Spark Society

[Just A Bill]

Is the origional name retained anywhere after you rename a character? Is the origional name ever used in place of the current name? If not, It really doesn't matter what the initial name is. If a name is random name is assigned, all that is really doing is giving you the last name of at least one person in town. The same newspawn could simply wait till a name is spoken and switch the last name to that one before anouncing his name...

[Kreed]

Actually I think that is a great idea Just a bill. It seems at the moment that people taking other peoples names is almost an unspoken taboo.
Ok a hypothetical...
With the namecentric suggestion youd have people changing their name to the local leaders name or the richest trader, and there would be an easier way in most cases than Just a Bills suggestion...just look at the local law notes or citizen list and bingo I'm Jack Townleader.
I think that sounds bad but it would actually be a good thing, heres why;
1 Your family name has weight if people want to share it.
2 Just because you are related doesnt mean that they have dibs on the family silver. There is always room for poor relations.
3 Jack Townleader spawns announces his name and is told by his relatives, our family tradition is to support the family, heres a bunch of carrots and a stick go gather 5 kilos of hemetite to prove your loyalty to the family.

As the namecentric idea is a dead one I suggest changing the new character screen so that instead of advising people to choose a first name and a last name it instead recommends only picking a first name. Then have it go on a little to suggest waiting to spawn to pick the second. Activly suggest taking a present name with ideas such as;
take the name of the first person you meet
take the name of the person who is nicest/meanest to you
take the name of the place you spawn
make up a name using local materials as a reference point.

I know a lot of people will hate the idea purely on a meterialistic viewpoint. I say empower people to be able do this by suggesting it right at the start and we'll have more family, community and more group collaboration. which is after all what many of the refinements to the trade aspect of the game are all about.

[Mafia Salad]

Work your ideas into the game through the way you play. I agree that character individualism is a big part of the game, for better or for worse. I would say that this is because post modern subjectivism and Western individualism are the biggest OOC influences on the way IG society works. Those together with the way so very many players want to create unique, uncooperative and/or powerful characters from the get go (myself included) are what prevent large governments from forming. I started writing a article for the webzine about this, but I didn't finish it over break and now that school is starting up again I don't think I will any time soon. (I'll be leaving the forums again after today, for another couple months, so I can focus on my schoolwork.)

Well now that I ran off on my tangent I'll get back to my point. This is something that can be dealt with in game, but like in RL, it will take time to change the world. The more characters working toward unification and community building the better the chances are that large communities (multi-city) will form.

Who says you need to know that a newspawn is your descendant to take them into your family.

A man in his twenties says: “Hi I’m Bill, I don‘t get it, how do I play?”
You say: “Oh Billy! Come to Mama. *She runs up and hugs Bill* I’ll take care of you and show you what to do. Billy Myname, I will take care of you because you're my own.”

(Over-the-top example, but even that might work)

It would make some people rant here on the forums about OOC family ideas being introduced into Cantr the first few times you do it, but that will wear off after a few more spawns when you have yourself a thriving dysfunctional family. (And who knows, if it works well, maybe other families trying to beat you to the next newspawn)