An Alternative to Player Marriage

[Aerin92]

EDIT: just saying that I've changed my opinion on the second page after giving it some thought. You can see my new opinion here:

Right so I've been giving it some thought, and I now too don't think it would be a good idea to have only npcs as marriageable. I think in an MMORPG where social interaction with other players is such an integral part of the game, keeping players from marrying each other but letting them marry npc's only would be silly. I guess I'm just afraid they'll implement marriage the same way they did in XI. That was a terrible feature imo. Months of planning? seriously? For a game wedding??

HOWEVER! I think it would be a nice feature to add the option to marry an npc fellow, if/when they ever add them, for the players who feel less inclined to marry a real person.

And it's not any more creepy than having a spouse in a game like Skyrim or Fable. It's not like I'm suggesting we all actually marry a fictional character like that crazy guy and his DS girlfriend lol. Despite what you may think, it's still a roleplaying game and there may come a time when I want my character to have a wife. I don't see why it can't be an npc. However if they're going to add marriage they should add the option to divorce. It'd be pretty hilarious if a player divorced their npc spouse to marry another player. Imagine the interaction with the npc after that lol.

Now obviously I'm not implying that this should be a priority over dungeons and other MMO goodies. But if they're going to add npc fellows eventually anyway, why not add the option? It would be another way to make the player feel more connected to the world. Something that can often be severely lacking in MMO's.

Also I really love the idea from Nix to make it a pact between two people. I wouldn't mind that at all.

OLD OPINION:
I'm reposting what I said in the marriage feedback thread. I can't remember where or when Yoshi said it, but I'm positive he said they were going to add a system similar to npc fellows from XI. Maybe I'm just crazy! o_0

From the thread:
I agree with what earlier people said. Marriage just shouldn't be in the game period. It really doesn't add a whole lot of good. Most of the time it just adds unnecessary drama to the game.

Here's an idea: If marriage will be implemented why not make it so that players can only marry npcs instead of other players. You can still have same-sex marriages(as long as it isn't like dragonage when your party members hate you because you don't swing that way lol). The roleplayers will be happy. No drama. Everybody wins!
I think they could add some sort of system where a player could marry a unique npc. Remember the fellow system in XI? Or even the Path companions.

Make it so that the player can choose the first and last name and what race and gender they want the npc to be, and then have the devs give a unique questline for each gender of each race. That would give enough variety to make the npc stories feel more unique than all of them no matter what gender and race having the same questline like the path companions.

Obviously the you would have to progress through their questline to actually make it possible to romance/marry them, but keep it optional so that if players just want an npc friend instead of a soulmate they can have that.

This imo is the only way marriage can be implemented into an mmo without it turning into a disaster of a feature.


So what do you guys think? If They were going to add a fellow system in the first place why not do something like this and make everyone happy?

If you guys have other possible alternatives to player marriage, feel free to share! I'm just trying to throw some ideas around here.

[Arcell]

Gonna bump this with Nix's post:

I've been thinking on this topic a lot, trying to find better ways to make this work for the entire community without having it crush anyone's toes so-to-speak.

This is my original post from Page#2:

I think they could dodge a lot of bullets if they didn't call it 'marriage' but tried a different name like bonding, handfasting, pairing etc then allowing the same sex union.

I'm not against same sex marriage at all, but it'd kinda shy away from the stigma of folks getting their underwear in a twist over marriage not being shown in a traditional (to them) light.

Personally I would love to see same sex unions, as one poster mentioned earlier; there are a lot of people who play characters that don't properly reflect their r/l gender, so to leave them out of something like this based on aesthetic choice wouldn't be cool.

Reading through this thread gave me an idea, let's say we built on this and instead of it being a marriage in the sense that it's a partnership of two people in love, why not make it so it can be a pact between friends who are sworn to protect each other etc.

Square could advertize it as a Pact / Bonding / Pairing etc, but it would be up to the individual adventurer to define what that pact means, whether you are married to each other or whether you are best friends and so on but for everyone the ceremony would be the same - you would just swear a pact of allegiance to each other, or if it's player controlled then do as you will. Having a ring or amulet to show that you are bonded to another, with their name would be pretty neat too!

