A player simped on my girl toon yesterday.

[KelbornTM]

So for the first time ever I'm playing a girl character and I'm having fun as a fire/fire blaster. For whatever reason I always felt weird about playing as a girl in the past, but now its no biggie. So I made a red head with big ol' bobbies, like ya do.

 

The other day I formed a Dr. Quarterfield TF and one of the players using a male toon keep giving me inspirations. At first I thought he was joking with me since I kept dying over and over (learned how to play this game tanking and some habits are hard to break), but then he gave me a bunch of the unique inspirations that do both damage and accuracy, or health and stamina. Then my eyebrow really raised when he dropped a couple of rare enhancement recipes on me. We furnished Quarterfield and while everyone was saying bye to each other, he whispered me thanks for forming the group then told me to message him if I ever need anything..... then logged off before I could reply. WTF? Has something like this happened to anyone else?

Edited November 19, 2021 by KelbornTM

[Oubliette_Red]

Dr. Q's are a long slog. Unlike Legacy, rare Enh recipes are not that hard to come by anymore., not even the PvP ones. Sounds like someone was being kind, take it for what it is.

 

A for making a female character "with big ol' bobbies, like ya do", I typically figure it's a G.I.R.L, I'm sure others do as well.

 

[GraspingVileTerror]

As an avid roleplayer with well over 200 characters at this point, I find that the generosity or lack-thereof from other players isn't wholly contingent on the appearance of my character.

People are diverse, and City of Heroes (especially places where roleplay is popular) has a wide variety of players representing many walks of life.

I've occasionally been "hit on" while just walking around in non-Pocket D zones, without even interacting with the other player.  This has been while playing as masculine-presenting characters, feminine-presenting characters, ambiguously-gendered characters, clearly robotic or monstrous characters, and even as a giant rottweiler dog character.

 

There are a lot of different people out there.

 

People like a lot of different things.  

 

It's just normal humans being normal humans.

[KelbornM]

Thanks guys, I was hoping for this kind of response. COH has always had the best player base of any game I've played. Ya'll are probably right, he was just a cool guy.

[Heraclea]

I'm always happy to drop insps on players who need them.   Having many female characters, I encounter this sometimes, though few are meant to be that sexy, many more are meant to be scary, and several are downright ugly. 

[Oginth]

The most I got are "nice costume" one-liner, and a random million inf, but I think that was just a generous bored vet.

 

Since we are in "Off-Topic", I was proposed in another MMO (which has a marriage mechanic, but a pair of married characters is still an in-game commitment not something you can just randomly proposed for fun).

Edited November 20, 2021 by Oginth

[ForeverLaxx]

I would roleplay with my primary character on Infinity and she ended up acquiring a small handful of people who were always super-willing to help her out. Until, that is, the day they all learned that "she" was actually a "he" and that character found herself completely alone, overnight.

That was... interesting.

[Chrono-Bot]

On 11/19/2021 at 11:17 PM, ForeverLaxx said:

I would roleplay with my primary character on Infinity and she ended up acquiring a small handful of people who were always super-willing to help her out. Until, that is, the day they all learned that "she" was actually a "he" and that character found herself completely alone, overnight.

That was... interesting.

I'm currently in a situation where I'm not sure if I should say, explicitly, 'you know I'm a guy right?' to this guy who's been writing with me. Not sure what'd happen there. I'm not a STRAIGHT guy but I'm definitely not a girl.

[GraspingVileTerror]

I suppose that is a question of whether you or this other person place value on your personal identity at this time, or if you're both just comfortable continuing to interact without that information added in to the mix, @Rosencrantz.

You could lead off with a question along the lines of "do you mind if we discuss some things related to real life, or would you prefer that we just keep strictly in the game's/roleplay's fantasy?"  Gauge the other player's feelings on the matter, if they're not already clear.

 

 

 

Non-specifically, I'm of two minds on that matter in general.

 

I like that online can be a safe space to explore our own identities, and how those identities mesh with others, in theory.  It was vital for myself back in 2007'ish, in Legacy/Retail City no less.  So I've personally experienced the awesome force for good which roleplay in a nominally anonymous space can offer.

But I wish that it wasn't still potentially volatile to the point where some people feel some trepidation or outright fear at the prospect of connecting on a personal level with the other players.  Strong bonds get forged all the time, but sometimes those are bonds of connection that were formed with an identity which ultimately was just a stepping stone on the path to personal enlightenment.  The sort of identity that isn't true to the person who used it, but the identity which someone else grew connected to.  It can get messy.

And there are a few people out there who are not questioning their own identity, but intentionally misrepresent themselves in an effort to manipulate the emotions of others and troll for their personal amusement.  Activities which ultimately undermine the efforts of the genuine people by feeding in to that culture of fear in others.

 

Ultimately, though, a person's identity is no one else's business but that one person.  If they choose to share it or not remains wholly their decision.  The important thing for others to remember is that spaces like this have rules to protect the anonymity of participants, so we must assume that no one we speak with is going to necessarily be the person we think/hope they are.

 

Hopefully those who are still exploring themselves, but haven't yet found someone they can trust and confide in, will find that sort of connection and feel safe to open up on their own terms.

It did wonders for me about fifteen years ago.  It's a big part of what City of Heroes means to me, and I try my best to provide safe space and facilitate that kind of self-discovery here.

[JnEricsonx]

I've actually had that happen once or twice.  Then again, Some of of my female characters are admittedly designed as if they were being made by Brian Pulido or Jim Balent-both of which I've met-so thankfully that kind of creepy response has very rarely happened.

[Chrono-Bot]

@GraspingVileTerror That's what I ended up doing. He did mind! Glad I got that sorted out before anything went awry. 

[FuturaTrunks]

dont want to offend you but i take a liking to folks who die alot too, tend to give them goodies and stuff.  If they're hot thats just a bonus

 

[Six-Six]

I rarely consider the sex of the players when I encounter them. if it's a female toon, I treat them like females, males males (and huge huge haha). Just the other day, I found out that one of my SG mates who I've been "treating" as a girl turned out to be a man IRL. not that I cared. my toons themselves are quite equally divided into the 3 body types -- no deep reason behind it.

That said, I suppose I'm one of the generous ones. sometimes I'll drop purple recipes on people with toons that I find "cute" (very loose definition here) or a team mate that I found cool during the run. I don't use them so much so I figure might as well have others put them to better use. I'm not a insp popper, so I rarely pay attention to insps. but on some occasions I'd drop greens, purples, oranges and blues to team mates who look like they need them and reds to damage dealers during tough boss fight. again, they can put it to better use than me.

did he ask for your phone number? 😉

 

[DougGraves]

I started playing MMOs with Asheron's Call 25 or so years ago.  I played a male, but my wife and a female friend played females.  Both of them frequently had other players come up and hand them stuff.

 

I haven't noticed that in COH.

[WanderingAries]

I remember the joke on live was "Girls don't exist", but that's obviously false. 😉