@Gowi

Well, just to make sure - explain what these 'roles' are.

Are they hard set classes that determine what your character is capable of doing? And maybe expand more upon this leveling system and how skills/attributes whatever will play into that. To be perfectly honest, everything seems to be set up to be incredibly complicated, and I'm not a huge fan of that.

I think the affiliations/preset-guilds should be thought over. They don't offer a great deal of advantages and they sort of contrast the freedom presented to the player initially. Guilds and the like should be a fluid thing, not a thing you're just thrust into. Or at least, that's my opinion! c:

<Snipped quote by NarcissisticPotato>
The idea is they provided the player with a residence, a base of operations, and access to information— a MMO-esque version of familia’s from you guessed it, Familia Myth. It’s definitely a central influence but not a well developed one of which I will admit. Affiliations, or Factions— are not decided for the player after all, they are chosen. I suppose they could go “unaffiliated” if desired, but I am not sure why that would be desirable. It is just a rudimentary thought.

@Gowi

Okay, what if someone decides they want to be a 'defender' to start with, but later on decide they want to play more offensively if they're not satisfied with the 'class?' I assume/hope they'd be able to change that play style to adjust accordingly some manner, through gaining skills/abilities with their desire for such a change? Trade their sword and shield for a lance, for example? And still have the abilities to use said weapon?

And what I mean by complicated, is that how would one even begin to keep up with all these achievements/skills/ranks and whatnot? There are a lot of things like that out there, that the list could get comically long and keeping up with them would eventually become a hassle.

Plus, how would we clearly RP out such levels of skills/ranks and whatnot? How would it inherently 'increase' what you are able to do and how would we quantify that fairly in an RP?

Also, that achievement system seems incredibly...silly. It would reward achievement hunters, wouldn't it? What about people who don't particularly care for such things? I personally, would hardly care about such arbitrary achievements. I know some people do, but to penalize those who don't, seems odd.

Ok im with it so far. The starter guild thing is well... There had been enough posts about that.

Im still a little confused about the benchmarks and achievements. I understand how it works, but how do you plan to keep track of our character's accomplishments? Also just for clarity, are the players going to be stuck all together and we play as a main group or are we kinda all just are own thing?

<Snipped quote by Rune_Alchemist>
No, it really wouldn’t. Here’s the thing— this whole misunderstanding of the benchmark system is not meant to be the equivalent of achievements in World of Warcraft. There are no leaderboards in Pariah, there are no atypical statistics in Pariah, and there is definitely nothing that is arbitrary. The benchmark system rewards accumulated experience; if you keep working to get stronger it will show. It is as described by McHaggis a “virtual reality with game influences” and not the other way around. Ultimately we are reflected on focusing on the characters and what makes them. Their personalities, experiences, tensions, griefs, anxieties, fantasies, and goals.

The RP is not a stat simulator.

A basic benchmark could be rank accumulation (such as “novice swordsman”) and achievements could be as simple as well (defeated ‘100 Monsters’). The programmed framework recognizes your achievements, benchmarks, and attributes to increase what you are able to do. I gather this idea from Familia Myth’s main character and the growth of their abilities in the course of the first six episodes. Experience and accumulation of knowledge gains you power. Power gains you special abilities.

At least, this is my current train of thought.

The programmed framework recognizes your achievements, benchmarks, and attributes to increase what you are able to do.

Well I'm interested, it sounds pretty different from your standard VRMMO RP so far, I'll at least be keeping tabs on this.

Anyway about the whole talk with preset guilds I think makes complete sense from a game's perspective. In MMOs today there are sometimes starter guilds you automatically start in, they're nice for getting to know the community and get some help when learning how to even play. I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work here, sure this is all actually a RP in reality, but I don't think its a bad thing to build it as if it were a MMO. Guess the difficult part is trying to balance MMO elements and RP ones.

I get a feeling I don't completely understand what's the topic of discussion, but hey wanted to get my two cents out there.

<Snipped quote by Gowi>

That is not what I was asking at all.

<Snipped quote by Gowi>

I didn't ask about leader boards and things. Obviously there wouldn't be leader boards or something such as that as there is no menus.

I asked -using the example you used- how is saying things like 'killing 100 monsters' fair to people who don't go around doing that? People who go around killing monsters and doing extraordinary feats get rewarded by becoming 'stronger', In your own words

<Snipped quote by Gowi>

so people who go out and do certain things, would become stronger and gain more 'power'

That, my friend, is rewarding achievement hunters, is it not?

But eh, I don't care at this point, so whateves. The tone of this Int Check is pretty much gone exactly how I expected it too. Sorry fam, but I'ma be pulling out again.

I wish everyone fun with this, but I'll not be participating.

<Snipped quote by Rune_Alchemist>

I apologise for pressuring you into giving this a go, Rune; I don't think you wanted to play in it from the start and I should have realised. I'll address the points anyways for anyone else interested.

The example you used is, if you pardon me, an example. I'll give some background for it then explain why it is simply an example. So, in the last few years there's been really big demands for sandbox MMORPGs and they've been somewhat answered by indie titles like Crowfall and Camelot Unchained. I'll explain Crowfall because I'm familiar with it. It works that you choose a skill (like sword wielding for example) and the game will passively increase that skill but you can also increase skill from doing things (like using a shield or crafting a sword for example). This is a somewhat more realistic approach. It isn't an achievement in that "if you slay 100 monsters you level up" and more that "if you slay 100 monsters, you're better at slaying monsters and using the weapon you used to slay them". This is realistic in that in real life, you don't just get a skill point and learn something new. Learning a martial art or an instrument requires repetition and that's reflected in the game. The more you use your sword, aka the more monsters you kill, the more proficient you get.

This is an obvious progression but it doesn't just apply to killing monsters. It can work with anything - blacksmithing, alchemy, stealing. All these can be learned by simply doing them. Forging a piece of equipment, making a potion, robbing a shop. Like the indie MMORPGs, Levelling is no longer about quests and the like. Levelling is simply a marker for the extent to which you have practised something. I don't believe we will measure how many monsters someone kills or indeed, be awfully pedantic about levels of things.

Also your point about rewarding achievement hunters is a bit of a non-point. In nearly every system I've ever seen, the people who do go out and level up and gain more power get rewarded. As opposed to the people who do nothing getting rewarded. I think you meant professions here but as I said, you could be high level and never touched a sword in your life under that system. But in the same regard, it's only fair that someone who has realistically spent a lot of time learning how to use a sword becomes better at the sword and more powerful. This isn't rewarding achievement hunters, it's rewarding people who play.

Anyways, sorry for wasting your time Rune - this response was sort of just to answer your questions for others!