[DGD] Relative Naming Problems

[Par Winzell]

elemel at bredband.net wrote:

> I remember trying out Genesis, where I could choose two traits for my
> character. So I went with a green-eyed, blue-eyed adventurer. You
> could go for something similar but ensure that the combination
> [trait 1, trait 2, race] is globally unique. If there is only one
> "bald, scarred orc" in the character database, then it is safe to
> let a player assign a nickname to that character whether it is
> currently in the same room or not, or indeed currently logged on or
> not.
> 
>   > name bald, scarred orc "Jack"
>   You now know the bald, scarred orc as Jack.

For its time, Genesis did indeed implement a truly impressive version of 
this system. I remember having a lot of fun with that. I really admire 
people who experiment with making these systems work, and there are some 
really nice ideas in this thread.

That said, I've come to increasingly feel over the years (well, I had 
arrived at this opinion by 1996 or so) that these description-based 
systems are actually LESS realistic than the ones where you immediately 
see somebody described with an absolute unique name.

What it comes down to is that our brains are unbelievably adept at 
tagging another person. No combination of adjectives like "blue-eyed 
green-haired" even remotely approximates the extreme precision with 
which we're able to memorize a face and recognize it instantly years 
later. In other words, the brain is so good at this kind of pattern that 
it amounts of having a unique identifier for every person you've ever 
met... and if we have unique identifiers anyway, the player's name is 
not really such a bad choice, considering the alternatives.


But then again, I love that you're playing with this stuff, prove me 
wrong! :D