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Author Topic: A long ass rant about my ideal 'Naming System' in MMO  (Read 14851 times)
rk47
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on: January 17, 2007, 10:59:53 AM

It all started from a friends chat over MSN. I asked him, do you roleplay? He said he gave up on it quickly after running out of things to say, giving example of 'Hail Steve!' Then I told him, you shouldn't know a person's name like that in RP just because you can see his name text over his head.

I started thinking about that statement and he snapped 'WTF you're nuts'
So I thought about it, since when having names are really important in MMORPG? I mean, people keep asking you to add to friendlist all the time but barely make use of it. It's like Friendster (something I really despise but popular IRL), you just want testimonials or show off your connections that you barely use 10% of them.

Why can't a name be unknown to someone you just first met? And depending on how many times you meet him and interact with him...you gather Impression and become 'Familiar' with him that you simply can't forget?

Wouldn't it create a more interesting MMO interaction? A Nameless PK that you swore revenge at but barely knew his name...but you remembered details of his scars etc 'abstracted' with in-game journal that keeps the impression fresh for 24 hour, giving you a chance to recognize him if you meet him in a tavern. And plot revenge. He may not know you either, since robbers IRL just shouts 'Hey, you give me your money!' and stabs or runs away, he won't pay much attention to how you look. Abstacted in game would be: Depending on level gap between PK and Victim, PK may not remember how his victim looks like unless it is an encounter between two evenly matched characters. Reasoning: RL Impression of a good looking chick last longer than a plain looking one etc.

It creates a more emphasis on trust & friendship in game. It's not like, oh you're online-indicator so he can pull you into an instance when you login. And the system gauges Fame & Infamy. Depending on how many good or evil deed you commit, it accumulates...so a nameless brigand that can't control himself will be exposed eventually by way of reputation. A good samaritan will become well known from slaying bandits etc. It's stuff you can't avoid just like RL, we don't know this actor till he acted in a very good show or this Osama till he blew up some buildings. Fame & Infamy, unavoidable consequences of actions.

Thoughts? I'm just rambling at 3 AM and my friend's dissing me. 'GOD GO BACK TO UO U FREAK!'
etc :)


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Yoru
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Reply #1 on: January 17, 2007, 11:04:32 AM

This has been done in a number of muds. Also, IIRC, UO didn't have floating names above heads. At least not way back in the day.

Also, probably more appropriate for GD&D, so I'm moving it there.
Furiously
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Reply #2 on: January 17, 2007, 12:22:27 PM

Anonymity + internet = bad things.

That being said. To have no name, and allow people to name you on their client as, "Jerkoff PK" would be entertaining.

The other problem. You walk up to two wizards chatting:
"Hail thee, Thou dost look like a fearsome wizard, by what name are you called."
"Raistlin."
"And you sir wizard, what be thine name?"
"Raistlin."

Insert same scenario for Drizzits and Rangers. Then again, if I had to type the name in and could make them show up as, "Ignore thisone" and "Twit job" it would have some purpose.

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Reply #3 on: January 17, 2007, 04:09:52 PM

Each person definitely needs to have a unique name to avoid the Raistlin problem.

How about if you get the floating name only after you've had a certain level of interaction with the character?  Maybe when they, or even someone else, says their name to you while they're present.  Or after spending some minimum amount of time in their presence.  That way you'd "recognize" people who you've seen around a lot, or who have been introduced to you, but anyone else would be an anonymous face in the crowd. 

That could also be modified by the "fame and infamy" stuff suggested in the OP, such that a name "sticks" faster depending on the character's level, or what they were doing when you saw them, et cetera.

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Reply #4 on: January 17, 2007, 04:50:22 PM

Each person definitely needs to have a unique name to avoid the Raistlin problem.

How about if you get the floating name only after you've had a certain level of interaction with the character?  Maybe when they, or even someone else, says their name to you while they're present.  Or after spending some minimum amount of time in their presence.  That way you'd "recognize" people who you've seen around a lot, or who have been introduced to you, but anyone else would be an anonymous face in the crowd. 

That could also be modified by the "fame and infamy" stuff suggested in the OP, such that a name "sticks" faster depending on the character's level, or what they were doing when you saw them, et cetera.

If you combined something like this with NPCs that acted like they lived in the areas they inhabit, you'd really have an immersive world, IMO.  Some CRPGs are great in this respect -- people go home and go to bed at night, shops are closed, etc.  It's good stuff. 

