Of course! As I mentioned waaay back, the thread title is a legacy from pre-beta CoH and we welcome anyone that would have joined the Pride global channel in CoH.
Welcome aboard Voldine!

I DO apologize for any confusion. Legacy is a fairly strong theme for this thread and I had a personal attachment to my 1st SG. Plus we get the benefit of stating we were here before, we are here now, and we will be here in the future.

Voldine wrote:

Good to know.
Even better to know I won't have to be afraid.
Being transgender is the only reason I never spoke during any of the closed beta TeamSpeak or ventrillo sessions back in CoH...

Well we certainly don't want anyone to be afraid. No actual ideas on vent or TS just yet, but if they happen I imagine we will have a rich tapestry of sounds. (I myself veer into several voices as the comedic urge strikes.) Eventually as the gaming progresses, the ability to convey information will be the most important. Stuff like "RUN", "The AV is rezzing", "SB meh", and "bio brk".

Welcome Tinkhard! Glad to have ya!

If you haven't noticed yet, there's another update on the costume creator progress posted. It's well on it's way to being FABULOUS! So go check that out and then come back here and tell us you want to join our network.

We always have room! Welcome aboard MrNate310. If you are on Facebook, may I suggest the group CoH PRIDE? It's not required by any means but it sounds like it may also be a good fit. :)

Alright, as I write this it's election night in the USA. And even though it's not the best idea to talk politics in these forums, what I CAN say is that you can still elect to join our group. (Maybe wait until after you vote. It's important!) Enjoy the night then look forward to enjoying CoT.

So we've just gotten another awesome costume update and it seems like a good time to step back into the spotlight for ourselves. We welcome all that are inclined to join and we aren't shy about answering questions either. Give yourself a chance to see what we can offer and offer yourself a chance to see how far you can go!

Welcome aboard Melanieshaman!

Hello again all! Did you know that September 19th is also International Talk Like a Pirate Day? For longer than this thread has been around I have been subjecting my coworkers to pirate themed DVDs in the breakroom.

And now for some game information. Thanks to the PvP phase thread we now know the CoT terms for Teams, Super Groups, and Coalitions.

Teams will be known as Groups.
Super Groups will be known as Super Teams.
Coalitions will be known as Leagues.

For now, these terms (And how they interact in the PvP phase) are all we know. But I have submitted further questions in the current official question thread.

Researching things like this seems to be one of my strengths, but everyone has something worthwhile to offer. Join us and let us help you discover YOUR strengths.

Alright we have 2 special things worth mentioning.

1. Today is National Coming Out Day.

2. Tomorrow there is a significant update for the CoT website which will include some powerset info!

And as always we welcome any and all that wish to join us.

The Ides of March is coming. That is the time when MWM will decide if they can meet their deadlines and launch CoT this year. Of course I'll keep us updated or appoint someone to do it if I'm on vacation (Probable).

So some discussion we had last night in the "CoH PRIDE" facebook group got me thinking..

It's time we decided on a name. So what I propose is that we take suggestions both here and in the "CoH PRIDE" facebook group. Folks wishing to post suggestions in both places are encouraged to do so, but it may help if you note the crossposting to minimize confusion.

Of course I have a suggestion. It's a bit dull, but descriptive and marketable.

The PRIDE Channel Super Team. (Pride ST for short.)
We fight with grace.
We fight with style.
We fight with PRIDE!

Welcome Princess Paladin! What TitansCity said is correct. A handy resource on "known" game information was compiled by Pyromantic in the FAQ subforum. And he updates it every so often so it's an excellent place to get up to speed.
https://cityoftitans.com/forum/compilation-information-city-titans
Of course questions are welcome here as well.

MeSoSollyWan wrote:

Terwyn wrote:

I am impressed at the camaraderie shown in this thread.

It's a very good exercise to come and read parts of this thread after spending time in other threads where people are expressing nearly opposite views. Keeps the mind, heart, and soul balanced.

=)

Ok, now I'm blushing. Almost don't know what to say. (But we all know that now I'm home from work I'm gonna squeeze off a few paragraphs!)

[Flashback] I suppose the idea for this thread started as far back as CoH beta ramping up. Quite frankly it wasn't our best time. Personalities started to flare and Gay groups that hadn't been on the forums started to appear. Suddenly, in our minds, we felt a little less special and disorganized in comparison.

