Social features

[Eniko]

After finding out about DOMO and it's social system I've started thinking about whether HJ will have a social system and what it might look like.

Since so many games do this it doesn't seem too unlikely to me that Hero's Journey could have a system through which you can define your relationship to other characters, for instance recording who you're wed to, who your in game family is, things like that.

Personally I like social features like that in principle so long as the mechanics involved don't charge exorbitantly unrealistic prices for no benefit as a money sink. I thought discussing the relative merits and flaws of such a system might make good conversation.

Though I myself would rather not see them, since I have little faith they'll be done in an inclusive sort of way. Generally whenever an MMO has had weddings as a feature same-sex unions aren't allowed. Not that I want to put politicking in peoples' entertainment but it really sucks if everyone can do it but you, and if the feature doesn't exist then you can't be excluded from it. 2

Beyond that I do like the idea since it could give a few interesting benefits to those who choose to use it.

 

[HJ-Dune Walker]

I liked how DragonRealms handled social things. It didn't surgically implant an official "social system", but rather simply allowed players the ability to form their own social networks and groupings. Things were organic, and it worked well for everyone, social or antisocial. There were no menus, no silly toggles or check boxes. I was completely in charge of my personal information all the time.

That said, DragonRealms' wedding system I rather liked, and I attended many weddings in my time, thoroughly enjoying them all. (Half of them I wasn't invited to, but we all had fun anyways.) And you know what? I never knew who was married to who until they told me. Heck, I didn't know even if someone was married at all. Of course, if I met a wandering ranger and she was wearing a wedding ring, I automatically figured she was married. And then, of course, I would have to actually ask her who she was married to if I wanted to find out. To me, however, this made perfect sense, because that's how social interactions work in real life.

Families, clans, guilds, and orders all kept tabs on their members and had lists who of belonged to what group, but you couldn't just magically know that some barbarian down the road whom you've never seen before belonged to a local militia. You'd have to actually learn something about that barbarian by talking to people. You had to interact and actually take part socially.

Maybe you happened to know the militia leader and he mentioned the barbarian in idle chat, remarking on some recent exploit of his. You'd say, hey, I've seen that fellow around town! I own two of his warhammers! I didn't know he was in the militia! It has a much more lasting and immersive effect on a player than just looking at a generic tab on the User Interface which lamely lists their militia name.

~Dune~