With the whole language change, I propose a next step be to change how our who commands, etc. be viewed. Instead of just knowing a characters name, we can use their chosen short descriptions, which can be added to as their fame/infamy grows, or if they happen to share their name with you. I feel this would enhance the sense of realism and force people to learn others names and provide an avenue of rp to force everyone to do so.
Making names of Characters Short descriptions
Not sure I understand this.
As it stands now, characters names ARE their short descriptions.
Do you mean showing their title instead of a name? I.E. "The Ethereal Breaker" instead of "Morlahchalakah"?
- 1 for Morhlackalakalaka,
-10 for suggestion to remove names/replace names with vague character descriptions
You can always RP not knowing someones name until you've met them.
You can always RP.
If you want.
Why ask for coded RP? No fun in that.
Sorry my suggestions was not clear (a little inebriated at the time). So instead of having our names being just meta game knowledge, I think it should be simple description data, such as short, athletic, man. This would be created by the player during creation, and could be added to as their fame/infamy grows. So an example of this would be, if I were to walk into a room I would see:
A short athletic man <--- this actually being another player
A cheerful citizen
A town guard
If I wanted to talk or interact with that player/character with emotes, etc. I would simply use one of the keywords: short, athletic, or man and it would be business as usual, except that if I wanted to know his name, I would have to ask it. I feel that this would add a sense of realism to the game and encourage further role play, while also adding an element of mystery to those that are interested/would benefit from it. Think of all those ninja's or thieves whom could keep their identity a secret from the majority of the other players. They could easily just have alias names/nicknames that others know and refer to them by, and add them to their keyword descriptors. Obviously their would have to be a limit on the number of keywords, also their may be some concern with appropriate keywords, but aside from it, I am interested to know what everyone thinks.
-Cephirus
On the fence here.
I understand the value for long term players, it provides as you stated a sense of realism to a game many of us have become all too familiar with. And I personally hate it when someone refers to (insert character name here) and you know that they likely have had zero interaction with said character. Again, I see the value.
That being said, I think such a change would NOT be fair to new players. Where as veterans we would know ways of deciphering if mentioned short description is likely friendly or not, a new player may not be aware of such tricks. I love ideas that enhance role play, but I dislike ideas that would possibly confuse, alienate, or make things harder for NEW players. Newbie friendly is a MUST for muds and should never be considered optional. Otherwise we will only lose potential long term players to the next mud on the list.
Now, if this idea could be made optional for players during the character creation process, so that veterans could choose to see things this way, and new players were suggested to view things in the "classic" format I would be glad to promote such a change.
This is one of those areas where I think realism has to give way to gameplay. How in the world do you get a group together if you don't have a who list and the ability to send tells to people you haven't met before, asking them to join up, especially as a new player? How do we change the where command, and what one sees on there (and if we're trying to be realistic, why would this command show you players only and not NPCs, since they shouldn't be immediately discernible from one another)? I would argue that a change like this actually affects the balance of class power, since as you said ninjas and thieves especially would be boosted by having the ability to hit targets without being readily recognizable. Hell, it may even make it more difficult to report problem players for bad behavior, as you wouldn't have a name to provide to the IMMs.
I like where your heart's at, but I don't like the idea.
Realism gives way to Romanticism upon which game play has a basis which is in favor of the original poster's idea. 