PlaneShift

Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: zanzibar on April 29, 2006, 09:58:28 am

Title: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: zanzibar on April 29, 2006, 09:58:28 am
A problem with the buddy list is that it let's you know who's online, even if they're on the other side of the world or even in the next room.  It takes away from the RP atmosphere.  It also encourages /tells, which are inherently OOC.

On the other side, it's a very useful tool when it comes to hooking up with friends and people you're running events with.  It's an indicator of whether or not there's a lot of activity in game, and it can tell you if an old friend is online after months of absense.

So, keep it or lose it?
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Zan on April 29, 2006, 11:07:48 am
Definitely keep it.

Why?

Because it is an essential part of online games, you need to be able to see if the friend/enemy you're looking for actually is online. Sure you could say it's not realistic but in reality you don't have to distinguish online from offline. In the real world you'll always know that your best friend is around somewhere ... In planeshift you can think he or she is online and go looking for them for days without any luck because they were logged off.

Hence buddy lists, although not realistic and OOC, are needed in an online environment to avoid frustrations.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Nividia Stormlance on April 29, 2006, 12:13:00 pm
And if we removed buddy lists people would yust chat in msn/aol/something other. To se if people were online. So it would yust be stupid to remove the list.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: VMann on April 29, 2006, 02:08:08 pm
and you could also look for someone with /who <playername>
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Peacer on April 29, 2006, 03:37:27 pm
 :thumbdown: not a good idea, if i am waitning for someone let it be freind or enemy i need to know if they are online or not, thye cna't stay online all the time
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Arangol on April 29, 2006, 07:53:47 pm
lol it could be something like telepatic-friendhsip. So good friends that you know when they enter the world. And /tell could be telepatic-messages sent over brain waves.  :D
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: zanzibar on April 29, 2006, 09:48:03 pm
and you could also look for someone with /who <playername>


Which means you'd have to do a search for each and every person that might be of interest.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: LigH on April 29, 2006, 10:40:13 pm
If you are a "radical roleplayer", keep it empty, and hide the window.

But do not attempt to decide over the opinion of other people who are not such pure roleplayers, and prefer to know the presence of other players. It is everyone's personal opinion to use this feature, or not.

A feature to let a player decide wether he may or may not be added to anyone's buddy list, may be an alternative feature we could talk about - similar to the "invisible" mode of a forum member. Maybe even a feature to decide if you want to be able to receive tells, similar to the feature to decide wether to exchange Personal Messages in a board.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: zanzibar on April 29, 2006, 11:35:10 pm
Being able to turn tells off?  I like it.  Make a thread in the wish forum. :-D
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Karyuu on April 29, 2006, 11:40:23 pm
Vengeance just made a big optimization in the buddy list, so people with ~500 names on there (fact) shouldn't be such a strain.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: ou8i8uo on April 30, 2006, 05:08:51 am
I have to agree with keeping it. I like to keep my friends close and my enemies closer. It's also handy for setting up RP stuff. If we lost it, I would just end up using Skype to replace it.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: fireofsoul on April 30, 2006, 05:11:51 am
Why the heck would anyone in their right mind remove the buddy list?
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: neko kyouran on April 30, 2006, 05:21:34 am
I believe zanzi answered that in his opening post Fire.  And the best post I have read in this thread to counter it was by Ligh.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: zanzibar on April 30, 2006, 07:44:25 am
I have to agree with keeping it. I like to keep my friends close and my enemies closer. It's also handy for setting up RP stuff. If we lost it, I would just end up using Skype to replace it.


Enemies closer?  But OOC, we're all friends here. :-D
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Peacer on April 30, 2006, 01:26:00 pm
/me nods "ooc almost everyone is friends here, *cough*realism*cough*"

illori is right though, if u don't want the buddy list remove the window and don't put anyone on there, People have a real life to attend to and can't be on planeshift all the time, so it couldn't be expected that they are always in yliakum unless they sleep a lot and can't be woken up because the azure crystal binds them to their sleep untill they are fully sleptoff
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Caarrie on April 30, 2006, 01:59:31 pm
illori is right though

I dont know where Peacer got the idea i posted here as i have not.

Illori
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Lilie on April 30, 2006, 03:56:40 pm
Well I think they should make it optional, a choice. I myself use the List very often. The reason I think they should make it a choice is because maybe somone would rather have the game more realistic and decide he would rather wonder about looking for his/her friends. Hide and seek any one?  :P
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Drey on April 30, 2006, 04:12:11 pm
Bit ott if you ask me, which is seems you did
Quote
Should we get rid of the buddy list?

Think of it this way, you know if your friends are alive or not.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: zorbels on April 30, 2006, 06:32:28 pm
All I have to say is nothing is perfect. Keep the buddie list, it prevents me from sending miss tells. :P
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: zanzibar on April 30, 2006, 07:31:30 pm
Think of it this way, you know if your friends are alive or not.


