IDEAS FOR RYZOM

@Magez:
Cette vision des choses ne reflète pas la vision de tout le monde. c'est l’éternel débat entre les joueurs qui jouent leur personnage comme étant leur reflet et ceux qui considèrent
que leur personnage est comme un personnage de pièce de théatre, une interprétation qui n'est pas eux même.

@Fairyfighter:
Il peut y avoir de multiples raisons de vouloir changer de nom de personnage. Mais la raison de changer de nom que je vois la plus autour de moi est celle des roleplayers dont leur personnage est mort ou disparu ou qui veulent soit en créer un autre, soit changer le nom rapidement dans le but de faire vivre une histoire. Supprimer cette possibilité gênerait en fait tout un tas de monde.

As Eolinius says, many name changes are for roleplay reasons:
- The character dies permanently (in rp, in the story we tell), because it's fun, or we want to test another kind of story, but we want to keep the levels to start another story. In this case, we just change the name, the hairstyle and the tattoo. This is probably the majority of the rp renames.
- When we created the character, we didn't think about the roleplay, then it came with time, and we thought that a more RP name would be better.
- In the evolution of the character, his actions justify changing his name. I have a character like that: her original name was given to her by her slaver, and once freed, she took back her real name. I thought it would be better to have it validated by the GM's as well and that it would be the one the players saw. Although not very common, I have seen this happen a few times.

There are also other non-rp but equally valid reasons:
- The name of our character was chosen at another time, and today it seems ridiculous, or no longer reflects who we are. It may even be contrary to the name charter but has remained under the radar of the CSR until now. I have several examples in mind... That must be the majority of HRP renames too :)
- In the case of harassment, changing your name + going invisible in the friends list can sometimes make the pressure go down. Generally, it's not enough, and it also means that it's up to the victim to run away, but it's still something to try. I would like to point out that when we are dealing with a real stalker, it is vital to contact the CSRs and find those who will take us seriously, but we can't hope that the person will be banned ad vitam eternam: the person can change, maybe the disagreement is just between him/her and me, etc. These are very difficult situations to manage and there is no miracle solution.

Finally, there is the situation where you have committed actions in-game that are not well perceived and you imagine that a name change will reset your reputation, and I guess that is what motivates your proposal, Fairyfighter. But this kind of rename doesn't work if we don't really change our behavior, because our "signature" goes beyond the name. Also, when it comes to people who have harassed, insulted, stolen, I don't think the CSRs will accept the name change "just like that". I'm pretty sure that when this happens, you get long conversations with the CSRs, and you have to show that you understand how badly you screwed up before you are entitled to a new identity.

These cases are rare, and some of the people in the lot are also bona fide: they really want to be better and start over. This does not guarantee, unfortunately, that they will avoid falling back into their old ways, or that they really want to change. But Ryzom has always had a pretty strong forgiveness policy, and I have to admit that I think that's pretty positive. In ten years of playing, I've actually seen some people get better and become friendly; and for some, it wasn't easy at all! Others, by dint of being banned, ended up leaving the game.

And sometimes the "crime" is not really a crime. When it comes to people who have switched factions, I don't know how the CSRs handle it, but I would understand if they granted it without much question. It's a major crime in the eyes of some people, but there's no point in staying in a faction if you don't belong there or if you don't feel good there. Unfortunately this often leads to a form of harassment afterwards. More years later, some people are still blamed for having been "on the other side". However, one should not be under the illusion that changing one's name in this case is only a way of marking a passage but will not really change the reputation that is linked to us. And those who are reproached for their change are mostly the loudmouths, those who have a leadership side. It's not an excuse, but when you're famous, it doesn't only come with good sides!

As far as I know, when you want to change your name, you have to justify it. For RP reasons, it's not very long: the few renames I did, I had to say "why" but CSR don't asked me for the whole background of the character (probably afraid about how talkative I am). I don't know if the rule has changed, I don't do that very often :D but it seems justified to give reasons, which don't have to be complex but have to be legitimate.

About trust... I understand very well how unpleasant it is to welcome someone you think is "new" and then, after a few hours of play, discover that it is the other villain who hurt you before. However, no secret about people's reputations lasts long in Ryzom, and knowing who's who is a favorite sport of many of us, so that information travels fast. Once you know, the only good thing to do is to put the person on the block list and not waste time on them. There is never anything important enough going on in the faction to worry about them being there, so not having them in your guild or team and limiting all contact with them is the most effective. A rename is NOT an anonymization. This is also the concern with harassment: renaming is rarely enough.

