General Discussion

There are some pretty innovative ideas in this article.  I will say that I want some form of control of my character (e.g. looks, race, gender, class/career) as well as the name (I want real names for my characters, and a name that fits the concept I have for my character). Family, inherritance, etc I'm all for.

One of the problems with naming conventions in games is that they generally don't allow multiple people to have the same name which leads to some pretty wacky combos.  I don't claim that this is the main reason, just a contributer.  It's very frustrating when I go through 40 to 60 names and they are rejected because someone else already has them or they are the names of NPCs in the game and can't be taken. I've left trial accounts inactive because I couldn't find a decent, real name that seemed to fit my character. I'm not certain I'd trust an automated system to choose the name for me, though I might go through a random generation until something showed up that I could live with for a 5% bonus to exp, or some reward.

I want to role-play in most games, it's just that the mechanics always seem to push that away. If I'm lucky and get my name, then the backstory is missing.  Or I want to be a non-comatant, or minimal combatant, but the system only rewards those who comat all the time. Or I want to be part of a small close-knit group that plays regularly but I can't find such a group.

Some of the ideas in this article could help with this.  How such systems are integrated though could differ widely and either make or break the system/game. The worry is that if some company did integrate such a system but didn't do it right, and it flopped, other game companies would shy away from doing this. That's one of the big problems with innovative ideas - if they are done right the first time, everyone copies them.  If they flop due to poor implementation or design, nobody will touch the idea with a 100-billion meter pole for 20 years (no matter how good such a system might be if done right!).

I think these are some really great ideas and a game like Hero's Journey would do good to consider them. It's something that Simutronics has some experience with in their text-based games and they have the expertise to make something like this work.

Regards,

Gabriel

My own ideas in this direction (specifically the family direction) differ from yours, Nathan, but I think your ideas really rock too.

My own idea is in some ways more complex, and in other ways, simpler. Basically, it's like this..

A character may start with any first name and surname they wish. Any sort of /tell system or whatever would be accomplished through a system NOT tied to the character name, so as to not restrict a name, as this is one of my biggest peeves. I've never met another Darius in any game, but in several, the name's been taken before I got there. Obviously someone, somewhere, has the name, but I've never met them, so it doesn't infect me in any way except to deny my preferred name to me.

Anyhow, once you've been playing for a while, you may have the opportunity to "register" your surname with an in-game college of heralds. Maybe you have to have a certain renown, or maybe complete some quest, or what have you, but you get this opportunity. At this time, if no one else has registered the surname, you may, or you may choose a suitable alteration. For instance, if I wanted to register the Wolfe surname, but someone already had it, I could modify it to Wolf, or Wolffe or maybe even add a specifier.. Such that my character might be Darius Wolfe of the Londinium Wolfes.

Now, once the name is registered, I've established a "Lineage". Anyone else could join my Lineage with my permission, and receive whatever benefits go with being part of an established lineage, provided they were willing to take the surname. In the above case, where I wanted to register Wolfe, I could optionally attempt to contact the existing Wolfe Lineage, and petition to join.

One of the benefits I've considered for being part of a Lineage would go hand-in-hand with a PermaDeath system; When a character dies, they may leave their worldly belongings to a member of their Lineage.

Time for class, but I'll definitely be checking back on this thread. Good stuff here, and potential for more good stuff.

Nathan,

Outstanding ideas as always.  Not to date myself or anything, but back when I ran PnP games (Masquerade, D&D and a few others), I always had ways that enforced these type of things...  Something had to tie the group together.. For instance, why would a vampire choose you?  What skill, what flaw or imperfection or even special physical feature would draw the attention of an immortal to you?  In this way, I had my groups get very involved in the storyline and none of them ever voiced any dissatisfaction with it being included.  I think many current MMO's would definitely benefit from alternate structures such as you have mentioned.  I personally agree with naming conventions being more enforced, I hate the Uberdrood202 types also.  The character sex, class and race should almost always be up to the account holder, but what about if they agreed to play a class or race that is severely underplayed (for a bonus of course).  I have always hated seeing the "elite" class outnumbering every other class, such as Paladins and Necromancers being 1 out of 3 in EQ for a while, until they got the Nerf stick, then all of a sudden you had a rogue shift, then monk shift.  I know I personally would get a lot of satisfaction from starting a new game and if they offered me a chance to play the Human Thief (you know, since humans don't have a dex bonus) and then role playing it would be that much more sweet if you did it well.  Anyway, hope I didn't fog up the thread, only my two cents.  Again, good ideas, hope somebody somewhere decides to implement something similar someday.  Good luck and good gaming.  Cheers!

Sounds interesting, but forcing someone to choose between gimping his character and the risk of sharing his game time with jerks does not seem nice. Sure you can opt out of the whole system once you realise that your "family" stinks, but that means choosing to get gimped. Others who get lucky and end up in a nice family are thus getting an unfair advantage right from the start, through sheer luck. In time, people might even delete their characters and keep rolling new ones until they get into a "good" family. A choice is never "voluntary" if not choosing it causes a loss.

The fundamental dilemma is this: part of the player base are always the sort who should be kicked and banned forever for the good of the community as a whole, but their money is just as good so the game company takes a financial loss if they do anything to drive the misfits out. Yet they also take a loss if they try to force people who really can't get along at all to co-exist. This is why the guild system works, at least in a smaller scale: it allows same-minded people to isolate themselves from the undesirables. That said, big raid guilds like the ones in WoW are not families because they are too large for each guild member to form a personal relationship with someone before they are invited to join.

It seems to me that the main reason for just sticking with the people you know and not forming many relationships is that the risk of grouping with some 1337 kid is too big - therefore, my idea would be to implement some kind of player register within the game itself where other players could write comments about the players they have grouped with. Others could then make contact and form pickup groups / raids with them if they like what is written and avoid people who have a bad reputation. Reaching out and getting in touch with someone new is a lot easier when you have testimony from 100 other people that not only do they know exactly how to play, but they are also great company and have a personality like yours. That is to say, implement tools that significantly increase the chance of meeting people you actually want to play with.

Why not let each player to write a short introduction, which anyone considering inviting them to a group could read? You could even combine it with a short questionnaire, and allow people to query others based on specific choices. Couple that with a system where others can write ONE short, non-abusive comment about them, as described above, and allow them to edit the comment to reflect changes in their views. Or simply make it a vote with enough descriptive options. Not only would personality and reputation matter a great deal, but you would also make it a lot easier to form groups and raids.