Does anyone here even LIKE comic books?
By
Adelie,
Posted on: 2011-01-13 16:15 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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True.|
Originally Posted by BrandX
I always got sort of a spawn vibe off Infernal, and a Dr Strange vibe off the CoT.
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One of the nice things about a superhero game is that pretty much anything can fit in. An undead necromancer wouldn't fit in well with a sci-fi setting; a robot doesn't fit in well in a fantasy setting; but in a comic book setting like Paragon they can both team up and fight a psychic brain in a jar and it works.
Arc #40529 : The Furies of the Earth
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with the singular "they," I don't correct other people who use it, but it just doesn't sound right to my ear.
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I thought he somehow managed to typo those words and I was being polite by not pointing to them and laughing.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Really... the made-up pronouns hearken back to the 80's. I haven't seen them attempted to be used by anyone for 20 years.
I though the OP was using German pronouns. |
Another thing to take into consideration when talking about seeing almost nobody in game is not just the server where you started but the zone. If you have Going Rogue then you started in Praetoria for your first character at least but it's possible that you bought one of the older versions because it was cheaper. So if you created a hero you have the choice of two starting zones, Atlas and Galaxy. On every single server Galaxy is pretty much empty. Atlas is the zone most often chosen to start in except by people who want to play in a mostly empty zone.
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
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1) Welcome to the forums! You're joining what is famously considered one of the best MMO communities out there. We're talking forums that people pay just to be a part of, leaving their accounts behind. (Not say it's a bad game, but to say the level of conversation is that high)|
Originally Posted by PoisonPen
I'm a new player here at CoX, although I've been MUDing since the early 80s. It also marks the first time I've paid money to play an MMO. As a huge comic book fan who started reading back when they were still 20 cents each, I was really excited about playing CoX. Imagine my disappointment, then, in what I've experienced.
The first disappointment is that the game feels like a ghost town. I will see a handful of people occasionally, but what few people are around all tend to be level 50s -- and this brings me to the part which annoys me most. The vast majority of the level 50s I've encountered seem to treat this game as just another kill-the-monster, get-the-treasure MMO where the idea is to min/max your power potential. They create stupid or boring names (some of them don't even bother to think of superhero names, they use what appears to be a name chosen randomly from a phone book), and can't be bothered to create even the most basic background. Reading through the various fora here, people seem to be interested solely in obsessing over "toons" and "shards" and "IO builds" and which "AV" slots out best and other arcane trivia. You could replace the supervillains with orcs or Imperial stormtroopers and I doubt they would even notice the difference -- or care if they did. I tried three or four different servers, just to make sure it wasn't a local phenomenon, and I've experienced the same thing on each one. I'm not a fanatical roleplayer, but I'm frankly baffled that on a game which is supposed to be about comic books, no one seems to have any interest in comic books. It's not helped that the costume creation system appears to be geared toward awful 90s "Dark Age" comics; you can get 200 different types of ugly spiky things for your shoulders, but try getting tassles on your cape or a swashbuckling tabard or animal heads other than "snarling death monster" -- Mr. Talky Tawny is not welcome here. The final straw for me may have been the exchange I had last night with a "50" where I sent hir a message that sie had a few typos in hir background, and helpfully provided the corrections. Sie replied that if sie wanted someone to edit hir background text sie would ask over Global, and that I was now welcomed to (and I quote) "iggy." I was taken aback by the sheer sour rudeness, and it ruined all my sense of enjoyment for the evening. This is only my second month playing, but I'm already questioning whether I want to continue. |
2) I already like you. You don't default to male when you don't know. That's an excellent sign of respect to the various genders. Rock on with yo' bad self.
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3) There are a couple of issues that may have caused a misconception. If you don't mind, I'd like to list them out right now.- Item Obsessed: "Shards" and other end-game content were, in the grand scheme of things, just added. Like, in the last couple months. Previously, when you got to level 50, there wasn't much else to do. It was common mentality that you took your sweet time leveling up, as the game was designed with the journey in mind. The idea of having a lot to do when you hit 50 is relatively new. People are more excited by that than anything. It's kind of like how in World of Warcraft, they just added two new races. Without logging in, I'll bet you my wallet that over 60% of the new characters rolled last month were one of those.