The cathedral could tie into this, having it as a place where you can swear your allegiance to each other before the twelve (and the respective priest)

I'm curious on what everyone's thoughts on this are?

For me I think it would be a great solution, I think it could appease those who are against SSM and those who are for since it's up to the individual player to define what their pact means to their bonded partner.

Have a great weekend guys, I'll keep my eyes open on here!

To be honest, this kind of seems like our best bet atm. Using the word marriage is tricky for them as a company so instead of forcing them into an uncomfortable situation we can ask that they do something that would likely make most players happy. They avoid the PR issues, we get a feature without gender restrictions. Everybody wins..

The NPC idea is okay but this allows us to keep the marriage framework and put it on something else.

[Inaaca]

Here's an idea: If marriage will be implemented why not make it so that players can only marry npcs instead of other players. You can still have same-sex marriages(as long as it isn't like dragonage when your party members hate you because you don't swing that way lol). The roleplayers will be happy. No drama. Everybody wins!

I'm sorry.. but no. People want to interact with other people when it comes to that level of intimacy. Marrying a computer character would take in game marriage to a whole new level of sad. Just taking into account the depth of interaction, how could you possibly care as much for an npc as you could for an actual person? You can't even compare the two.

Gonna bump this with Nix's post:

To be honest, this kind of seems like our best bet atm. Using the word marriage is tricky for them as a company so instead of forcing them into an uncomfortable situation we can ask that they do something that would likely make most players happy. They avoid the PR issues, we get a feature without gender restrictions. Everybody wins..

This however, I think is a brilliant idea. Take the concept of marriage but rebrand it something else. Let the definition be up to interpretation and lose all the stigma associated with traditional marriage. Perfect.

[Quesse]

NO THANKS.

SE please focus on more beneficial stuff like more quests, more DoL/H content, more raids, more open dungeons, more areas, more equipment, more player housing, less lag, DirectX 11, getting the character creation tool out, fixing alpha/beta issues.

Just please don't spend any time on this.

[Babydoll]

oh my goodness..no! I do not want to marry a NPC..ever >.<

[Arcell]

NO THANKS.

SE please focus on more beneficial stuff like more quests, more DoL/H content, more raids, more open dungeons, more areas, more equipment, more player housing, less lag, DirectX 11, getting the character creation tool out, fixing alpha/beta issues.

Just please don't spend any time on this.

Well they're already working on a marriage system so it's going to be in one way or another lol.

oh my goodness..no! I do not want to marry a NPC..ever >.<

Agreed but this is also about more than just the OP suggestion, take a look at mine under his. Most seem to be supportive of this idea as the best alternative.

[Shougun]

oh my goodness..no! I do not want to marry a NPC..ever >.<

Skyrim and your addopted children want to have a talk with you...

:P

But for a multiplayer game, it would be quite silly if you could ONLY marry an npc.

However - I think it could be a cool feature if you could marry an npc. Though SE really has a lot of other things to design right now, it really seems like a "later" feature lol (not because it is bad, but just because if they are adding interactive npc content it should probably be in other ways first)

If you want to suggest holding marrying ability until npcs are ready then ok, but I still dont think it would go down well if you could only marry npcs.

[Nix]

Haha thanks Arcell! You are most kind!

I would like to say no to the NPC marrying idea, or atleast leave it optional... It was kinda ok in SWTOR but after a while there were only so many creative ways I could imagine bashing Corso's face with the air-lock door.

If I'm gonna marry anyone ingame, I'm going to marry my husband - atleast then the threats of "Cure me or make your own dang PB&J!" will have a positive effect on my gaming experience.

[Psion]

I enjoy skyrim adopted children.

Enjoy hearing their sob stories and telling them gtfo that is.

[Nix]

I enjoy skyrim adopted children.

Enjoy hearing their sob stories and telling them gtfo that is.

HEARTLESS ! YOU HEARTLESS CUR! (I kid! I kid!)

...it was kinda amusing in a sad way lol D: . I kept wishing my wizardy spouse would just 'get lost' in a dungeon ><