Introductions

[Cebot]

Well, am now officially back to PS (try to get out a true addict and you'll figure it is impossible ) and so my first post after a long time will be a statement in this thread.

Lets see, I have not read the whole post, but got some opinions about it from what I read.
As I see it, players have asked for that feature some time ago, the feature got implemented and now everyone is bitching about it. Sorry guys, it is not that easy in my opinion.

The feature itself is new and with everything new - you should already know that - it needs fine tuning, which the devs are doing.
It is meant to encourage RP, not to enforce it, however, it is about us players to make the best out of it,

I am slightly annoyed by everyone introducing to my chars without any RP too, just go to a prominent mine, where everyone hangs around these days and you will get to know a lot of people without them even saying a single word...but whose fault is that? the devs' fault? no! it's our fault. We have to learn how to use this new feature to it's best and I think in time, with some more fine tuning about it (perhaps preventing /introduce without saying the name, so people are kindof enforced to at least tell their names would be helpful - also a yesno box could appear to the target if /introduce is used plainly (to introduce to players you have known for ages already))

Anyways, I think bitching and complaining about a feature is not very helpful for everyone, on the other side we could explain to above mentioned newbies that /introduce is not rp and that they won't see our names when they introduce to us.

Even tho I have yet only noticed the negative sides of this feature, I am still PRO introduce.

PS: hope I didn't step on anyones toes with my words, if so...well, get used to me

Cebot

EDIT: i just got told my post sounds like if I'm saying that everyone who is contra about this feature bitches around. thats not intended. As mentioned before, I have not read the whole thread, and from what I've read I get that some people are more attacking each other with words rather than giving a constructive opinion (and from earlier feature implementions I know already that some people actually are bitching )

So, if anyone thinks I'm calling them bitching around - I am not!

[Garile]

Let say it like this. I loke the idea of introductions. It's a great way to keep track who you know and who you don't know, but I absolutely hate the 300 someone's in main chat and that is when it is working as it should. I mean if in a group there are two people who didn'introduce themselves it's almost impossible to follow who of the two is saying what unless you keep track of the bubbles all the time.

Well sure I'm not the first to say this but felt i should explain why I voted NO. I always used tags as we would faces in RL. Just becuase I don't know the name IC it's strange I can't recognize the person later. Knowing it's not just another someone. Makes random Rp rather frustrating aswell seeing people don't like introducing all the time whenever someone new walks in.

I fell that introductions should be optional and optional for parts. i for example would like the introducions so tht it doesn't effect chat but that it does affect tags. that way things like guild are gone but I can actually keep track who is saying what after the first bubble search.

I still think it's a rather OOC solution for people not behaving IC.

[Cebot]

I agree. the lots of "someone"'s are kinda confusing, but I think I have seen it somewhere that someone mentioned to replace "someone" with "<gender> <race>". this could perhaps help with the confusing chat a little (except you're in a group of fenkis )

Recognizing people by their labels like if you remember the face was actually cool too, I did that as well and many others probably too. Perhaps "someone" could bring up an idea on how to have both, the recognition of known faces and the introduction system?

I still say give this feature some time to develop further, to get used to it and get adjusted so that it'll really encourage rp instead of hindering it

PS: would also be great if the actual names of the chars would be written into the log files, since you are not able to figure out who said what elsewise (like reading the logs a week later you probably won't remember who stood where and said what, but with the names in the logfiles you could remember at least who "someone" was)

[Velh Krome]

What adds to the feeling of "being blind" is, that of course not everyone who appears to be familiar to you you know the name of. Given you arent spending most of your ingame-time to read/update description windows, the complete anonymosity took away many features of persons. Take that one old hoppling man who passes Harnquist with a wave everyday the same time. While before you could recognize him easily by the name-tag, now its just a ghost passing, one that could be anyone.
I also cant see how does this feature emphasizes RP. Before newbie passed by mutely, now they run by hitting the introduce-shortie.

So, my question: Like you have your locally stored list of aliases for your buddylist, isnt same thing possible for custom name-tags? Ultimately the custom names could even show up in another color, say.. orange? With that you could create a custom alias "Hobbling old man"..

[Mrokii]

Hi,

another idea I had is this (if you want to keep introductions as a necessity to know a players name): To "enforce" roleplaying, why don't you just remove the command "/introduce" itself? If one could only introduce himself by saying his/her name, this would enforce even newbies to use some kind of roleplaying to make their name known to someone else.

[Velh Krome]

I just went into the only place people seem to roam nowadays.. you got it, the platinum mine. I tried to interact with people, but all I got was a "Who is Someone?" - followed by a "Just asking, because I ignore people I dont recognize" and some more smilie-including replies concerning anonymousity. Whats that?

