My opinions on Backstory and Origin

So it's become apparent to me that there's a rather large issue on Virtue, and that's people who missunderstand the actual lore behind City of Heroes and missuse certain things with in the Lore to create a backstory. So, below are my opinions on specific origins and how to use them to create your own back-story that people can bite in to.

Genetic Manipulation and Mutation
1: Genetic manipulation is something of a standard in super hero comic books and role-playing games. There are a few distinct back stories that one can use to come up with a unique character. How ever the first form of genetic manipulation, which is the use of animal genetic materiel infusion to enhance soldiers and regular humans, which is something that has existed in several comics, stories, and games..seems to carry a lot of negative intonation on Virtue.

I blame this on the ERP crowd, and those that create anthro-form characters with no real background other than, "I is catgurl" and other examples.

Proper usage of this can create unique characters, and there is even a Signature "Cat-gurl" hero in the CoX prime lore.

Located here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mynx

Mynx, volunteered for a Crey Industries research program which logic would dictate was a genetech research program designed to infuse animal DNA into a target recipient and thus create an anthropic-form with a human appearance and animal traits. Myx is the only example at current, but that does not discount the usage of Genetic Manipulation to create anthro-form individuals with increased strength, speed, reflexes and heightened senses as a valid background.

As a note: There have been some instances in the D lately where people have a distinct hate for anthro-form humaniods. There is a difference between this and the Furry, but regardless, I really hope people can grow up just a little and have a little more maturity and respect for peoples chosen play-styles and character preferences. While I myself might have an issue with the ERP crowd, or those that make anthro-form characters with (in my personal opinion) crappy back-stories, I will not walk up to said person and tell them how much they suck, or that they should not be playing the character. As I respect their personal preference and chosen play-style.

Coming up next: Undesired Mutation as a Back Story, followed by High Technology Backstories, such as Artificial Intelligence and finally Time Travel and Dimensional travel.

Also, as a further note...Anthropomorphism, is something that has existed in human society since ancient Egypt and before, Aesop's fables Anthropomorphizes the north wind. Do not think that Anthropomorphism is linked solely to humanoid animal like creatures. This would be ignorant of the truth of the real definition Anthropomorphism.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism

This thread is posted with good intentions, but just be aware that the people who RP Statesman and Recluse's lovechild probably don't even realize how ridiculous they are.

I try not to let other players bother me, but it's usually when they kludge propriety stuff into the game, "Don't break THE MASQUERADE, man--we can't let the KINE know that we SPARKLE! Quick, send the DEATHDEALERS!" Or, closer to home and my original comment, kludge City stuff together. That's somehow even more painful to witness. "After the Rikti DEVASTATED THE GALAXY, I came to earth with the KHELDIANS, except I'm not a KHELDIAN, my squid form is my CHERUBIM form and my lobster form is my SERAPHIM form. Also, Miss Liberty is my girlfriend and they named STEEL CANYON after me. Don't laugh, I could DESTROY THE PLANET in a heartbeat, I've done it before!"

I don't care if you gave birth to Lord Recluse in your private backstory, when you inflict it on us all in open RP, be prepared for some derision.

I've seen every single one of the above done, and painfully so. That being said, I'm still going to dutifully read your further updates.

Honestly, this thread OP seems less like a "let me help you with making your character origin more interesting by infusing it with the right lore."

and more "I have a cat girl that got hated on in Pocket D so I'll disprove them in a thread"

And I dont really get how "cat girls get a bad rap because of erpers" ties into people "misusing lore"


I like the intent, but, more helping, less preaching.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with others here stating the intent, while good, may be misconstrued. I believe that, on the forums at least from what I have seen, you are basically "preaching to the choir" at this point in regards to style and the "how to.." point.

However, if it's going to continue as far as given ideas on background proliferations/creations, then I think everyone can benefit to a point..

I try to avoid established characters completely and entirely in my character's backstory, with the only exception I would possibly make being that perhaps they idolized an existing hero figure or were a nameless face in a crowd of people that were saved by said hero. Anything more is just shoehorning your character into lore to make them seem more important and is a sign of trying to godmod.

On the subject of anthropomorphism in characters: About a year ago I rolled a duo with a friend of mine. My character was a magician, black suit, top hat, silly moustache and all, and I asked my buddy if he would roll a toon with the backstory of being said magician's pet black cat that he accidentally turned into a human when he first started using magic and hadn't been able to figure out how to turn him back. I found it quite an entertaining notion and it was an amusing and thematically appropriate duo according to comments from other players. I'll even admit, I was skeptical to do it at first because catgirls/boys anywhere have a general negative connotation attached to them, mostly because of screeching, pubescent anime fangirls who go to conventions wearing cheap cat ear headbands and a piece of fabric as a tail, tackle anybody dressed like their favorite character and scream "I AM KAWAII NEKO DESU! YOU'RE SO SUGOI!". It really is in the construction of the character. So yeah, I've influenced a friend to create one, and actively played with said character proudly, and it was a smashing success, but keep in mind that the virtue pocket d catgirls likely do not read this forum and would likely respond with nothing more than "You're just a stupid baka!" even if they did. Good intent, but it falls on deaf ears.

I play a six foot plus tall Flea.

