Suggestion: Friends

CatX · 2019-06-18 11:52:49

What if I could type the following in game:

/friend Anna Jones

And Anna did the same for me.

And what if instead of the description "no relation" when inspecting Anna, I could see "friend" and my children could see: "Mother's friend."
Further out in the tree: "Mother's friend's second cousin."

Maybe Anna could now be treated as family by the game engine, so that she could curse me and I could curse her, but we couldn't use war swords on each other. Perhaps this setting could even be inherited by close family?

And since the family tree links to photos, could we also get a list of our friends?

And perhaps the same mechanism could be used to /marry someone?

futurebird · 2019-06-18 12:26:33

I like the friend idea, though a better name might be /truce. Something like you can form a truce with another person. If 3 people in two families make truces then the family names become aligned. If there are no murders for a generation it becomes permanent.

There isn't any way to make a peace with other families, to build the same kind of (imperfect) trust you have with your kids.

I know Jason thinks a lot about how to make people care about their family, but the current system of having people you can curse and won't probably get cursed for killing is all negative incentive.

Heck, what if your FAMILY could fall apart if there are murders? If too many smiths murder each other you are no longer a family and war swords work, curses don't.

That might address something I've done that lots of people do that's always bothered me: ask some one to kill you just for fun (like when the whole town is empty or if I just need to go to work and stop playing I'm like "hey wanna kill me, don't get mad at her I'm asking her to")

What if killing your own family could add up to you not really existing as a family anymore?

The protection and control through war swords and curses that we have for our families isn't a choice in the game. So, in some ways I think it's less powerful than the simple at of your mother, another player, feeding you and caring for you even though she doesn't have to do that (and might not even want to!) But, why can't I kill my mother with a sword? how was that protection and deep sense of taboo earned?

Another idea would be to tie curses to having been around a person for some amount of time. You can curse the people who live with you and who are around you... people who stay away too long no longer will be impacted by your curse, they will lose the deep feeling that makes use the war sword impossible.

I'm still thinking about this. I'm thinking about my neighbors here in NYC. What keeps the peace between us? Most people might say "the cops" but I live in a part of town where no one likes police but it's still very safe and people just help each other. Mostly, because we live with each other I care what my neighbors think of me. They could "curse" me, when they are hurt it makes me feel like I've been hurt. Something something social contract? How do you make one?

Joseph Stalin · 2019-06-18 14:17:58

maybe there shouldn't be a formal gamey thing?
it seems hard even typing this but there should at least be a way for families to merge, as simple as one family naming all the girls of another and them actually joining the other family instead of just by name, that seems easy in my eyes
but beyond that maybe it should just be us trusting each other, not some magic

CatX · 2019-06-18 14:29:01

Joseph Stalin wrote:

but beyond that maybe it should just be us trusting each other, not some magic

That could work but I'm fairly sure the war sword and cursing would need to not single out strangers first.

Starknight_One · 2019-06-18 23:13:16

futurebird wrote:

I like the friend idea, though a better name might be /truce. Something like you can form a truce with another person. If 3 people in two families make truces then the family names become aligned. If there are no murders for a generation it becomes permanent.
There isn't any way to make a peace with other families, to build the same kind of (imperfect) trust you have with your kids.
I know Jason thinks a lot about how to make people care about their family, but the current system of having people you can curse and won't probably get cursed for killing is all negative incentive.
Heck, what if your FAMILY could fall apart if there are murders? If too many smiths murder each other you are no longer a family and war swords work, curses don't.
That might address something I've done that lots of people do that's always bothered me: ask some one to kill you just for fun (like when the whole town is empty or if I just need to go to work and stop playing I'm like "hey wanna kill me, don't get mad at her I'm asking her to")
What if killing your own family could add up to you not really existing as a family anymore?
The protection and control through war swords and curses that we have for our families isn't a choice in the game. So, in some ways I think it's less powerful than the simple at of your mother, another player, feeding you and caring for you even though she doesn't have to do that (and might not even want to!) But, why can't I kill my mother with a sword? how was that protection and deep sense of taboo earned?
Another idea would be to tie curses to having been around a person for some amount of time. You can curse the people who live with you and who are around you... people who stay away too long no longer will be impacted by your curse, they will lose the deep feeling that makes use the war sword impossible.
I'm still thinking about this. I'm thinking about my neighbors here in NYC. What keeps the peace between us? Most people might say "the cops" but I live in a part of town where no one likes police but it's still very safe and people just help each other. Mostly, because we live with each other I care what my neighbors think of me. They could "curse" me, when they are hurt it makes me feel like I've been hurt. Something something social contract? How do you make one?