Flashing forward to just before this thread started. I realized that *I* was the only one left with that experience and that it could happen again. But THIS time, we could be prepared! We could get it right and so many others could benefit from it if we did. I set the back of my mind on the issue and it returned to me the idea of "just welcome everyone that wants to join and let them play the way they want. Even in separate SGs! So long as we linked through Global channels or coalitions we would all be together in the ways that mattered most."

But permissions had to be obtained to do it best so I pitched the idea on the CoH PRIDE group on facebook. (Dramatic music intensifies) This was where it all hinged! Things could be stopped DEAD in their tracks if they didn't agree. As folks conferred and murmured whispers were exchanged, a verdict was returned...

"Eh. Sure dude. Whatever."[/Flashback]

And the rest has been written here in this very thread.

So in spite of this this torrid tell-all of our secret sordid origins, we still DARE to welcome ALL that would wish to join.
WILL THIS BE YOU!?! If so just post so we can welcome you too. :D

TitansCity wrote:

You forget to mention that sometimes, young people are happy to find a place where they can talk, share and find reassurance since their life are sometimes really tough, in an homophopbic way. Then, even a virtuel place is always good :)

Excellent points! I would only add that all ages can benefit.

Welcome to both King Dunce (I'm an ally myself), and Greeno34! Looking forward to playing CoT with you both!

Leo_G wrote:

I find it kind of funny that we finally get mostly tolerance and acceptance of LGBT (how many times do people just quote current year as evidence) yet the community itself wants to wall themselves off in segregated LGBT spaces... Unless it's an 18+ environment, then I guess it makes sense...

I understand how there can be confusion, but we're no more walled off than any other Super Team. In fact, I've been saying for years that our only barrier to entry is deciding to ask. That's it. Ask to join and you're in.

Another facet is Super Teams are, by their very definition, exclusive. Some want fire using characters, others want to focus on street level themes, and others on PvP. The moment you create a Super Team, you are excluding SOMEONE. Obviously I have no known means available to change this, but I have made great efforts to minimize it through the use of League structures. If some folks want to focus on PvP for instance, they are entirely welcome to form their own Super Team and ally with us with no hard feelings. Likewise with any playstyle, and recently language, choices.

Now inevitably we come to the question of why do this at all. It's pretty simple actually. It's just nice to be able to focus on playing the game without explaining yourself over and over, which can break immersion. It makes for a better gaming experience that way.

And as Foradain pointed out, we aren't excluding anyone that wants in. I'm straight and I'm leading the group.

I hope this helps with understanding us. Be well.

Mask-of-Many wrote:

Hey, count me in!
Pansexual transfeminine IRL, with several MOGAI* characters in tow.

[i][sub]*Marginalised Orientations, Genders, and Intersex - much more elegant and concise than the longer acronyms used for we various queer/non-cishetero types.[/sub][/i]

Welcome Mask-of-Many!

Leo_G wrote:

Impulse King wrote:

Now inevitably we come to the question of why do this at all. It's pretty simple actually. It's just nice to be able to focus on playing the game without explaining yourself over and over, which can break immersion. It makes for a better gaming experience that way.

And that's the reason why I question this. I don't feel it's needed and for the very reason you point out. Most people not concerned with sexuality of people and their relationships don't ask homosexual individuals to explain anything. In this day and age, I feel it's rather mainstream now and most people have encountered homosexuals or transgenders either in media, in person or through political activists and their talking points.

The individuals that seem insistent on explaining themselves are the individuals within the community. (see the above comment)

So because you yourself have never seen folks ask questions about a player's sexuality, this group isn't needed? And this seems reasonable to you? I think I'm going to disappoint you and keep the group going anyway.

And as for "the current year" or "this day and age", well you clearly haven't read the thread. I can directly trace this group back to pre-beta City of Heroes. Because of course, I was there. In fact, let's do a storytime from back then. It's a favorite of mine. Back on the.. 3rd page of the original PRISM thread on the pre beta CoH boards, we had a poster similar to you in some respects. He too said "he didn't see a need" for our SG. Also that we were putting it in peoples faces.

A little over a year later he posted again. To apologize. He had gone to start his own SG. One with a christian theme as it happens. Wanna guess what folks told him as he promoted it? That's right. Others told him they "didn't see a need" and that he was putting religion "in their faces." Ultimately he gave up on his SG (which was a shame really). But he DID have the strength of character to empathize with us and I respected that. I hope he enjoyed his time on CoH.

Over the intervening years as I played CoH I played with, and inherited many SGs. Learned from what worked AND from what didn't work. Why for over a year I helped lead a tightly interlinked coalition pretty successfully. After that I discovered the Pride global channel. (You wouldn't have seen a need for that either Leo G.) And all those experiences became the foundation for this Super Team and League, which was created over a current year before you joined the forums.

