Forced duplicate last names and reputation per account.

Might I ask why you would classify that as bad behavior? In my mind I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

I have no problem at all with someone role playing different names and personalities without me knowing it. I think it's a bit weird but whatever. It doesn't affect my experience.

There is no way for you to know whether or not someone is doing that anyway. Why waste resources and programming on it? (not to mention time debating it) You can't prevent it and futile attempts to subvert it (like forced naming) will just annoy people for no reason.

If you really wanted to you could get down into IP detection and tracking but there are still ways around it and in the end, is it really worth the effort?

It's a really great game. How someone could just play one character and forego the other 75% of the game I don't know, but I'm not going to criticize how you want to play.

 

As Frank kindly reposted Richard has already answered this exact concern back in June of last year. While we always welcome critique and opinion we are NOT going to change this design and Richard clearly outlined why.

 

Because your ability to spy on another guild is granted ENTIRELY by the use of an alt account. You're not roleplaying anything, you're just logging into the game with a different name and no one has a chance to uncover that or stop you.

How would you feel if I had a fireball that could not be blocked and killed you 100% of the time? That's what you're doing. You're using an alt character to avoid being noticed by the guild and then when or if you mess up through your own folly, you just throw the character away and start again. There's nothing good about it, there's no skill involved, and there's absolutely no way anyone can stop you unless you make a really stupid mistake.

Games are good when they have defined rules and everyone is on an equal playing field. If you want to spy on someone, use your main character, that takes real skill and the risk is much higher.

 

I don't see an outline of "why" in his post. The only thing I see is what is being done.

 

Thanks for posting that Sir Frank. I'm fine with that vision, but the last name thing is still annoying and ineffectual toward the intended goal. Is it a show stopper for me? No, but I have to wonder how often this kind of thing happens.

 

"Similarly, your manifestation is always YOU, not your evil/good twin. I am content letting role players have more than 1 physical form, as long as it remains YOUR spirit, animating that body. Thus we are allowing multiple characters per account but all those characters are still you so they share your reputation and your last name and cannot be played simultaneously. In effect you now have multiple ways you can manifest into the world but they are all still you."

 

Agree with GodsHammer, don't see the rationale, just the conclusion. So be it.

I don't think the behavior of different characters on your account has to be linked, any more than it has to be in RL. But if that's what RG decided, I can live with it.

The obvious downside is that it makes it very difficult to effectively role play a good character and a bad character on the same account. IMO that's too high a price to pay.

 

I read it frank, but again, it doesn't explain why they took that path. The only thing I can assume based on that vague explanation is that they think they can judge the moral character of the player based on their actions in a game, which will be interesting to see the outcome of.

 

You have multiple characters in real life?

 

Yes. That's exactly the point. The game can't track your virtue if you aren't playing you.
Richard wants you to play YOU. Not your good and evil twins. Exactly as he says.

 

Yes. You managed to pick up exactly what Richard plainly said.

 

Yes I do.

What I mean is that in RL my brother isn't tainted much at all by my arrest record, public floggings and nocturnal activities.

 

We get it. "We're going to dictate the RP to you rather than you doing it for yourself". The whole point of RP is to not be you.

 

RELEASE 25, December 17, 2015

• Story: More towns with story content will appear in Novia along with the dungeon of Artifice on the island of Elysium that will be the climax of the Truth Quest line.
• Property Tax: Property ownership will now incur regular fees (unless you are using a tax free deed from a pledge). If the fees are not paid, the player will lose their claim, and their possessions (including the house and decorations) will be moved to their bank.
• Combat: The cover system will be introduced and will modify attack and defense values when you (or your target) are behind cover.
• Creatures: Our creature list will continue to expand with Chaos Demons and Wisps.
• Guild Warfare: Guilds will now be able to declare war on each other.
• Agriculture: Players will be able to start planting and harvesting as Agriculture appears in the game.
• Player Owned Towns: We will continue to expand the number of templates.
• Multiple Characters: Players with pledges that include additional character slots can now create and play with those additional characters. As mentioned previously, all these characters share reputation, bank, pledge rewards, add-on items, and property. Additionally, if the first character has a last name, all additional characters will have that same last name.
• Earlier Delivery Date: Due to the Christmas holiday, R25 will be coming out one week earlier than normal releases.

 

I understand but if I have 3 characters - an evil mage, a good craftsman and a neutral barkeep, it's sort of silly to pretend that they're all ME and that they have an identical set of ethics from the Oracle's viewpoint, just because I'm the account holder in RL.

And of course, the game could track the virtue of these individual characters, it needn't lump them together.

IMO it's forcing us, unrealistically, to adopt an aggregate set of virtues even though our characters may be diametrically different ethically.

I understand what RG's trying to do, I just think it's not optimal.

If we had only one character (many accounts do), then RG's vision makes much more sense.

 

Right, but in real life your brother can't log in as YOU.

It's not a one way street here. You have to accept that our virtual selves act a bit differently than our real life selves, and what the game is trying to do is find a compromise that will simulate some level of accountability that exists in the real world.

What you're advocating would be for real life (in comparison) to let you commit horrible acts against society, then delete yourself, only to log back into the real world and say "wow I can't believe someone did that!" I don't know if hell exists or not, but I'm pretty sure that's what it might look like.

 

That's just it, you can't do that in his game. You can have a mage, a craftsmen, and a barkeep...but they're all you (whatever YOU decided to be on an ethical level). A lot like real life.

 

But in RL I can log in as THREE DIFFERENT PEOPLE! Why should all three be accountable for each other?

I'm not advocating for RL anything. I'm advocating for the freedom to act differently with different characters, and for the individual characters to enjoy the consequences of their own individual actions. It's a game. Keep it realistic where you can, and keep it fun. I don't want to have to think about how my mage is going to affect how much my crafter has to pay for raw materials - it's not realistic, it's restrictive, it's anti-immersive, and it suck eggs.

 

You have three different bodies in real life? Interesting.

That's not the kind of game this is. This isn't grand theft auto, it's a game about virtues.