ETA -- More of a point -- not knowing if someone was an NPC or player at first would be nifty...having no floaty names until you'd dealt with that person as you've described would make it seem even more like what you describe.

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eldaec
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Reply #5 on: January 18, 2007, 12:57:04 AM

irl you recognise people because irl the graphics and character customisation aren't shit.

The day we can get rid of floating names will be the day MMOGs have real world resolution, and infinite character customisation, and everyone doesn't wander about wearing exactly the same shit as everyone else.

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eldaec
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Reply #6 on: January 18, 2007, 12:59:04 AM

Also, eliminating floaty names would require compulsory voice chat.

It's a hell of a lot easier to communicate irl because the two-finger hero I'm talking to irl doesn't take 20 seconds to respond to 'hello'.

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Yoru
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Reply #7 on: January 18, 2007, 12:48:43 PM

The way it's solved in the MUD world is by assigning each character an invisible unique identifier (a numeric player ID). Then, when you meet someone, they initally see a generic description of you. For example:

A swarthy red-headed human tromps in from the west.
>

Then you use a command like 'introduce' to "introduce" yourself to them. Speech also works. Example.
> introduce raistlin
(from the target's eyes) A swarthy red-headed human introduces himself as Raistlin.

Then you can use some command (I believe 'memorize' or something like that is most common) to set a name for that person:
> memorize human as raistlin
You now know a swarthy red-headed human named Raistlin.

From then on, you'd see:
Raistlin tromps in from the west.

Internally, there's a map of numeric IDs to strings, and the output text is reprocessed before being sent to you. If a name for a given ID exists in the map, it uses that name; otherwise, it pulls a description based on the character's physical features.

Some extensions of this include being able to show pictures/drawings of someone to someone else and tell them the name, etc.

In an MMO context, you'd dump off all the floaty names except for those people you've memorized/been introduced to. The problem is that, in graphical games, the level of detail assigned to identifying features is usually pretty low. Gear-based games are particularly bad, since many many people tend to look alike at the same level, and your unique look changes dramatically as you progress. However, selecting a person for name assignment is much easier without having to deal with a semiambiguous text parser. All the text processing can also be done client-side, which is nice.

For a game with a system like COX (where your costume is mostly designed at the start) or Hero's Journey (where you can use any gear to design a look and acquire plug-in drops that assign stats to that gear), it works much better.
tazelbain
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Reply #8 on: January 18, 2007, 01:20:15 PM

Why have the game store names at all than?

Also, force people to type in extra key strokes when they meet new people isn't interacting.

I doubt I'd ever introduce myself or memorize anybody.  If I did, I'd macro it. And everyone will be named douchebag or flower.

Frankly, what's in it for me?

Although it'd interesting experiment to have a message board like that.

EDIT: Not to pick on Yoru in particular.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2007, 02:21:21 PM by tazelbain »

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Reply #9 on: January 18, 2007, 02:33:31 PM

Heh; I was just giving an example of a system very alike what the original poster was requesting, and adapting it from a text-based context to a graphical one.

I, personally, don't much like the idea since it doesn't mesh well with the graphical limitations of current games. It's a system primarily praised by some segments of the roleplaying crowd.

On the MUD I played, I tended to PK the sort of person who got offended if I "magically" knew their name. :)
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Reply #10 on: January 19, 2007, 05:18:25 AM

This thread made me think about the problem with NPC faction/repuation in MMOGs. How does Mshizzle Mo'Drizzle who you've just met in the city you've just arrived in for the first time know that you're Exalted/Ally/etc or KOS with his particular band of NPC foozle-directors when you walk into town the first time..?


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Reply #11 on: January 19, 2007, 01:38:18 PM

I'd like to see recognizable and customizable features. Characters in games should be like characters in cartoons... even when they change outfits they tend to stick to similar shapes, styles, and primary colors. They don't wear hats unless they ALWAYS wear a hats, because their hairstyle is a large part of their identities. It doesn't need to be as extensive as CoX, but they set the bar pretty high.

Make names a client-side operation. Players are just ID numbers. Speech comes out of people's heads, perhaps with speech bubbles. The scrollback buffer leaves them alternately colored (dynamically assigned?) but unlabled. You can, at any time, assign a name to any player you see. It's client-side so there's no worries about bad language or name repeats. If you want to name Raistlin #1 "Fuckface" and Raistlin #2 "Dipshit" that's your perogative. Once the framework is there, you could write up notes specific to any character you meet. Those notes could be accessible from an in-game search function. "Raistlin? Which one? I don't remember any blue robed -- oh wait, Fuckface. He's a loot ninja." Perhaps rather than having names over heads the game could give a special ping when your cursor passed over somebody you recognized to remind you to note their name and maybe check your notes.