I've been thinking about this... in general, on ways to gamify social interaction. There's lots of little social interactions that go on, every day, in the real world that we just don't have time for in OHOL. (Mainly because our characters live a half-million times faster than we do...) Having some game-mechanical method to simulate those little social interactions would, I think, help to get past that part of the game.

For example, what if, instead of 1 curse token, we received Social Tokens - say, one per 15 minutes of age your characters reach. (Yes, Eves get a point for surviving one minute. It's a perk.) These would cap out at 8 tokens, and would be used for various things - including cursing other players. There would also be 5 more Social Tokens that could be earned by being given an accolade by another player ('high-fiving', see below). This gives a maximum total of 13 at a time... and most things cost multiple tokens.

Current things I have in mind that you could do with them:

Curse other players (replaces curse token). Costs 7 SP for family members, 13 for outsiders. Justification: your family knows you better, and would thus be able to curse you more easily. This also counts as a /dislike for that player. (Yes, if your points are maxed and you earn another, you could conceivably curse two family members in one life. I don't see this as game-breaking.)

Grant an accolade to another player (for whatever reason). Costs 5 SP. Type /highfive <NAME>; the player gains a Social Point (if they have fewer than 5 accolade SP already). This also counts as a /like for that player.

Like or dislike another player. Costs 1 SP. The player gains or loses a reputation point with you. Reputation would be displayed in the info panel, by the name of the other player. You can like/dislike (and by extension, high-five/curse) another player once per life. Attempting to use the command a second time will result in no action being taken.

Join or leave a family. Costs 10 SP. You either become a member of X family (/join Smith, for example) or leave your own to start a new line (/renounce Jones). This will sever the tie to your former family, and change your last name to 'Jones' (your first name remains unchanged; if you have no first name, you will be named Eva [if female] or Adam [if male]). Your former family is no longer considered to be related to you, thus you can use warswords on them - and they on you.

Marriage. Similar to above, but takes two people (gender not important). Costs 6 SP for each player involved. Type /marry <NAME> within 10 seconds of each other to complete the ceremony. Both families are now related; warswords won't work on each other anymore. The info panel would display '-in-law' (i.e., your husbands sister would show as your 'sister-in-law').

I don't know that we'd need a divorce possibility, but it could be in there as well. If so, it would sever the connection between families.

@Joseph Stalin: I think we *do* need a formal gamey-thing, as you put it. Jason wants us to care about our families, but it's hard when you don't know if your new daughter is the griefer that got killed not too long ago. Being able to look at what reputation a 'soul' has with you could help. Of course, it could just wind up with people stabbing people they've /disliked, as well...

Don't think of it as magic. Think of it as an abstraction of the social cues we pick up on and pass along every day in real life, that we don't have in-game because we can't make a game as detailed as real life.

futurebird · 2019-06-18 23:42:20

I think there is something to the idea that a family is somthing that you have to *join* rather than just being automatic. It's always seemed odd to me that I can curse and use the sword with people with my last name who live in another town who I don't know about existing or care about but the 2nd family in my home town whose mother helped nurse me, who talked to my mom... whose name I know isn't "in my family" due to the technical way that names work.

No matter how long two families live in the same town in peace, they are still deeply separated by game mechanics but your bloodline on the other side of the map playing psudo-eve *is* connected. That feels off to me.

Working together, sharing, caring for each other's kids, dressing those kids, all of that would count for something in the real world.

