Universal Banking
OK ... I know this idea is controversial and not at all supportive to role-play but I think it is worth discussion as there are many pros and cons.
In a nutshell, the idea would be to allow each character on a person's account complete access to all of their other characters money and equipment inventories, bags and banks. How this is accomplished really makes no difference but the game that allows this will set a trend in gaming I think.
Rationale? Nothing important really. Only that gear-swapping has always happened, is happening now, and will always happen regardless of what game authors attempt to do to thwart it. It would seem that the code overhead to keep it from happening is less efficient than allowing it because it can not be stopped in any case.
Perhaps a static character called a "Custodian" resides in my character lineup. I can log into an interface that simply moves gear around without unequipping or equipping any characters or moving no-drop stuff.
Perhaps a common "bag" that sits in the bank is all that is needed although I would like to see the ability to move credits from one character to another as well.
Let's face reality though. People that have been playing for the last 6 months probably have one or two characters of respectable level. Perhaps they want to build another one and group with a real life friend or guild-mate now and then. They are going to pass gear from one character to another anyway so just make it available as a part of the game.
I know some people are gonna scream "twink" at me and I'd expect that. I role-play a little but when I want to test a character from 1 to 20, I don't think 10K and a set of worn metaplast (QL 1 to 5) is twinking either. Think what you like though. If you don't like to twink then don't do it. The enhancement I am suggesting has no effect on whether someone twinks or not ... and it doesn't promote it either. It just makes what is going to happen anyway, available.
Mull it over, keep the flame down for a change (LOL) and objectively toss some feedback out here. Who knows? This could set the tone for many games...
Bearsoul
