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What Does Your Character Do When You Log Out?
AlBQuirky
Member EpicPosts: 7,432
Do they hang out in an inn or tavern? Maybe spend time in their own home?
Do they camp in the wilderness? Maybe near a dungeon?
Do they spend time in a library seeking knowledge and lore?
What does you character when you log out?
Do you care?
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Comments
In FFXIV...
She sleeps.
It disappears like a fart in the wind.
No, I don't care.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
They are immediately stricken deaf, dumb, blind, and insensate. Then slowly they begin to become transparent and vanish. This odd phenomenon somehow also stops aging and magical buff decline.
But for seriously. I really only thought about it in EVE, that they hop out of their ship, do the countless calibration and repairs that must happen behind the scenes. Go have a few drinks, find a whore, or drug den. Then somehow magically end up exactly where I left off with them when I log back on.
Some of my characters were scoundrels, and I never wanted to know.
Alas, they have all "left the room".
Once upon a time....
You're kind of asking a question few games provide even an ounce of gesture towards.
The occasional one that lets the character sell stuff as a vendor or accrues you some skill points over time while logged out still leaves a large gap to be filled for one to develop the notion that your avatar has any form of life.
It's a nice concept to hint at though. One that would be pleasant to see eventually implemented into MMOs and virtual worlds. An almost sims-like presentation of being able to define your avatar's personality, behaviors, and habits so that when you log off, they stay there and continue to act autonomously with the world according to a procedural schedule they generate off what you defined for them.
It's an element that at face value is entire superfluous. You can't play the game, so why does your avatar have to even be there? Well there's a few gameplay reasons.
1) Mobile gaming. Being able to check up on the progress of your character, read their journal history, and egg them to do certain activities while you're on a quick break at work, on the toilet, or about to watch a movie means you can be doing things indirectly and continuing to interact with the game.
2) Persistence. You log out, your character can still go on an adventure as a hired hand for a mission or as a mercenary in a battle. They could be harvesting resources, trading goods, guarding a castle, stealing coins, etc. All these actions can be things that they do while you're gone to both grant you a reward when you come back to play the game as well as giving dynamic events that other players can interact with, extending the value of play for not just you, but everyone else.
3) A living world. This one is more an aesthetic perk than a functional one. With avatars becoming a persistent part of the world and capable of acting on at least a semi-autonomous level, the game world itself is capable of retaining a much more active environment. When a zone is low on life, the server can migrate offline characters into it so that it retains a more active feel for those traveling through. This means for those in the game, they are less prone to visiting a place that looks straight up like a ghost town, deserted forest, or some other desolate environment. They will be capable of seeing other avatars roaming and interacting with the world and be able to at least have light levels of interaction with these offline characters to alter their experience as well as their perception of the game world.
EDIT: To answer the question directly, I don't tend to have that notion with current characters as I am all to aware of their lifeless status. I'll entertain the thought occasionally with RP characters, filling in the blanks about their presence with random activities and antics that seem suitable to the character I've made.
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
I guess too many posters are all grown up
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I havent played Age of Wushu in months so i guess my character already died from STDs because every time i logged in she was sold to the brothel.
If they have a house they stay there almost always.
Is this a real question?
Of course i don't care. If i am not playing a particular game, why would i care? Plus, the answer is simple. When i log out, my toon is out of the game, and the game state of said toon is going to be kept unchanged until i log in next time. Do you really need to ask?
They log in and play the real SWG. SWG pre cu on the Basilisk server.
EQ2 fan sites
It's a reality in Age Of Wulin.
http://en.wulin.gpotato.eu/GameGuide/Handbook/Offline-System
I imagine my characters use the time to sleep, clean up, do chores, attend conferences, etc. Routine stuff.
On patch days, I figure they are going off on big epic adventures without me.
In Age of Wushu, my alt goes to work. Sometimes record keep at the bank, cutting wood for the chef, organizing writings for the calligraphers, carrying water for rich families. I've even seen him performing in the market, juggling and blowing fire.
My main has been meditating, cultivating, learning new internal skill in a remote cave.
This is not imagination, this is what really happens when they are offline. I've even seen my alt welcoming people into a brothel after he was kidnapped and sold.
winner!
--John Ruskin
they might not need to, but let me tell you, it's pretty damn cool when they do
I totally forgot about Wushu and how one's character is still "in the game" even when the player logs off.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
mine is playing a mmo called "RL" when i am off.
you sleep, eat, work, and get no money in return in that game. no idea why but those silly toons love that game.
"believe me, mike.. i calculated the odds of this working against the odds that i was doing something incredibly stupid and i did it anyway!"
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR