1 or 2 characters per account? Independent of each other.

[MattHunX]

After I returned to Firefall, a year and half later, I was surprised and elated that I had the option to create another character, on the same account, with a different name, starting over. They have separate inventories and I cannot mail items between them. As it should be.

My first character, having a male name, I turned back into a male via New You.
The NEW character I was allowed to make, I instantly went for a female WITH a female name. Finally I had two separate characters, one male, one female, as I always like to have.

Might be a small thing. But, it really makes a difference when identifying to a character or just role-playing one (whatever extent one might role-play).

There are a few people I have encountered, who seemingly have to separate accounts, run from two different machines, and they like to farm stuff by AFK farming with one character, while running around with the other. Shameless. Practically cheating. But, sadly, I don't see how such exploiting could be prevented. After all, if one creates two separate accounts, from two separate machines with different IP addresses, it's difficult to weed/rat them out. I won't stoop to that level, but it is annoying nonetheless.

So...

1 character per account.

Or...

2 characters per account, max.

(3 for founding members or some other status-related thing.) (Thinking of how it went in TERA)


I have a feeling most will opt for a single character per account for the simple reason that there won't be multiple frames, but mixing and matching of gear and the fine-tuning of it all. And most probably do not consider it weird to run around with a female character, using a male name, or vice-versa, mainly because most people, as I have seen, use nicknames that aren't gender-specific, anyway. I prefer separate characters - different even in gender - to different roles. Or it might very well be a similar role, a similar frame built, but with a few key differences. Some weapons, abilities or builds I consider to have a better look or feel to it when used with one character instead of the other. So, this comes down to aesthetics, again, more than anything.

 

[Vladplaya]

I prefer single character because than it works kinda like real life where you build your relationships and reputation with rest of the players and things actually stick to your name, even things that might effect your reputation in not best ways. That is, imo, is a base of a community, where after a while people start to learn about others and actually remember and recognize random people they see.

This kinda goes out of the window when people are able to create secondaries and other characters to mess around on. However it's impossible to stop, people will create multiple accounts if they have to, so at the end of the day, there is just no real point to limit number of characters to just one or even two. Go with standard mmo rout here, give people three to five character slots, and sell more for money, so if someone absolutely feels like they got to have crap ton of characters on a single account, they can have it, but they will be contributing to the development with a payment.

 

[Wyntyr]

I think 3 character slots for the base game would be fine with the option to purchase either another copy of the game or $5 per slot.

 

[Pandagnome]

I would say 2 but that is because my first one will be for me and my 2nd one for my girlie friend!

 

[Yrkul]

The option to buy aditional character slots. Some of us are altoholics, mind you.

 

[MattHunX]

I prefer single character because than it works kinda like real life where you build your relationships and reputation with rest of the players and things actually stick to your name, even things that might effect your reputation in not best ways. That is, imo, is a base of a community, where after a while people start to learn about others and actually remember and recognize random people they see.

Just remembered that...I think it was in Defiance, also...were you had an account name, but I could have 2 different characters, each with their own name and in-game it would display my account name below my character's name, so people could still tell it was me, just with a different character.

Ember could easily adopt something like that.

 

[Vladplaya]

@MattHunX Yeah there are quite few mmos that have account wide names. I think those just add to clutter. Then if you have a option to hide extra names, it kinda defeats the purpose of having it in the first place.
I don't know maybe if they would add a separate info window that you can quickly view by interacting with a character, they can show some info about the account there, and maybe whatever else that person wants to put there (like greeting massage or something).

 

[Omnires]

In MMOs like Star Wars your account name is your "family name" so all characters on that account will have the same last name. And going by how you set up the bio for the character they could be related my blood or by marriage or adopted into the family.

Anyway, I'm in favor of just having 1 character who has the ability to learn every ability and use every weapon if they wanted to. Omnires is not just my gamer name it is also my playing style.

 

[NitroMidgets]

I say three or more because I like options. I also like to argue and this way any multiple personality can play on their own character so as they don't piss each other off.

 

[Luisedgm]

No need for several characters if all character attributes are abilities are gear based

 

[Daynen]

I'm in favor of reducing clutter, generally. In Firefall, for example, I was baffled and astounded they decided to give us alt characters; I didn't see the point. That decision was on the back of another baffling decision, however: limiting new players to one starting frame and not allowing them to switch until level 20, where they picked their advanced frame. Like many recent decisions, it was a WoW-clone move and I hated it, even though I already owned all the frames and had no frames below 20 anyway.

