Well I was brainstorming this morning on features that would differentiate between characters and I was inspired by Fallout (2 in particular). My character had earned reputation as a Savior of the Damned, Prizefighter, Gigolo, and Porn Star. Those were reputations that would stick with my character and affect certain interactions with other NPCs within the game. Then I started thinking about this in relation to an Online RPG, and my design doc in particular. I''m thinking that reputations (permanent and semi-permanent) might add flavor and interest in an online community. These would be gained mostly from quests and then on a more limited scale from common actions. Example: You do a quest for a Priest to destroythe local horde of NPC Vampires. On completion of this quest you gain a permanent Reputation as a Vampire Hunter. Now this may seem only a title except that Vampires are a playable Race in the Game. Although the Vampire Hunter isn''t thinking about attacking every Vampire he sees, this reputation would be visible to everyone. Players playing Vampire Characters might feel inclined to attack this player just on reputation alone. There would be many different reputations. I see this as affecting Player interactions. Guilds/Clans/whatever could be based around reputations. Guild wars and the like could stem from people with opposing views and or reputations. I''m thinking that this is one way that I could add depth of character to the world. With it Players might find it easier to immerse themselves in the Character they''re playing. Comments, Critics, suggestions on this? Ideas why this is or isn''t a good idea to consider? I haven''t thought it through all the way yet so there''s probably a lot that could be added to this.

I like the idea. If you have a lot of titles you may want to break your titles it down in to classes so you don''t get something like
Joe the Vampier Killer, Imp Slayer, Orc Basher, etc......

Maybe after like two or three titles in a clase you could something like
Joe the Deamon Killer

If you kill everything that comes across your path
Joe the Omni Exterminator

It would also be cool to have levels,
Vampire Killer
Vampire Slayer
Vampier Exterminator
...

Kars

sounds interesting, now all you have to do is build a comprehensive system out of it.

how about a three-dimensional model, something like a sphere, where the different factions/whatever are spread out on the surface, the player´s reputation is a point inside the sphere (I know that a circular model would be simpler, but I don´t think that you can fit all the info you need there - you might want to have a look at Propp´s narrative circle...).

The beauty of MMORPG is that reputation need not be hard-coded into the system. People will gain rep all by themselves, as long as there is something that they can do to distinguish themselves from the herd. That means that there have to be opportunities for excellence in many directions. It''s hard to build a reputation around being a mighty slayer of monsters when everybody else is trying to do the same thing...

On the other hand, if you give people a wide world to explore and allow them to name one terrain feature after themselves, people will go looking for the grandest mountain, deepest cave, or widest river so that they can stick their name on it.

Give people a wide variety of spells, sorceries, and associated magick tricks, and there will be those racing to discover a new one so that they can name it.

Give people a wide variety of things to eat, and there will be those who prove their might by eating only the most tremendous portions.

Give people a tremendous selection of weapons to wield, and not just in terms of strict progression (that is, nobody wields a Sword once they can wield a Greatsword because the latter is just better), and some will set out to master the weirdest implement of destruction they can find ("I am Gil den Zahir, and this is my feared Folding Chair of War!").

Give people a wide variety of clothing, armor, and accoutrements, and they''ll develop their own unique style... or create uniforms to show solidarity. Let them craft their own personal sigils and patches, and watch ''em innovate.

Or is this not the kind of thing you were talking about? Do you instead refer to factional alignment, or simple quest-based titles? I don''t like either much. Any faction of players stupid enough to allow the same slayer to jump them time and time again doesn''t deserve to be forewarned by a big sign on his forehead: "WARNING I Kill Vampires". And as for quest based: "Hey, I''m an Exterminator! I''m cool!" "Yeah, join the club. We all did that quest months ago." Bleah.

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-SpittingTrashcan

You can''t have "civilization" without "civil".

I don''t like the idea of one quest giving titles. What would be interesting would be to actually do some statistical analysis on the player''s actions to determine reputations. If they killed vampires in a larger portion than anything else, or took mostly vampire hunter quests, then I''d label them vampire hunter. If a blacksmith consistently resmelted/destroyed everything but his best work, label him a perfectionist. If a person kills mostly magical enemies, call him a witchhunter. If a person constantly attacked magical enemies on sight, no matter the situation, call him a witchhunter/fanatic. If the player constantly runs from attacks(from monsters that are roughly his experience level), call him a coward.

The titles are really only limited by the qualities that you can figure out a heuristic for measuring.

And I wouldn''t have the titles last forever, unless this character is still doing the activities that got him the reputation to begin with. I''d have the reputations stay current by weighting recent actions more heavily than older actions.

Thanks for the comments and critisism, helps me develope my ideas. I was thinking about it and realized that I really don''t want titles to be given from just going out and killing everything in sight or killing certain creatures. Let''s face it, in an MMORPG attention is more focused on killing, and questing then on story. So if I handed out titles for killing common creatures all effect would quickly be lost. I was leaning towards branching quest trees steming from a Character with no Reputation. Most quests wouldn''t any title at, instead they would be developing the Character or Rewarding the Player in some way. Quests, when completed, would open the way for other quests that are vaguely similar too it. At the same time their completion might close the door to other quests that are so far removed from it that it seems rediculous (example of what I''m trying to avoid: Quest to help an usurper take power from the current leader, then take a Quest to help the overthrown leader take back what he lost. Like the overthrown is going to trust you right off the bat and put his life in your hands). Now perhaps some of the branching quests might lead back to previously locked branches but the quests taken would have to be curving your Characters reputation to head in a different direction.

Now when you have completed certain number of highly similar specific quests, a Reputation would be given. This Reputation would lock down completely quest that are contrary to your character''s reputation. The reputation would also affect NPC reaction and interaction with your character. Some who has no special Reputation will be treated differently then someone who is extremely famous, these NPC reactions will be a bit more difficult then trying to get them to react to the custom symbols and designs of players (although I like those ideas as well, they''re going on my wish list).

The main reason I want Reputations is conflict. I Beta tested Shattered Galaxy for several Phases and love the faction fighting. The fact that everyone in a the faction was united in the annilation (not permanent) of the other. I''d like to give players similar options in an Online RPG. They wouldn''t have to do this but I''d like them to have the choice. It''s something else to hold on to within a Guild/Clan/Whatever.

As for Reputations being premanent the jury is still out on that. Even though a Player may change his habits to no longer reflect the Reputation, I feel there should still be consequences to things they used to do (in RL if someone robs a bank or commits fraud but later changes his life to where he doesn''t have any desire to, he still has to live with the consequences of his past actions).

The statistical analysis idea would be pretty good too except that I see that taking a lot of overhead. If I store that on the Client machine it can be tampered with, if I store it on a server then I''d be using a lot of my own resources that might end up being wasted space.

Like I said I really appreciate the posts so far, keep em coming if you like.

I agree with SpittingTrashcan, in theory. It does not always work so well because they communities are too large and lack focus (unless you are part of a well run guild). Anarchy Online split it up into Rebel and Omni-Tek, but there wasn''t really anything you can do to effect the conflict. If there were a lot of diverse groups you can join and effect the world, then reputation will be automatic. If not for individuals, than at least for guilds.

I still think it would be cool to have craftsmen able to mark their wares, so buyers know who made it. It wouldnt be too difficult technically. Just throw on a few extra bytes. I mean, 4 bytes would accomindate ID among 4.2(etc)billion players.

Anyway, I think we should be discussing how to allow more freedom, rather than how to hard-code more stuff. If players could make a difference, I think tighter groups would form by themselves.

Phriction