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Do you like to pretend?
spinnytop
Posts: 16,450 Arc User
So someone recently made a very disparaging statement about "pretending" while playing this game. That seems odd to me, considering how imagination-powered the core game play mechanics of this game are. I know that I personally like to play pretend in the game sometimes, usually by pretending my character is on a mission or doing something that is in some way meaningful, when they actually aren't. For example with my soldier I would pretend that they weren't so much a hero as they were a poacher, going around Monster Island and sniping manimals to sell their hides. It genuinely increased the amount of fun I was having while just randomly blasting things after having already hit max level (and this was post the old crafting system). I also got excited recently while leveling my mentalist character when it came time to do some missions in the Psi-infected part of millenium city because I could start dreaming up personal motivations for my character to be there...maybe that makes me a dork, but I'm fine with that.
Anyone else around like to pretend and use their imagination while playing this game to, in at least a small way, fill the content gap for yourself?
Anyone else around like to pretend and use their imagination while playing this game to, in at least a small way, fill the content gap for yourself?
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Isn't that the whole point of MMORPG...
When you put on the mask or tie on the ringmail bikini, you pretend to be someone you're not "IRL".
Or how many of us, the player community of CO, plays as themselfs?
Or do i pretend in a game thats all about pretending allready?...
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
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I pretend that the vehicles my heroes use are parked somewhere when not in use, and can be remote-controlled when needed instead of just "popping up".
I pretend that my Voudon priestess' name is feared amongst the Sovereign Sons because she has made them her no. 1 sworn enemies.
I pretend that some of my heroes' costumes / suits actually have protective benefits even when it's really just the defensive passives doing it.
I pretend that they have actual personalities and aren't just lifeless constructs made of 1's and 0's.
Can't think of any more at the moment.
What was the "disparaging" statement?
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
* I pretend that Fantomask is still fighting her nemesis, Death Mask's, ninja minions.
* I pretend that Jacqui (previously Starfury) that she is fighting beings stronger than she is but she still can kick their asses!
* I pretend that Kagemusha is having her Heavy Sword is on her back rather than a samurai sword.
All the while listening to epic music.
Current character roaster: The Iconica, Lady Mythica, Black Jackal, Omni-Woman, Fantomask
Currently waiting for: Moar comics! And maybe City of Titans, too. Hopefully!
Hmm... I pretend that each of my characters has some important duty, but in reality all they do is run in circles around RenCen.
I pretend that my dragon characters are actually using their mouth to use their breaths instead of sneezing them.
I pretend that Tae's mixture of Celestial, Telepathic, Force, and Wind abilities are really Water.
I pretend that few of my characters' fates intertwine with each other every once in a while.
In short: In the world of make-believe, being imaginative helps you stick with it.
And I will always be @DZPlayer122.
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[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
F YEAH!
You're a lunatic with a mad man's dream of a milk proof robot!
___________________________________________________
My bounty-hunter obviously wants to get paid well in exchange for whatever good deed hes been asked to perform. He particularly enjoys going to his hideout after running a few jobs to deposit his pay. In between bounties, hes been known to perform, shall we say, a little for-profit freelance vigilantism by raiding the hangouts/compounds of known criminals even when they have no bounties out for them just so he can confiscate any ill-gotten resources they have on hand. Of course, he puts in an anonymous call to MCPD/UNTIL afterwards to lead them to arrest the now defeated criminals.
I just started a new alt that I plan to build up like a Judgebot. He is supposed to be a Munitions Bot, ala the Gadgeteering power, who gained sentience as a consequence of freak accident during a terrible battle between his creator and a mad-scientist villain which left his creator dead and the villain on the loose (guess who is first nemesis will be?). Now sentient he is still influenced by his pre-existing programming, so he still doesnt see himself as a super hero but rather a means to support the real super heroes. This motivates him to trying to group for missions and/or do alerts, while doing as little soloing as possible. When I do have to solo on him due to IRL constraints on my time/attention, I pretend that he views his current mission as being specifically tasked to him alone and/or doesnt warrant the full attention of actual super heroes.
Of course, I wish I could do a few things in-game to enhance my role-playing experience. For example, I wish I could make my bounty-hunters fire-breath shoot out of his forearm rather than his mouth. I wish I could turn my Munitions Bot characters right arm into a minigun instead of having his minigun appear on and disappear from his shoulder. I wish I could turn the Circle of Arcane Power (or any Circle of __) into a floating technological device instead of magical runes. Things like that.