I digress. If a game is built well, only one character is needed to experience everything a player wants. If people decide to burn enough money to get two completely separate setups just to bot their account then that's their problem. If it's against TOS and I hear someone bragging about their dual box setup, I'm going to report them. If they get both banned, I'll shed no tears for them.

Besides, Ember doesn't seem like the kind of game that's about designing your own look as much as it is about gearing out for the content you want to tackle. It's less of the "expression" kind of fun and more the "challenge" kind of fun--I hope.

 

[ObsoleteVodka]

I don't mind multiple characters, but i don't know about having different names for each one. I know it's nice for role-playing, but it's also commonly misused for trolling, harassment, stalking and so on.

 

[MattHunX]

I don't mind multiple characters, but i don't know about having different names for each one. I know it's nice for role-playing, but it's also commonly misused for trolling, harassment, stalking and so on.

Which is why one's account name should be displayed below their character's name, similarly to their army name and so on. It wouldn't clutter the screen anymore than the army names.

 

[Ars Nova]

I think we should only have one character. I have had WAY to many experiences on open-world games that include factions where someone gets on an alt, joins a faction, and steals everything/sabotages the base etc, and then just hands everything off to their main character's faction. I'd like to believe that the Ember community won't be like that, but I am way to cynical, and not naive enough, to just leave it up to fate.

 

[MattHunX]

I think we should only have one character. I have had WAY to many experiences on open-world games that include factions where someone gets on an alt, joins a faction, and steals everything/sabotages the base etc, and then just hands everything off to their main character's faction. I'd like to believe that the Ember community won't be like that, but I am way to cynical, and not naive enough, to just leave it up to fate.

But you're using the word "alt". That means an alternate account, from a separate PC, with a different IP address, where you can mail stuff to the other account, essentially cheating and exploiting the system. I'm simply talking about having maybe 2 completely separate characters on the same account. And one's account name would be displayed under both characters, and could not be filtered, so people could tell it's the same person, so people couldn't troll others by pretending to be different people. I cannot even pretend to be different people, as my reaction and vocabulary is the same, so people can easily tell it's me. Maybe not immediately.

 

[Ars Nova]

But you're using the word "alt". That means an alternate account, where you can mail stuff to the other account, essentially cheating and exploiting the system. I'm simply talking about having maybe 2 completely separate character on the same account. And one's account name would be displayed under both characters, and could not be filtered, so people could tell it's the same person.

"Alt" doesn't necessarily mean a separate account, it is simply a shortened form of "alternate", and it can be used to refer to either an account OR a character which the owner plays as an alternative to their main account. All you did was apply your own meaning to my words in order to try and negate my argument.

 

[MattHunX]

"Alt" doesn't necessarily mean a separate account, it is simply a shortened form of "alternate", and it can be used to refer to either an account OR a character which the owner plays as an alternative to their main account. All you did was apply your own meaning to my words in order to try and negate my argument.

Oh, so-r-r-y, I totally tried to negate your argument by purposefully applying my own meaning to the word to make a straw-man! As you wrongly assume. From what I saw online, in the few short years I've joined the world of MMOs with Firefall, I simply and easily got the impression people exclusively used the word to refer to separate accounts. You could've just said I was using the word wrong and that it can also mean separate characters on the same account. Was no need to go on how I was trying to "negate" your argument, like we're debating on stage in front of a live audience. Sheesh! You sure like fancying up a simple reply.

 

[Ars Nova]

a) I like debating. It promotes agile, sometimes out-of-the-box thinking. At least for me.
b) I "fancy up" my replies whenever I can because I like reading a lot, and as such I have a rather extensive vocabulary, and an appreciation for good use of the English language. If I can promote the same kind of language skills in others by providing an example, I will.
c) I wasn't trying to seem aggressive, and I appreciate your point of view, but I strongly disagree due to experience I have had in the past.

 

[Hybelkaninen]

2 for the base game.
1 character as a main.
1 character when you want to be left completely alone without anyone seeing your "main name" on any list or recognizing it while you derp around.

My opinion though.

 

[Sik San]

Peeps are spoiled with wide range of conviniences these days. But even in the past ppl always tend to get an advantage from alting/boxing. No matter if there will be chars/mailing restrictions, players still gonna do that. Despite I like OPs idea, I think it won't chage much. It's not about the game, it's about player behaviour.