OOC: Suggestion for forums

[Zoopeman]

I have a problem.

Two of my toons are very insistent that I don't get them mixed up and confused with each other. Both need to trade, and the Market Forums are by far the rational choice of venue for much of that trade.

They do not wish to share a common identity on the forums, but would like to post under their own names. This appears to be impossible! I realize that there are good reasons for not allowing people to switch aliases or be anonymous. However, in order to use the forums for role playing purposes, it's sometimes necessary to post under the names of the separate characters.

Pointing out that a specific post is made on behalf of a specific character can solve the problem in some cases, but not all. The common alias undermines the independency of the characters, and thereby an important aspect of role playing: The ability to play a role distinctly separate from other roles.

On most forums, there should not be any major problems having only one alias available, but the market forums and the role-playing forum is different. I believe there should be as many separate aliases available for use on those forums as there are available characters to an Anarchy Online account.

[______________Emiliy]

While I don't think you should have LIMITLESS toons on the forum, having 2 or 3 would be cool. Very cool.

[MissMaul]

I'd like this, seeing as I have like 4000 chars

[______________Cronos]

Just do a "/tell XXXX" at the end of your auction message.

[Zoopeman]

Cronos: Just do a "/tell XXXX" at the end of your auction message.

Yes, that does solve the practical problem of having the right toon doing the deal. However, my concern here has more to do with the role playing aspect than the practical aspect. I wrote:

Pointing out that a specific post is made on behalf of a specific character can solve the problem in some cases, but not all. The common alias undermines the independency of the characters, and thereby an important aspect of role playing: The ability to play a role distinctly separate from other roles.

What I'm saying is that I'd like the ability to make in-character posts on the forum without having to specify that I'm in character (i.e. "In response to this, /tell Xxxx"). I think this would be a good addition to the functionality of those forums intended for role playing, mainly this one and the market forums.

When I post in the market forums, I post as the character interested in the deal, not as the holder of the account that happens to have that character. If in-game chat showed only your identity as account holder, requiring you to specify what character you were in right now, this would cause two problems:

1: It would be a major pain in the &$$
2: It would be bloody ridiculous

On the forums, it may be less of a pain in the &$$, but it's nearly as ridiculous. When you're in a character, it's irrelevant what account it is on, and what other toons are on that account. That information is unneeded and, in many cases, unwanted.

In-game, you have to actively break character in order to, well..., break character. On the forums, there is no choice: The very way the forums functions forces a break of character.Not a terribly big problem, I admit, but also not one that is adequately solved by actively having to point out what character you're currently in.

Also, to stir the water and give everyone a headeche :

Does the accountholder Daftplayer really need to know that the toon ClanFanatic, who killed his toon InfamousOTman, actually is an alt of the toon Fencesitter, a good friend of Daftplayers other toon, LoyalClansMan? And does SmartPlayer, the accountholder of the toons Fencesitter and ClanFanatic really need to know that the toon he fought in the role of ClanFanatic, namely InfamousOTman, was an alt of his other toon's good friend? Is it desirable that this be known? If it's desirable that this be known, should it be dependent on accidental discovery in the forums?

I'd say that the feud between the guilds of InfamousOTman and ClanFanatic is none of FenceSitter's or LoyalClansMan's business, and the world of Rubi-Ka will be better off if they're unaware of each others alt's.

Just taking it all-out in the last two paragraphs

[Demenzia]

(("InfamousOTMan"... LOL!

Actually, I'd bump such a suggestion. It'd be so much more convenient for RP purposes, especially for those of us who use alt chars for creating plots that are then turned into stories on the boards. If I were to craft a little scenario this way (which I don't do right now cause of lack of time, but I'd really like to do something similar someday...), I'd hate posting the actions pf my NPC(s) under the name of Demenzia :/ ))

[assassimon]

I can agree that it would be good on RP forum sometimes, but I really don't think it should be allowed on any other forums and absolutly not on market forums, people would use it to raise their own auctions and cheating other people of money.

[Cz]

Nice suggestion, but would take so much work on our side at this time that I'm not even gonna pitch it at our Operations department. Sorry.

[Zoopeman]

I see very well the potential for abuse here. However, since the purpose of such functionality would be to aid those who wish to keep thir toons separate, it shouldn't be a problem placing restrictions on posting under different aliases in the same thread. That would make it impossible to secretly bid on your own auctions. It would also make it impossible to single-handedly stage a flame-war or wildly enthusiastic support for your own posts.

