Another look at Marriage

ryanb · 2019-08-27 16:10:27

Marriage has been mentioned here before, but now that we have a goal of a specific number of families to avoid the autocalyps, I think it deserves another look.

Marriage could create a new last name with the combination of the two (JOHNSON-SMITH) and any children born would have this new last name. This would make the family counter go up by one.

There could be a requirement that the two families are at peace and they have lived long enough together to understand their marriage vows (a simple phrase to get married).

This would give the community a way to combat the inevitable losing of families to the rift. I don't think it's overpowered either since you can only have a finite number of different name combinations for a set list of families.

What do you think?

StrongForce · 2019-08-27 17:25:46

This sounds like a nice way to elongate the rift to a good length.
imo 16h is way to short 2-5 days would be nice

Saolin · 2019-08-27 17:39:14

Seems interesting to me!

What would happen when Johnson-Smith tried to marry though? You could create a lot more combinations if that could be done, too many probably.

Guppy · 2019-08-27 17:42:09

Its gonna be Johnson-Smith-Bacon-Troll-Willson-Tree-Rock-whatever-and-so-on real soon

DestinyCall · 2019-08-27 18:36:20

Guppy wrote:

Its gonna be Johnson-Smith-Bacon-Troll-Willson-Tree-Rock-whatever-and-so-on real soon

Mother's maiden name comes first. When hypenated people marry, they only keep the first family name, not the second family name. So Sally Jones-Smith and Frank Bacon-Wilson become Jones-Bacon. And if Mary Jones marries Bob Peace-Troll, they become Jones-Peace. If two people marry with the same maiden name, like Sally Jones-Smith and David Jones-Peace, they would be Jones-Jones (inbreeding!).

If a new family starts with married woman as "Eve" for the new name, it would be easy to split families, but we might also lose some families from die out, if too many young women get married off at an early age. It might also create some weird confusion related to war/peace, since it would be more likely to have same name/different family issues. Should merged families be treated differently from unrelated families? Perhaps you should start off at peace with both original families. It could end up rather vonfusing if there are multiple splinter groups wandering around with the same names.

It would be interesting, tho. i'd like to see it.

Last edited by DestinyCall (2019-08-27 19:10:25)

jasonrohrer · 2019-08-27 20:12:18

Hah, this is an issue dear to my heart. My wife and I didn't want to change names OR hyphenate.

We did something unheard of:

We gave our children no last names at all.

The biggest problem with this is NOT what you think (how will they ever get a library card?). No, the biggest problem is a lack of family identity and cohesion. If people meet my kid by name and then later meet me by name, they don't automatically know he's my kid. We also have nothing to call ourselves. We can't talk about the Bozzlehoffer Family Vacation or the Bozzlehoffer House or any of that.

In retrospect, an elegant solution became clear. Upon marrying, the new family makes a new name together. The father hyphenates his existing last name with that new name, and so does the mother. So, for example, if we picked Ithaca (where we met) for our new family, I'd become:

Jason Rohrer-Ithaca

My wife would become:

Lauren Serafin-Ithaca

And then our kids would be:

Mez Ithaca
Ayza Ithaca
Novy Ithaca

There's be no doubt that we'd belong together (we're the Ithacas), no loss of identity for me or my wife, and---most importantly---no passing a hyphenated mess on to future generations and tasking THEM with the task of picking which name to drop when they marry.

All of this of course ignores the very important role last name has in tracking the movement of Y chromosomes.

Anyway, as you can imagine, in this game, I'd be hesitant about a bunch of hyphenated names running around.

Would the new family speak a new language? Would marriage effectively Eve-ify a woman? Would her kids look different? I guess if there was a big gap in the spectrum (ginger marries black), the baby could be from the skin tone in between (one of the browns or whites).

Beyond just saying "I DO," how is the father involved? And don't even get me started on support for paternity in family trees. It's a royal mess that would even make the mighty Wondible shake in his cubicle.

DestinyCall · 2019-08-27 21:52:26

jasonrohrer wrote:

In retrospect, an elegant solution became clear. Upon marrying, the new family makes a new name together. The father hyphenates his existing last name with that new name, and so does the mother.

I have a crazy thought.

Why not allow this in-game using a similar mechanic to bilateral declarations of peace? Instead of two elders from different families, it requires two adults of opposing genders from each family. Together, they declare "We are Ithaca" and a new family name is created. The woman becomes the "Eve" for a new family line. The man's role is largely symbolic/ancillary, as all men currently are in OHOL.

To mark the marriage was successful, the happy couple gain hyphenated names ... Mary Jones-Ithica and John Peace-Ithica, for example. The married couple remains a part of their current family for purposes of game lineage tracking and other thing (like language and politics - war and peace), but any future off-spring, will gain the new last name and be considered a brand new family. Any children born before the marriage are unaffected by the marriage and keep the old last name. New children gain the new last name and can potentially start a new offshoot. No divorce or remarriage. Someone with a hyphenated name cannot remarry, even if their first spouse dies. One hour, one spouse.

In a perfect world, I'd like the children born to the new family to reflect the parent's skin tone and be bilingual with both parent's families. And if they could START at peace with both families that would be really awesome. This would make marriage a great option for forming peaceful multi-family villages or for bringing together warring villages (star-crossed lovers unite!). You still must overcome the language barrier to exchange vows, but ... love will find a way.

If your villages is dying and you have run out of women, you could leave to find a wife. Together, you could start a new family and have children who would understand your language and carry your new name into the future. If you are born to a village with many families, you could have your pick of eligable bachelors and pretty ladies.

For men, the main advantage of getting married would be the fact that you can pass a name on to children. They are YOUR kids too. It is your family. You can be more than just a friendly uncle or a random unrelated guy. In terms of in-game mechanics, I don't think anything else needs to change. Women still have sky-babies and paternity is not actively tracked in the family tree. But when you marry, it could link your entries together (like murder, but nicer). So going to John's tree indicates that he married Mary and started the Ithica family, with links to both. Going to Mary's tree indictes that she married John and started the Ithica family. Her children from before the marriage show up here, along with any kids from after the marriage. Clicking on a post-marriage child or following the marriage link switches to the Ithica family tree and would show Mary as the start of the Ithica family lineage along any descendents that carried the new name.

....

I realize implimenting all that and adjusting it to work with existing systems would be complex, but I think it is something to consider when you get back from Pax There is a reason why people have been asking for paternity and marriage for so long. It is something that has been missing from OHOL as a family/village/humanity simulation and I think it is a critical value for bringing the game closer to its full potential.

wondible · 2019-08-28 00:32:57

jasonrohrer wrote:

And don't even get me started on support for paternity in family trees. It's a royal mess that would even make the mighty Wondible shake in his cubicle.

I'm pretty sure I've seen at least one family that broke the graph algorithm. Getting everybody related would probably require a distance cutoff, and would break the current lineage id trick for database lookups.

Not that such concerns should be determining whats best for the game.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-08-27 16:10:27

Another look at Marriage

#2 2019-08-27 17:25:46

Re: Another look at Marriage

#3 2019-08-27 17:39:14

Re: Another look at Marriage

#4 2019-08-27 17:42:09

Re: Another look at Marriage

#5 2019-08-27 18:36:20

Re: Another look at Marriage

#6 2019-08-27 20:12:18

Re: Another look at Marriage

#7 2019-08-27 21:52:26

Re: Another look at Marriage

#8 2019-08-28 00:32:57

Re: Another look at Marriage

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