To me this is one of the newbie-reactions upon this new feature. Instead of at least something one could play with, its going that ooc straight taway? I may understand it to a certain degree: The newbie can not see your name, doesnt know who is he dealing with, so he denies any contact (although some of the people involved were not really newbies (not to mix with "n00bs"), at least not considering their time already being around).

Did anyone say this "feature" is providing or emphasizing more, roleplaying? This is getting tedious..

[Prolix]

I do not believe I have seen this suggested but here it is: The race-gender thing is ok but it does not go far enough. This should be combined with enhanced player description idea where you have a list of standard categories to be filled in. You would need only two or three Significant Feature fields which would describe readily apparent attributes of your character. Then you could have "the kran with the star-shaped birthmark says..." or "the stonebreaker female in the blue and white leather dress says...." If the fields are left blank you would get "the non-descript Ylian male says...." These fields would appear at the top of your description to aid identification.

[Sen]

I do not believe I have seen this suggested but here it is: The race-gender thing is ok but it does not go far enough. This should be combined with enhanced player description idea where you have a list of standard categories to be filled in. You would need only two or three Significant Feature fields which would describe readily apparent attributes of your character. Then you could have "the kran with the star-shaped birthmark says..." or "the stonebreaker female in the blue and white leather dress says...." If the fields are left blank you would get "the non-descript Ylian male says...." These fields would appear at the top of your description to aid identification.

I agree fully, Im just not sure if this would make the chat a bit bothersome when longer (and always the same) 'identification strings' are in front of sentences; especially short ones 'The Kran with the star-shaped birthmark says "Hi"'
Just a thought that came to my mind when I read this - in general very good and right - suggestion.

[Miaua]

This is getting really wicked...
..Just put names of characters you dont know in brackets. Solves all issues and doesnt harm any or the 'great' RP features you probably want to achieve.
It removes spam-introducing from noobs and all newbies knows from tutorial that in brackets is OOC info, so they won't use it.

And bracketnames removes nearly all the issues, or even all of them I stated in my post ( dont say they are not important or irelevant ).
By this both sides will be happy and milion clones of someone will disappear finally too.

Or there are any issues with names in brackets I dont see? I'll be happy to hear.   

[Izzabella]

I have not read all the post, however but today specifically the /introduce system is EXTREMELY buggy...

I log in..I see peoples name if they do an /introduce to me however they become someone, and then after about 5-10 minutes of being logged in everyone becomes someone.

It makes it VERY hard to RP with a group of "someones' it frustrating to say the least.

I was trying to do a guild event today had 7-9 of us in a small group, I spent most the time confused trying to figure who was saying what or re-logging.

Its not a bad idea fully...I just don't think its helpful when its THIS buggy, it makes me not want to even role play. I can ignore the spam intros and the occossainal re log but this is just too much!
I can live without attacking NPC's for a while, but this not being able to RP just sucks.

[Garile]

hmmm names in brackets. That is really a great idea I think. Something you have to come up with but now that I am running it through my mind I think that would be the perfect midway if you want to make sure people notice the introductions without it spawning a whole bucket of someones. Think the bugs have shown just how annoying it gets fast. I think even the ones in favor of introductions think the system should be tweaked atleast.

[CrazyYlian]

Well, so far I have not found it realistic or helpful at all.   In RL how many people do you know that you have NEVER been introduced to?  A lot!  Anywhere you have people gathering together frequently you have acquaintances being made by repeat association.  No intro is needed.  But this 'feature' requires an introduction to every player before they are recognised.

And it hampers RP badly.  One of my characters likes to sit in the tavern and just listen in to ongoing gossip.  He might occasionally introduce himself if a particular RP interests him, but whether or not he does, usually he will know all of the regular tavern crowd's names, simply because of repeat association, and he will be able to track even multiple RP threads going by listening in.  This is no longer possible, because everyone in the tavern is now named "someone".  Bad enough for my own RP, absolutely kills my ability to track someone else's RP, much less join in.

I would suggest making it an option to the player if they want to use it or not, and to also provide an option of how their introduction is presented.  And I think it should be two options, not one; separate inbox and outbox so-to-speak.  After all, I may want everyone around to know who I am, but I may not neccesarily want to know all of them. (or vice versa)

In RL I always have options in a crowd.  Currently, in PS, I do not, its all or nothing.

[Raa]

Hmm, I've also noticed something. When you introduce to some players, they seem to think that you've told them your name, even if you haven't. Like, no one knows who one of my chars is right now, and she can just walk into a tavern, and people will immediately greet her by name.

This introduction system does nothing but hamper roleplay. I haven't seen it help at all yet.

[Velh Krome]

How you mean Raa?
If a char (player..?) comes and /introduces to my char, shouldnt he take it as knowing his name?

[Raa]

Depends if he said his name. You could recognize the other character by appearance, voice, whatever. The introduction message pops up in system, not in main, nor as speech, so you can assume that the other character hasn't said anything. It's just a terribly OOC way to recognize someone.