Names As Keywords?

[Desertman]

Alright, here is the idea.

Should players be forced to use their PC's name as a coded keyword?

Realistically, it makes no sense.

The way it is set up now, if you have a bounty on your head and your name is Jack Sparrow, the first time a bounty hunter runs across you, even if you have dyed your hair and changed your clothes and grown a beard, and he types..."Assess Sparrow"...he is going to OOC'ly instantly know that you are the man he is looking for, even though IC'ly he should have no clue, and he is going to bum rape you.

The way it is set up now, any time you do get a bounty on your head every bounty hunter with access to and IC Rumor Board is instantly going to..."Contact Sparrow"...in hopes of attaining your sdesc.

The way it is set up now, any time you want to try and pull a con on someone, and they have been ooc'ly instructed by their ooc buddy that "Jack Sparrow is a conman, dont trust him." and they do..."Assess Sparrow"...you can kiss your sweet con goodbye, all for OOC reasons.

The way it is set up now, any time you want to do ANYTHING and a character who has never met you before IC knows your coded name is associated with something negative, you are screwed, because even though it is NOT IC AT ALL, they will never trust you.

There is no real reason to have names as coded keywords anymore, none that I can think of at all.

Origionally it was done to make things OOC'ly more convenient when emoting, and using the Way.

Sure it is easier to...

Emote tips his head to ~jack.

Than it is to...

Emote tips his head to ~brown.

But its not so much easier that it would cripple the emoting system if we forced people to emote with each other using sdesc keywords.

When people use names like..."Marverikalesoc"...everyone already uses a sdesc keyword anyways.

Noone ever uses names like that to emote with as target words.

Should we also make it against the rules to use long names for OOC emoting convenience?

------

Back in the day, you could contact using one keyword...

contact brown

Or you could contact using someone's name...

Contact Jack

Back in the day, it was a major pain the butt to try and contact someone using only one keyword, unless they had an VERY unique keyword, which a lot of people didnt, so that caused confusion.

Now that you can use multiple sdesc words...

contact black-eyed, blue-haired man

There is no reason to have names as keywords for contacting convenience, its just not needed anymore.

Easier? Yes

Needed? No

I think the negatives of having names as keywords, especially in relation to ruining actual RP, FAR out weigh the positives of having to "Type Less" when you emote and contact.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I'm all for killing names as Keywords, as long as the player can still reference themselves with me, or add their name as a keyword using the addkeyword command if they so choose. Realistically, it would be better this way, I think.

Another thing we could do is add a psi power called beacon, where by using it, PCs -allowed- you to contact them via the way using their names. Beacon would be just like barrier, in that it persisted for a while or until you used cease, but it would have the advantage of turning it off.

[Desertman]

I think having the option, of you so choose, to "Addkeyword" would be fine.

I personally wouldnt do it, but if someone wanted to, more power to them I guess.

[Gimfalisette]

No. For a bunch of reasons.

[Qzzrbl]

No. For a bunch of reasons.

Give us a few?

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

No. For a bunch of reasons.

Probably a good idea to offer some of those reasons.

Furthermore, I believe that Desertman is referring to mundane functions with his idea. Any non-mundane class that uses names is probably not the point of his idea.

[Gimfalisette]

No. For a bunch of reasons.

Give us a few?

3. Unnecessary burden on people who need to be contacted by their names. Don't make the lives of leaders harder than they already are.

[Lizzie]

Red Storm, on the Road:
keyword figure
(in the room)
1. The tall figure in the dark hooded cloak
2. The figure in the dark hooded cloak
3. The short figure in the dark hooded cloak
4. The figure in the dark hooded cloak
5. The tall figure in the dark hooded cloak
6. The figure in the dark hooded cloak
7. The short figure in the dark hooded cloak
8. The figure in the dark hooded cloak

tell john (waving) Hello!
No such thing.
tell figure (waving) Hello!
The tall figure in the dark hooded cloak ignores you, since he's an NPC.
tell 2.figure (waving) Hello!
and so on and so forth.

Even if half of those people had their hoods down, the odds of most of them NOT having unique keywords between them, are very low.

And for that reason, I'm against it. I want to be able to hug my character's best friend, without hugging a templar who looks absolutely nothing like him whatsoever, simply because I'm not allowed to use his name as a keyword.

[Yam]

1) The Way functions via names.

2) It is far too annoying to refer to people in emotes and commands only via their sdesc.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Hmmm. The emotive problem is a fairly good point. But there should be a way to fix those issues, and still solve the sorts of problems DM describes.

[Yam]

In my years of playing, I've only come across an issue with the name-keyword system once. To me the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

[Desertman]

No. For a bunch of reasons.

