More arguments for Contact

[NinjaFruitSalad]

Sometimes, for whatever reason, people go by strange names. And these names conflict with others who may have similar sdescs. Other times, people may tend to have similar keywords in their sdescs which may lead you to contacting the wrong person. I would propose two extra kinds of arguments for Contact to help reach the right person.

Type A: I call true-naming.   

CONTACT "<name>"

Quotes are necessary. This use of contact only goes for someone where "<name>" is their official, registered character name. As such, there can ever only be one of these unique words per character. It's honestly not needed unless these character names are... a bit unique, yet risk being descriptors for others.

Example:  contact "red"

This will attempt to contact someone who's exact character name is Red. It ignores any other NPCs or PCs with red in their sdescs, like red-haired, red-eyed, red-skinned, etc.

Type B: Exclusions

CONTACT <keyword> [keyword+] -[keyword-]

This works like Contact normally where you pile on keywords, except you have the option to stick a hyphen in front of a keyword to exclude it. Examples:

contact woman red -leggy

contact blue -dusky -swarthy

contact pale -elf -dwarf -giant -breed

[Lizzie]

This would actually be really useful for people who have nicknames of common NPCs or descriptives of face-covering clothing. Like Amos but everyone calls him Gortok. Or a Bynner named Malik but everyone calls him Smelly. Or a rinthi named Talia but she goes by Stained southside.

[BadSkeelz]

Having a name and sdesc that's hard to reach is the whole point of picking one like that. Thumbs down on this idea.

[Kyviantre]

I've never had a problem finding the right person (excluding NPCs with the same name when the PC isn't online)...but then again, I am of the opinion that you need a name (nickname or otherwise) to find the right mind...it feels terribly gamey for a non-psion to skim random people based on a vague description (I did preference this with it being my opinion, not HARD FACT, right?  Good...my snobbery ain't law!).  But, with that in mind...

Type B, sure, if you really want?  See above, never had an issue finding the right person - can be annoying when someone picks certain descriptive words for their name, but if they are going to purposefully make their mind hard to find...their loss (assuming they want random people who haven't met them in person to Way them - ie, dumb move for anyone rolling a high up merchant type, no big deal for rinthi elf non-entity)!

Type A, oh hellz no!  Don't let people greb for whether you're giving out a 'real' name, because you just KNOW some idiots are going to twink the heck out of that with anyone remotely shady.  "You told me your name was Ratto, but I know that isn't your REAL name, j'accuse!  What are you hiding, missus?!  Or down to the Nursery with you!"  *shudders*

[NinjaFruitSalad]

Type A, oh hellz no!  Don't let people greb for whether you're giving out a 'real' name, because you just KNOW some idiots are going to twink the heck out of that with anyone remotely shady.  "You told me your name was Ratto, but I know that isn't your REAL name, j'accuse!  What are you hiding, missus?!  Or down to the Nursery with you!"  *shudders*

You know, people can do this anyway when they ask for names/nicknames, right?  The only thing Type A does is help so that if someone has a strange name that could actually also be used as parts of a sdesc, you don't accidentally target those people.  Obviously, a name like Ratto will not be part of anyone's sdesc.

[Kyviantre]

Change one letter then...sheesh.  Ratty.  Both a nickname and a descriptive word.

And cutting down on dumb twinky behaviour is good, letting people fish for 'real' names is not good.  Let people have names, nicknames, and throw-away aliases without giving other players not in-the-know the chance to work out if they are being given a false name.

Like I said (and BadSkeelz said)...if someone picks a name/sdesc like that, that is likely a conscious choice to make themselves harder to find.  If they aren't...well, if they are uncontactable, that is on them, isn't it?

[NinjaFruitSalad]

You complain about people trying to game the system and abuse Contact to try to fish out names and sdescs of people, which I agree with.

But then you defend the behavior of picking strange names/sdescs that are hard to find.  That in itself is also trying to rig the system. Why should we even spare one thought to protect people that do this?