So Leo G, allow me to explain how this will work. You are entirely welcome to keep posting. If you happen to cross a line, mods will step in as has happened before in the thread. Assuming that doesn't happen, I'll continue to turn your posts into advertisements for our group. You'll help us stay at the top of the page and to get us more members that you don't see a need for. I'm good either way.

And if you ever want to start your own Super Team, this thread is chock full of great tips, if I do say so myself. Be well.

Are you deliberately responding to points out of order for effect? You weren't being threatened with moderation. I had stated my belief you hadn't read the thread earlier. And this community on the whole, doesn't really NEED much moderation. So, as a fellow critical person I asked myself "Is there any reason Leo G might think mods watch this thread?" Well of course the answer I came up with was "no." I was telling you moderation HAS happened in this thread before out of a sense of wanting to be fair with you. I might disagree with you, but I do like to be fair.

Alright, if we're going with the "I like to question and criticize" route, then that's a different lecture. A lot of it is in the approach. The approach you chose at the beginning was a blanket statement about the LGBT community here walling itself off. And without having read the thread first to learn about the group you made a blanket statement about... Well there's not much positive this old tactician can say about taking Custer's approach to Little Big Horn. [Recap: Custer did no recon and found himself surrounded and ridiculously outnumbered.] The "question" part of the "question and criticize" probably would have had better results. A simple word added to the beginning like..

"ARE you planning om walling yourself off from the rest of the community?" Could have done wonders. The answer of course being no. My personal intentions are to be a rather active in the community, but I make NO requirement on the rest of my members. I expect some will and some won't. Mostly I want my members to be able to enjoy the game.

Of course, I have to notice that in your last post you asked.. no questions. Plenty of statements, plenty of criticisms, but no actual questions. And I still think you didn't have the curiosity to read the thread.

Actually glad to hear you're bi. I was starting to worry you were lashing out at others out of self hate. The closet is a terrible place to be. Hadn't worried much if you were a bigot or a homophobe actually. Just gave the response I felt the situation required. So what other potential concerns might you have that I can assuage? I've already told you that all participation is voluntary. But I WOULD like you to read the thread before asking questions please. It'll go much smoother that way.

And yeah, a big part of my personal themeing here is "What's past is prologue." In my last post I told you I had tried my best to learn from the various successes and failures I had in CoH. I did this with critical questioning and acquired tactical and strategic acumen. And I did it because I had made promises. To my friends in PRISM, to my friends in the CoH PRIDE facebook group, and perhaps most importantly, to myself. To apply all that I had deliberately striven to learn to create the best SG I could manage. (I like to think all SG leaders promise themselves that.)

And we're still accepting members! I, and others, try to check the thread at LEAST once a day. :)

Recap time! Our story thus far started a long time ago, on a forum far far away...

On the City of Heroes (CoH) pre beta forums, Super Groups section, there was a thread titled "Gay/Gay-friendly Super Group". I read through it and asked to join. They accepted me and I made some great friends as the first str8 (but not the last!) member of P.R.I.S.M..

As the wheel of time turned, City of Heroes went away but City of Titans (CoT) started to rise as a spiritual successor with great hope! And I began to think "What's past is prologue". That the ideas of my friends could be remembered into THIS game merged with knowledge I had gained from years of playing CoH. I checked with my fellow members of the CoH Pride facebook group and was given the go ahead to organize around the principals of the Pride global channel in CoH. Let's see how that has been expressed so far.

1. To join, just express an interest. Pretty much the lowest barrier to entry I could think of.
2. We check this thread at least once a day. A simple, easily delivered promise. While I try to do this myself as much as possible, there are times when I ask friends to help.
3. We intend to make use of Leagues* in CoT to have an allied network of Super Teams. (This is HUGE! We don't have to argue on playstyle [RP, PvP], theme [Left handed fire users], or even languages! We can just let folks enjoy how they want to play within the letter and spirit of the rules and TOS.) Also we will have a Pride global channel.

*Leagues are basically two or more Super Teams that have "friended" each other, or formed an alliance while maintaining their own identity.

And around five and a half years after starting, we are still taking new members! So take a read through the thread if you like and join if the desire strikes.

Welcome Tomkat1814 !

Check out the latest announcement. Avatar builder (incomplete build) available to test at Norwescon!!
https://cityoftitans.com/forum/cot-coming-norwescon-weekend