I agree with Seko and Piscator's sensible suggestions buried under the rubbish a page or so back. One box, seen by all. While I still like my original suggestion, I recognize that it is fairly complicated, and probably not worth the effort involved to implement. Catpur's suggestion isn't bad, but I do agree it is unnecessarily limiting and would lead to menu clutter (although having your charrie's description in multiple languages would also lead to a cluttered display).
I haven't received any input from the GAB (or Jos) on this yet, other than Piscator.
Custom Descriptions
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Doug R.
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Ruby
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Self-descriptions
I'm sure this was brought up before, but I believe it warrants being mentioned again.
We have plenty of fields to change descriptions of other characters, but why don't we have a field that we could use to describe ourselves? Something where we can write physical descriptions and that people could see upon examining us along with what we are holding and carrying.
Something where I could write...
"Has long black hair, and a freckle on her left cheek"
It certainly would come in handy in instances where people are roleplaying distinguishing marks or features. I know I've come across characters being played without limbs.
Sure the player could mention it in his speech when introducing himself, but they then have to restate it everytime someone leaves a building or arrives in town and that is a bit tedious, imo.
We have plenty of fields to change descriptions of other characters, but why don't we have a field that we could use to describe ourselves? Something where we can write physical descriptions and that people could see upon examining us along with what we are holding and carrying.
Something where I could write...
"Has long black hair, and a freckle on her left cheek"
It certainly would come in handy in instances where people are roleplaying distinguishing marks or features. I know I've come across characters being played without limbs.
Sure the player could mention it in his speech when introducing himself, but they then have to restate it everytime someone leaves a building or arrives in town and that is a bit tedious, imo.
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catpurr
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Ruby
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Are those really cons though?
I mean it's not like the polish can see if I have a scar the way Cantr is set up now either, while I can keep going on RPing I have a scar using asterisks.
The same thing goes with the clothes. I could spawn saying...
"*she straightens her t-shirt and tilts her baseball cap to the side*"
...but no one is going to take me at all seriously. I could however use the descriptive field to point out that the clothes I am wearing are very tattered. Maybe after I was brutally attacked by animals while I was traveling alone.
As I said whatever could be read or seen in the field is nothing that couldn't be expressed in asterisks without the description box, but the field will allow people to quickly see these features when arriving in a new area.
I mean it's not like the polish can see if I have a scar the way Cantr is set up now either, while I can keep going on RPing I have a scar using asterisks.
The same thing goes with the clothes. I could spawn saying...
"*she straightens her t-shirt and tilts her baseball cap to the side*"
...but no one is going to take me at all seriously. I could however use the descriptive field to point out that the clothes I am wearing are very tattered. Maybe after I was brutally attacked by animals while I was traveling alone.
As I said whatever could be read or seen in the field is nothing that couldn't be expressed in asterisks without the description box, but the field will allow people to quickly see these features when arriving in a new area.
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Dudel
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The issue with languages was one language being able to identify the other without characters "hearing" said language.
If a character's description is written in Polish/Dutch/whatever but the guy talks in plain English/Russian/Swedish/etc, it MIGHT bring down IC racism that wouldn't have happened otherwise.
"Characters shouldn't be able to tell one anothers race by looking at them" (Is the first common NO reason and the most retarded as that is reflective IRL more then the others.)
The second common NO reason is it would be difficult to monitor and/or cause more work for PD, etc then is needed. Business suit via RP is easy to pick out and report, not so much via description that not everyone would read anyway.
There is also a third of people wanting an RP purist environment and allowing any "tom dick or harry" to write as he pleased would shatter their little make believe world and cause an aneurysm or two.
If a character's description is written in Polish/Dutch/whatever but the guy talks in plain English/Russian/Swedish/etc, it MIGHT bring down IC racism that wouldn't have happened otherwise.
"Characters shouldn't be able to tell one anothers race by looking at them" (Is the first common NO reason and the most retarded as that is reflective IRL more then the others.)
The second common NO reason is it would be difficult to monitor and/or cause more work for PD, etc then is needed. Business suit via RP is easy to pick out and report, not so much via description that not everyone would read anyway.
There is also a third of people wanting an RP purist environment and allowing any "tom dick or harry" to write as he pleased would shatter their little make believe world and cause an aneurysm or two.
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Ruby
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Alright I think I better understand the first point about the languages, although I'm not so sure it's a huge problem or how much "racism" would evolve from it, but who am I to say it won't.
As a purist you could make the argument that people from other language lands shouldn't be able to speak the new language without going through a period of learning it just because they know the language OOC. At this point there really would be anything keeping the player from writing the description in both languages would there?
The second reason I still don't understand. If no one reads the description than it really isn't effecting anything, although I would hope people would take the time to read a description on what people look like before interacting with them. I know I look at what someone is wearing/carrying before talking to them.
Again I don't see what the problem with the field on the character page is. It's a text field no different than the one I can use to speak with and just about everyone uses asterisks to describe distinguishing features on themselves. I don't really see any need for the PD to have the monitor the fields or anything ridiculous like that. If someone is going to abuse the description field with absurdity they could just as easily abuse it now using asterisks.
As a purist you could make the argument that people from other language lands shouldn't be able to speak the new language without going through a period of learning it just because they know the language OOC. At this point there really would be anything keeping the player from writing the description in both languages would there?
The second reason I still don't understand. If no one reads the description than it really isn't effecting anything, although I would hope people would take the time to read a description on what people look like before interacting with them. I know I look at what someone is wearing/carrying before talking to them.
