Flights 'n Tights MUX

[Hushicho]

Capes! Tights! Muscles! Action!

Who doesn't love the excitement of a comic book?

Flights 'n Tights is a unique and exciting game, with two parallel Earths -- Lasombra and Effusia -- for more serious-based superhero play, or more lighthearted adventure play. We also have mini-grids Arcadia (high fantasy) and Sangria (modern/urban fantasy), for those days when you don't feel like superheroics but want to play something fun! Getting a character is easy, setting up is quick and simple, and getting a new area added to the grid is sheer simplicity!

We welcome players of all kinds, to play both established Feature Characters and exciting Original Characters. At Flights 'n Tights, the name of the game is fun and adventure. Flights 'n Tights is a haven for gay, bisexual, and queer male characters, though female characters can be emitted and open-minded straight characters are welcome too! Unlike many other games that treat even established gay, bi, and queer male characters poorly, Flights 'n Tights celebrates them. Of course, all players are welcome.

Unplayed villains and other characters are also open to emit so that scenes can easily be created in thrilling ways. Plots are in your hands! We try to be accommodating because we want you to have fun. There is simply no other game like Flights 'n Tights.

You can check out our site at http://flightsntights.wikidot.com or just stop in at fnt.mechanipus.com port 2109! There's a guide to help newcomers to the world of MUX roleplay on our site, and we're happy to help answer your questions!

Currently we're scheduling weekly social scenes at 10 PM EST on Sunday to promote more activity. We're open to other days and ideas, so don't hesitate to contribute! Staff are on all through every day, so if there isn't someone on yet, just wait! We're not the largest community around, but we're ready to grow!

Stop in today as a guest! We think you'll like what you see. Hope to see you there.

[ixokai]

I've known about this place for awhile and I can't get it through my head to so much as reach out and look at it, let alone log on, for fear of the sticky creepiness that seems to just radiate off of it.

This is not homophobia. Secret comic book reveal as I throw off my cape: I am teh gay! (I know, @sunny, you are shocked, SHOCKED)

Here's the center of what bugs me: "This is a haven for gay, bisexual, and queer male characters." The fuck? No gay guy I know thinks like this after the stupid college years. If you want to be a LGBT haven, where is the lesbians? The transgendered Superwoman? I can see and get behind you there. But no. This is about the GUYS. All about the people you wanna bang in tights.

This entire thing reeks of a creepy fetishization of what's my life and noo thank you. I suspect there's a lot of women with gay fetishes instead of actual LGBT people on this game. I don't have an issue with those ladies usually, I don't go poking my RP partners and asking their RL genders (talk about creepy!), but this is a step too far.

Yeah I see they say they welcome everyone etcetc but when you declare what you're for you can't just walk that back.

[TiredEwok]

The exclusion of female characters in pretty much all capacity is what turns me off on this game. Not that I fit the demographic this game is geared for, being a straight female, and wouldn't play there as a result, but still. If you're going to claim to be inclusive then be inclusive. If you're not willing to welcome everyone regardless of sex/gender then don't claim to be so.

[TNP]

It pretty much comes off sounding like a gay sex Mu* set in a superhero genre. Any MALE character willing to have sex with MEN is welcome and so are you straight MEN if you don't mind getting hit on and maybe, just maybe, get drunk and be willing to get sucked off. But sorry all you vagina types, you've got cooties.

And really, that's fine but just come out (so to speak) and admit it. (Ok, not really fine but it's your sandbox so whatever.)

[Roz]

Like, I absolutely know that straight female fetishization of male queerness is a thing, but do you realize that there are also queer female players wanting to play queer female characters? Like. Holy shit. Lesbians are a thing.

[Auspice]

Echoing others... I know for a fact what Roz said above. Heck, I left a game once because female players of gay male characters were harassing me for playing a straight male character (I'm female and bi, IRL).

If the place allowed female chars, I'd potentially check it out. But yeah, the whole of it just feels like it's meant to fetishize, not be a haven.

[surreality]

While this place specifically excludes the kind of thing I play (I only play female characters), I appreciate that they say they don't want female PCs right on the tin. It saves me and them both time, grief, and potential arguments or confusion, and bluntly, I appreciate that.

It's not the game for me, though I don't get the impression I would be unwelcome as a player (female, bi) if I wanted to play a male character that's gay, bi, queer, or open-minded straight.

I just don't play male characters. (I'm hilariously bad at it, so I refrain from inflicting that on anyone, anywhere.)

I am all for folks building themselves a game for a specific group or interest. That may mean I'm excluded, but in this case, I don't get the impression it's because I have a vag RL -- @ixokai, I get what you're saying, though, that that's not necessarily a good thing (that's a whole other layer of discussion really) -- but because I prefer to play things that have them, too, so this is a case of their choices and my choices not jiving. Which is OK.

I'm OK with having cooties, I guess. I'd rather know up front, and they say as much, so I can't really get riled. I'm not entitled to play everywhere and anywhere, and I'm cool with that.

[Roz]

@surreality It's certainly true that it's better to know up-front than have it be one of those sorts of situations where there's weird, insidious judging on the game for playing certain kinds of characters.

[MarsGrad]

Yeah, I mean... I understand the initial outcry of 'this is clearly discrimination and thus not okay,' but I think I have to agree with surreality on this. It's not like you have to submit a birth certificate to be allowed in. You yourself don't have to be male or gay/bi to play. It just supports a specific kind of character to the exclusion of all others. Is it going to be everyone's cup of tea? No. Do I think it's intended to be or is hostile or a Bad Thing(tm)? No.