Realism?
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Pestilence on April 30, 2006, 08:25:11 pm
Think it is a strange idea to delete the buddylist. ofcourse it would be strange for your character to know when someone is around, but the PLAYER is alowed to know more then the CHARACTER sometimes. To not use that information in an IC way is called roleplaying.

The buddylist is sometimes even nececary to counter the fact somewhat that there are things like timezones and offline time. In reality your enemy would be around somewhere and you would always have a chance of finding him and in reality your friends or guildmembers would probably know where you lived and would come to wake you up or to leave a message there for you.

Also people would be working around the same time and eating around the same time and would have times they would normally go to church together or have guildmeetings. I think the buddylist is nececary to have OOC contact. To increase the realism.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: zanzibar on April 30, 2006, 08:35:46 pm
I think it's necessary to decrease the negative parts of realism.  If you wanted to organize an event such as a tournment, or if you wanted to give a speach to the city, in real life you'd have to put up posters days or weeks in advance.  With the buddy list and /guild chat, things happen a lot faster and a lot more easily, even though the communication is highly OOC.  Plus it makes helping new players easier, and staying in contact with friends about various issues.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Valbrandr on April 30, 2006, 11:42:44 pm
The buddylist is great to have no matter how OOC it is.  If I didnt know when friends were on.. I wouldnt want to play. Sure there are ways to find out if guildmates are on but there are plenty of other friends that I have ;). Look the /who only shows 30 people now.. how would the possibility of diplomacy work without knowing who out of the people you know are on?  If you dont want it up hit F  ;D
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: zanzibar on May 01, 2006, 06:34:19 am
The buddylist is great to have no matter how OOC it is.  If I didnt know when friends were on.. I wouldnt want to play. Sure there are ways to find out if guildmates are on but there are plenty of other friends that I have ;). Look the /who only shows 30 people now.. how would the possibility of diplomacy work without knowing who out of the people you know are on?  If you dont want it up hit F  ;D


Well, if there was a town hall that characters could go to to talk about political or diplomatic issues, then that would help.  And if there was another building for fighters to organize into parties and set off on adventures or missions, then that would also help.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Peacer on May 01, 2006, 09:17:08 am
Quote
I dont know where Peacer got the idea i posted here as i have not.

my bad i thought it was you, your signatures look almost the same sorry.

Although this idea isn't any use at all, if i want to talk with someone and he wasn't online i would have to wait for that guy to come online. and the buddy list would inform me that. Or else i would have to check all the time and i would probably forget that after some time.

Why should you look for something not there?
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Xillix Queen of Fools on May 01, 2006, 06:11:21 pm
No we should not :) I know I am a big offender here in terms of having many buddies. I do actually use the buddy list a lot. Part of the reason i do use the buddy list so much is because of aiding new players and following up with them, another part is the coordination of both roleplays and sending the new players on to guild heads. Unless this is a major tax on system resources I do not see why it should be removed.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Valbrandr on May 02, 2006, 05:03:56 am
The buddylist is great to have no matter how OOC it is.  If I didnt know when friends were on.. I wouldnt want to play. Sure there are ways to find out if guildmates are on but there are plenty of other friends that I have ;). Look the /who only shows 30 people now.. how would the possibility of diplomacy work without knowing who out of the people you know are on?  If you dont want it up hit F  ;D


Well, if there was a town hall that characters could go to to talk about political or diplomatic issues, then that would help.  And if there was another building for fighters to organize into parties and set off on adventures or missions, then that would also help.

Well actually i would agree.. those are good ideas.. especially having a town center.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: sardit on May 02, 2006, 05:31:18 am
How about implementing houses aswell, its on the drawing board anyway, put up a little mailbox there so players can leave notes, that might be nice aswell :P
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: Karyuu on May 02, 2006, 07:06:11 am
This is not a Wishlist, and houses and mailing systems shouldn't go into the Wishlist either anymore, due to:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/karyuu/kaoani/Beating_A_Dead_Horse_by_livius.gif)

Please discuss something new. Please ;P
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: neko kyouran on May 02, 2006, 07:12:39 am
Please discuss something new. Please ;P

Alright....sooo, what's the weather like where you are at?    :P

As for me,  if you don't like it, don't use it.  Simple.
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: ou8i8uo on May 02, 2006, 01:43:12 pm
Quote
Enemies closer?  But OOC, we're all friends here. :-D
Yes we are indeed but I like to know who is on and if I need to set something up with an enemy of Sat's, it's nice to know theyr'e on and be able to get a hold of them easily. In a nutshell Fossie said it best...
Quote
Who in their right mind would get rid of the buddy list?
Title: Re: Should we get rid of the buddy list?
Post by: narita on May 02, 2006, 01:57:58 pm
Buddy lists should remain somehow, but perverted effects, like to see Planetshift as a 3D chat, should be fixed.