User:Tennessee Ernie Ford/Feedback (deprecated)/Friends List 2.0
Friends List 2.0
| |
|---|---|
| User | Feedback (deprecated) |
| Categories | Player interaction → Chat system Mechanics → Other |
Update the Friends List to support the way that people interact in the game[edit]
The current Friends list is really about listing buddies and ignoring a few people. Alas, it does not mesh well with how people tend to interact in-game.
- People who trade frequently have preferred trading partners; these are not the same as friends.
- People who PUG and participate in local chat frequently have preferred chat and PUG partners; these are not the same as friends.
- People have actual friends.
- People who socialize frequently are likely to encounter others who behave inappropriately. Unfortunately, this number seems to hover at closer to a dozen than the current limit of 10 names that can be ignored. This also falls short of functionality available in standard chat and email programs.
Create new categories and rename an existing category[edit]
These new and altered groups would be used in conjunction with new primary and secondary statuses that allow players to show presence and availability differentially across groups. This allows GW PM/Chat to be closer in functionality to standard business chat programs.
| Category | Current equivalent | Problems with existing cat | New functionality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buddies | Friends | Current functionality appropriate for those who are known and liked, but not necessarily friends | Primary and secondary status, per below. Used to initiate chats, primarily. |
| Friends | na | Should provide more details to friends, who are people liked and trusted | In addition to status, also shows current location (outpost/zone + district) |
| Business associates | na | Some players are frequent traders or PUG members | Allows player to be available to trusted partners while remaining generally private, per below. |
| Ignore | Ignore | too limited | Allow up to 20 names |
New Statuses[edit]
The current status choices do not correspond to how people actual behave in-game, offering choices of hidden, online, but not really, not offline, and online. Replace these statuses with a set that allows a more social idea of the players presence in the game world.
Primary statuses[edit]
| Status | Current equivalent | Behavior | Notes | Can be triggered using these emotes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online | Online | Player listed as online | Default primary status | /public, /online |
| Private | na | Online to your friends; otherwise offline | Allows you to be available to friends w/o being public | /private |
| Semi-private | na | Online to your friends, buddies; otherwise offline | One step less private | /semi-private, /buddies |
| Semi-social | na | Online to all your named groups including Guild/Alliance; otherwise offline | Nearly public, but not generally available | /semisocial, /trading |
| Hidden | Offline | Offline to all groups | Allows relative privacy (outside of the avatar being visible) | /private, /hermit, /garbo (after Greta Garbo, famous for asking to be let alone) |
What do Guild and Alliance members see as the status of a player using these new statuses?
- Hidden and Online remain global; they apply to all players.
- Private is meant to be restricted to only the most select group of players; consequently, it does not include Guild or Alliance members (unless otherwise listed as Friends)
- For the remaining two (Semi-private, Semi-social), players will have preferences based on the relationship with the Guild and Alliance. To simplify usage, training, and implementation, I recommend that both groups be limited to semi-social availability. A player can add guildies to their various lists as needed.
Secondary statuses[edit]
A player's availability is distinct from their online presence: Zork I can be online, but engaged in other activities while I Robot might be privately available for trades only. Players would continue to be offline as noted above. If online, the following status would display instead:
| Secondary status | Current equivalent | Behavior | Notes | Can be triggered using these emotes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Available | Online | Online if present as noted above | Default secondary status. | /available, /ready, /willing, /able, /readywillingable |
| Busy | Away | Marked as Busy ; caveat response to all PMs is, "[Respondent] is engaged in a critical activity; their response might be delayed." | Away/AFK imply elsewhere; Busy allows the more likely case that player is engaged in specific activity or alt-tab away | /afk, /away, /busy, /engaged |
| LFG | na | LFG | common player in-game state-of-mind: looking for group | /lfg, /lookingforgroup |
| WTT | na | WTT | common player in-game state-of-mind: looking for trades | /wtb, /wts, /wtt, /trading |
New Context Highlighting[edit]
As players could be present in multiple groups, use color coding to help highlight this:
- Guild members listed in friends would display in green; alliance members would show in gold.
- Friends on the guild roster would display in green; trading partners in gray; buddies in blue.