Anything saved client-side will be inaccessible if you log on from a friends' computer. Also, the ability to transfer these files from person to person is probably abusable... and might be prevented with some sort of encryption of ID numbers.

Dunno. Brainstormin'. I like the idea of getting rid of floating names.

This thread made me think about the problem with NPC faction/repuation in MMOGs. How does Mshizzle Mo'Drizzle who you've just met in the city you've just arrived in for the first time know that you're Exalted/Ally/etc or KOS with his particular band of NPC foozle-directors when you walk into town the first time..?

This is why open PvP becomes necessary in hardcore roleplaying situations. KOS would have to be a default for untrusted unknowns, and only specifically vouched players would be exceptions. Being in a group with a vouched player might temporarily vouch you. Since we're aiming for "realism" here, you'd have to be standing pretty close to somebody to be "in a group" with them. Ally? Meshizzle won't know but NPCs might... and give you a way to demonstrate: You salute a guard and she salutes back, say. Exalted? Perhaps the gate guard salutes you automatically, and refers to you by your title "Good evening, commander." Perhaps she just stands at attention until you either leave the gateway or say "at ease".

All sorts of stupid options.

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rk47
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Reply #12 on: January 21, 2007, 07:24:11 AM

It makes those trust and friendshop more meaningful than just a name to tell if you're online or not. But I can see a lot of people just skipping this entirely and going straight to voice chat. That's still ok. We're dividing loyalties among people and they form their own mini factions that would be great for competition since trust between players are harder to achieve and cooperation demands a higher level of openness.

On the point of reputation system, yeah NPC recognition would be fantastic. It's part of the E-Peen tradition. A noob coming into town would be totally ignored by the guards. 'Move along, peasant' etc. Then suddenly Lvl 60 guy in bling bling labelled as 'Noble' passes by on his epic ride and suddenly the guard did a /salute emote. I'm sure the noob would be forced to acknowledge it. It's possible to implement, 'Who was that?' feature to guards who just did that and responds with "You Fool! Don't you know? It's Lord Pwnhard of Server Police Alliance!' It rewards those PvE or PvP players on the side of good. And creates a slight 'weakness' to those bad guys who are extremely notorious for using ambushing tactics or scamming noobs. 'Be wary, The Dreadlord Gankalot just passed by this road recently!' Etc, so it's easier to avoid being ambushed or scammed by them. Wanted posters would be awesome too so noobs won't be totally vulnerable when they start.

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Reply #13 on: January 21, 2007, 06:28:01 PM

I'd love a sort of "no given name" system, where I could lie about my name as a rogue and do all kinds of nefarious deeds.

Disguises would be a huge plus.

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Reply #14 on: January 21, 2007, 07:36:39 PM

I like this idea. Taking a Shadowbane type situation... it was hard to be a real "Thief" because as you were running off with their precious loot, they knew exactly who you were and with what guild you belonged. Whereas with a system like this, people could actually make a living off of this type of thing in a PvP enabled environment (Like EvE, for instance).

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Reply #15 on: January 21, 2007, 07:53:27 PM

...and just like UO you could have a detective skill set which allowed specific individuals to track and identify criminal activity.

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Reply #16 on: January 25, 2007, 05:17:28 PM

I, personally, don't much like the idea since it doesn't mesh well with the graphical limitations of current games. It's a system primarily praised by some segments of the roleplaying crowd.

  Doesn’t mesh well? What are you talking about it seems to be a great idea specifically for graphically intense games. Excluding CoH games with in-depth character creation usually don’t do what they are intended to do, namely make a player uniquely identifiable. From even a small distance most of the details of a character are indistinguishable from the others of the race. People’s identifying characteristic, despite all the work put into character creation, is their name.  By removing the names of most characters players would have to resort to describing their features.

  For the idea to really be interesting would require the use of the descriptive elements in the gameplay. (This is why I laugh at the position that it’s in the sole interest of the RPers)  As we can already see by the very interesting ideas already put forth in this topic, thieves, wanted posters, detectives..., there is a cottage industry of sorts in all the new classes. Ok so maybe not new classes after all we've seen rogues, bounty hunters, even plastic surgeons in SWG, they can all have real roles in a world where your identity is a commodity.  But only so far as that commodity is not too easily exchanged, an example of that would be languages in swg, they were taught to every character in the game by the first day, pointless.