I would like to take this opportunity to send a message to those who are in the situation where they rename because something went wrong. Whatever the blame and reasons, the healthiest thing to do in such cases is to avoid contact with the people where it went wrong for at least 6 months. Avoid pvp even on OP, discussions, times when you might be in the same area. This might be a good time to test another nation and faction. Blocking each other (from reading and getting angry) is also a good thing...

Going back to your proposal, Fairyfighter: making renaming punitive may penalize most legitimate requests. I think it's more effective to make sure that the CSRs have all the information they need to decide whether to apply the rename. I don't know how well they investigate today, maybe more transparency about their policy would be a good thing.

(Translated with Deepl and little review by me. Poor Deepl, I write so complex sentence and I use so much gallicism...)

I agree with you, this is the crux of the matter. It's really very, very complex. I would break it down into several phases:

1) What is the threat model?
There is not as much "risk" in chatting at the bar, or appointing someone as the superior officer of their guild.

For example...

What is the risk of talking to someone at the bar? If you're playing a female toon, the only real risk I know of is running into a fat guy who's going to think you're a girl IRL and that gives him the right to make inappropriate propositions (because you're obviously young, pretty, lonely, and he's obviously the right guy for you). Fortunately, this does not happen often. When it does, tell him you're really a 60-year-old, 300-pound biker, and contact a CSR for moral support and to get this kind of pest reframed. In the face of this threat model (which is encountered elsewhere), one important thing: don't reveal anything real about your off-game life (not age, not city, not gender, not anything) to people you've known for less than two weeks.

What is the risk of leveling up with someone? If you level up with them, you earn as much as they do. If you help him without gaining any level, the worst that can happen is that you train a future enemy. But... it's a game, and one of the fun things about it is having someone to beat up, with friendship. So, as long as you get along, it's not a big deal if the help offered is ultimately for the other side, because you're still working on having a nice interaction with someone. The real risk, in my opinion, is that you run into someone who spends more time messing around than leveling up; it's either fun or it's boring and can easily be solved by going elsewhere.

What is the risk of hunting a Boss together? The only risk is a bad sharing of resources. If this happens, it will be on one king, two at the most, and then you will know that there is no point in hunting with that person.

What is the risk of equipping someone? Here, it's maybe more engaging at high levels. Marauder armor or good pvp gear takes a long time to gather, and it's annoying when you do it for someone who disappears in the process or uses it on the other side without warning you. Here, it seems to me that the right thing to do is to get the mats together, half each. This way, even if the person disappears or changes sides, you have recovered the same gear as him (for your alts :P) and he has wasted as much time as you to do all this. Ditto on OP mp's, it's absolutely acceptable if you run out of them to reserve them only for the people closest to you. But I know GHs are overflowing with OP mp's, running the stuff doesn't cost much either. It's up to you. I've gotten paid for my participation in OPs sometimes with one or two OP mats, I think that's fine too (although I personally only do OPs for the fun of the evening, if I'm in the right mood for it).

What's the risk of teaching someone to pvp? At worst, he's going to be better than us (and on the other side, of course). It's infuriating. Okay. Let's detag if he's a stalker, and let's retag with the people where pvp is nice.

What is the risk of telling people that a Boss is pop? The risk that another team arrives before us on the king, and does it for us. Or note his time of death and watch for his reappearance. It's not a big deal, but there, yes, I understand the instructions to not say some boss in faction channel. Notify in private message to people whose fairplay is not to be questioned.

What is the risk of inviting someone into your guild? A lot is said in the guild, and it is a space where there are many threats:
- If you invite a toxic person, he can hurt the most fragile people in the group, taking advantage of the private information that can pass through this channel. Recruitment policies are different in different guilds. If it's a guild where anyone can enter, keep quiet about your feelings, be attentive to certain harmful behaviors, react quickly if it happens. Other guilds only invite people that other members have played with before (a true co-option), this reduces the risk of running into someone problematic.
- Usually we talk about boss and strategies on OPs in this channel; if you think that strategic info should be kept secret, then don't invite just anyone to the guild, make sure you can play with them. In some guilds, there is an entrance test (questions, challenge, rp stuff).

What is the risk of passing a superior officer? The easiest way is to steal from the guild chest. The best way to avoid this is to store the important mats in a secondary GH reserved for the people you trust the most, or simply not to appoint people to this position that you are not 100% sure of. Another risk (including on officers) is that the person guilds people you would not have guilded. Be clear on the guild entry policy, that should be enough.