As would being absent, not helping, etc lead to a possible rift.

At least we can learn languages. THAT feels very natural and correct.

Maybe the curse system and swords should be tied to languages?

CatX · 2019-06-19 10:37:54

futurebird wrote:

Maybe the curse system and swords should be tied to languages?

This could be interesting. Separating the game mechanics from the family tree and having a "sphere of known individuals" instead, based on how often you have been exposed to their presence.

The information given in the game display could be for example:
"Nina Johnson, mother, friend"
"Pery Hill, unknown, friend"
"Sal Johnson, cousin, stranger"

The sphere of strangers could have the war sword/no curse mechanics, the friends the normal mechanics.

It would make it possible for a griefer to leave the family, stay away for let's say thirty years, and return with the intention to kill... But it would feel more natural perhaps.

ollj · 2019-06-19 12:55:03

general tip, while younger than three years, you should always try to bond with babies the same age as you via:
- whistling
- paying around with your clothing
- right klicking the other tile wrestling
and most importantly
- repediately write the name of other people (and know your own name)
- - this is critical for attention and memory, so you know and find your partner quickly.

the last part is critical, you must repediately call the name of one other person, the same age as you, from birth on.

it also helps if you try to wear the same color dresses, or just anything slightly more unique, so you can find each other in crowdts.

this has fun benefits:
- A lot of professions are more efficient and more fun in cooperation.
- - Especially hot-froe-on-azde-on-buttlog orgies in jungles, where you mass produce carts and kindling in a team of two or three.
- - hunting is also more efficient in a team of two, when only one has a cart to reap the fur and meat.
- - one person may chose to bring food, only one person may have and need a cart.

you quuickly get fun cosenames to items and people. "i got froe" becomes "i got the sex toy"

this often ends in roleplaying marriages, disregarding gender this is always hillarious.
this often ends up in a tragic death sequence, the happies version is, when you know youre both roughly 55 years old, you must meet at the central campfire and ask for:
- [name] lets get nude in the jungle [direction] for a final banana orgy.
- lets get nude in the bananas [direction]
and then you just spend the last four years running off into a FAR away place, full of chopped trees and bananas, in the nude (all clothes left at the campfire) and die together, far away from the city center.

https://imgur.com/a/Qd40wp9
https://imgur.com/a/Zl8EyZX

Last edited by ollj (2019-06-19 14:16:53)

ollj · 2019-06-20 16:39:52

upoloading 2,5 mb of the war raid of the finas, from almost a week ago, that went downaards along the black line of our maps, and captured the town that i now call "fina library", which seems to be the first town to have build a radio transmitter, and also roads to six nearby towns.

karltown_veteran · 2019-06-20 20:13:13

CatX wrote:

What if I could type the following in game:
/friend Anna Jones
And Anna did the same for me.
And what if instead of the description "no relation" when inspecting Anna, I could see "friend" and my children could see: "Mother's friend."
Further out in the tree: "Mother's friend's second cousin."
Maybe Anna could now be treated as family by the game engine, so that she could curse me and I could curse her, but we couldn't use war swords on each other. Perhaps this setting could even be inherited by close family?
And since the family tree links to photos, could we also get a list of our friends?
And perhaps the same mechanism could be used to /marry someone?

"Anna Jones be my /friend"
"No, you smell"

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-06-18 11:52:49

Suggestion: Friends

#2 2019-06-18 12:26:33

Re: Suggestion: Friends

#3 2019-06-18 14:17:58

Re: Suggestion: Friends

#4 2019-06-18 14:29:01

Re: Suggestion: Friends

#5 2019-06-18 23:13:16

Re: Suggestion: Friends

#6 2019-06-18 23:42:20

Re: Suggestion: Friends

#7 2019-06-19 10:37:54

Re: Suggestion: Friends

#8 2019-06-19 12:55:03

Re: Suggestion: Friends

#9 2019-06-20 16:39:52

Re: Suggestion: Friends

#10 2019-06-20 20:13:13

Re: Suggestion: Friends

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