Again I don't see what the problem with the field on the character page is. It's a text field no different than the one I can use to speak with and just about everyone uses asterisks to describe distinguishing features on themselves. I don't really see any need for the PD to have the monitor the fields or anything ridiculous like that. If someone is going to abuse the description field with absurdity they could just as easily abuse it now using asterisks.
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Dudel
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Ruby
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Piscator
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It was on page 2. 
http://forum.cantr.org/viewtopic.php?t=18301&start=0
To wrap it up, the idea was to allow a free form description that can be changed any time (thus giving your char the option to hide their language identity by erasing the content) and sending a report to PD about the changes, so that abusive behavior is documented.
http://forum.cantr.org/viewtopic.php?t=18301&start=0
To wrap it up, the idea was to allow a free form description that can be changed any time (thus giving your char the option to hide their language identity by erasing the content) and sending a report to PD about the changes, so that abusive behavior is documented.
Pretty in pink.
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catpurr
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Rob Maule
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To me, the biggest problem is the suggestion itself. It allows people to write whatever they want. As much as it could be a good thing, people will inevitably abuse it.
The language issue had been discussed a lot. At one time, you almost never saw someone speaking another language. Now, it's commonplace. If you had a self-written description, you could automatically pick out foreigners. Also, you may not even know what it said, defeating the purpose.
My biggest qualm is people putting in things that aren't supposed to be there. I just started in FTO, and I've seen a character that listed their name, their mate's name, and how they generally act. It's only supposed to be a physical description. Everything else is supposed to be discovered through interaction.
I would suggest, instead, a system that allows you to choose your looks with drop-down menus, maybe within a couple days of creation. The options could be expanded by request. Scars, missing limbs, etc. would be created by damage. Hair length could be lengthened or shortened periodically. If you met someone that spoke a language, you'd get a nicely translated description. For someone that didn't want to be restricted like that, they could just choose to not complete the creation and play their character like they would now, revealing their description through emotes.
The language issue had been discussed a lot. At one time, you almost never saw someone speaking another language. Now, it's commonplace. If you had a self-written description, you could automatically pick out foreigners. Also, you may not even know what it said, defeating the purpose.
My biggest qualm is people putting in things that aren't supposed to be there. I just started in FTO, and I've seen a character that listed their name, their mate's name, and how they generally act. It's only supposed to be a physical description. Everything else is supposed to be discovered through interaction.
I would suggest, instead, a system that allows you to choose your looks with drop-down menus, maybe within a couple days of creation. The options could be expanded by request. Scars, missing limbs, etc. would be created by damage. Hair length could be lengthened or shortened periodically. If you met someone that spoke a language, you'd get a nicely translated description. For someone that didn't want to be restricted like that, they could just choose to not complete the creation and play their character like they would now, revealing their description through emotes.
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Rob Maule
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Ruby
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I rather like your solution, Rob, as it addresses the major crust of what I want, although it is still very much limited. The drop-down menus would never be complete enough to contain the imaginations of the player-base. You could have (Blue, Brown, Green, Hazel) eyes. And then someone will say "Well I want Black eyes" so we have (Blue, Brown, Green, Hazel, Black) eyes. And then someone says "Well I want fiery red eyes". So we keep updating and changing the fields, which I'm sure doesn't require a whole lot of work even though I would never want to do it, but in the end someone who gets their idea implemented because they want to describe their character in a unique way now has hundreds of clones around Cantr because someone else thought it would be cool to make their character look that way.
An open text field lets you eliminate that problem by allowing you to choose your own words to describe your character.
I feel like I am repeating myself, but I also feel like I may not be clarifying my point well enough so I'll try one more time.
I'm still not sure how you could possibly say this system could be abused when the things you are calling abuse can already be done without the field. If I emote...
*she smiles as she stares up at the sky*
No one not speaking English would know what I am doing or how I am acting. Similarly if I go to the Polish lands and say the exact same thing. Everyone is going to know I am an English player even though I haven't said any "words" to convey that fact.
In the end I guess it boils down to I just wish we were all better RPers to be able to distinguish information from knowledge. Just because a description field says that the character has a scar on her left butt cheek doesn't mean other characters have to notice. If a description field describes a person's whole life story I hope we are mature enough as players to ignore the knowledge gained from that field just as we would have to ignore knowledge accidentally gained from posts on this forum or the IRC channel.
An open text field lets you eliminate that problem by allowing you to choose your own words to describe your character.
I feel like I am repeating myself, but I also feel like I may not be clarifying my point well enough so I'll try one more time.
I'm still not sure how you could possibly say this system could be abused when the things you are calling abuse can already be done without the field. If I emote...
*she smiles as she stares up at the sky*
No one not speaking English would know what I am doing or how I am acting. Similarly if I go to the Polish lands and say the exact same thing. Everyone is going to know I am an English player even though I haven't said any "words" to convey that fact.
In the end I guess it boils down to I just wish we were all better RPers to be able to distinguish information from knowledge. Just because a description field says that the character has a scar on her left butt cheek doesn't mean other characters have to notice. If a description field describes a person's whole life story I hope we are mature enough as players to ignore the knowledge gained from that field just as we would have to ignore knowledge accidentally gained from posts on this forum or the IRC channel.
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Snake_byte
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Seriously though I love it!
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Piscator
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The multiple choice system has been proposed before and I honestly don't like it at all. It heavily restricts your options to express your imagination to avoid a problem that isn't really one. Of course there will be abuse, but there's no fundamental difference between an emote and a free-form description. If someone mis- or abuses the description, he will likely do the same via notes, emotes or talking. Changes in self-descriptions are proposed to be monitored and after the initial phase it won't take more than a minute a day to check for abusive or CRB-ish content.
Pretty in pink.
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