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Marriage and Relationships


Astrophil

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Is the mechanic of marriage planned for DU, such as it is for Skyrim and some other MMOs? I feel like that would not be in accordance with the general mood and theme of the game, but it would add to the realism of the game.

 

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Hi Astrophil, 

 

This is an interesting question as we don't want to limit player interactions.

While social features have our full attention, we haven't planned (yet) something specific for marriage and such relationship.

For now, this will probably be something you mention in the biography tab on your player character sheet.

In Skyrim, this is mostly cosmetical (you can have some bonus through it but this had no deep impact on the gameplay) and it's between a player and a NPC, not between 2 players. So, have you some particular ideas of how you would see this implemented? And which impact this would have on the game?

 

Regards,

Nyzaltar

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In some virtual worlds, the marriage component is a very large part of things.  I have spent a fair number of years working as a DJ and Builder in Second Life and the Utherverse worlds.  Granted, both of them tend towards the seamy side and are in many ways designed for "virtual hookups", but I would say that 50% of my business was DJing wedding receptions, or building places and renting them out for marriage ceremonies.

 

From a gaming standpoint, these are people who tend to focus heavily on social involvement--as much as some people build, others love combat, others craft, etc....  To be honest, in many instances, those people tend to be "rocks" in a game.  Players come and go, but all of their friends and social interactions happen in the game.  They tend to run clubs (which are a major social center) and run social events.  They may or may not be heavy roleplay players.  They may, or may not, be in relationships in real life either.  For some it is husband/wife teams--for others, they have no involvement outside the game.  What marriage does is provide them an additional layer of interaction in the game.

 

In Second Life, it is more of two people deciding they are married and all of their interactions and profiles reflect that.  Utherverse on the other hand has a structured process where people apply for a marriage permit.  When married, they are given an actual virtual marriage certificate that they can put in their profile.  There are also wedding planners, wedding chapel rentals, licensed Justices of the Peace, reception hall rentals, DJs, Cake Designers, Wedding Dress designers, it is a whole economy unto itself there.  But then there is not really a great deal to do in Utherverse if you are not there for 18+ entertainment in some form or providing the services those people would want.

 

In a pure sandbox environment, I am not sure if marriage should provide some perk--or I cannot think of what type of advantage would be suitable.   I do know from past experience that getting "married" is a pretty good indication of someone who is not planning on leaving the game for awhile.  It is an interpersonal commitment--and also a commitment to the game, since without the game the first commitments doesn't exist.  From a strictly personal standpoint, I would love to see marriage in the game just so I can build and rent out wedding chapels, glades, whatever, and then DJ the reception   LOL

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I feel that the concept of marriage belongs just as much as it doesn't.

 

It could be interesting to see some kind of Marriage, or Civil Unions.

 

For a second if I may draw a bit of comparison to Star Wars Galaxies, there were many people that enjoyed pure social interaction as much as some enjoyed pure combat roles, or even other pure political ones.

Many players had de facto partners, it was very interesting to read the biography of some characters, people that spent days it would seem fleshing out a back story for their character of course it could always change and that was another great aspect.

 

If our benevolent overlords did decide to put marriage or civil unions in it could be fun. But it shouldn't interfere with anything else, I mean we shouldn't expect any kinds of stat bonuses or extra hp just because you married your best friend. Maybe there could potentially be joint custody of property, however that can lead to many problems too and I feel that only one person should own 1 house, if both people want to pay for its upkeep then so be it. Unless we want to see Lawyer as a viable career path in the game.

 

Could be nifty, if there are first and last names, if it gave you the surname of the dominant partner and put your original surname on hidden status until you divorced. Possibly there could be two little rings interlocking as an icon next to your name, or something similar, just to show people you were married to someone.

 

I would like to say though, should such a feature be implemented that it be completely neutral, allow it so two men, two women, a man and woman, or even a banana and an orange can get married.

 

One way or another though, I'm here for this game to hopefully witness capital ship battles, help organize politics, the creation of a research and development team of players in said organisation to design cool ships for the fleet, or maybe even become a 'priest' and wedlock people.

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I think this idea (if implemented) will have many layers than simply being able to marry. It could stretch to something not intended initially, let me elaborate.

 

If romantic relationships were possible, I don't think a tag with "in a relationship" will cut it. People are going to want ways to express themselves with their partner and to the public. Marriages are the same way, players will try and have kids implemented so it won't be pointless. Intimacy and cybering might take place, much like IMVU, which I don't think Dual Universe is intended to be.