And, of course, in my opinion, the ultimate role-playing enhancing feature they could add to the game would be a Foundry/Architect/Mission-creator feature. Then I could actually make in-game missions with stories to match my characters motivations. Id love to actually make a real mission in which my bounty hunter is tipped off by a snitch about a drug deal going down, shows up at a warehouse in the dead of night, defeats the bad guys, destroys the drugs, confiscates the duffel bag full of cash, then leaves and sends an anonymous message to MCPD about two gangs fighting each other at the warehouse. Police show up to find the gang members all knocked out, theyre all wanted for various crimes so theyre all arrested. Win-win all around and my bounty hunter heads back to this hide-out to enjoy a cold beverage while counting out all the resources he just earned.
Ask me about Kilbern sometime. Or Hypernova. Or even Vincit Omnia, a war cherub who fires golden arrows that force his foes to submit (did some research on Cupid for February, found out that some myths have him as the son of Ares and Aphrodite, and ran with it).
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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I would but I never see you in game, where the heck do you play?
For the longest time I thought doing this was actually a feature that gold players enjoy >.> I'm still not sure how I ever got that idea in my head...
Since I don't have power coloring, I have to use my imagination to justify some weird color combinations sometimes ^.^;
They got all mad at me because I said that people should pretend in game and tried to make it sound like I was doing something wrong by saying that. I don't want to specify because that might count as naming'n'shaming or whatever it's called.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Deathwish isn't killing rerunning steel crusade for tokens, he's colleting bounties on Mechanon's orbital bases.
Dr. Bugly isn't just stopping Thinktank's deathray, he's taking notes on its design.
Sam Hain isn't fighting crime, he's feeding.
Pretending is why I'm still aying after five years
Oh sh@t are we talking in game >_>?
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
That's how I feel... minus calling them idiots >_>
Just playing this game for straight progression or mechanics... I'm not sure how anyone could retain interest for more than a few hours.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
The initial leveling experience, for instance, involves fighting Purple Gangsters in Westside. My character might have any one of a near-infinite number of motivations for doing so (Happifun was apprehending miscreants per programming, Kilbern was beginning to gather acclaim and thus power, Vincit Omnia was pacifying the streets before moving up...), but it's the same basic experience. It's far harder to pretend, say, that these aren't actually Purple Gangsters, but low-level VIPER functionaries who haven't been issued their greens yet. You could, but it doesn't really make any sense storywise.
On the other tentacle, you do have to pretend that this isn't the same series of missions that every other hero, including your previous alts, have done, else the Prison in MC would have to be even more porous than the Joker's cell at Arkham. So "let's pretend" factors in there. You can even come up with excuses why the "Help a Citizen" missions factor into the main story line, if you wish. But it would help a lot if the main story line had some more variety in it (especially in VB! One grows so weary of cleaning out identical crypts over and over...).
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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You mean I'm not? :eek:
Don't you have a Bond villain's lap to sit in?
I'm a harsh, unloving *****. Simply, if they're running around in the default tights, I'm going to consider them a waste.
Obvious clickbait to the RP community, a 5 for being so blatant.
Obviously anyone in the RP community or part of any RP group, enjoys pretending and some are more upfront about it than others, but I never really understood the crowd who put down RPers.
True story time.
About eight or so years ago, I once send a PM [in brackets since I was making the message OOCly] to someone in CoH to tell them "Nice costume", and the reply back was a rude, scathing and harshe language filled diatribe at me to never send them anything with brackets ever again, they hated Role-players and had a message in their characters biography space saying that they would report and try to ban any RPers thay came across, even if just RPing in Local. Their Bio did indeed say such a thing, but .. holy cow, man, All I did was say "nice costume."
Seriously, F that guy and anyone like him.. These are called MMORPGs for a reason, it's right on the tin.
He did report me and a GM contacted me to ask me about it... I told him what was up, the GM shared a laugh with me, and that was that.
Oh, and this was on Virtue. The only reason a Non-RPer troll would even be there would be to bait RPers.
I do not think that Spinny is doing anything like this here. Even if he is a Stinkybutt.
I don't understand. What is the other end where the pretending could be taking place?
I would say what I think about the point Biff was making, but I'm sure that would count as questioning a moderator action since he closed the thread with that comment, so I can't do that. So, as much as I would like to discuss that with you, I think it's against the rules for me to do so.
