Cannon. It's unlaying storyline, it's facts.
IF we can fudge things for this long, and no one complained, no Devs have turned about and said "Hey you lot, NO! It's our way or the highway". Then why RP in the first place? As far as I can see it, they don't seen to bother about it, and if we were more in number they would of made an RP Server world for us and stuck us there. Now unless someone can tell me why I can't do X plot because it would change the whole game cannon to do it, or effect the facts of the game, or even mean that I end up locked into a paradox of events which destorys time and the rest of the world as we know it, then I'll stick sololy to the game cannon and never divert away from it, otherwise im heading where I want, I'll be able to enter X zone I want with my Characters just because ICly they have permission or have a little card which let's them in, and if they arne't meant to go somewhere, do something because they aren't able to then they won't, simple has that.
Now forr the fact of the Gangs and crime levels in Paragon, I take it as "when one evil is removed, another takes it place" just because Frostfire was taken down by X Character then another one says that he/she took him down, I take the name of said bosses as TITLES, for thats one way to look at them. Otherwise it's because the Zig has the poorest record for keeping inmate in there.
Well the constant Arachnos breakouts can't help much can they?
hmm going through the thread I've noticed the whole 'omega level clearance' stuff mentioned.
The arcs that it gets mentioned in is 30-45, so yeah, you don't learn the whole big secret behind the Rikti until you're late in the game as it were.
Issue 12 introduces one big problem...
The new hero contact, designed for level 10-50, blows that out of the water for you REALLY early in your career...Omega clearance isn't worth that much anymore...
Badge Earned: Wing Clipper
A real showstopper!
The price we pay for an evloving game world.
Though at this pointy very few people -don't- know the secret that shares a word with my name.
Also not everyone will do both arc eithier, so yea stuff
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Incorrect. Hazard zones have a level requirement to enter, and it's always mention in game as being a security level requirement, not a combat level. Unless you're a registered hero, you're not going to HAVE a security level are you? If you have no security level, and no hero registration, there's no ID for the guards at the gates to verify, so you won't be permitted to enter.
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Yes, but FFM these are the known flaws of the game mechanics because the security gates are designed, as far as I have interpreted them, as:
a) sealing off parts of the city so that there is some progression in the game of visiting new places - if there were no security gates/hazard zones then arguably people would just rush straight from Atlas to Peregrine (but don't get me started on that - as we're all aware some people do that regardless, that's just human nature for you);
and b) once in the hazard zone, the 'content' there (i.e. mobs and certain types of mission) is of sufficiently high level to keep the player interested.
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As for the other things in the zones, those things were already in there when they were sealed.
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That doesn't explain away how, when defeated, the same enemy mobs reappear. Again, it's an example of game mechanics conflicting with immersion, something we all know has to happen in a game. If Grand Theft Auto had a finite number of cars, then after your attempts to steal/hijack/crush all of them you'd have to spend the rest of your game walking and running.
Ideally, if your character defeats a great number of one type of enemy mob within an area, then those mobs will take a lot longer to 'reappear' - which might suggest that the enemy mob in question has to spend longer to resource their numbers. Of course, the danger is ith that system too that for badge reward mobs, groups of players would start to camp out in zones preventing any other players from street-fighting so that they can get their badges quicker. As it stands currently however, no such system exists which is why you only have to travel about 300 yards or so (correct me if that's way out) after defeating a mob to have it respawn.
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Why are people so adamant people have to be registered anyway? There really is no mention of it being neccessay.
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Why are people so adamant about ignoring the game world we ALL have to work within? It makes zero sense to me to play within the game reality, and then throw everything about it away and do your own thing. All you do with that is make interaction with other characters fraught with potential problems.
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I'm not sure on both of these points. I try to work within the reasonable bounds of the game World when figuring out what a character is able to do. I have to fudge it whenever AP goes up against enemies that should, for all intents and purposes, fry her brains and stomp on her non-superpowered body. My lamest fudge to date is explaining that APs arms are very tired after going up against a legion of Malta's robots. So, she has to be skilled enough and quick enough to deliver short, sharp strikes to the hydraulics of these machines in order to disable them. She has no superhuman strength BUT she is the sort of person who would take on the challenge against a secret band of military types hellbent on wreaking political damage across the World. If a mechanism within the game allowed her to either don an armoured suit a la Aliens or sit outside in a van, directing an army of hero-aligned government bods using blue tooth then that's be brilliant. When the 'User-Created' stuff becomes available then she will be able to do that via me effectively writing an arc or a simple mission where that is the case.