There are probably other types of threats (I'm curious to read you) but there is always a way to avoid them. It's important to sit down and establish your own threat model (individual, for your guild), so that you have a more comfortable course of action. I would like to point out that the answers can vary a lot from one person to another, from one group to another; for example, as a "woman", I protect myself from certain threats that will not make sense for many men; on the other hand, as a person who doesn't care about the consequences of OPs, I would certainly not have any concerns about these issues ;)

2) Don't confuse threats.
It is perfectly possible to take the risk of "talking to someone at the bar", and to refuse that same person the risk of "getting them into my guild". You can have a great time at the bar, but not be confident enough to give them the keys to your GH. It's possible, and it's better than refusing to play with anyone who is not in your guild ;)

My example is a bit forced, but it really applies to everything. In faction, you can very well organize teams to hunt, or take all the motivated people to come and defend an OP. But you can (and should?) reserve the strategy of taking OPs for the circle of trust. All the time to dig mats for launchers, or to see if Tuesday 6th at 11pm there are enough people available, it can be done in guild and with safe allies; less safe allies are warned at the same time as the enemies, and that way there is no risk of being "betrayed". But you gain people to play with.

3) Get to know people

I like to hang out with as many different people as possible. For some of them, I consider them dangerous enough to never give them any personal information or test certain RPs; others, I've met and confide in a lot. But I don't just play with the second (even though they are the people I spend the most time with). It seems to me that I have to learn from the first ones as well, even if I carefully monitor my exchanges with them and if I am very attentive to what they can say and what it can lead to. And I also play with the whole range of people between these two extremes; with some people I don't have much to share, but that doesn't stop me from hunting a king or going up levels, for example.

What I mean with these examples is that for every "new" person (real or not) you meet, you have to decide what you will consider safe. Many activities can be done with these people, no matter who they really are. Doing these activities without risk will allow other things to appear: is the person friendly? Does she look like the people who hurt me? Is the person too nice to be honest? Do I have a good time when I play with them, or am I bored?

It's a rediscovery, sometimes repeated several times when it's another character of a person we already know. It may also be an opportunity to discover a new facet of someone you already know ;) Approaching each new meeting in this way opens the possibility of making beautiful friendships, but sometimes also of calming tensions by seeing the person under another light. Or to confirm tensions!

This has a huge positive effect. As humans, we are very influenced by "Alterity/Similarity". We distrust what is Other while being curious, we love what is Similar (while eventually finding it a bit boring :P). When we play with someone, on both sides it contributes to lower the impression of otherness; each one becomes "a person" in the eyes of the other, and making a mess becomes less conceivable, while the desire to trust him increases. Some people are impervious at this but these are not the most common profiles. So anything that contributes to being in a good relationship with another person will decrease all other risks. Learning how to play "with" each other (even if you will end up on opposite sides of the battlefield) helps everyone have a good playing experience.

A few years ago, I played with someone who I considered to have little empathy. This person had created a lot of concern in the community, by the way. One day, I saw her sparing a player in a situation where she would usually be obnoxious. When I asked her why, she told me that she had talked to the player a lot and that "he was a good person". Even she sometimes can be sensitive to human relationships and stopped his harmful behavior... These little moments of grace, I found them in everyone, even if sometimes you have to look really hard to find them.

I don't mean to say that you should absolutely play with people who seem to suck or are unhealthy. Protect yourself, avoid drama in the community and stay away from those people. You don't have to be friends with everyone. But some circumstances may offer other possibilities, and it's good to be aware of that, it's also good to give yourself a chance to change your mind. This is what prevents us from becoming sociopaths ourselves... We have to be careful when we talk, we have to know what the important limits are, but the ability to trust is what allows us all to become better people.

Taking the time to get to know people, without prejudging their thoughts, also allows us to better know what is possible or not on each side. I'm always surprised to discover that some people, who give the impression in the Universe Chat or in rp to be obtuse and temperamental grumblers, can in fact turn out to be very empathetic, benevolent and open when we discuss in private.

You also have to be aware of the group effect. In the public sphere, or in the passion of the OPs, what is said sometimes (often?) exceeds people's deepest convictions. We are all influenced by the group training (yes, even me!). So, it's perfectly okay to be a big asshole one moment, and then be ashamed after that or try to justify it when you know you did wrong. Here again, knowing people helps to mitigate these outbursts. Talking in private, after the crisis (or sometimes, during crisis) can help you realize that it is not as bad as what was said or done, and can help you forgive yourself. However, I advise you to do this only with people you know well, otherwise it can also aggravate tensions ;)

4) Everyone has a role to play in the web of trust

One thing I think is important for people who have multiple characters (I'm one of them), who have been renamed or who are returning after a long absence: for the trust to be there, we have to be honest. This doesn't mean that you have to say "everything", but at least be clear with these aspects, if you are asked. For example, I take time to explain the game to newcomers, and I always feel like I've wasted my time if I find out afterwards that the person already knows the game very well and has pretended to be new. So, if I ask "do you already know the game", answer truthfully, even if you don't need to tell me "who" you've played before. You don't have to give details, you can refuse to give them, but help to make people NOT paranoid by giving the basic information.

