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Slavery!!!

So. I've briefly read a discussion on how the pk'n will be influenced by a "Corruption System." Some of the ideas mentioned were: a prison system with a bounty system mechanic, the potential to increase the likelihood of dropping more gear and/or resources when being 'nefarious', a possible reduction in your characters fighting effectiveness, etc.
What about a Slavery system as well with that said prison system/Bounty Hunter mechanic where players could buy said slaves? And maybe, depending on the lvling mechanics, say slaves earn their 'owners' a portion of all exp they earn for a certain amount of time -- depending on the severity of their crimes and how much the owners spent on said players. Or have them collect you a certain amount of a specific type of resource to 'gain' their freedom. Maybe even set up a gladiatorial arena like in Ancient Rome where players could have huge free for allswith their slaves and place bets on their slaves winning. Maybe even in that type of situation allow the slaves also benefit being an arena slave by earning a portion of income generated through this venue, maybe give them a cool gladiator title or gear, etc.
Any thoughts? Friendly and not so friendly comments are welcomed. And has anyone heard of a mechanic like this? I've been outta the mmorpg scene for about 10 years but Im looking to get back into it and it seems a lot of different concepts have been developed and implamented in MMORPGs since my days of playing Asheron's Call and WoW when Lich King just dropped.
Can't wait to get my little gang of friends to one of your servers and get our Jesse James on!

Comments

  • For this game, I think the cat and mouse game is well thought through and enough.
    In general I kind of like parts of where you are going. Skeptikal at first about the slavery part, but the more I read the better the picture got.
    I know there were some prisonmechanics in recent games like ArcheAge, but I never experienced them. I'm still skeptical about the slavery part, simply because I don't like slavery as an active part in a game. If it's bound into the story and the world, okay, but I don't need to see it acted out.
    Which makes me biased, because the gladiatorial scene is nothing else, but I feel like there is a greater purpouse behind it and gives context to arenas. Maybe that way you could add a level of depth to it that wasn't there before.
    On the one hand you have gladiators that just want to fight, and on the other you have those that want to regain their freedom. Seems exciting.
    As long as there are several options/ways how someone can regain their freedom, I think this idea could be quite interesting.
  • Can't say I'm in favour of a slavery system like this, or any system that forces a player to play a highly limiting and specific way. Doesn't sound fun to me, and games are about having fun.
  • Well Silv, they have a prisoner/bounty hunter mechanic that's attached to a corruption system as a means of preventing player killing genocide. And from my understanding, and I could be wrong, players who commit crimes will be placed in jail? for a certain amount of time. Well, instead of being in 'time out' for an hour and a half for killing this person, instead, i can be that person's slave -- assuming the bounty hunter is successful -- and earn them money, exp, gear via the coliseum, and possibly resources as a form of punishment/repayment for my crimes. Because I love to kill other players, and if you get the bounty hunters to capture me, i'd be willing to pay for the crimes i've committed via the methods i mentioned in this thread and the first thread.
  • The bounty hunter role yes, though I believe the prisoner mechanic was just speculation, unless it has been confirmed and I missed it.

    I'm not a fan of the prison mechanic either really, though I can see why a game with open world PvP would need some form of deterrent to limit the amount of PKing. With that being said, I think the increased chances of dropping items <strong>plus</strong> gear and also appearing on the map for all to see so you can't hide are severe enough penalties.

    If the slavery thing was optional then yea, okay if it fits with the game, but I wouldn't want to run around doing someone else's menial tasks just because some wally walked into my AoE fireball attack while I was engaging in PvP with someone else, and got incinerated.
  • Just a tiny correct