  The simplest way to work it would be using a set of variables called descriptors for height, weight, skin color, hair color, etc., that would define the character and be their online name. Essentially the game would refer to you by your DNA (for security I guess a nickname would be more appropriate when talking to the clients but you get the idea). When players try to describe a character they are defining ranges of descriptors. For example a description of red hair describes all hair colors between strawberry blond to dark auburn and include dyes like pink, magenta, and red. As far as the game is concerned the description is the range of values between A and B, and the range of X to Y (natural and dyes), any hair color within that range is considered a hit. Better analysis of the character could narrow the description. Players could develop skills at detection and description in order to become detective or bounty hunter types. One skill could be if they wanted to “look for someone” you could make a search and when people who match the search are around a sunbeam highlights them, the closer the match the brighter the beam.

  Finally I think the best way to implement the system would be that when there’s someone you want to remember you simply click on them and "identify" them. This stores some amount of their descriptors and names the guy descriptively, red-haired ork who attacked me at Knotsborough.  The best, and worst, time for this would be during a fight you would have to decide whether to attack, defend, or identify (but that seems fitting to me).  If you then make it home alive you can tell the constabulary what you remember. If you are a detective you can then put notes on the characters’ bio like sightings, associates, and in which room and with what weapon he killed the cornel.   

  And before any of you mouth breathers blurts out, "I don’t care about all that crap, I don’t want to worry about all of that shit when I'm playing a game!", let me just say that for the most part this sort of system would simply mean that the only names you render are the people you give a rats ass about, your click of friends, your known enemies, perhaps your marks, but everyone else is just part of the nameless throng. The truth is this kind of thing just seems to add to the possibilities in a game, more possibilities equals more game, and more is better.

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Reply #17 on: January 25, 2007, 05:57:08 PM

The reason I stated that it "didn't mesh well" is because the level of apparent character-appearance detail available from a distance for most games - as noted, CoX is an exception - is very low. You get a hair color, maybe a hair style, maybe a few facial styles.

Games with sliders let you adjust the width of your septum, sure, but you pretty much cannot see that level of detail. Hell, it's hard enough to see any variance in nose sizes except at the very extremes and from rather close (by MMO standards) distances. In item-centric games (e.g. WoW), you have a further homogenizing effect on appearance due to optimized equipment loadouts.

Quote
The simplest way to work it would be using a set of variables called descriptors for height, weight, skin color, hair color, etc.

 This is already done. What did you think you were doing when you set your hair color from a palette, or your weight slider? It's a number (or set of numbers) under the hood. Discretizing it into text is relatively easy.

 If I can hack through the morass of words, I think what you're getting at is that you want a sort of recognition system, so instead of having a client-side map of unique player IDs to player-given names, you instead have a map of specific tuples of appearance features (e.g. gender 1, race 5, weight factor 0.517516, hair color (156,217,5), hair style 1678) to names (or descriptive strings) instead? Then have anyone within a given range on those feature axes (determined by skills or something) given that label?

I fail to see how that improves significantly on the simpler ID-Name map, with the exception of making certain types of disguise/appearance-changing skills operate more systemically. Instead, it sounds like any fun that may come from it would be overwhelmed by the frustration of attempting to locate known friends and contacts, particularly those whose appearance had changed recently for any given reason.

Now, for gamey games, adding in a toggle so that only people on your "friends list" have their floaty names show up by default (with perhaps an option to allow mouseover to also pop up the highlighted player's floaty name)  may help improve the "name soup" effect of crowded town squares.

(On that note, if you want to see the effect of removing floaty names, go to a 'name soup' area in a MMOG with a friend. Approach from different directions and try to find each other. You end up doing things like "I'm the gnome outside the auction house. No, the rogue. No, the rogue with the black cape. And the green shoes. I'm using the /dance emote. And jumping. Okay, I see you.")
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Reply #18 on: January 25, 2007, 07:22:48 PM

  What I am trying to say is that all the information that slider based character creation is generating is all but ignored in gameplay. I don’t mean to say that a character should be defined by his appearance, aka all black guys look the same to me, but that the information of individual characteristics not be brushed aside by the gameplay.  But I do think I left out an assumption; that those people you do interact with would be identified naturally. A player would introduce themselves to you so their name would appear.  Traders would happily identify themselves to you.  Hell, advertisement could be implemented as a way to introduce yourself to others without having to meet them.  As for the auto-naming thing that’s just for people whose names you don’t know.

