A Little Question

I'm decided to make a RP character, and i want to know what is the most active (populated, with less non rp people) RP Server, Union or Virtue?

No Flame, please.

I suspect that Virtue has the higher population. Given that the proportion of roleplayers is likely to be about the same, Virtue probably has more (absolute quantity) roleplayers and non-roleplayers.

Never been on Virtue, so I don't know what it's actually like.

Honestly, you wouldn't go wrong with either, it just depends on the type of RP you're looking to get into. Someone actually from Union could describe their style better, but it's very much a community that you come into. Check out some of their board threads since (I believe) they merge the progression of their stories with gameplay and board-writing.

Virtue, on the other hand, is more of the join a RP Supergroup crowd and you team with them in character, playing out the games stories that way as opposed to say, ones you or your friends are making up as you go along.

There's SG roleplay on Union, but also a lot of open area stuff.

There are two main areas, Pocket D and Galaxy Girl. There have been attempts to start something in the Isles, but they don't seem to have worked as well.

I can't really say much about PD, I don't usually go there since I don't like the style.

The concept of GG is that it's a place that the hero community gathers at around 9pm every night to relax and be among others like themselves. Conversation ranges from the plot-based serious to the insane and comedic. It tends to appear insular from the outside, especially to people who want to see it that way, but if you go there with a character who actually interacts socially and you then actually interact, it's easy to get involved. If your character is rude, unpleasant, or evil, then that just causes problems. If you stand around saying nothing and being dark and mysterious, you'll usually be allowed to be. And, unfortunately, if you want to do the "I'm an alien and I don't know what a dog is" thing, we're kind of fed up with it. But we are actually friendly.

And what Raven says goes for any faction RP community, really (Boards, Unionverse, IC Teaming, etc.). A lot of the characters you'll meet will already have some established histories or relationships with others, so at first you might feel like you're on the outside of a sort of clique. But just like any group, if you're friendly and get along well with others, you'll find it's generally a very welcoming community.

Welcome Eisenheim. I'm a Unionite myself and have tried out the Boards/Forumverse RP which seems to be a segment of it's own.

I also intend on visiting Virtue soon enough. Try both servers and see how you like it. They're both as similar as they are different.

My best advice would be to roll some "test" toons on both servers, and go check out the various venues for yourself over a few days. Really is the best way to find something you like, IMO.

Try to give each venue more than one night if you can... Everywhere has off nights!

As Galaxy Girl on Union has been covered, I'll attempt to say a little about Pocket D.

The obvious difference, of course, is that you can bring Redside alts. Other than that, things probably aren't all that different when it comes to arriving as a new person. There are a few groupings of people who tend to cluster together, but the regulars generally all know each other at least enough to say hello to. The crowd can vary from almost empty to trouble keeping up with text full. Like GG, the place tends to busiest from 9pm onwards, although there may well be a few people there before. The blue bar is the place to be.

Getting to know people is as easy (or as hard) as getting to know people in a real place. A polite introduction generally is enough to get people talking to you. Impolite introductions are likely to get you ignored, asked to step into the Arena or mocked mercilessly. Depending on who is there at the time.

As FFM says, the best thing to do is just take a little look over a few nights and see where suits you best.

I'll just plug a little guide I wrote which hopefully will give you an idea of what Union is like:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=255630

Myself and some friends have just rolled up a very British themed set of characters on Virtue and it does seem to have a denser population of roleplayers. However I haven't been there long enough to make any kind of judgements on quality.

I hope you have fun wherever you decide to go.

I would say the main difference as I understand it is Union seems to be a little more cohesive than Virtue is. (And I say that without ever having set foot there, so that's only the impression I get from the forums) It's probably a side-effect of Virtue having the higher population, there's simply too many people for everything to mesh together more or less nicely like it does on Union. So to maintain anything resembling continuity you end up RPing mostly with the people you know and/or your supergroup, while as I hear it on Union they're a little more open about things. So RP is easier to find, just because people in general are easier to find, but may be harder to get involved in.

^ Oh, it's not always "nice".. We have some LOVELY arguments from time to time!

Because the best hugs are make-up hugs. ^^

So, in the Union GG and PD gathering times, is it generally permissible for one to lurk quietly in the background, being an appreciative (if confused) audience as one gets a feel for the community and situations before deciding if it's a reasonable fit?