In time, people will turn from white hot item fervor back down to the cool you desire. In the meantime, check out my other notes.
- Ghost Town: Probably the most common misconception about City of Heroes. The thing is, the vast majority of missions require people to go in buildings and out of viewable range. While this allows the game to customize levels for each person, it also contributes to the mistaken belief that "No one is on". They're on. They're just in missions. My best advice would be that you seek out some chat channels that match your goals and form teams in them. If you post more of your interests, we'd love to help you out.
- No one cares about comics: Yes and no. Unofficially, each server has its own personality. Freedom is the most crowded and full of people that want "leet gear". Virtue is full of RolePlayers who will add cat tails to everything because it's part of their backstory. And Champion is just one guy with broken glasses sobbing that there was finally time. More or less, the veterans of the game know which server fits their personality and have thrown themselves full force into it. The odds are very good that you chose the wrong servers. If you want constant and easy teaming, go with Freedom. If you want to RP with some awesome people, go to Virtue. In fact, I think I've got the perfect place: The Artful Dodgers. You'd love 'em. They were my group until I realized I didn't have time to stay devoted to RP.
- People ignore the story: Again, yes and no. I ignore a lot of the story a lot of the time, but that's me. As you may be aware, there is a program that lets people design their own levels. Many a story fanatic has tried their hand at these, and there are some real winners. In this place, there are search functions that allow you to find fan-made stories that accurately keep with City of Heroes' established lore. If you'd like even more help finding a story that works for you, try City of Heroes Mission Review. Absolutely phenomenal site.
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Anyway, I'm sorry to hear that the game got off to a bumpy start for you, but there are plenty of people that would be more than excited for a chance to show you why this game is very special to us. Feel free to ask away. We're always here!
~mt~
P.S. Don't mind the weird formatting, please. I'm experimenting with styles.
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I use it all the time |
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Indeed. "Singular they" is perfectly standard English
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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To show how pretentious they are?
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Originally Posted by Obscure Blade
Those are hermaphroditic/gender neutral pronouns. Why PoisonPen is using them, I have no idea.
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Awesome Rod Serling metaphor. Awesome.
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Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
And Champion is just one guy with broken glasses sobbing that there was finally time.
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It's not pretentious, really. Some people just don't like having their gender assumed and/or sorted. It's the way of the world. |
Originally Posted by Baler
To show how pretentious they are?
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Unfortunately, the words haven't really caught on, so they always have this foreign tinge to them anytime they're used.
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I simply assumed the OP misspelled "she" and "her" and was totally baffled by "iggy". Which had me thinking that the OP had a lot of nerve to correct someone elses spelling when the OP can't spell simple pronouns. |
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Really... the made-up pronouns hearken back to the 80's. I haven't seen them attempted to be used by anyone for 20 years.
I though the OP was using German pronouns. |
It wasn't until others mentioned those pronouns origins that I realized they weren't misspelled. But I must be honest, in my 40+ years I have never seen nor heard of them being used before today.
Come on, peoples! We're the best community out there, someone new is coming to us with their concerns, and we're all getting Squirreled by someone's pronoun usage.
Let's show them what we can do to allay their concerns.
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Your sig might help - or then again, it might not |
Let's show them what we can do to allay their concerns.
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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This is true. The problem is, in such a setting, the Ogre Barbarian from Fantasy land is a rarity in super hero comics.|
Originally Posted by Obscure Blade
True.
One of the nice things about a superhero game is that pretty much anything can fit in. An undead necromancer wouldn't fit in well with a sci-fi setting; a robot doesn't fit in well in a fantasy setting; but in a comic book setting like Paragon they can both team up and fight a psychic brain in a jar and it works. |
In Paragon, it's a commonality.
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
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I'd rather live in an empty world with the imaginings of Statesline than a Utopia that would never see it.|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Your sig might - or then again, it might not
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And that, Dear Golden Girl, is what would drive me to go Resistance.