No need to step into non-existent cross hairs. I rp occasionally. I know you guys are used to being attacked, but that's not happening here.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Nightshot (my Nightwing homage and Marksman AT) keep hideouts ready in multiple locations: His Millenium City penthouse, a secret underground base at Vibora Bay and aconditioned natural caves at Desert, Canada and Monster Island
Ghostlinger (Ghost Cowboy, Soldier AT) tends to hang at an abandoned desert bunker near his original burial site.
Galatea (UNTIL Agent, Specialist AT) does the same as Nightshot, except that the underground bases are official UNTIL bunkers.
Louie (Casper inspired character... he's a "friendly lich"
My Luchadores, Brazo de Bronce ("Bronze Arm", Behemoth) and El Espectro ("The Spectre", Master AT and totally unrelated to DC's character) each has his own subterranean base complete with wacky gadgetry as per Luchador Cinema tradition:biggrin:
However i always pretend internally while i'm playing.
In some cases it don't interfere my gameplay style, for example:
- Everytime that i have to go to Lemuria i pretend that my characters are using some kind of hight thech scuba suit (Except for Snowy, she can breathe underwater because, well, she's a fish XD)
- In some cases, my Nemesis are already know of my heroes, so i just ignore the part of " i don't know who the hell are you, but i'm gona kill you" from the Museum mission
-All my toons are AT, so, i can't change their build or stats when change costume, but, on the ones that have a transformation, i pretend that i have some kind influence on their powers
And, some pretendings really changes my way of play the game, like:
- I pretend that the devil form of Snowy is more... cold blooded, heartless and even cruel, that's why i always kill the enemys the same way, when their HP is below 25%, i stop atack, just trap them into a ice cage i watch they slowly froze till the death
- i have a character that sure of fear of heighs, Chira Desmond, this way, i always avoid climb high places with her, even having the atletics TP (except when i'm really boring, the i just jump over the Gran Cannyon with no problem)
- Oh, and still with Chira, she is a vampire, but, i avoid to use bite powers on zombies because, c'mon, they are decomposing XD
o.o ...what do you farm on the moon? Moon pies?
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Do you have me on ignore, perchance?
I only ask because you took the time to reply to all the other people here, but flat ignored my post completely.. and I was defending you.
So, you know. Color me confused.
I don't think we can ignore each other here on the forums... at least not without some fancy script that I am way too lazy to figure out.
I read your post... I just didn't have a response >.>; you were correct in your assertion that I'm not trolling. You're apparently one of the few around here capable of doing that.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
HOLY S**T! Foxi being nice @_@"
Dat mirror universe .
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
When you wear the mask of a clown too long, people begin to assume it's all you are.
I love playing Aiko. When she enters costume contests, it's Aiko entering the contests, not me. I just help design the outfits that she wears to them.
And then reality recently made me think. I remembered seeing a page sample from the original Kick **** comic book, showing Kick **** all bloodied up after basically being ganked by a bunch of heavies. And it made me suddenly much more protective of Aiko. I mean, sure, she can pulse a million volts through anyone that comes close, and fly, and she can lift a security van over her head and throw it, but she's STILL just eleven years old! It made me remember Elastigirl's advice to her children on Syndrome's secret island (slight paraphrasing):
Which reminds us WHY we play this game: because we love superheroes. We play the game because, in some visceral way, we live a fantasy through them. My paranoia about some unscripted beatings for little Aiko notwithstanding, she's still my go-to character for RP, even during costume contests.
So the next time you consider heading into Club Caprice to start trolling RPers there, stop and think on WHY they are in there. Sure, there's that small group that are in there to find a partner for some private little eRP scene, but there are many in there still, with established, regular, superhero characters, that are in the club because the club is for superheroes! It's THE place to be when you're a meta letting off steam or letting down your hair, or just there to knock back a couple of barrels of beer, or extra-large rum & Nucola.
Heck, even though many people see Caprice as a 'bad' place, we all seem to remember NOT to fall into the fountain in the lounge because it might make us pregnant regardless of our gender or species!
I'm always nice, certain people just have self-hating imaginations u3u
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
you make it sound like erping is a bad thing. I mean hey, that stuff is part of super heroes too... just look at Scott Summers, The One-Eyed Monster... er.. I mean, Cyclops o3o
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Let me quote Einstein "Imagination is more improtant than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world."
Pretending pushes us ahead. We try to create what we have imagined. What is to come?....I can only imagine.
HEY! I don't have to use my imagination to hate myself!
:biggrin:
Indeed. It was not unheard of for a King to ask his court jester for an opinion on political matters. Comedy has always been a tool for social commentary.