PlaneShift
Gameplay => Wish list => Topic started by: zhai on March 13, 2007, 04:07:26 pm
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Whenever a new character is created we all get a summary of all the life events and details we picked in the process and that appears in the character's description. I think it can be helpful if you want to take note of what you did in order to get certain stats or simply to remember what your choices were but I think it is also terribly OOC to stay in a description once you've had the chance to take note.
As far as I know, descriptions are meant to be things others would perceive just by being near to your character: how you look, smell, move, etc. Unless you walk around with a T-Shirt that says "My mother was a dancer and a Talad priestess" I don't think those who meet you for the first time should have access to this information without having to talk to you.
I guess it's not mandatory to alter your description (it would be good RP but it should not obligatory) but it doesn't mean we cannot suggest doing so. What I'm talking about is adding a line to the very first description our characters get, the one with all our life events. Something like this:
"Character Summary:
Father: Miner
Mother: Librarian
Blah, blah, blah...
Make a good first impression. Edit your description to let others know what you look like in the Stats and Skills window."
A good description can be your ticket to the never-ending fun RP is :D. Just let everyone know it.
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I think your description should just start 'null', or maybe with a generic, race-specific description until you change it, and there can be another window for your 'life events' that's only viewable by you (though any decent RPer usually doesn't follow those things anyway).
And maybe you could provide a "character description" screen of the creation process, perhaps even with a forced 300-character minimum (or not). I think a lot of the time people either don't know how, or are just too lazy to change their description.
If it appeared in front of your face just as you're actually considering these things (i.e. as you're creating your character) I think you'd see a lot more descriptions around...
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Just thought I would link (http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=28048.0) to the other topic where a similar discussion is currently going on. But yeah, people should really be given a poke when creating their character or when 1st loggin in to the game to give them some form of description.
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Just checked that link. Yeah, they are related. My post didn't belong in the complaint forum though. But if they were merged I wouldn't mind. What made me think of this very simple suggestion was that we currently experience problems with the IC omniscience that results from giving "too much information" through channels that should have more limits for the reality of our characters. Descriptions are just a particular case but we also have the use of /me and /my to convey feelings or thoughts, which helps us players know where the other characters stand but disregard the fact that characters lack the natural ability to be either empathic or telepathic. Thus, entries like "/me feels betrayed" or "/me thinks <name> hasn't eaten today" are dead statements RP-wise because they don't leave room for any feedback unless we make other characters read our thoughts or sense our mood without any physical hint (like /me frowns, /me starts crying in silence, /me looks up holding her tears, /me smiles sadly, etc.).
My concern is that omniscience. Being that descriptions can be one form in which this problem takes place I chose to suggest a simple, very specific, solution to it, mostly because I don't think it would be hard to implement and wouldn't actually make anyone feel like a bad RPer at it. A solution to the "proper" use of /my and /me wouldn't be so simple.
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But you're forgetting one very important thing: The majority of "live events" chosen by players during character creation are chosen specifically for the skills that they endow, and most people pay no heed to them in actual RP.
Which means, even though it says their father is a Miner or that they ran with a street gang when they were younger, that's not even necessarily true. So really, those descriptions are a moot point, and I don't think they should even show up anywhere...
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I would also say most people do not RP by those. I know I don't. I wonder how many people have a cheat sheet just like mine. Shhh.
But I agree, and find the life events as horrid in the description as I do in Creation. :)
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What's worse is that even thought they are not related to RP they still remain unchanged sometimes. True, having a null description at creation would work too but we lose the opportunity to drive new players to RP.
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I would hate to have those dissappear completely. I actually do use those in RP but I chose some of my stuff just so it would match up well enough. But it probably shouldn't be viewable by others.
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If it was in a 'background' window only you could see as reference, then it would be fine, I suppose. This would tie in more with the logbook wish from a while back, then.
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well you can always make notes in a text editor while creating the character and keep it separate from the game.
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If new players don't get a "change your description" message right from the beginning. I agree that there is some OOC use to have the character creation results somewhere, basically so you can repeat or improve your selection. I also agree that often times it has nothing to do with how the character will actually be RPed.
The idea of an in-game logbook sounds great. I'd love to see something of the sorts. However, my suggestion is kind of an easy way to encourage new players to start RPing from the beginning and it could be implemented as a temporary thing while other bigger and better ideas get worked on.
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or have the final step of the character gen have a spot where players must right something about there characters. Thus having it show when they finally log into the game.
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whare could i go to get a help on what to put in the description box?
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Check this thread (http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=22592.0), and perhaps this one (http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=20959.0) for some ideas :]