Give us a few?

3. Unnecessary burden on people who need to be contacted by their names. Don't make the lives of leaders harder than they already are.

For leader pc's with such issues, I think an option "AddKeyWord" feature would be fine.

I'm not against people "CHOOSING TO USE NAMES AS KEYWORDS" I am against it being mandatory.

Big difference.

I would be just as much against people being forced NOT to use names as keywords.

[Desertman]

In my years of playing, I've only come across an issue with the name-keyword system once. To me the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

I came it across it four times that I can distinctley recall with a recent PC.

More times before that.

But people seem to be missing the point.

I think a lot of you are thinking I am saying...

"You shouldnt be allowed to use your name as a keyword."

Thats not the issue...

If you want to, go ahead.

I am saying that I believe it shouldnt be mandatory that you HAVE to use your name as a keyword.

If you dont want to, you shouldnt have to.

If you want to, you should have the ability.

[nyrk]

I think you should be able to remember people's names.
So in your character file you would have the associations.

That way if there are 4 Amoses (Amosi?) is the tavern, and you emoted to one, only the one that you knew would be targetable.

You have no idea of the other players names, so no way to target them by name.

[Desertman]

1) The Way functions via names.

2) It is far too annoying to refer to people in emotes and commands only via their sdesc.

1) The Way also functions via sdescs, even multiple word sdescs.


2) Personal preference I guess. I find it far more annoying to have people who have never met my pc contacting me because they know my OOC name, or walking up to me in the bazarr out of nowhere because they assessed my name keyword, even though they have never met me.

[Gimfalisette]

I'm sorry you're so anti-interaction. Sucks to be you.

Still, no.

[Yam]

I mean that the Way functions, according to the lore, via names. You dial up someone's name and find their mind.

[Desertman]

Red Storm, on the Road:
keyword figure
(in the room)
1. The tall figure in the dark hooded cloak
2. The figure in the dark hooded cloak
3. The short figure in the dark hooded cloak
4. The figure in the dark hooded cloak
5. The tall figure in the dark hooded cloak
6. The figure in the dark hooded cloak
7. The short figure in the dark hooded cloak
8. The figure in the dark hooded cloak

tell john (waving) Hello!
No such thing.
tell figure (waving) Hello!
The tall figure in the dark hooded cloak ignores you, since he's an NPC.
tell 2.figure (waving) Hello!
and so on and so forth.

Even if half of those people had their hoods down, the odds of most of them NOT having unique keywords between them, are very low.

And for that reason, I'm against it. I want to be able to hug my character's best friend, without hugging a templar who looks absolutely nothing like him whatsoever, simply because I'm not allowed to use his name as a keyword.

I will grant you this, but the instances would be few IMO.

If you have already met...

The pallid, blue-eyed man before...

And he has his hood up...

You can still use...

emote hugs ~pallid.

It still works.

If you have never met the person without their hood up though, I can see where you would have a problem.

How close can you be to someone who's face you have never seen though?

But still, you make a point, for some situations.

[mansa]

I posted this idea in the other thread before realizing that you made another thread:

Why not use a "keyword" that is easier to type than a nickname or truename?  That way, you force people to use the keyword (since it's faster to type).
i.e.

Hi, I'm Tektolnes.
addkeyword fff
OOC Just use fff if you want to refer to me quickly.

[Desertman]

Sucks to be you.

First of all, that isnt needed.


Secondly, I'm not anti-interaction, but a lot of my "naughty" pc's are exactly that, anti-interaction.

MANY un-lawful pc's are anti-interaction, and many un-lawful pc's get screwed due to the fact it is mandatory that they have a "name" as a keyword.

[Qzzrbl]

I mean that the Way functions, according to the lore, via names. You dial up someone's name and find their mind.

So what's keeping us from contacting the mutitudes of VNPC characters that just so happen to have the same name as the person you're trying to contact?

Like, you try to contact Amos, but there are five other PCs named Amos, and Tek knows how many NPCs and VNPCs.

[Yam]

That might already be built into the code.

[Desertman]

I mean that the Way functions, according to the lore, via names. You dial up someone's name and find their mind.

I wasnt able to find anything in the documentation on this.

Of course my access is limited right now.

Would someone find me where it says this in the docs?

[Qzzrbl]

MANY un-lawful pc's are anti-interaction, and many un-lawful pc's get screwed due to the fact it is mandatory that they have a "name" as a keyword.

Yeah, I've all but given up on trying to play sneakies and unlawfuls because of this.

I hate sdesc sniffing. 

[Qzzrbl]

That might already be built into the code.

I've seen very little evidence to support this IG.