A rather radical suggestion

[Folker]

Greetings.

I came up with a certain idea and figured I'll post it out here just to see how vicious will the beating of it going to be. Give me your thoughts.

Basically, it is an option that would be used by those still without a character to generally be able to ghost travel the world of Zalanthas. You wouldnt be able to talk or affect anything, you wouldnt be able to go through walls or doors, or enter certain areas the GMs think should be risky to learn up. All those ghosts would be capable of doing is moving from room to room and seeing the players play.

There are ofcourse some possibilities of abuse. Such as for example, using ghosts to eavesdrop on people who are certain that no one's present, but then again this abuse stays true if people carry knowledge between characters anyway. So the risk is no different as long as some characters can turn invisible or sneak around. Maybe this ability could be granted only when some certain karma level is reached I suppose.

The pros of it is the ability to witness interesting plots you wouldnt be otherwise witnessing. It would give players something to do while they're waiting on their characters getting approved (Which has become an extremely short wait of late), and would allow people to examine the city state a little bit before creating a character inside it and writing a backstory of the character more accurately. It would also remove the whole concept of experience through characters. Meaning some characters 'oddly' know that the area they enter is dangerous (mainly because their previous character died off there), and some characters dont, even though both characters never been there before.

Sooo, whatcha think ?

[Rindan]

I think hell will freeze over before this in implemented.

I understand the appeal and you are certainly not the first (and likely not the last) to propose this.  It would be fun to 'ghost' around and see what is happening in the world.  The problem is that this violates pretty much every single attempt to keep IC information from being passed around to everyone.  There is a reason why you can't post IC stories about what your character did the other day.  There is a reason is no forum for posting awesome game logs.

We try and slow the spread of IC information through OOC means.  As you point out, it is going to happen anyways, but the speed at which it happens and how many people it reaches is affected by in game policies.  If anyone could post a log or ghost around, I bet everyone on the board would know a large part of a mindbenders powers.  I have been playing this game for close to a decade, have the karma for a mindbender sitting around, and I don't have the foggiest clue what in the hell they are really capable of.

While the controls on spreading IC information OOCly are far from perfect if for no other reason then that you can't wipe out someone's memories from past characters, the attempt to control the flow of IC information does work and does have an affect.  The cool factor of watching secret plots unfolding and finding out what in the hell the leader of the Guild does on his days off simply doesn't offset the massive breaching of IC information that would result.

So yes, this would be amazingly fun, but there is not a slim chance in hell it is going to happen.  That said, as Armageddon 1 winds down, I imagine that the door is going to be thrown open to getting some of those logs and backstories that have been kept secret for so long.  Even now, the staff is trickling out long held secrets on the games back story.

[Larrath]

I strongly oppose.

PCs that are able to stealthily/safely explore the game world are still limited and often very vulnerable; they can be detected, captured or killed, or evaded or tricked.
The game world is full of secrets - oases, secret passages and various facilities that most people don't know exist (such as, for example, the fictional flash-powder lab under the Kadian Estate) and shouldn't know exist.

In addition to this, being able to see other characters means that any player will be able to find the hideouts of every mage and criminal in the game, be able to follow people around to see just who's a secret mage and who's not, and who meets who and what happens as a result - be it kissing, bribing, killing or scheming plots together.

It can and will cause a lot of harm, and provide only a minimal benefit.  It sucks that us players have to wait such a long time until our PCs are approved, but the cool-down period is very important in order to let people clear their heads before they make their next character.

[najdorf]

[edited by raesanos: please don't post about what the different classes can do]

[spawnloser]

Heh.  A guild.

[Moofassa]

Heh.  A guild.

Heh, an elitist.

[LauraMars]

Edit: Sorry that was mean.

I meant it though.

[spawnloser]

Heh.  A guild.

Heh, an elitist.

Heh, a forum policeman.

[Djarjak]

Stay on topic, or I'm locking it.