FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
Creating an Avatar
Playing in persistent worlds is more than merely a form of gameplay; it's also a form of expression. The first thing a player does when she joins a persistent world is to create an avatar, or character who represents her in the game, one of the most expressive things she can do. Chapter 5, "Creative and Expressive Play," discusses avatar creation at greater length.
If you're making an online role-playing game that includes traditional avatar attributes such as speed, strength, and so on, consult Chapter 15, "Role-Playing Games," for more information.
Players like to maintain a profile listing some of their intangible attributes in order to identify and describe their avatars to other players. Profiles can include such things as:
■ Unique name or handle. Unless your game allows totally anonymous play, people will need some way of identifying their avatars by name. That way, a player's name can appear in documents, on leader boards, in chat rooms and bulletin boards, and so on.
■ Physical appearance. People clearly need to be able to tell one character from another on the screen. The physical appearance of avatars should be as customizable as you can afford to make it. Even if appearance does not affect gameplay, players identify with and respond to physical appearances.
■ History or experience. Players like to record their characters' achievements for others to see. Records can include experience levels, quests undertaken, kills in battle, or any other accomplishments the player might be proud of. You'll have to decide whether some players will want to keep some of these things private and, if so, whether they should be allowed to.
■ Reputation. The system computes and stores the reputation as a number or symbol based on the player's play or on complaints or praise received about the player. (The eBay auction web site includes a simple reputation system.) Some games use the reputation mechanism as a way of automatically tagging players who frequently take advantage of others. The reputation attribute warns other players, "This person is dangerous" or "This person is trustworthy." Beware, however:
An automated system is subject to abuse through collusion if you don't place limits on it. If you offer a player the opportunity to repair a bad reputation through some apparently virtuous action such as donating money to another character, he can simply donate money repeatedly to a friend, who promptly donates it all back to him.
■ Player autobiography. It's fun for a player to make up a history for his character, a background that introduces that character to others in the world. It's another form of self-expression. However, if children play in your world, you will need to have a real person approve autobiographies for suitability.
You might or might not want to include important gameplay attributes in the player's profile; it depends on how making such information public affects the gameplay. Does allowing a player to hide attributes from the world constitute a legitimate part of gameplay or an unfair advantage? (Consider Monopoly, which does not allow players to hide their property cards under the table but allows everyone to see what all players own.)