[AdamBlue]

Dude don't do this to me. My character has better memory than I do. If you true-name people I'll never be able to contact ANYONE even people I've played with for actual RL years because their name will slip my brain like butter-soap through a fat man's fingers.

[Lizzie]

AdamBlue - people would still be able to contact the usual way, using sdescs and without the quotation marks. This would be an added method, so if you WANT to find someone by the name they're known as, but that name is also a word in a common sdesc or the name of a mob in the game, you can single it out as a person's name ("Gith" the person's name as opposed to gith being the name of a gith).

As for making up a fake name and not adding it to your list of keywords:

If you expect people to use it, add it to your keywords. If you don't, you're circumventing the code, and you should expect someone to complain about it to the staff. If it's a one-off for someone you never expect to see again, no big deal. But when you tell someone "Name's Hunter" when your name is Amos, and you figure it's vague enough that no one will know that you're actually Amos - but people need to say things like "Hey there Hunter how's it hangin?" Or "Oh Hunter I love your new shoes." or "Thanks for the ale Hunter" then it needs to be a keyword.

Fake names are still names. They're names you want people to use, because you don't want them using your real name.

[Brokkr]

It's just annoying when people pick a really obscure character name and then never tell anyone what it is, because we did away with the things that could only be done with "true" names years ago.  So not sure what the point of Type A is and would in fact go backwards in terms of where we have taken code, and an addkeyword nickname is just as valid as a true name IC'ly, just sometimes annoying for staff when name isn't used (since we see your "true" name in who).

[Dar]

I remember during my brief stint as a noble. I didnt introduce myself as a true name, but my middle name. Puzzled everyone to hell when NPC guards would announce my name when I walked past the gates.

[NinjaFruitSalad]

Perhaps we just need a distinction in the code that differentiates between keywords that are part of the sdesc and keywords that actually function as names, such as the name the character is registered under or any nicknames they add afterward.

That way, if some dude with black hair wants to also go by the nickname, Raven, using contact "raven" would be able to find him since he uses Raven as a name, but it still excludes other people who only have raven as sdesc keywords, such as "the raven-haired man".

[ABoredLion]

I disagree with most of Lizzie's post here, above.

I routinely play either criminals, extremely violent people, or ruthless pragmatists who absolutely, constantly get the ol' contact guy, cease, whenever I try to do anything. People actively utilized this system to check if they have anything to fear. It's meta as hell, and similarly criminal or suspicious names are bandied about and people Way-check them. It bothered me enough that when those PCs finally died, I was legitimately thankful for it, because I don't want to constantly be reminded of peoples' meta behavior.

If I'm not giving out my 'true name' it's for roleplay reasons. I've played enough classes to know well that 'true name' stuff has been ridiculous for a long time. Anything that anyone wants to do to you only needs a keyword. And the more specific your keyword (odd or unusual) the easier it is to target you using it. Similarly, I've had PCs who went by their 'true name' from day one, zero hesitation, and PCs who absolutely only ever told it to their best friends.

On the same hand, I think it's utterly ridiculous that people can bandy a fake or real name to someone across the Known, and anyone can reach out using that to figure out what a person looks like. It happens.

I actively support anyone wishing to hide their name if they have reasonable IC circumstance or wish to do so for any number of reasons.

I don't think you should be able to contact people you've never seen in game, actually. But I'm guessing that's an insane idea to most people. Ye gods forbid anyone having to take risks and organize trips off to obscure places to get to know foreign people or arrange trades. I'd even support an adjustment to the Way that allowed a skill that made you 'reaching out' so that people seeking a specific name might find your mind that you can cut on or off, for the case of merchants and nobles, etc.

That said, there's a recent amount of PCs who have gone to great pains to make their sdescs utilize words which are not (at all) included in their mdesc, and that drives me bananas. I've got to sit in someone's room and 'l <keyword>' thirty odd times before finally giving up, based off their description, and choosing to contact them.