Also, when someone talks to me about alt and reroll, and knowing how sensitive the subject can be, I point out that I am one of those people who has multiple characters, and if it makes him uncomfortable, I will limit my interactions with him as much as possible. I'm not going to say who the other characters I play are, though, because that's pointless in most cases, except to confuse those who don't separate character and player, and to sadly spoil those who like good stories. No one knows all the characters I play (even if my friends find out in less than 10 minutes, when I introduce them to a new character, and sometimes without me even speaking :P), but anyone who plays a bit with me is aware that I have several characters and of the ethics I associate with this way of playing (at least, if they are interested... talkative, talkative). This seems to me to be part of the trust that we all build together on the game. I can perfectly well imagine that some people don't like my way of playing; in that case, I might as well know it and avoid annoying them. There are other people to play with.

This also seems vital to me when joining a guild. The guild leader at least, probably officers too, should know that you are playing several characters, from which factions, if the other characters are in other guilds that may be enemies, and be OK with that. Again, you don't have to say the name of the other character(s), but at least present the situation, so as not to give weight later to accusations of treachery or espionage (it will be, if you made it seem like you had only one character involved 100% in the guild).

I give advice in good faith, but I'm not fully naive, I know that many people will want to play both kami and marauder (for example ;) ) and join big guilds on both sides, without having the courage to say so beforehand. My personal experience is that it often ends very badly. So, avoid dramas, talk about it quickly, and if some people tell you "sorry, we don't want someone like that in our guild", leave at that moment, good friends or at least not angry yet. [/b]

In summary?

My personal conviction is: this is a game, and I am here to have a good time with other people. My trust is built up little by little, over time. If I'm in a situation where there is a risk for me, what I offer as trust takes longer to earn, but on the other hand there are plenty of risk-free situations where I can just play with others without any problem. These risk-free activities are precisely the ones that will allow me to know how much trust I can have in the other person, for the other activities.

I don't know if this will help, Fairyfighter, and I am very interested in reading other people's feedback. I am officially someone who has the "naive" stamp on my forehead, and it's very likely that I didn't see all the risks, all the weaknesses in my parades. So your feedback will be useful to me too.

And sorry for writing so much, and in such bad English. I always find it difficult to reduce a complex problem into a few short sentences...

[FR]
je ne peux qu'abonder dans le sens de Zatalyz.
pour moi rien de ce qui se passe dans Ryzom n'est vraiment grave.
Cela n'est bien entendu pas la même chose pour Mes personnages. A ce propos je rappellerai à fairyfighter que Canillia n'a pas oublié la fois où il l'a lâchement abattu avec son fusil alors qu'elle forait l'écorce... ;)

en ce qui concerne le "rename" j'appartiens à la catégorie de ceux qui le font pour des raisons RP. je l'ai fait donc très peut. Par ailleurs il me semble que vous ne pouvez pas le faire autant de fois que vous le voulez.

bref je comprends la position de Fairyfighter mais je ne la partage pas. Si elle était appliquée, elle pourrait brider mon plaisir du jeux.

j'en serais très triste

I understand your point of view and I agree with it to a certain extent.
I just think that restrictions should be used carefully and sparingly.

as far as fun is concerned: i'm always open to it.
[em] sharpen and check my pike [/em]

;) have fun.

le changement de nom est contrairement à ce que vous dites soumis a des règles
Il suffit de lire le code de conduite :

Changement de nom :
... Vous pouvez demander un changement de nom à un CSR pour des raisons telles que le roleplay, un nom attirant les moqueries d’autres joueurs, l'anonymat, etc. (liste non exhaustive). Votre demande doit être motivée et sera validée (ou non) par l'équipe d'assistance. Le nombre maximum de changements de nom d'un personnage dépend du type du compte qui l'héberge :

compte Free to Play : un changement de nom autorisé pour chaque personnage.
compte Premium : un changement de nom autorisé tous les six mois pour chaque personnage.



Si vous avez à vous plaindre d'un personnage pour vol de matériel par exemple, faites un ticket, si le personnage en question change de nom, les CSR savent très bien qui il était avant et (j’espère) seront regardant a l'avenir. Çà m'étonnerais qu'il puisse changer de nom comme ça tous les 3 jours.