I agree with Fans in the sense that, for heroes, there is no set way through the city/game/how you want to play your character: Some characters may be able to blend in with the shadows and avoid having to show any kind of security pass at hazard zones and the like. Others might be capable of running very fast, teleporting, very carefully scaling the War Walls or even plain flying over them. Just because the IG mechanics doesn't allow it for the obvious reasons, it doesn't mean your character can't.
On the other hand I think FFM has a valid point in that there is an awful lot of game lore and game World stuff that might fit better with what is trying to be achieved by 'not registering'. For example, and as has been stated before in this thread, the issue of 'International' heroes could lead to a consensus that there are other similar bodies capable of authorising the kind of activities that heroes enjoy - namely fighting crime and saving the day. I should imagine that the developers don't want to cause outcries by even attempting to depict what other countries may be like. Again, perhaps that's something we might be able to do when the User-Created stuff comes in. For those of you who've seen 'Independence Day' - didn't you feel slightly miffed that the World was saved by the good ole US of A with only fleeting images of other countries who could only look on with awe and dread as aliens attacked?
The Paragon Game World is changing - Midnight Squad, comprised mainly of non-US citizens seems to be taking a firmer control of the city in terms of defending against threats of a Global level. Vanguard are less concerned with who you are and more with what you can do to stop those Rikti.
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When I do missions IC, what's actually happening is rarely what's written on the mission text, else your effectively locking people into a very stale gameworld!
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But that's just doing what you said everyone else is doing - taking the gameworld and disregarding it for your own ends.
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Everything within the game world is constructed to work within its rules. There's nothing that says you HAVE to follow these rules, but you can't expect the game world to then work for you if you're going to break them. There is enormous scope for us to work within the rules of the world set down by the developers. I don't see why people feel the need to just disregard it and make up their own stuff; you might as well not bother playing at all.
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The first part makes sense. The last sentence is, perhaps, a little too harsh and prescriptive, in my opinion.
**EDIT**
Apologies for my inability to use the 'quote' system 
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Points to ponder if your char isn't a registered hero of Paragon City.
How do you get in to the hazard zones? These are sealed against anyone not authorised to be in them.
How do you get your missions? The contact system is based around you being registereed.
How do you take part in the task force missions? These are handed out by senior heroes in the city, and they're not going to hand over such important missions to illegal vigilantes!
How do you explain that the cops and other heroes aren't trying to arrest you? You're an illegal vigilante; you'd be on the arrest list.
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As someone playing a non-registered hero at the moment, here's how I do it.
First, I don't do missions for contacts (I did do the Crotoa ones, even if RPed as 'you help me fend off the undead off my home, I help you with your problem'. It's a rationalization and a bit weak at that, though I reckon anyone desperate for help against the Cabal, Redcaps, Fir Bolg and Tual Danon (or how it's spelled) will glady take what comes).
Mediport? Don't use it. It does help to play a tank, but I'm always stocked with awakens.
Since I don't do missions I don't go to Hazard zones either. The only one is Vanguard, and though it could be argued that my solution was shaky IC, it seemed like a reasonable one (a senior hero well ranked within the Vanguard vouching that Lea can handle herself). I did think about security clearances and Vanguard secrets, but villains are given access and they, much more than a neutral or hero, would have reason to abuse such secrets.
As for TFs, the leader of the TF is the senior hero entrusted with helping, doesn't necesseraly have to be the non-registered meta.
Okay, all of this is not canon, I'm just winging it but the reasoning seems kinda solid.
As someone who has leveled three levels 50 I don't feel a pang of need out of not playing contacts and have only done radio missions mostly solo that are either run OOC or run IC as a job. The latest one is collecting left horns from behemoths which a magic shop wants as ingredients.
Granted, this is done with the SG's AI cracking the police radio band in order to know where trouble is brewing. Much like a Batman (but much less altruistic), she swoops in before the cops/other heroes arrive, deals with the situation and then collects whatever it is she came for. The dagger the museum lost? They'll be happy in recovering it for a small fee and probably skip all the court hearings which might take months to resolve while the dagger is kept as evidence.
Again, simple rationalizings which might actually not be true, but I think that they are solid-ish enough to be played as.
The only two things I think I should have done/do is actually wear a mask to not be recognized as a vigilante. Though again it's probably a bit like the Batman example, a vigilante acting outside the law with the cops well pleased to have someone who can deal with super powered villains.
Am I over-thinking things and simplifying others? Probably, but (no offense to all RPers out there), CoH's RP is thin as it is and I don't think it's any worse than that I've found out there.