Introductions

[Suno_Regin]

Don't /introduce yourself if you want to use a fake name. Use /me shakes X's hand "Hello, I'm mr. fakey!"

But then people will just run right by you and not recognize you, since no one bothers to read descriptions.

[shorty13]

I do!!! lol

[Prolix]

Here is a thought: find a way to allow the player to specify the un-introduced label, have it appear differently, say italicized so it is fairly obviously not the official name. Certainly the player could set it to his actual name but the only people who can be certain they are talking to who they are talking to are those who have been introduced. Introduced people would have the standard font name. Alternatively to italic the font color could be different but the font background remain as is. That way fewer sombody says and more fakename says

[Wren]

Now that I've gotten to use it a few times, I have to give the introduction system one major prop: it's definitely an RP spawner.   I've had conversations with people I probably wouldn't have without it, since it gives an added bonus to being social.

I'm still not thrilled with the "Somebody" thing, and I think it needs a lot of fine-tuning to make it less burdensome for players, but I definitely won't mind it sticking around.

[Eila]

I'ld suggest a concept where one might have the choice to go incognito or become anonymous to all but guild members and buddies. Such a toggle would need to be transparent from both an OOC and IC perspective. So that when a character does switch on a hidden-identity flag, he/ she/it is still recognized by guild members and buddies - albeit as one who is hiding their identity for whatever reason (and the same character is then displayed to all others as completely anonymous until an IC exchange occurs, if any). let the players deal with introductions IC then.

Extroduce vs introduce? You've seen me before but never like this.
Just some thoughts,
Eila

[Sen]

Now that I've gotten to use it a few times, I have to give the introduction system one major prop: it's definitely an RP spawner. 

I personally would be interested in details, since it spoiled mine so far. I assume it is _not_ that you introduced (yourself) the first time to strangers now with that feature, so I'd like to know how to use this feature for additional roleplay, too 

[Miaua]

All right... I was always against it. And still I am. I dont have possibility to investigate much about how it looks or works, but got some basic info so.. here are my thoughts.
I dont consider the global idea as wrong. Otherwise, the idea is great, just game is not yet in state when it can be used.
Right now, its more then annoying.. In time, it can be great feature.
I'd like to bring some cons and pros in this so... Lets go.

