"I am not nor have I ever been a villain..."

That is complete, total and utter win. My hat is off to you, sir!

That's how I use it. My plant/thorns dryad dom needs a lot of hydration while she's throwing those seeds and vines all over. She's constantly chugging that bottle of water, and no it's not Enriche when she does. *shrug*

I use my info box to write the origin of my characters. |I view it as akin to the little boxout that used toi appear in the first panel of every Marvel comic, 'Bitten by a radioactive spider, college student Peter Parker now uses the proportional strength and agility of a spider and his astonishing ability to stick to walls to fight crime.' and suchlike.

Eco.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

Or, you know, you can judge people by their actions. Hey look, he kills and can go all stealthy. Not only does that say stalker, to me it screams villain. Yes, I firmly believe heroes don't kill... and if you're ever roleplaying with me, that aspect of being a hero is pretty much ingrained into all my heroes. Want to kill but still want to be heroic? Maybe you should move on to the vigilante alignment... or at least argue that you're of that mindset even if your alignment doesn't seem to match your behavior.

Villains like, say, Moon Knight, Batman, The Shadow, Invisible Kid, Robin, and dozens of others. A Stalker using Martial Arts is no more likely to be killing his targets than a Scrapper using a Broad Sword. Certainly he'd have an easier time avoiding killing by not using a sword. The difference between killing and arresting is determined by the player. Game mechanic wise there is no difference.

Well then there's a lot of soldiers and police officers and mothers who simply aren't heroes because they ended up having to kill someone to save others, not matter how many lives were spared by their actions. Sucks to be them.

Have to agree, though I don't think it's the extra-lore elements of this character that have caused the issue.

Depending on the level the other super may not know of Praetoria and may have only seen anyone using those techniques in the contested (PvP) zones...or he was a ******, there has not yet been any proof against that last claim.

I've mostly been avoiding the op directly since we have one side and no log.

You're not forced to kill in CoX, not when meta powers are involved.

That's not entirely true now that Going Rogue is live. In some missions you kill people, explicitly stated as so, too.

Okay, now it feels like you're just being obtuse.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Apparently not according to the person i was replying to. i know full well that whether you call a defeat killing or not is usually left up to the player, but the poster i replied to was basically stating that Stalkers always kill. That, and only EEEEVIL people are stealthy. Neither of which is required by anything but their assumptions.

Oh look, I see what you did there. You changed my words to prove a point. Except, in changing my words, you clearly changed the meaning entirely which does not prove your point at all. "He arrests and can go all stealthy" doesn't remotely sound like a stalker. Its like an entirely different sentence... that happens to be wrong.

Killing = bad. But you are right that a stalker using martial arts isn't any more likely to be killing than a scrapper using a broadsword.

Yeah, let's drag the real world into this. Fine, I'll get into it with you. When those soldiers and officers save lives by killing, I'm sure the people that they've saved (and their loved ones) consider them heroes. Does that mean they're heroic? Not in the comic book sense of the word. They're men and women doing a job and the emotional response of people who benefit from their actions in the line of duty muddy the definition of the heroic ideal. But their job isn't really to be heroes... its to serve and protect. So yeah, I'll say it: No, they aren't heroes. They're just people who risk their lives to help other people.

No one said anyone is forced to kill.

But the person you were replying to was making a point about killing because the OP made a point of saying how easy it is for his character to kill (to the point of saying the ability was sealed). Someone reading his bio may only skim through it... we are playing a game, after all, not "Let's all stand around and read each other's bio's thoroughly." Stalker... kills easily... villain. And even if the OP was sending him OOC tells trying to explain his side of the story, the other player is under no means required to accept and roleplay that at face value.

I have a friend who plays a character that is very anti-demon, anti-undead. He maintains that there are no good demons or undead. So forget what you've learned about vampires with souls from Buffy or sparkly non-human-killing vampires from Twilight, if you're playing a good vampire and bump into him, there is no way in hell you're going to roleplay or OOC change his character's mind about teaming with you. What actually IS the case and how others choose to perceive it will not always match up... nor should any given person be forced to fall in line with your perception of your character.

Deal with it. Move on. Find another team.

I was pointing out how inherently stupid the analogy was. Comparing metahumans to the average soldier or mother on the street is...yeah.

Go back and read the context of what you responded to. For god's sake, just do it. Please. Then think on how silly you're being.

Ditto. That, and if the OP started in with the rules (er... "common sense," sorry Forbin) bullying, that's incredibly off-putting as well.

Case in point:
On the convoluted, highfalutin' backstory, though, I've also poked my head into that 'how to roleplay' thread on this forum and seen that just that sort of thing is being encouraged... so it may be typical.

--

Offhand suggestion for those who purposely refrain from posting an origin in the 'ol info pane: how about posting a "public" origin there and using your alter-ego and other personal info as the reveal for those you roleplay with? Just a suggestion, based on the following line of reasoning: you're a superhero/villain and likely notorious to some degree in this (modern, media-intensive) world, but since other players are not privy to all the supposed media that permeates these characters' environment (and it really does, evinced by the fact that random people on the street are constantly talking about the things spandex-types have been doing), that's something you need to fill in. If you are somehow an enigma, avoiding that kind of public attention while routinely farting radioactive clouds and shooting lasers out of your eyes that's very unusual -- so post that in the info pane. Or some other subtle (not overbearing) hint at how you want to play it.

Being a snot about it because not every player is inclined to drag your basic character info out of you through roleplay reads as attention-****ing.

I kinda want to meet him with my heroic zombie MM now - he and his men are only undead because of a poorly-worded oath. Literally no misanthropy at all: he swore to protect the bloodline of his king for the rest of time, and a thousand years of being dead isn't stopping him. Of course, I wouldn't expect him to trust this character right away, or even eventually... I just think it could be interesting.