All the aliases would be linked to a single account, and fully transparent to Funcom. The only addition would be the ability to post under more than one alias, giving each of your toons the ability to post on the boards, free of the history and taint of your other toons. Very handy for those of your toons that just don't like each other

Myself, I have two such toons right now. Let's call them EasyGoingDude and TotalRavingFanatic. They do NOT want to be linked to each other, and they certainly wouldn't get along if they ever met: TRF would kill EGD, and then have a heartattack from the stress! EGD, on the other hand, would much prefer not to be associated with the extreme views of TRF, and, frankly, I don't blame him...

There's little doubt that Funcom has the resources to get the necessary code written to accomodate both the necessary flexibility and block the more serious openings for abuse. The only question is if it's desirable enough for them to bother. I think it is, and I'm very happy that I'm not entirely alone in that

In fact, I notice that my thread now rivals "Bald, small male seeking female companionship" in number of replies, if not views
/me smiles deliriously!

Just saw Cz's repy
/me's smile fades, and a tear starts forming in the corner of an eye
Oh, well...

[____________Fakonamo]

That was the one nice thing about Earth and Beyond. On the Forums, you logged on as your characers not as an account name. You would appear as : Character Name, Level, Class, Galaxy.

[Szentasha]

Just for the record I'd like to say this is a horrible idea. Not that it wouldn't promote roleplaying and other good things, I'm not saying that. There is a problem I have seen in the past where people use anonymous alts in game to harrass one another. I don't want to see that practice brought to a public forum.

*thumbs up to Cz*

[Vixentrox]

Originally posted by Szentasha
Just for the record I'd like to say this is a horrible idea. Not that it wouldn't promote roleplaying and other good things, I'm not saying that. There is a problem I have seen in the past where people use anonymous alts in game to harrass one another. I don't want to see that practice brought to a public forum.

*thumbs up to Cz*

Particularily when one name gets banned only to have another person show sounding VERY much like the person just banned. Look around the threads recently and perhaps you'll see what I mean. Templus...still a cop at heart. *wink*

[Demenzia]

Hmm both stances are worth being held, I admit. Maybe if we could log with several alts, they'd be still inked to one account, with the possibility of banning the whole account in case of abuse - thus the troll/harrasser/whatever couldn't come back with another char anyways? But to be perfectly honest, I don't know how much resource it takes to set up such a thing, so I won't rant about it.

And Cz, thanks for reading and replying

[Zoopeman]

I'd also like to thank Cz for the reply. Of course, given that reply, this debate has no immediate relevance any more.

Even so, I'd like to specify the idea - apparently I've been a bit lax in that department, as some of the posts assume things that is automatically ruled out by the basics of the idea.

I'm not talking about making it possible to have more than one account on this forum, but of the possibility to have more than one alias linked to a single account. In other words, if one of your aliases gets banned, they all get banned, and all activity on an account would be completely transparent to Funcom.

Here's how a simple version would work:
- You log into the "User CP" and click "Edit Profile".
- Where you would today find just one entry for alias, you'll find several, but still a limited number.
- When you write a post, you log into your account, same as today.
- The only change on the "Post Reply" page is a panel of tick boxes for choosing which of your aliases the post should be made under.

And here's some things a more ideal version would include:
- All character names linked to your game account are reserved for your use as aliases in the forum, and made automatically available. That is, no filling in aliases, maybe except for one, to serve as your OOC alias.
- Each alias should have it's individual signature, to be filled out in the "User CP".
- If you start a thread under one alias, you should not be able to reply to the same thread under any other alias. This would be especially important on the market forums.
- Your in game aliases should only be available on the market and roleplaying forums. On the other forums, you should be limited to a single OOC alias.

The simple version could probably reuse existing code, with rather few modifications. Some of the functionality of the "ideal version (all exept the individual signature, actually) would probably require new code, and possibly quite a lot of it. All depending, of course, on the structure of existing code, database and network.

Obviously, Cz is right that this would require work from their part, and unless it's a widely desired functionality, they shouldn't expend resources on it. I'm just airing it to see if there might be others who agree with me that it might be worth it

[______________Cronos]

Ok ok, how about this then, do "/IC XXX" before you post a rp message?

[Zoopeman]

Originally posted by Cronos
Ok ok, how about this then, do "/IC XXX" before you post a rp message?

Darn it, Cronos! You just won't stop being helpful, will you

Again, kudos to your practical approach, but... Ah, jeez, you know I'm trying to talk about something that's not a workaround. You know, a genuinly good and elegant solution to make us all happy

[UwensBack]

Originally posted by Emiliy
While I don't think you should have LIMITLESS toons on the forum, having 2 or 3 would be cool. Very cool.

Of course you'd love it Rad-... er Emmi

[____________Lesentia]

Originally posted by Uwen


Of course you'd love it Rad-... er Emmi

er.. Alam-.... Grob.... Stop confusing me.......