Playing Multiple Characters

[Akaramu]

Two thumbs up on non-permanent retirements as long as some sort of restriction was placed on them. It shouldn't be possible to temp store every new PC just to 'try something new for fun'. The option should be reserved for players of long lived characters, or very special circumstances.

[Agent_137]

Two thumbs up on non-permanent retirements as long as some sort of restriction was placed on them. It shouldn't be possible to temp store every new PC just to 'try something new for fun'. The option should be reserved for players of long lived characters, or very special circumstances.

Well, by your definition, that already exists on a case by case basis, as cavaticus said:

You can always bring up the possibility, with your staff, of storing your current character with the option of coming back at a later date. We don't do this often, but the possibility exists - especially if you have a compelling reason for it.

my imagination holds some sort of automated system of not permanent retirements that the immortals could just oversee instead of manage each case. however it's not fully formed yet.

[Akaramu]

Well, by your definition, that already exists on a case by case basis, as cavaticus said:

You can always bring up the possibility, with your staff, of storing your current character with the option of coming back at a later date. We don't do this often, but the possibility exists - especially if you have a compelling reason for it.

my imagination holds some sort of automated system of not permanent retirements that the immortals could just oversee instead of manage each case. however it's not fully formed yet.

From what I understand, this is done rarely. It could be done more often, and an automated system sounds great to me.

[Agent_137]

Well let's discuss a reasonable set of rules (reasonable to us). Then the immortals can go "NOWAI" or "hmmaybe"

Ideal use case is this:
you've played your character awhile but you're tired of it for whatever reason. You submit him for temporary storage with your reasons via the request tool (a new option would be added next to Retire for Temporary Storage.). The immortals grant your request, and you are given the new player screen on next login. You make your new character and play for awhile and die. While staring at the mantis head you realize the min storage time is up you can go back to your stored character. So you submit a request using the same option as before. Once the immortals grant it, your character is alive again on  your next login. You play him for awhile, get bored again, and submit a request for temporary storage. The immortals deny it seeing as your reason is shit and you obviously don't enjoy your character but you don't want to give up the l33t gear. They tell you to keep playing or just retire the character already.

Optional use case:
Same as above, but you retire your character instead of dying once the 6 months is up. Or maybe you just want to switch them out, put the newer one into temp storage and take the old one out again.

Potential for abuse in all cases:
Temp Store character. Create a new burglar. Join opposing clan. Spy your little butt off, writing it all in excel, until you're caught and killed. Unstore original character and use the information gained with your spy character to wipe out enemy clan. (the reverse of this can already be done. Create a spy, spy, die, create a character and join opposing clan.)

Rules to mitigate potential abuse:
A temporary storage minimum duration of at least 6 months should make it still a serious retirement and make any information gained during the bulk of the new character's life less useful as most of it will be out of date. Putting min duration at a year would mitigate the abuse even further but probably make coming out of retirement more awkward.

Rules to mitigate willy-nilly storing of characters and extra work for admins:
The min duration will help with this too, but also you should only be able to have 1 character in temp storage at a time, and 1 alive at a time. The rest have to be retired permanently or dead.

Keep in mind anytime you make a new character you have new OOC information from your previous that you can use against your new enemies. There must already be eyes in place to mitigate this sort of abuse. A well documented system like i've described would actually be easier to watch for this abuse than all the new characters created every day that go off and promptly join a clan.

thoughts? Other abuses you could think of? I'm assuming that abuse is the reason this isn't already allowed more often. Could that not be the case? Maybe no one is ever asking for temporary storage so it rarely gets granted. That's a player awareness problem. Or maybe it's just not worth the hassle and time spent by admins. That's a tool problem. both are more easily fixable than a severe potential for abuse problem.

[valeria]

Keep in mind anytime you make a new character you have new OOC information from your previous that you can use against your new enemies.

Also, this is true in any situation where you are starting a new character.  It wouldn't just be in situations of temporary storage.

[Agent_137]

Keep in mind anytime you make a new character you have new OOC information from your previous that you can use against your new enemies.

Also, this is true in any situation where you are starting a new character.  It wouldn't just be in situations of temporary storage.

yep. that's the point i was making: temporary storage wouldn't introduce any new potential abuses.

[spawnloser]

I prefer that if you store a character you're done, and not because there is potential for abuse but because you are discarding the character.  If you want it back, you need staff approval, period.  I like that.

[Agent_137]

you always get on other people for having just negative opinions against your ideas and no arguments. Try to give other people's ideas the same due.

[Thunkkin]

I agree completely with Spawnloser.

Disappearing should have consequences.  When minor minions do it, it's annoying, but meh.  But I really don't want to see this game move toward an expectation that people will be here for a few months, then mysteriously gone, then back, demanding or expecting all their old perks back, then gone again.  People do that enough as it is.

"I'm sorry your order of spice hasn't arrived.  Slacker-Da is on his sabbatical again and may be back in three years.  He does this like clockwork.  Three years here.  Three years gone."

Ugh.  This happens way too much with people who just vanish but don't retire.  No need to encourage it.  If you don't like your character, you should store and move on.  If you're bored and you don't want to store, make your character's life more interesting.  If you can't do the latter, it's probably time for the former.

[Agent_137]

1 temp storage per character would prevent that completely. if you take 6-12 months off your character, come back and still want to do that again then yea, you should just retire and get it over with.