    "For all who finished the bountyhunter questline and keep it updated" only those see red players on teh zonemap if they are in the same zone.
  • I don't see how this could be enforced as the player could just log out and delete the enslaved character or simply role up a new one and never play the slave one again. This would mean that the player who bought the slave just wasted hard earned money.
  • Sylentmana, I'm not saying that 'being a slave' has permanent ,negative, or necessarily bad. It could be system that could help decrease incredibly high corruption levels? Tired of being Red all the time and potentially losing all of your things? Want to reduce your corruption without getting ganked? Well try out this mechanic, turn yourself into local authorities and opt into slavery. There then could be a market where everyone who has opt'ed in for slavery are for sale. Guilds of the nodes where the slaves are sold benefit financially from selling 'their slaves'. And prices of slaves would vary depending upon your level, skills, gear, etc. Maybe have it be a questing mechanic that develops the node in its own way. This game claims that server A's story is gonna be eventually diverge from server B's experience as the nodes develop overtime. Well then why not add this mechanic, and if players exploit it, then that mechanic becomes more prevalent in their storyline. I dunno. It's just an idea. The game has hardly any in-game footage apart from whats been provided by Intrepid. And a lot of what has been discussed has mostly been in theory. But I do like their ideas, and I can't wait to see how they turn these various mechanics into a fully functioning game. And I can't wait for them to get their kickstarter going, that way they can generate more funds, acquire more programmers, and get the guts of this game fully flushed out with a few more servers courtesy, hopefully, of google. I can only guess as to how a slavery mechanic could be applied to the game because, honestly, i have know idea how the game functions yet. But I, personally, would opt into slavery. Entering into slavery doesn't necessarily have to be a negative experience. Ill add more ideas on how slavery could be implemented into the game as a fun optional mechanic for players to pursue when they release more content on how the gameplay functions, nodes develop, and how the economy system works. Even if ya'll hate the idea, I think it could be a fun addition to the plethora of ideas they already have. You can make slavery fun. Just because it sucked in the history books doesn't necessarily mean we have to make it suck in the game. It could be a mutually, symbiotic relationship between both "owner" and "slave." And with that, im done.
  • Call it "indentured servitude" and have a timer or amount of work needed to be done before it ends.
  • I used to think along these lines, long, long ago when I was in high school and Ultima Online was available - people would talk to me about how crazy free the game was, and then I started thinking, "Oh man! How open IS this game?! Could I become a drug dealer? Could I keep people as permanent slaves?! Whoa.."

    It was an interesting thought experiment, but there is an inherent problem that can't be solved: a player will always have the right to log off whenever they want, and if you press them hard enough, they will. And then you're left with a disappointed player who may just unsubscribe because their character is stuck in a situation they don't want to be stuck in.

    I understand that in an open sandbox, griefing is unavoidable - but clearly, it needs to be limited in some ways, or else you will lose players. Especially if you're enslaving a player that is well developed. Unless they're willing, they will not want to do what you're imagining, and will simply log off and go to another character or, worse, quit the game entirely.

    Rust and a couple of other games like it have achieved probably the closest one could get to emulating something that is truly 'open' and 'free' - people capture other players in that game and lock them up, enslave them. And for a while, it seemed like players cooperated, up until the point it wasn't fun anymore, and now the meta just seems to be to kill yourself the moment you're captured and start fresh.

    <em>EDIT:</em> After reading your reply, I could totally see a system for reducing corruption where you submit your character to restrictions to another player/town/empire, so long as it's for that express purpose. Maybe it'd make them a 'vassal', where they have to donate a percentage of their resources to the overlord up to a certain amount.

    The more I think about it, actually, the cooler it could be.. although, I personally fear that may be too punishing to corrupted players, and won't allow them the ability to actually exist within the game without always being hunted by large empires.
  • This is really a stupid idea honestly. If someone gets made a slave to another player they are just going to quit the game and that means a subscription is lost. That means lost revenue which means less content gets developed and if too many people quit because Slavery then you will just shut down a game. No use a little more common sense than that. People will not accept Slavery in an online game.
  • Helzbelz. You're acting like I'm saying make this mechanism so detrimental as to make a player quit the game. I'm not saying that at ALL. What I AM saying, since I, personally, like to grief other players occasionally, is to have multiple options for players who enjoys traveling on the road of murder and mayhem. I say NAY to being exposed to the same BS penalization mechanic again and again. More importantly, it could add an element of gameplay that "good" players could take advantage of as well as bad players. Before I go into any theory, ya gotta give me a little credit as to there is not much information currently available for me to hypothesis possible mechanics for this game. With that being said, I will now discuss my ideas.