 

I feel like this game should be different than, let's say.. The Sims. If the idea does go through, it could be a social booster but not much otherwise.

 

Also, gay marriage will be a must, as well as inter species and even npc relationships. It's going to be a stretch of things to implement, some that I didn't mention, that probably isn't worth it.

 

I'm just speculating, I could be completely wrong though!

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Wow, lots of thoughts and ideas around wedding! :D

@Astrov: it feels like a Mass Effect player is speaking here! ;)

 

Wedding features have been already implemented in several MMORGs with more or less success.

The team is going to study the question. I can't speak for my colleagues on the subject, but it seems that the most popular approach of such feature in a MMORPG is to avoid gameplay bonuses (otherwise players will marry each other ingame just for the bonus, and not for the goal of being married)  and focus on social benefits (way of displaying the status, maybe unlocking some specific social features, etc). I will talk to the team to know how they see the subject and I will keep you informed :)

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I mulled the idea over a bit, I think my stance on the subject is neutral.

 

It isnt something that will affect the way i play the game.Marriage is probably best left an unofficial mechanic, just something people roleplay in their characters biography and with friends.

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I mulled the idea over a bit, I think my stance on the subject is neutral.

 

It isnt something that will affect the way i play the game.Marriage is probably best left an unofficial mechanic, just something people roleplay in their characters biography and with friends.

Agreed. The difficulties of organizing and implementing a marriage mechanic just isn't worth the little bit of extra social interaction that people could potentially receive, and again it wouldn't agree with the whole feel of the game. This kind of stuff is probably best left to purely social games (ex. IMVU)

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My thought is that if marriage is implemented and it is only purely for the social interactions of getting married, then I don't think many people will do it. My reasoning on that is that I believe that most people play games to do more than they can in real life. Yes there will be quite a few people who want to just make a normal little cottage in the woods so to speak type of life in duel universe and I think that they will greatly enjoy being able to marry people in game. At the same time though I think the majority will view and as pointless and totally ignore that it is an option making me wonder whether putting it in the game would be worth it. I guess I'm of the opinion that it would be useful to a few but not to the majority of players but I could be wrong, definitely an interesting concept though.

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My initial reaction to this was that it doesn't really have a place in this kind of game.  On the other hand, assuming it is a purely aesthetic feature that costs very little development effort to include, it's not really much different to other aesthetic features.  Even hardcore players interested only in racking up kills or credits take time to make their avatars look cool, or spend time/money on clothes, or decorations, or an interesting bio description.  If the ability to marry were an extension of those kinds of "fluff" features then I wouldn't be opposed to it.

 

If it were implemented I would go even further than some others have and say that there should be no limitations on it at all.  Players should be able to marry any gender/race, or marry more than one other player, or enter into multi-person marriages, get divorced, etc.  Marriage should not have any financial impact whatsoever; there should not be a marital estate or complicated divorce proceedings - one person wants to get divorced, they click divorce and they are divorced, nothing else happens.

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  • 3 months later...

The only possible reason for the implementation of this feature I can see is for purely immersive reasons. The possible features of marriage should be as following:

 

- Sharing properties, mortgages and upkeeps

- Sharing banking features (limited or unlimited, depending on married couple themselves how much finance they want to expose each other with)

- Sharing last names once the marriage is officially registered (creating famous dynasties for famous Empires)

- Inheritance and lineage of dynasty families

- Another small feature to create a viable lawyer role ingame (Lawyers for Corporations, bankings and other affairs will be mandatory I'm assuming)

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  • 4 months later...

I'm not sure I've played an mmo game where a marriage mechanic was part of the game. I've played games where role players role played it, but I never did. I do recall Lord of the Rings online had an adoption feature.

 

You could literally adopt another player, which was great fun as a role player. I had a son and an uncle, and strangely it created a funny little 'family' inside our small guild.

 

I don't think such a feature was ever needed in that game, or even made sense really, but it was fun.

 

I have however played single player games where you could marry npc's. I think potentially marriage could fit into Dual Universe. After all relationships are the heart of us all as human beings and we naturally extend that into the games we play. Will Dual Universe be the kind of world we can role play? I suspect yes, so marriage could fit well.

 

Whether I would use it, I don't know lol. But I would only 'marry' my real life boyfriend in the game! ;)

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  • 5 months later...