[Akaramu]

I'd suggest not only per character, but an over time limit as well. Maybe once per year or something.

[RogueGunslinger]

One storage/return a year?

You guys seriously play this game thinking about the long term don't you? In a year from now I'll probably have quit this game five times, and changed my RL career choice about twenty.

[Agent_137]

i've played this game since early 2004 and have had less than 10 characters. so yea.

April 2004 byn initiation:

The severe, tattooed half-elf says, in sirihish:

     "And Rame, it is Vanir or sir, not 'guys'.  Grab a pallet and get some sleep."




The burly, bearded young man exclaims, in sirihish:

     "Yes sir!"

[Synthesis]

If we're going to allow temporary storages and such, I think the goal should be to be as accommodating as possible.

Personally, I don't see that there'd be a problem if someone had something like 5 maxed-out PCs that were switched between on a regular basis.

You could have a crusty old Bynner who only logs in during Byn RPTs (which would be a huge boost for the Byn n00bs, because 99.9% of the time n00bs die because there aren't enough vets on during the RPT to save their asses).

You could have a Tuluki bard who only shows up for major bardic competitions and for various parties.

And then you could have a primary character that you can enjoy on a regular basis, whether it's a 'rinth-rat, a soldier in one of the city-states, or a d-elf tribal.

I think the only reasonable requirement is that you shoot the staff an e-mail about your intent.  E.g.  "I'm playing Trooper Amos again for this HRPT."

I really don't see the logic in forcing someone either not to play (because they'd rather be doing something else), or be bored, simply to reach the end goal of participating in Byn RPTs, etc.

Sure, abuse, whatever.  Look how old the playerbase of this MUD is becoming.  A good half of us are responsible adults, and you know...I'm starting to feel like I want to be treated like a responsible adult, not like a child.

[Akaramu]

One storage/return a year?

You guys seriously play this game thinking about the long term don't you? In a year from now I'll probably have quit this game five times, and changed my RL career choice about twenty.

Well, I think storage / return should only be allowed for long-lived characters. Not a PC that was played for three weeks. Those should just be stored permanently.

[Synthesis]

Why should the length of time the character's been played have anything to do with it?

[Akaramu]

Because for me, the idea is to let players who are worn out by their long-time role to freshen up their game experience. So they can later return to that beloved 80 day character with fresh motivation, after already having tried everything to make the role more exciting again. People who stop playing Armageddon because they're bored, but don't want to store their beloved old PC.

I don't think people should just hop between characters at random. Already now, it is frustrating enough to try and catch that PC you -really- need to advance your plot when they only log in 5 hours a week. If random character hopping was allowed? I'd be gone.

[Synthesis]

 

Newsflash:  most people do not play Armageddon to entertain you.

[Akaramu]

Take a chill pill? No even hinted at such a thing. But ongoing, consistent storylines are one of the core strengths of the MUD. Probably one of the main reasons why many of us play. And for those, you need people.

Newsflash: This is not a single player game.

[flurry]

It's an intriguing idea, but the potential for abuse might be too great.

One problem I see is that it could be used as a way to escape consequences. The heat becomes to great for your character, and you store while your character's enemies die off. This makes it too easy to monitor the political climate for your stored character, and then have that character resurface when it becomes convenient.

The other issue I see is conflict of interest. It seems almost inevitable that the motives and actions of your new character(s) would be clouded somewhat by the interests of the stored one.

[Synthesis]

Allowing people to temp-store at will on a very short-term basis wouldn't detract from long-term plots, because as soon as <whatever event> was over, they'd probably go back to playing their regularly scheduled character.

Allowing people to temp-store could actually further your plots, because then instead of permanently storing or suciding (which would stop the plot entirely in its tracks), the character in question would still be alive and available at a later date.

And as much as it might suck for your plots, it also opens up plots for other people.  It's not like the player stops playing...they simply start playing where they'd rather be playing at that particular time.  And while we're talking about plots, I think scheduling things would be easy enough to facilitate important interactions.  E.g. send a PM on the GDB or a message via staff:  "Hey, could you log in with Amos on June 2 at 6:00 CST? Got a major hunt scheduled and could use the help."  It's essentially like Amos is now an NPC that you don't need to harangue the staff to animate.

I'm not suggesting people be able to switch entirely willy-nilly, playing three different characters in a single day on a regular basis.  I do think there is some reasonable middle ground where we can accommodate people who would like to play a different character for a while, without forfeiting all the time and effort they put into their current character.  I don't think it has to be based on length of time put into the character.

Edit:  Snipped the new idea and moved to a new topic.

[netflix]

It's an intriguing idea, but the potential for abuse might be too great.

Exactly. And not even intentional abuse, as I mentioned in the branch off thread. But all those seemingly small, nothing decisions of one character, that good possibly benefit the other character. The human mind is great in situations like this in making itself think "Well, I woulda made this decision with this character anyway, despite the fact that it gives gain to my other character. It was the IC thing to do and all."

But between that and intentional abuse, you'd need to double the staff size, with a whole section of staff devoted to nothing but monitoring the possible connections between a players multiple characters. Talk about an administrative nightmare.

[Agent_137]

topic-splitting fail.

here is the link to syn's new thread:
http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,38793.0.html