  When I was talking about the searching thing I just meant that you could make a search string for "gnome, rogue, black cape, green shoes" and the players matching that description would be lit up. I did not mean that from now on everyone who resembles your gnome friend Bob is named Bob. And to your point about it being annoying trying to find your friend after his facelift and armor shopping spree, if you "know" the guy you should be able to see his name regardless of what he looks like.  conversely if your hunting a guy and your name for him is based on a description (IE you identified him but was never introduced) and that guy has since changed his appearance from your notes you will have trouble finding him.  And that’s the point, your identity is not fixed it is not known by most but rather inferred from descriptions and memories.

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Reply #19 on: January 26, 2007, 03:38:49 AM

The reason I stated that it "didn't mesh well" is because the level of apparent character-appearance detail available from a distance for most games - as noted, CoX is an exception - is very low. You get a hair color, maybe a hair style, maybe a few facial styles.

Wouldn't the simplest solution be to just do what CoX does? Decouple ItemPower from Appearance, so you don't end up with an army of Tier2 clones? Shit, can we keep our nameplates and just do that anyways, as the games get more graphic intensive, variety and differentiation seems to be going out the window :( . I actually miss DaoC's freaking dye system at this point.

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Reply #20 on: January 26, 2007, 10:41:12 AM

The reason I stated that it "didn't mesh well" is because the level of apparent character-appearance detail available from a distance for most games - as noted, CoX is an exception - is very low. You get a hair color, maybe a hair style, maybe a few facial styles.

Wouldn't the simplest solution be to just do what CoX does? Decouple ItemPower from Appearance, so you don't end up with an army of Tier2 clones? Shit, can we keep our nameplates and just do that anyways, as the games get more graphic intensive, variety and differentiation seems to be going out the window :( . I actually miss DaoC's freaking dye system at this point.

This would be the approach Simutronics is taking with Hero's Journey. :)
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Reply #21 on: February 01, 2007, 12:38:08 PM

Having vendors go to sleep is nifty, until it's 1:00 am and I need some potions and the vendor is asleep for 7 more hours which means I need to wait 30 minutes.

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Reply #22 on: February 01, 2007, 01:11:14 PM

Having vendors go to sleep is nifty, until it's 1:00 am and I need some potions and the vendor is asleep for 7 more hours which means I need to wait 30 minutes.

It's cool when it's a singleplayer game since you can accelerate time and get what you need, so long as the game is generally "worldy" and immersive. Same thing goes for scheduled/timed events.

In an MMO, I suppose you could give the appearance of a schedule, but have a "front desk bell" that summons the vendor at "night". And then have him bitch you out for waking him up to buy a 5-copper potion at 3 AM. :)
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Reply #23 on: February 04, 2007, 02:27:37 AM

Or just have a different NPC work the nightshift.

and the gate is like I TOO AM CAPABLE OF SPEECH
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Reply #24 on: June 07, 2007, 02:05:49 PM

Having vendors go to sleep is nifty, until it's 1:00 am and I need some potions and the vendor is asleep for 7 more hours which means I need to wait 30 minutes.

I'd much rather have a world of reactive NPCs, some of whom cause a little frustration rather than a few vendors that break immersion for effiency reasons.


As far as the naming system goes...I've pondered on this topic before myself. I think the best method is:

1  Allow floaty names to be toggled with the default off.
2. You must introduce yourself or be introduced to someone by a 3rd party to even get to see that toggled floaty name.
3. For roleplaying reasons, you should be able to have a changable name that acts like an alias, so if you want to go into a new town and start over, you may
4. Each character would choose a "Given name" at creation (only alphas with no special characters or numbers) for world interaction reasons.

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Reply #25 on: June 30, 2007, 01:47:01 AM

irl you recognise people because irl the graphics and character customisation aren't shit.

The day we can get rid of floating names will be the day MMOGs have real world resolution, and infinite character customisation, and everyone doesn't wander about wearing exactly the same shit as everyone else.