Of course, then the question arises: If the specific kind of character was only white, straight males, would it still be okay? But I'm not going to touch that. Just bring it up and leave it here. Because.

[TiredEwok]

@MarsGrad said in Flights 'n Tights MUX:

Of course, then the question arises: If the specific kind of character was only white, straight males, would it still be okay? But I'm not going to touch that. Just bring it up and leave it here. Because.

Okay. Let me put this out there. I have no problem with the fact that they allow male characters of whatever sexual preference only. That's not what I am getting at. I just feel like they're claiming to be welcoming to the LGBT people while only offering a very limited option of what's able to be played by the people they seem to be inviting. Are there lesbian, bi or transgendered women who'd want to play gay males... heck, let's add heterosexual females to this mix, too...? Maybe, yes. But there probably would be just as many, maybe even more, who'd want to play lesbian/bi/trans-female characters who are not going to be pigeon-holed into minor roles.

But, again in hindsight, since I am not part of the community maybe I don't have any right to say anything, I dunno.

[silentsophia]

I respect their honesty and wish them well.

[Warma Sheen]

I think when you have a sex-MU* like this one, there's nothing wrong with specializing in a specific type of sexual experience. You know what you get and what to expect.

[silentsophia]

@Warma-Sheen And there are yuri/lesbian focused games. Or at least were.

[surreality]

I think part of the confusion is that we're used to LGBT, and they leave the L out of things from the outset.

To be entirely fair, I believe there was a 'girls only' game that if I'm remembering correctly was anime-themed a ways back. I never went there myself but heard rumblings about it on and off while I was on Shang.

The playerbase consisted primarily of male players, which should surprise exactly no one, for similar reasons to those @ixokai describes, just the flip side of them. Being not especially keen on the typical fetishized representations I heard about, well... yeah, sure, I could play my gender of choice and being bi I wouldn't have much of an issue, but I'm massively uncomfy with those kinds of 'I exist as a sex object and don't really understand much about what I'm even doing, tee hee BOOBS <bounce giggle bounce slippery bounce oooh>' representations, and really don't want to RP with them. I have seen Shang"Lesbians" sniffing each other's crotches in greeting and played like giggle-twit braindead nymphos way too much to want anything to do with that particular crowd. So I feel people on this front when they get uncomfy about 'fetish bait' vibes.

[MarsGrad]

@Apu said in Flights 'n Tights MUX:

@MarsGrad said in Flights 'n Tights MUX:

Of course, then the question arises: If the specific kind of character was only white, straight males, would it still be okay? But I'm not going to touch that. Just bring it up and leave it here. Because.

Okay. Let me put this out there. I have no problem with the fact that they allow male characters of whatever sexual preference only. That's not what I am getting at. I just feel like they're claiming to be welcoming to the LGBT people while only offering a very limited option of what's able to be played by the people they seem to be inviting.

So the issue is that they're claiming LGBT openness, but not actually supporting/are open to the L? That's fair. That's a question of misrepresentation. I will point out though, that I don't think they mention LGBT in the post, though I admit to not actually looking at the wiki or game itself.

Edit: That is to say, I realize they mention and are centered around homosexuality and bisexuality, but I don't think they actually say they're an LGBT supportive locale. Just... GB. Male GB.

[TiredEwok]

@MarsGrad

You're right. The ad itself didn't mention LGBT. It was @ixokai who did.

[ixokai]

@Apu said in Flights 'n Tights MUX:

@MarsGrad

You're right. The ad itself didn't mention LGBT. It was @ixokai who did.

Yeah, I was saying, if they wanted to be a LGBT haven, I could get behind them. I find them being a dicks who like dicks "haven" ... extremely distasteful. I wasn't saying that they misrepresented themselves as a LGBT haven.

They were totally upfront. To be a PC there you need a penis: you may want more penises in your life, or be okay with just your own, as long as you're open to other people wanting more penises in their life.

It gives me the creeps.

[silentsophia]

@ixokai I don't know why it would give you the creeps when there's lesbian/yuri games that pretty much turn out to be straight dudes playing fetish bait as Surreality says.

And they didn't claim to be LGBT haven. It's a place for bi and gay dudes.

[Ninjakitten]

@silentsophia
I don't really get your first sentence, there. It's unreasonable for him to find this creepy because there's something else arguably similar out there? I'm pretty sure it's possible to find them both creepy!

They did, actually, claim to be a 'haven' -- but for "gay, bisexual, and queer male characters" (emphasis mine). And "players of all kinds" are welcome, as long as they're playing queer (or straight but open-minded) males.

So I see @ixokai's point and get why he might find it off-putting, although I like that they're up-front about things. Like @surreality says, it saves time and effort for anyone who'd want a female character or gets (and dislikes) a fetish vibe off the set-up.

What I'm kind of curious about is: DO superhero games have a history of treating non-straight male heroes poorly? "Unlike many other games that treat even established gay, bi, and queer male characters poorly" strongly suggests that, but as someone who doesn't play the genre, I don't know if that's true. If it is, I can see a non-fetish place this would come from, although given my experience in other genres I'd've thought an everyone-welcome game with strict enforcement against people being that kind of asshole would work also.

[silentsophia]

@Ninjakitten Ah, whoops. I misread. I guess it just feels odd in a way. And comics as a whole tend to treat their non-straight characters terribly.