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I don't think I've ever seen an ogre barabraian here - or even a normal ogre |
Originally Posted by BrandX
This is true. The problem is, in such a setting, the Ogre Barbarian from Fantasy land is a rarity in super hero comics.
In Paragon, it's a commonality. |
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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I found it pretentious in this case because PP had already shown that they had an axe to grind about their game experiences as well as giving unsolicited grammar and proofreading advice. Using "hir" and "sie" on top of "Kanada" in the location text, felt like just a demonstration of a superiority complex.|
Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
It's not pretentious, really. Some people just don't like having their gender assumed and/or sorted. It's the way of the world.
Unfortunately, the words haven't really caught on, so they always have this foreign tinge to them anytime they're used. |
Really curious if there will any response from PP. (not to be confused with the original and still the ginchiest PP)
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Well, that'd certainly be a first |
Originally Posted by Baler
Using "hir" and "sie" on top of "Kanada" in the location text, felt like just a demonstration of a superiority complex.
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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Fair enough. I don't think that PoisonPen was being intentionally pretentious. It's a social faux pas to create grammar unsolicited, to be sure. Hence my skipping over that bit. :P|
Originally Posted by Baler
I found it pretentious in this case because PP had already shown that they had an axe to grind about their game experiences as well as giving unsolicited grammar and proofreading advice. Using "hir" and "sie" on top of "Kanada" in the location text, felt like just a demonstration of a superiority complex.
Really curious if there will any response from PP. (not to be confused with the original and still the ginchiest PP) |
That being said, it's easy to give the benefit of the doubt in this case.
And no one will top the original Poison Pain! I miss her.
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I know, right?
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Well, that'd certainly be a first
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Obviously since it is Perfect Pain. |
Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
And no one will top the original Poison Pain! I miss her.
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Maybe it's just a virtue thing then. But I know I've seen fantasy styled Elves, Trolls, Ogres, Hobbits...ect...characters.
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I don't think I've ever seen an ogre barabraian here - or even a normal ogre
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BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
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I'm fairly certain we could find good use for shirts that say "Relax; It's a Virtue thing".
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Originally Posted by BrandX
Maybe it's just a virtue thing then. But I know I've seen fantasy styled Elves, Trolls, Ogres, Hobbits...ect...characters.
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Sounds like everyone would be better off, if people just stopped correcting other peoples grammar and spelling, so long as what they were trying to say was clear.
Captain Den'Rath 53* Merk/Traps MM, Rivona 50Energy Blast/Time Cor,Victoria Von Heilwig 53* Dual Pistols/Traps Cor, Crab Spider Webguard 53* SOA, Accela 53* Bot/FF MM,Valkyrie's Executor 53* Broadsword/Shield Def Scrap. On FREEDOM! @Knight Of Bronze
"Hypocrisy, the human inherent." "Let not this work be wasted, apply yourself always."
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You mean like AIM? or HYDRA?
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Originally Posted by TheJazMan
I actually thought a lot of this game also doesn't have a very super hero/comic feel to it. A large number of your enemies are more military than supers (5th, Arachnos, Clockwork, Cimerorans etc).
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"Men strunt �r strunt och snus �r snus
om ock i gyllne dosor.
Och rosor i ett sprucket krus
�r st�ndigt alltid rosor."
I actually thought a lot of this game also doesn't have a very super hero/comic feel to it. A large number of your enemies are more military than supers (5th, Arachnos, Clockwork, Cimerorans etc). Nothing wrong with them but the features should be supers. Where's the super cool looking, super foe like Galactus, Dr. Doom etc. The look and feel of many of the signature characters is underwhelming. It might help if they had Noble Savage draw some wild pics and put the main characters in a who's who on this site. All of the named characters etc.
I also think the name issue is a problem here. Many lame names. Need to do a purge of unused names.
Also, to the OP, if you don't run into many players then maybe join a teaming channel. Lists are in the server forums. I find this game has a lot of players and don't have too many problems finding teams. Having said that, Praetoria is getting to be a bit of a ghost town but meh...one day the devs will learn