You mean like an eHarmony of PS? An automatic comparison? The would probably require a questionnaire and although I don't offhand object to it, I find it unlikely many would do it.
I guess it would go just like with any other optional feature, e.g. mouse move: many wouldn't, many would. I know I would add any new interesting character I've found, so that more like-minded people would want to RP with that character on the spot, without any long investigation and excessive OOC pre-arranging performed. And I know for sure I would keep my 'never' list very much up to date, in order to make mine and my friends' gameplay more pleasant and less OOC-traumatizing.
No questionnary would be required, just two lists that can be easily edited, best of all tied to a game profile in exactly the same way Options and the game config are tied now.
Then it would work like this: I see three unknown chars standing next to my char, one of them looking like
6/
8, another like
4/0 and the third one displaying nothing. I would most certainly try to approach the second one and/or try the third one while avoiding to engage the first, unless the RP situation requires it.
Basically, it would be very much like the combat system evaluation we have, and it would serve the same purpose: informed choices instead of blind poking. The only difference is that combat skills are much easier to formalize and calculate than RP-styles, that's when the cross-reference thing (human experience accumulated) comes into play.
... besides, you can always not participate in ooc drama. ...
Yeah, after it already started happening. Especially painful when both parties have already deposited some time and effort in a piece of RP, only to discover it can't and won't be finished IC'ly because of yet another severe style clash, a thing that happens very often due to the game being cross-genre and a lot of different playing styles co-existing in it.
And it gets especially "pleasant" after you discover the simple fact that many of your RP partners have had exactly the same problem with exactly the same character, or the other party learns the same about you... too late.
It works both ways though. I go to Harn's, I see a dozen characters standing around. Most often I only know one or two, all the rest are clean slates to me. In order to do any meaninful RP I must make a quick choice and pick out one or two persons to initiate an RP interaction with. I'd rather make my choice informed than blind. Descriptions (both IC and OOC tabs) help somewhat too; however, the effort often seems to be wasted while good opportunities are lost. It happens way too often, for my liking.
As a quick example: for about 6 times I've seen Marsuveus in-game and, obviously, free, I've had no idea we could RP with each other at all. His IC tab was heavily overused while his OOC tab was blank, something I usually interpret as a 'bad chance' sign. It took me a lot of time spent in OOC talks and forum reading to realize how wrong I have been. But since then, I've only had one chance to RP with him, all the other times he'd been busy... oops, RPing with the same people I usually RP with. The very thought of such a lot of good RP opportunities lost makes me sad, and anything that would reduce the chances of it happening again, would make me happy.
I like spontaneous RP, I like interacting with new characters, but I realize I'm taking less and less chances with every passing month, I start being too cautious around any new character I don't know. That's what makes some older players encapsulate in their own RP niche, I guess. Another thing I would very much like to avoid happening to me... but not by the cost of getting more in-game frustrations than I can bear with, and I already have had way too much of these.