Who comes from an alternate dimension where a catastrophic event pretty much wiped out every higher organism, leaving insects to evolve and thrive.

You can have animalistic mutations (i.e. Mako). You can have animalistic genetic modifications (i.e. Mynx). You can have animalistic spirits and manifestations (i.e. Grymm and the Tuatha). You can even have animalistic alternate dimension critters and aliens.

Or you could play someone in a fursuit. That could of course be hilarious if done right. Use animal parts and RP it out as someone in a full fursuit, complaining about the heat, fake fur falling off and getting into their eyes, their head getting stuck....

God damn, why hasn't somebody gone and done that already?!

Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetics

1. A.I.

Measuring A.I. growth potential and computing power in form that allows people to come to an understanding of how quote "powerful" an A.I. is or how "Capable" it is of understanding humans is something I've worked on for a long time. If we attempt to put this all in actual mathematical terms we have the following,

Ray Kurzweil, author of book known as "The Singularity is Near", one of many people who have done this, has a guesstimation as to the computing power of the human brain. This guess, is around 20 petaFLOPS, or 20 Quadrillion FLOPS.

What is a "FLOPS" you ask? "Floating-point Operations / Second" or a measure of computing performance. And why is this important to us in regards to A.I computational power?

Well simply put this is a "benchmark" of computational power, aka for an A.I to be capable of "near-human" thought and or self awareness, it must be able to process information at roughly the same speed as a human being, if not more so.

The current world record for "FLOPS" is held by the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@Home "Folding at Home" project. Which is around 4-5 petaFLOPS. Meaning in our current time, we have a super computing cluster capable of 1/4 the computing power of the human brain.

So take this into account when creating your A.I, and it's age. But also take into account the rate of technological growth with-in city of heroes. As well as "Moore's law" which states that computational power doubles every 18 months, and "The law of accelerating averages" which actually proves that technology is growing faster then Moore's law states. As we've achieved greater computational power milestones in less time then each previous milestone. Meaning that each time we double in computational power, the time to the next doubling shortens.

So, bunch of rambling now you're thinking right? Well yeah, but it's all important if you want to be as accurate and realistic as you can be with A.I.

So, onward and upward in the conversation at hand. We know that the human brain operates at or around 20 petaFLOPS, if we take on board all the science mumbojumbo people are tossing around then we use this as a means of showing just how powerful an A.I. needs to be to reach that point.

Hopefully people are following me so far, but more is coming!

Pfft accuracy and realism.

Meanwhile, in the world in which our characters live, the Council and Sky Raiders mass produce autonomous robots that can walk or fly around by themselves and fight independently. They also speak and respond to verbal commands. WHile both groups have access to good hardware and research, neither could be considered field-leaders.
Nemesis, who is a one-off genius, has been doing this since the early 20th century, and seems to have perfected some kind of machine/human interface.

All of these are mass produced AIs that we casually destroy in their 100s. Stands to reason that a special unique AI like a player character could be more advanced.

Folding@home isn't really a relevant point of reference, is it?

Also, Citadel/Luminary.

You are not doing much to endear yourself to the community, nor to dispel the notion that you are pretentious or self-absorbed, by becoming hostile when someone points out, correctly, that your advice is useless in context.

Animal uplifts, mutations, and A.I.s with some thought put into their origins can be really fun creations to RP with. Some good brain food in those links.

Mutations are seen as a wide-open field in City of Heroes, but they actually have some reference points in some of the game's arcs and NPC groups. We know what caused the Mutant origin as we know it today (the Atomic Age), and yet we also know that some mutants existed beforehand. That might not be as controversial as it sounds, though, since some mutations are bound to occur in any species naturally; and unlike more mundane universes, we know the Mother Nature of Primal Earth actually has a personality of sorts. We can also guess what has exacerbated their rise in number (a consequence of Pandora's Box, and the influence of the Well).

Most importantly, of course, we know about our own stories and explanations, even when they fly in the face of all these established "facts". I believe firmly that the lore is not established on facts, but on facts that seem necessary at the time, in each instance of the universe, experienced by each player character. This is our lead designer's own belief about the way his team should approach established facts, and it fits a comic book universe that is host to many thousands of writers, if you include us and our stories. This is our world too. When we create our characters and their stories, we help create the world. Our bios don't exist in a vacuum, and in that sense our separate experiences aren't islands, but neither do we have to seek approval for our creations.

Damion, I enjoy this kind of discussion immensely. But like the others, I have some words of advice regarding your approach. First, I will present you with the magic key. Whenever I've written guides on roleplaying aspects of the game, I've always been careful never to use this word: "You." Sure, I might use it in my initial writing. But before posting, I will go through and replace all instances of that nasty word with "me", "I", "myself", and so on (I have broken my rule in this one instance, let's see what happens!). The results are magical. People will reply to tell you that you may as well have been talking about them. And you were, of course. But when you're explicit about this fact, your audience will only respond to tell you how much they hate you. This has never happened to me personally, but I know what I'm talking about. I learned from watching threads like this.

My other piece of advice is to be kind and respectful to your audience, even when they insult you. Doing so elevates you, not only in your own mind, but in your audience's minds, whether they ever admit it or not.