Funny thing about UO was that you could often recognize people by sight.  Back in the day, there was no optimal set of magic gear to wear, and even if there was, you could still put cothing over much of it.  Aside from bank thieves and other people who died a lot (O/C, permareds, etc, who just dyed death robes), most people had their own style of outfit.
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Reply #26 on: June 30, 2007, 01:51:03 AM

This is why open PvP becomes necessary in hardcore roleplaying situations. KOS would have to be a default for untrusted unknowns, and only specifically vouched players would be exceptions. Being in a group with a vouched player might temporarily vouch you. Since we're aiming for "realism" here, you'd have to be standing pretty close to somebody to be "in a group" with them. Ally? Meshizzle won't know but NPCs might... and give you a way to demonstrate: You salute a guard and she salutes back, say. Exalted? Perhaps the gate guard salutes you automatically, and refers to you by your title "Good evening, commander." Perhaps she just stands at attention until you either leave the gateway or say "at ease".

All sorts of stupid options.

Oh yeah, this and the thread title reminded me that there were "name police" on Siege Perilous in UO.  There were some hardrore roleplayers who would kill, without question, people with stupid names.  Kinda funny actually - grief RPers.
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Reply #27 on: June 30, 2007, 11:29:11 PM

Indeed, I don't recall ever having to deal with issues of mistaken identity in UO, despite the non-unique naming.  Even if you gave everyone identical armor, after you turned them loose on all the robes/sashes/capes/belts/surcoats and let them color it all with dye tubs, very few people would look alike.

More games need equipment slots for fluff/decorative clothing.  And more games need dye tubs.  It does a lot more to distinguish characters from one another than selectable eye-slant at character creation (or whatever) does.

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Reply #28 on: July 02, 2007, 02:59:58 PM

If knowing a person's name were to give power to the person with the knowledge, then anonymity would need to be given.  I can see the design working in some fashion to make the game more "interesting", but not necessarily better.  Things you'd need to do:

A) Players have an internal name (true name) with the game that would be used as an identifier for transactions. (Auction House)
B) NPCs would never refer to a player by their name in public text.
C) Players can "set" a name on other players they don't know.
D) Becoming a friend of another player will introduce your true name.  This would overwrite whatever name another player has set on you.  Even if they leave their friends list, the true name remains to that player.
E) Wearing distinctive items, such as a guild tabard, would immediately identify your guild affiliation to other players.  So, if you're going to be robbing someone, it'd probably be a good idea to take off that tabard of yours.  But if you're killed with that item in inventory, you better believe people will know that your guild was involved when it drops from your corpse.

Problems? Zone-wide or similar scope chat channels wouldn't be feasible.  "Someone shouts..." would spam your messages. PUGs would be interesting without knowing names.

It would be an interesting social experiment to put power in your name.  But it would deter many community aspects.  However, those that remain might have much stronger bonds than previous games.  Someone pillaging in the name of The Death Knights would wear their tabard around, identifying them to strangers as one to be feared, but not by name.  "There goes one of the Death Knights!"

"Then there's the double-barreled shotgun from Doom 2 - no-one within your entire household could be of any doubt that it's been fired because it sounds like God slamming a door on his fingers." - Yahtzee Croshaw
DarkSign
Terracotta Army
Posts: 698


Reply #29 on: July 02, 2007, 07:58:24 PM

If knowing a person's name were to give power to the person with the knowledge, then anonymity would need to be given.  I can see the design working in some fashion to make the game more "interesting", but not necessarily better.  Things you'd need to do:

A) Players have an internal name (true name) with the game that would be used as an identifier for transactions. (Auction House)
B) NPCs would never refer to a player by their name in public text.
C) Players can "set" a name on other players they don't know.
D) Becoming a friend of another player will introduce your true name.  This would overwrite whatever name another player has set on you.  Even if they leave their friends list, the true name remains to that player.
E) Wearing distinctive items, such as a guild tabard, would immediately identify your guild affiliation to other players.  So, if you're going to be robbing someone, it'd probably be a good idea to take off that tabard of yours.  But if you're killed with that item in inventory, you better believe people will know that your guild was involved when it drops from your corpse.

Problems? Zone-wide or similar scope chat channels wouldn't be feasible.  "Someone shouts..." would spam your messages. PUGs would be interesting without knowing names.

It would be an interesting social experiment to put power in your name.  But it would deter many community aspects.  However, those that remain might have much stronger bonds than previous games.  Someone pillaging in the name of The Death Knights would wear their tabard around, identifying them to strangers as one to be feared, but not by name.  "There goes one of the Death Knights!"

That's kind of like what I proposed above. I think that zone-wide chat channels (which I hate and will never implement) would still work because all you'd have to do was use your current alias for that as opposed to your "real" name.

Also, not to nitpick but I dont think you should have to be friends to know someone's real name, but you do have to have permission.
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