If I understand the delegation mechanics correctly, wouldn't both members starting organizations with everything they own and then delegating to the other equal access pretty much do the same? Everything they are doing is sandbox oriented, as open of a contract system as it comes to apply how we please, why not here?

 

 

Besides, a direct translation of a relationship isn't always the best fit. I've met my RL ex-wife in an MMO, and it started by her constantly trying to kill me.

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I can see this work in the sense that if you marry you both begin to share resources.

 

But it should be limited. Like you can ONLY marry one character (you can divorce but it will be very costly for BOTH of you) and when you are married you two begin to share resources and usages. Like say one of the married couple has a mining station... Then the other gets a small cut of those resources and can access said mining stationZ

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I can only think of one game where marriage was implemented into the actual gameplay aspect of the game outside of a roleplaying stand point of the players. in elder scrolls online you can marry someone through a quest. the benefits of this if i remember correctly is a shared bank and a 10% xp boost when doing quests and such together. In personal experience i only know of people who did it for the xp boost and people who were already married/in a relationship in real life.  

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Hmm, pretty old this topic, but let me put my oar in.

Ingame marriage should be mainly cosmetic, the only thing that they get from the game should be the knowledge about the partners position. Simply you know ever where your partner is regardless the distance between you two. Other benefits like tax reduction should be depending on the faction in which you are.

 

Just like in real life, you could theoretically marry in a church, but as long as you weren't at the registry office, to register your marriage, you're not married in the eyes of the state and receive no benefits accordingly. At leat here in germany that is so, to my knowledge.

 

To think about the idea further, as Faction leader the Question for you is: Want you married couples in your faction and how should they look?

The answer is yes: okay give married people just a little tax reduction, finish.

The answer is yes, but only straight: same her but the benefits are only applied to straight couples and you could theoretically apply punishments (extra duties) for gay couples, to prevent them from happening.

The answer is no/don't know: do nothing or punish them, its your decision.

This is simply made via the rights and duties.

The only Question left is: Will people that are marry via the game mechanic get an automated "married" tag, where the "Marriage Law" of the faction applys to or not?

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Hmm, pretty old this topic, but let me put my oar in.

Ingame marriage should be mainly cosmetic, the only thing that they get from the game should be the knowledge about the partners position. Simply you know ever where your partner is regardless the distance between you two. Other benefits like tax reduction should be depending on the faction in which you are.

 

Just like in real life, you could theoretically marry in a church, but as long as you weren't at the registry office, to register your marriage, you're not married in the eyes of the state and receive no benefits accordingly. At leat here in germany that is so, to my knowledge.

 

To think about the idea further, as Faction leader the Question for you is: Want you married couples in your faction and how should they look?

The answer is yes: okay give married people just a little tax reduction, finish.

The answer is yes, but only straight: same her but the benefits are only applied to straight couples and you could theoretically apply punishments (extra duties) for gay couples, to prevent them from happening.

The answer is no/don't know: do nothing or punish them, its your decision.

This is simply made via the rights and duties.

The only Question left is: Will people that are marry via the game mechanic get an automated "married" tag, where the "Marriage Law" of the faction applys to or not?

 

As faction leader I would have no stance on it, and would probably leave marriage as a personal thing rather than one that is regulated and recorded...it would have no impact on the faction (whether good or bad), so the faction will not intentionally have an impact on marriages either. People can do what they want with relationships - I myself would not care if I were a bigshot up-there leader figure.

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Yes you don't care and i don't care, i would simply say here you pay 1% less tax, just to be nice.

But that doesn't mean there aren't people out there who would reglement marriage.

For example take the RP character Ser Aison Ironfist Bold, him i would guess could punish married people just to satisfy his diabolic pleasure to see people suffer.

(this is no attack against the person behind Ser Ironfist, i don't want to get trouble because someone missunderstood this statement as insult against him. And yes this must be said, because this is the Internet ;))

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Hi Astrophil, 

 

This is an interesting question as we don't want to limit player interactions.

While social features have our full attention, we haven't planned (yet) something specific for marriage and such relationship.

For now, this will probably be something you mention in the biography tab on your player character sheet.

In Skyrim, this is mostly cosmetical (you can have some bonus through it but this had no deep impact on the gameplay) and it's between a player and a NPC, not between 2 players. So, have you some particular ideas of how you would see this implemented? And which impact this would have on the game?

 

Regards,

Nyzaltar

 

Marriage is just a contract... and you've already got a contract system... pretty simply to just label it marriage.

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