[ND]Karma system for RP rewards

[N'kEnNy]

----
PLAYER DRIVEN RP REWARDS
----
CONCEPT
-: All players should play the part of audience and reward entertaining roleplay.
-: Roleplay points are visible to all, but have little in game effect.
-: RP points are linked to account--- not character.

[Ciossk]

This will undoubtedly drive players to interact more and more with one another.

And, as the playerbase grows, it will create a competitive standard of roleplay. If such a thing does not happen, it would be fairly simple to adjust the number of nominations a player may disburse, to create a limited amount to go around and encourage more cutthroat competition to acquire them.

I think that a fairly large and all-encompassing list is in order. As great a system as it is, it'd be worthless without incentives to vie for.

[Damonous]

[Ciossk]

Well then.

Perhaps the ability to log all MUD RP?

Not word for word, obviously...

But something along the lines of:

initiaterp damonous

You have initiated RP with Damonous.

LOG: Ciossk has initiated RP with Damonous.

It will also give the administration the ability to analyze RP trends and habits.

Perhaps... LOG: Ciossk has initiated RP with Damonous ON CORUSCANT
_________________
If you're reading this, you're an idiot

[darrik]

We have this already... beginrp I think is the command... We implemented it for RP with jailed folks, but it logs the beginning and end of RP properly.
_________________

[Damonous]

I dig that and it's not a bad idea, IF we had the staff to support that which I don't think we do. It seems like that would be alot of work for RP admins to have to sift through that. Unless you are saying just for the RP admins to make a mental note and notice when BFFs are giving eachother props for nothing. I honestly just think you should make it to where you can give like.. one point per week.. or even better.. you allot points to people. Maybe weekly if there's alot of activity and people want it. No more frequent than that imo. So I don't just give dudes my RP points because I'm going to get another one in 4 hours. If it's not frequent enough try it daily. But 4 per 4 hours.. man, that's alot.

*edit* but now that i read that and thought about it.. ultimately it would be best if you had unbiased RP admins that are actually paying attention. That's hard to ask (no sarcasm) for alot of different reasons, so I understand why you're doing this... it's just that I'd like it to be something legit instead of something where I feel like I'm judging people because they have alot of friends.

[Ciossk]

The idea is that such a system would not require additional manpower and oversight. Coupled with the threat of fraud and the penalties associated with such, players wouldn't have much room to lie.

Furthermore, this would allow for us to look at this from an analytical point of view. If Damonous spends all of his RP credits with Seithe (which is usually the case anyway ), we know there is an issue. Furthermore, if all players are subdivided into RP cliques, we wouldn't necessarily have to punish them (nothing is wrong with having circles, it's not 'illegal', so to speak), but MUD Administrators would have the basic facts and information to make assertive decisions and policy.
_________________
If you're reading this, you're an idiot

[Dromis]

Mneh... why not post RP logs to a section of the forum and people can vote or something? Or why have a reward system anyway. I honestly feel it'll create alot of shallow RP that results from some people just going out of their way to force RP in order to get more RP Points.

Fuck it.

[Raith]

The thing is there wont be a lot of points to waste on shallow RP and there is no obligation to pay people for shallow RP. Just like Ciossk said, if there's an issue like that then just reduce the amount of votes people can use. If they decide they aren't going to RP just because they can't get a vote, then so what. You can't force people to roleplay with their characters.

[Dromis]

You don't reward people for simply doing what is expected of them, you reward them for going above and beyond.

Everyone should be here to roleplay in some manner or another, why provide extra incentive to do what they should be doing anyway?

[Raith]

[Ciossk]

[Seithe]

Look at those games on Facebook for example. My mom plays a game called Farmville, and I have a 'farm' on Farmville because she uses my account to have an extra 'neighbor'. Having more 'neighbors' gets you rewards in the game. I'm not sure the exact mechanics of that game, but I believe that you must achieve a certain amount of neighbors to reach a certain level, or 'expand' your farm.
It's just social networking, and social networking should certainly be rewarded in a social game, like a RP MUD. Perhaps each time you are awarded 'points' by the SAME character, you receive fewer points. Or you only receive partial points. For instance, if I receive Damonous's RP point every day, after a few days, I'd only receive half a point. After a week or so, I would no longer receive any points, until I go out and RP with some other people. (It would work much the same as Combat experience works in the game now. You have a list of about 15 'mobs' that you have killed recently. If you kill the same ones over and over without 'recycling' your list by killing 15 different mobs, you don't get experience. Hence planet-hopping for simulators)

Anyways, essentially, this system COULD be used to 'expand' your character.