CONS:
1) First and most annoying and unrealistic thing is that there is no other way to recognise person you once met again.
-You really can't recofnise his/her voice? (Didnt see voiceshifter yet. And I'm not up to check everyone's description I meet... really not.)
-Clothes? (ok, those can change in RP, but still...)
-Shape? (99% of male characters is V shaped ^.^)
-Are all races exactly same look (plenty of characters has no description, and if do, then its pretty bad to put it in memory. Realisticly, is way easier to remember someone's look then text, which is even pretty often missing, or similar to eachother.)
-Making notes of description of everyone I meet to roleplay "characters memory on faces" and compensate player's "lack of text memory".... nuuu, wrong isnt it?
-Any other sign, you can recognise others... Smell for Enkis, magical auras anything.....
2) This system brings up constant reading of others descriptions... It not exactly bad things, but checking 'everyone' who passes around you.
-For example tell someone "Hey... I saw you a lot of times in tavern... you like drinkiong?"...Thats void now. Your characet can recognise someone even from glace, especially if he sees him/her often, even without introduce, or speciall attention (again, I wont check everyone's description. Constant desc. reading is game experience spoiler.)
3) Abuse of this system is... more then clear.
-"Bad guy" runs in tavern, do mess and then, without introduce he disappears, changes description completely and tada... We have great roleplay here and many pissed players with spoiled mood.
4) Where are the other ways of getting someone's name?
-You are standing besides two talking people: "Hi, I'm Grbobuban". Reply: "I'm Plubumaba."   And you still stares at them, confused without knowing a simple name.
-Many other ways as well, I wont state them all. Asking someone else. Yeah, labels works sometimes as well. Signed letters...
5) Very important thing are logs....
- I'm sorry, this will spoil MANY stories. When I'm writing story, I'm using log. And RP can start way sooner before we are introduced (in case of foe, he will unlikely introduce at all) to the one we playing with and... eh... wait. In logs are only SOMEONES?!?... damn, I dont remember exactly what he did and said.. Could be any someone of those. So... what that mean? No story, yeah. Maybe you can poke the player for his logs, combine it and get dicouraged with a lot of more work then you really need.
-This point I'm taking as one of very important. You want more nice stories? Remove introduces, now. I've written some and yes, it IS a great issue.
6) "Who from crowd said it" issue.... or.. it was the one behind me? Seems my ability to recognise voices direction is lost.
-I know, weak point, but its a point. (eh, are chat bubbles still active?)
7) Imagine... someone gives you description of someone really well recogniseable (large scar on face, glowing eyes, pink robe, uncommon height....)
-You know race, description of this very easily noticeable thing, gender... And you will run around, clicking everyone's description like mad to find as player who the heck is it, even if your character whould notice him at very first glance in crowd. So you will miss him by Harn, even if he will pass in front of you. Sorry, point for realism down.
Your cheracters hears hassle of shouts, or even talks out of his sight. He wants to go and help there, perhaps someone wants rob someone. Example:
-Poor guy:"Leg me go!", Robber: "No way, give money", Poor guy: "No, please, I dont have any.", Robber: "Come on, done be silly", Robber: "Yeah, all wealthe you has.", Poor guy: "Here... take all.", Robber: "Nice... thanks, clothes too 'please'."...
Your character runs there!.... to stare then at 5 robbers, against which he has no chance. How so... Well, how namy voices it was? 1 same? 5? Strange.
(yeah, this is just closer example of nr1, sorry)
9) I fear introdues spam....
- You will be spamed by introduces of random people.... I think even the best point of for example ThomPhoenix stated will go void, cause he will be soon introducespamed by many and will miss those who knows anyway... With unknow names in brackets (+maybe different collor? Just dont make too many collors and mess in it, we will need one collor for afk status as well ^.^) others wont be so interested in spamming you to make everyone "know" you. Right?
10) Its true, that when you see someone around many times, you are tempted to talk to him. Thats void now. Minus towards RP in PS. Sad.
11) All right, this shoudl be all. Last point I'll give to some statements and conclusion, what cons brings this system.
-Constant annoying with introduces constantly to everyone
-Constant annoying with reading everyone's description (slower then character's glance, lag makes you miss a lot of people, abusable a lot)
-Spoiled roleplay of spies (they are used to get a names in else ways and its easy to lost someone in game mechanics in crowd) and hearing gossips in taverns for example.
-Messed text, like: Who says what? Did you answered, or its still talking this one guy.
-Easy abuse of ability to stay 'unknown' all the time. Wrong RP bad guys paradise.
-Overall more real feel of the game is lost. Players attention is gone from the experience towards many different ooc things.
-Newbies and noobs introduce spam.
-Ruined storywriting..... :''(

So.... and now some PROS.. The idea is nice, like I said.... but not yet.
1) Like stated here already, without introduce, you are kinda ignored by random people, which is realistic (if its good for RP in game is nother question, but I'll keep it in pros)
2) Player now can as well ignore ramdom passing people, knowing he will not miss friends without constant attention. (works for some time, before you gets spammed by others introductions...)
3) Your name label will not be abused and used as IC knowlidge (Its most reasonable point I see why to have this system)
-I'll miss situations like: Random newb: "Hey Miaua.", Me: /me frowns "How do you know my name?", Newb panics and is learned a bit about RP.
4) Better concentration on chat with those you knows in crowd (you can simply ignore someones)
5) Though discussable, it might rise some a litlle more realistic feeling.
6) Sorry... thats all I can invent. Someone help? Conclusion then:
-Prevents some abuses of knowlidge your name and using it for bad RP.
-Good for recognising those you know and dont know faster in crowds (not sure how this evolve in time... introduce spam anyone?)
-Soon(tm) will this system work well... My opinion is that this soon is really not here yet....


....Well... overall I'd say just this:
Its soon for this system, its maybe good system too soon, or wrong managed.
I would like to see kept the simple way for players how to racognise all others better then player can with description reading. I already suggested names in brackets. So will even newbs after going through tutorial, that its OCC information and they shouldnt use it IC. Roleplay and storywriting will stay unharmed and main point of those who are for this system will stay as well (they still will know who introdused himself and mainly... you wont be constantly spamed by introduces)
For what I see till now, it brings a little good, but a lot of bad. And even those good things will fade in time, while bad will keep staying.
I guess many agrees with me. I would like to hear some reasonable statements why yes, which will beat this issues... Then, I'll agree.

With regards.
Miaua

[Vornne]

When I tested just before the release, I thought it was good, because I play with labels set to "on mouseover", and with that setting I could see anyone's labels, the name in the description window, and so on. I did not realize that with the default setting they were hidden, as they were all that originally, then they were changed, and I'd heard they were working as intended.

But after reading what Miaua said, and seeing the "someone" confusion when in big groups in game, I'd suggest to solely have the information window show [unknown], and maybe the description, all other places would show the name. This way it is only a RP aid, in my opinion anything more is getting silly.

My guess, is that the more the game treats all players as irresponsible, the more likely it is to happen... and if there is no way to find out someone's name without them introducing themselves, the /report and similar commands are useless (by the way, how usefull is "/add_ignore someone"? it works that way) so it does not work well as something to stop bad behavior.

Also, as stated somewhere else, to aid conversations in big groups, I suggest making the introduce command introduce you to all players withing hearing range as well, or maybe a slightly shorter range. This is more realistic: you heard the name said, whether you choose to remember it next time you see them, is up to you. Though a complement to that could be the "/introduce forget John" command or something similar.

[Ravenguard]

Although I find it interesting and fairly entertaining, there are a few drawbacks.

Watching people in Auction, it's sometimes difficult to really know what to do.  You'll have someone advertise, not know their name, nor a location, and that's confusing.  So, to fix that, I decided to advertise with my general location and race.  That's what you'd be looking for, right?  But apparently, someone thought it was a dumb idea and gave me grief about using race.

And then the people who run up and introduce themselves to everyone.  That's nice.  You're trying to be friendly.  But don't run away until I ask you why in the world you wanted to talk to me in the first place.

Finally, the large group setting someones.  That's painful sometimes.  Race and gender, maybe?

[LigH]

It might be "more realistic", but how realistic does a game need to be, to enjoy it?...

It is not bad for new characters, but really annoying for characters who know each other for years already.

And introducing your char to anyone in sight is not realistic either...
__

It is nothing wrong. Just something overestimated.

[neko kyouran]

It is not bad for new characters, but really annoying for characters who know each other for years already.

flaw in your logic:  technically, due to the game being in developement, time as it were in game is at a stand still, and therefore, anything that transpires in game now, technically, in an IC way of thinking has technically never happened.

now, players knowing other players for many years, that be a different story, since then you are dealing with RL time.

[Prolix]

so that is why some people complain about their introductions not taking...they never happened!

[Velh Krome]

hey guys,
just close your eyes, let yourself be controlled by rules and and orders and... yep! you will be ending up with.. the /introduction system LOL! xD
seriously, this stuff is useful for beginners no doubt! =O
it will take away the.. "ooc'ness" of newbies who greet you with your name! yeah, no need to show them them things anymore , cool!=o
the whole lame atmosphere will be taken away! aww grand, yay! newbies wont be calling you by name anymore!
you never .. icly told one your name, and are fed of being adressed with your name by strangers? cool! now this nuisance will be gone!
neither you wont have to care about thinking about whose name is whose! the new system will take off all mental capability! wait a bit more and you can run around with your eyes closed! the game's mechanisms will do it all for you! lmao xD...

am i praising myself? not at all, my memory is too bad anyways to remember everyone, for such i got my best friend for (*winks*)..=P
fact is, this new system did not also take away many chances on intruiging gameplay, it also took away excitement, since it took responsibility from you. give the thought of that .. /introduction-system consequence and you may end up somewhere where you dont even have to be awake to be within the.rules =O (*yep, exaggerated now*)!

PS: I think its necessary to mention my post as being influenced by cynism, huh? xD
let the game rule you!.. until your personal opinion wont be asked for anymore;)

[Prolix]

One thing I found incongruous was that while I have never introduced myself to anyone an npc called me by name and said I was becoming known throughout the community. Now I realize the introduction facility is player to player and it was the fourth quest for the same npc, fifth counting the second time I did the first one he gave me, but if the introduction mechanism worked similarly it would be good. What I mean by that is if you interact with any given player character for any significant amount of exchanges -- say five or six conversations of three "say-reply" each you would get to know the name. I, personally, do not want to ask someone who they are unless I really need to know but I might ask someone else like an npc if I am curious.  The reason for this is that knowing who they are without their knowing I know might give me an advantage in any negotiation we may undertake. Kind of far-fetched maybe.

[Velh Krome]

me hiding in shadows, following constantly for days, overhearing friends of my target's calling it by name, i want to see my target at once, and not missing it when it is standing next to me for 5 (rl-) mins, missed by me only cos i wasnt quick enough to check and read the description (descriptions i would have to read for every other character i could see to not miss the same chance..)

i personally would prefer to have people commit mistakes, while the same time you have a choice on how to act. the /introduction-"restriction" though could be the first step into a direction to take away any freedom on cost of players' wont be able to commit mistakes.
instead of players now teacing or showing newbies what its about, its the game to show and teach by restriction. thats boring and most limiting, while avoiding errors done by players the same time.