06-01-2009, 02:54 PM
My idea is that people will identify with their faction, so that an improvement they helped make possible at Vampire Village Alpha will be seen in the same light as a new hat that they looted from a bag: something that they worked for and earned and can now reap the rewards of.
Rather than placing the reward in their inventory, it's placed on the ground for everyone to see. Possibly it looks like a building. Perhaps a new mine. But they can identify it as a symbol of their personal accomplishment since they helped make it possible.
EVE and World War 2 Online both do something like this. Planetside did, too, but not on any lasting term.
Like I participated in a particularly awesome fight in WW2O a couple days ago, where we saved a German town from capture by the skin of our teeth in a 4 hour battle. Two days later I could log in and see that we still held the town and that's my "Flowing Black Silk Sash". My 4-hour camp basically gave me a town on the map.
Of course, the association isn't that strong because that town doesn't do anything personally for me, now that I helped save it, but in our "Living World" game, there would be some very distinct benefits for saving a town from enemy takeover, or perhaps even just fighting to TRY and save it, even if it ultimately falls. (Your favorite blacksmith is dead, but the blacksmith in the next town appreciates your effort to try and save him.)
Rather than placing the reward in their inventory, it's placed on the ground for everyone to see. Possibly it looks like a building. Perhaps a new mine. But they can identify it as a symbol of their personal accomplishment since they helped make it possible.
EVE and World War 2 Online both do something like this. Planetside did, too, but not on any lasting term.
Like I participated in a particularly awesome fight in WW2O a couple days ago, where we saved a German town from capture by the skin of our teeth in a 4 hour battle. Two days later I could log in and see that we still held the town and that's my "Flowing Black Silk Sash". My 4-hour camp basically gave me a town on the map.
Of course, the association isn't that strong because that town doesn't do anything personally for me, now that I helped save it, but in our "Living World" game, there would be some very distinct benefits for saving a town from enemy takeover, or perhaps even just fighting to TRY and save it, even if it ultimately falls. (Your favorite blacksmith is dead, but the blacksmith in the next town appreciates your effort to try and save him.)