For a few examples:

EXPERIENCE GRIND
Perhaps such RP points could be exchanged for Experience. Not to go ABOVE the maximum level of your character, but if Neks is correct, the re-release will make it a good deal harder to level up your characters. Perhaps the points could be exchanged for EXP, so instead of a 'level grind', you have an "RP grind". It won't replace the level grind, but will simply become an alternative for those who like to RP but hate to planet-hop looking for combat sims. (If we wanted to get crazy with it, we could even require 'top-leveling' to require RP point expenditure. I.E., you can only reach level 50 combat by level grinding. The rest must be gained through RP. But this is just a possibility.)

SHIPS
Perhaps rules such as the 'amount' of ships that a player can personally own can have incentives tied in. Many players have complained that they aren't allowed to buy their own personal fleet of ships. Perhaps by spending an exorbitant amount of these 'RP points', one could purchase another 'slot' of ship ownership. (Thus, to build an entire fleet one would need a massive amount of such points.) These would, of course, exist as ANOTHER requirement, aside from the actual monetary requirement.

EQUIPMENT
As I believe was mentioned, RP points could be spent for customized 'personal equipment'. With the return of stat-inducing equipment, personalized 'statwhore' items could be given to players in exchange for RP points.
ADDITIONALLY
-As an addendum to such equipment: The Shockboxing program is built in such a way that I can (And will) implement 'better' shockboxing gloves, which will likely be quest rewards. I'm conceptualizing Shockball still, but I'll attempt to program it in the same manner, so that players can have 'better' equipment to assist them with their skill in such games. As such, players who wish to roleplay 'Professionals' in such sports can spend their RP points to gain such equipment.

FACTIONS
Perhaps the creation of Factions would require a certain amount of RP points in addition to the monetary requirement. The addition of a faction to the game is kind of a big deal (even if it isn't a big deal through code, it's a major step for the RP of the game as a whole). Such a major effect on the game world shouldn't be possible by a brand new character that no one yet knows. Requiring RP points would, in another way to arrange the idea, 'require the support of at least a portion of the playerbase'. Someone must 'vote' for this character to be allowed to start his/her faction, by RPing with them and awarding them the points they need to do so. In addition, perhaps a certain amount of RP points would be required to advance through the ranks of a faction. (But this should probably be left up to the clan leaders)

BASES
Purchasing of 'bases' might require RP point as well as monetary requirements, as well. There's no point in builders spending time building an extravagant 'base' for a faction or player, only to have that player go inactive 5 days after the base is implemented. Spending RP points (And having those RP points to spend) at least shows that the player has some investment in the character/faction.


And as to the argument that RP points create 'shallow', RP, this may be true, but it's difficult (if not impossible) to judge exactly what is 'shallow' and what is not, while remaining 'fair'. Some people don't have the creative capacity to RP anything more than a few 'shallow' conversations. They shouldn't be penalized for it.
_________________
I'd like to apologize for bringing logic into this conversation.

[Ciossk]

Great set of ideas, Seithe.

The criticism against rewarding players for something they should be already be doing is understandable, but should be viewed from a slightly different perspective.

If, in the very least, RP Rewards give us just a small boost in player-to-player interaction, the system would be successful. If the RP created is poor quality, the fault isn't with the incentives or point scoring, it's with the players. This is another issue in its entirety.

I'm pretty sure that Kenny and company envisioned RP rewards as a quasi-OOC benefit and less of an in-game rewards system. Allow me to add to Seithe's post and suggest rebranding RP Rewards: "Hero Points" would work better in describing and justifying such things.

Look at each point gain the way you would an EXP gain. Only with the latter, you can receive a gain on your own, whereas the former OBLIGATES you to interact.

[Seithe]