    PK'ED player (Guy who I kill) places a bounty on me because I killed him. Now MY options, as being the hunted now, is either wait for Bounty Hunter (A-Z) to find and kill me for revenge purposes of the recently deceased OR I could turn myself into slavery in that persons guild/node sector and help them not only develop their node but also maybe generate income or guild xp or even xp for the player i killed. This method doesn't have to be entirely detrimental to either party in thus process either. It doesn't have to be permanent. And it doesn't have to be my choice either. Maybe have it be a request system, where I ask the guy I killed whether I could become a slave for him, his node, and guild. Maybe the guy just hates my guts and would rather see my lose my gear, gold and xp than take me in as a slave.

    If a player becomes a 'slave', the owner can 'sell' his services to the highest bidder with the base amount being. This is just one possibility. As for the slave, maybe no detrimental effects occur him personally (I.e. no xp reduction, no stat reduction) with only one positive benefit, (No longer able to be killed by any player without consequence). Now the 'owner' sells his 'slave' at the marketplace. Guild (A-Z) can choose to buy said slave, causing that slave to assist that guild in earning 'xp', developing its node. This can be done, i believe, without making the game unplayable for those who occasionally get that murderous itch and find themselves under the specter of slaveries' evil ways.. I mean, the developers said they are going to make a very strong deterrent for greifin. Why not make that same deterrent not only bad for that player committing the atrocity but at the same time benefit the one being victimized.

    Lastly, if a player wants to use that 'get outta slavery quick card' he/or she could always buy their freedom. And if, lets say, it was a lvl 50 that killed a lvl 10, then by having that lvl 50 buy out of slavery, the lvl 10 would reap the monetary reward. Therefore, even if you are harassed by a high lvl, in the end, you win because you'll be able to use that "buy out" money to buy better gear. Keep it coming people. I really think this idea can work if the concerns y'all keep sending my way are addressed.

    P.S. Ive always like living on the opposite side of the law in morally based games, and I'm well aware of the consequences for every nefarious act. With that being said, my friends and I will be playing this game, and will be exposed to this anti greifing mechanic. Now as a player with that understanding in place, I want to help direct the greifing system to be fair, both to those who're killed, and those doing the killing. Without breaking the game and causing either party to quit playing and paying. Obviously mindless killing needs to be eliminated. If you get too corrupt, maybe slavery is just outta option. Or maybe have different 'tiers' of slavery. Can't wait to see where this game goes.

    P.S.S. To prevent people from abusing this mechanic too often, their could be a timer where, once you've gone through the slavery mechanic, ya have to wait a while before you can use it again. I could definitely see high lvl players with lots of wealth and gear 'buying out' all the time just so they can kill a bunch of people for the hell of it.. Ultimately though, if a high lvl character were to continue to buy out, in a way, he'd be power lvling new players to catch up to his level buy the transference of wealth.

    "Life is a game. Money is how we score."
  • [quote quote=6002]This is really a stupid idea honestly. If someone gets made a slave to another player they are just going to quit the game and that means a subscription is lost. That means lost revenue which means less content gets developed and if too many people quit because Slavery then you will just shut down a game. No use a little more common sense than that. People will not accept Slavery in an online game. [/quote]

    Rust has a form of slavery that players have made themselves: the "master" gives the "slaves" certain things (food, shelter, clothes, weapons), but uses them to attack others and locks them in when they don't need them, and kills one if they get out of line. Now with Rust you can just die spawn randomly rather than back at the bed in the slave pen, but people don't. You can go to another server, but people don't. And thats not even as a punishment, just someone is stronger.
  • [quote quote=6027]<blockquote>
    <div class="d4p-bbt-quote-title"><a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/slavery/#post-6002" rel="nofollow">Helzbelz wrote:</a></div>
    This is really a stupid idea honestly. If someone gets made a slave to another player they are just going to quit the game and that means a subscription is lost. That means lost revenue which means less content gets developed and if too many people quit because Slavery then you will just shut down a game. No use a little more common sense than that. People will not accept Slavery in an online game.
    </blockquote>
    Rust has a form of slavery that players have made themselves: the “master” gives the “slaves” certain things (food, shelter, clothes, weapons), but uses them to attack others and locks them in when they don’t need them, and kills one if they get out of line. Now with Rust you can just die spawn randomly rather than back at the bed in the slave pen, but people don’t. You can go to another server, but people don’t. And thats not even as a punishment, just someone is stronger.

    [/quote]

    Different style of game.
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