An Idea about Waying Offline People

[musashi]

This just in... Armageddon is a game, not a primary responsibility.

Stop throwing up strawmen. No one is talking about trying to turn Armageddon into work, you're just pretending that and rebuking your own imagination.

[Niamh]

The Way is not like a telephone with voice mail.  The Way is vague and mysterious.

*cue spooky music*

[Salt Merchant]

This just in... Armageddon is a game, not a primary responsibility.

Stop throwing up strawmen. No one is talking about trying to turn Armageddon into work, you're just pretending that and rebuking your own imagination.

It may not be your intention to make Armageddon more work-like (I never said it was), but it is demonstratably a consequence of your proposal. That is what I'm responding to, and in fact, I think I've already made that point ("demonstratably a consequence") pretty convincingly.

[musashi]

I think you're misusing the word "demonstratably".
Subbing in the word "perhaps" or "maybe" would sum your position up a lot better, actually.

[Cerelum]

I honestly don't know why any of you are still posting in this thread anymore really...

I think there is an immense love of beating a dead horse.

[MarshallDFX]

I think you're misusing the word "demonstratably".
Subbing in the word "perhaps" or "maybe" would sum your position up a lot better, actually.

Well that depends on what your definition if "is" is...

[spawnloser]

*facepalm* The OP did not suggest people should get a different message when someone is online vs. when they are offline. You have both missed ... ... the point.

No, I didn't.  Everyone's suggesting ways to make it possible/workable to way people offline.  Suddenly it's being suggested that you get a different message as part of this process.  Just because the OP didn't suggest it didn't mean that I can't object to that rider added on by others, which is what I was doing.  In fact, I seriously objected to THAT part because this was something that used to be the case (you got a different message when you tried to contact someone offline versus online) and it got changed to the way things are now, where you do not get OOC information from IC means.  I was attacking only a PART of my problem with that paragraph.  Don't strawman me.

This just in:  player plays middle-management PC and has to perform middle-management duties.

This just in... Armageddon is a game, not a primary responsibility.

Stop throwing up strawmen. No one is talking about trying to turn Armageddon into work, you're just pretending that and rebuking your own imagination.

Said the pot to the kettle, first off.  Second, what Salt Merchant said has a point, if you stopped paying attention to the specific words and started looking through an entire conversation, the entire thread, instead of cherry picking the posts you want to respond to... like you did to me, and have now done again.  Synthesis sure as hell sounds like he's saying that if you play a Merchant, you're signing up for being spammed... being nothing but a vending machine, and let me tell you, having known many people that have played merchant family members as well as having played one myself, the feeling that you're nothing but a vending machine to the other players is why most people store their merchant family member characters, in my experience.  It disconnects them from the game and their character, because their character does nothing but their jobs... which means they're doing nothing but piloting their characters around doing these jobs... which makes it something of a job for the players, and less of a game.  They lose joy in playing that character and lose joy in the game until they get tired of it, stop logging in as much and then finally store their characters.

If this idea was implemented, it would only increase that feeling... make it worse... make the game a job for some people because suddenly voicemail and ansaphones have been invented for your head.  No.



Noone yet has addressed how you would target the offline person.  At this rate, I don't think anyone ever will, which means this idea remains wholly without viability anyway.

[Zoltan]

I think you're misusing the word "demonstratably".
Subbing in the word "perhaps" or "maybe" would sum your position up a lot better, actually.

"Highly likely," then. I totally agree with Salt Merchant.

I just don't see the absolute -need- for something like this being implemented. Not once in all the time I've been playing have I needed something like this. If you can't find someone's mind to speak directly to them with the Way, there are other avenues. Please don't take away my excuse that I didn't know something because I -just wasn't playing-. Seriously, Musashi, have you ever played a Byn sergeant or GMH agent or something like that before? There is an -extremely- high probability that the page scroll on the "while you were out" messages would be downright obnoxious.

And then some say, "well, just toggle it off (if toggleable) or ignore it." That's fine, but most everyone would likely have the expectation that you -did- see the Wayings they sent you. There's just no good IC excuse. Crap, there isn't -now- for being logged out, but at least most everyone understands IG that if you were seriously unreachable for many hours during the day, you were just not logged into the game world.

Leadership roles have enough expectations laid on them as it is without something like this being put in. Other than that, I can just throw in my personal opinion again that I would -really- hate to continuously be able to psi someone who just isn't logged on and won't respond. Like the thought of it just chills me. I would get irritated very quickly, but maybe that's just me.

Then there are the inconsistencies. Psions have already been mentioned, but perhaps there are magickal things that -should- be possible to do, too, if your PC is psionically available? And you know what? Even as a -mundane-, if I'm able to find your mind, I want to be able to find your body. Either a character's all the way out of the game, or they're all the way in. That's how it is now, and that's how I would prefer it, personally.

[Kankfly]

Why not just code a bunch of NPCs that read/write, and then, if you want to leave a message to a specific someone, pay them (amount) sids, and then they write it down for you, and then you can just go and ask them if they have any message for you, and then they'll read it out to you, and then

[Bast]

Would it be more preferrable to have a templar run message service in game, where you can pay a few coins to leave a message, people can pick up their messages by going there, and possibly sneaky or templar skills allowing a player to "sniff" other people's messages?

I this idea...A while ago I was talking to someone about this. My thoughts were that its silly that you can way someone from pretty much anywhere (save a few special places). There should be a range on waying people. I thought it would be cool that if they were too far away you could use a mail system. Have a office where you tell a scribe what you want the letter to say and pay coin to them to send your letter. The person getting the letter would have to stop in and see if they have any messages (and likely have to pay someone at their city office to read it to them). You could even go another step and have it so the dude running the mail could be intercepted on route and pc's who could read (like Templar) could intercept your messages...perhappes even forge a fake note to give misinformation.

[Aaron Goulet]

Would it be more preferrable to have a templar run message service in game, where you can pay a few coins to leave a message, people can pick up their messages by going there, and possibly sneaky or templar skills allowing a player to "sniff" other people's messages?

I this idea...A while ago I was talking to someone about this. My thoughts were that its silly that you can way someone from pretty much anywhere (save a few special places). There should be a range on waying people. I thought it would be cool that if they were too far away you could use a mail system. Have a office where you tell a scribe what you want the letter to say and pay coin to them to send your letter. The person getting the letter would have to stop in and see if they have any messages (and likely have to pay someone at their city office to read it to them). You could even go another step and have it so the dude running the mail could be intercepted on route and pc's who could read (like Templar) could intercept your messages...perhappes even forge a fake note to give misinformation.

Useful? Definitely. Realistic? Possibly (very few commoners are granted the gift of literacy by their betters).  The only challenge I see with this idea is the amount of work it would take for the staff to implement such a system, especially when it comes to having the messages carried by an actual NPC to allow for interceptions, as you mentioned.