Should friends lists be account-based or character-based?

Here is my proposal regarding in-game social lists, and displaying when players are online. I could definitely see potential for other types of lists, but these are the core ones I think should ideally be implemented.

Lists:

• Friends (character only)
• Account
• Guild
• Trustees
• Blacklist

Before I describe how each list should function, I will say that players should be given the tools to hide any information about themselves from others if they so choose. That includes progress, location, names, characters, etc. This should apply to all lists.

The Friends list would be character-specific. You are simply adding player's character name. It displays when the character is online, and other various information about their progress, maybe how long they have been logged in. (it would be incredible if you implemented a tool to access their information on the leaderboards/armory through the list.)

The Account list are for players who wish to remain in contact regardless of character and/or server. When a player comes online, it shows what server + character they are playing, as well as the various information about the character. Like I said, there should be tools available to hide information that they choose. It would be nice to have characters that your friends do not know about. It's nice to feel completely anonymous at times, and will help with immersion.

Guild lists are just players online that you are sharing a guild with. Like the other lists, allow information to be included about their character.

The Trustee list should be a compiled list of all characters that you are giving Trustee status to, and tools should be included to filter Trustees by types of things they are trusted with.

The Blacklist, pretty self-explanatory. Allow the option to block the player's account that is behind the character if we choose.


Anyway, these ideas really aren't fleshed out, and only stand to provide constructive ideas for others to consider and build upon.

Lastly. I CAN'T WAIT FOR LANDMARK!

Edit: I wanted to say, this does not exclude having groups/raids/parties/whatever from the game, those are a different story. I was trying to keep the lists relevant to friends and such.

That's an intriguing idea. Why not go further, and give us the option to name people on our list as we want, so we can send messages to /tell 1, 2, 3, or some odd name/short hand/nickname? Like a speed dial on a phone.

I want to link account to my friend list, it's easier and it don't take a lot of space.

Easier than having to add every characters.

I don't care about the friends list, but I really would love an account-based ignore feature. If I'm ignoring one of their toons, I want them all on ignore.

Important for my real life friends and I to see all of our respective characters, but reserve the right to only friend one character with people we barely know from in game, or for RP reasons.

While anon is persistent, it did not hide you from ALL /who searches. If I did a /who all Avaen, you would still appear as online if you were, I just couldn't see what zone you were in.

I think GW2's account based system with option to go invisible is perfect.

Yes, I also like the idea you can choose whether to add the account or just accept that person see that character specific to your account.

character by character account-based, but tag the friend listing with the character being played when it was added, and what level (which may not be meaningful in EQN) and what zone the character was in at the time. This information could then be displayed when notifying the player that they've logged on/off;

Some Character (befriended by Alt#5, in Distant Valley at Level 42, 12/30/2013) has logged on.

If you're playing another character, and meet up, you could update that information by just friending them again.

I remember being able to send tells from EQI to EQII at one point, and cross games/servers, so it shouldn't be too difficult to do in EQN. Let's hope they continue the trend. They've said they want EQN: L to really be the gateway to EQN, so I can't imagine they wouldn't include a friend system with it. Possibly a guild system, too. That could be interesting. A whole guild working together on some plots.. hm.

That's what I was kind of thinking when I saw this. You can add them to your friends list as a quick, I've played with this person and had a good experience, But for your real life friends or closer friends you can add them to a more detailed friends list to see if they are on an alt or something.

A perfect example I can give is for all the crafters out there:
If we just do account based Friend list and people can always see if your on an alt or something, Crafts will always get hit up just to log on to another character and help that guy out! It's happen to me every in game, I'm leveling up an alt and someone shoots me a tell they need something made or enchanted and they are always in a hurry! I tell them to give me a min b/c I need to finish a quest or dungeon but like clock work every 3 min I get a tell asking me if I'm still there, if I'm done, and if I'm still coming? Now I'm not trying to be mean but this can get really old fast!

My vote is to cut it up into two sections of friends list, One name based the other account Id based and make it an option!

Liked it would be really cool to climb the "player" in the guild and even friends not only the characters, because there's a time that can be complicated to administer Alts of everybody, do not know if it will be the case EQN, because the mult-class systems. Would also be useful in Landmark, because you could have enabled for the account of a friend can change your things, not only the character specific.

I agree,

There should be

• Ways to mark people in your list for different things like raidgroup, raidgroup2,guildmember, reliable player, crafter. A set of signs you can add on a player in you list, you can give them your own meaning.
• You should be able to take notes.
• There should be a way to link a player with his alts together.
• You should have access to you list from all your characters, to make it more individual add some tabs that devide players in your list by the characters you added them with, by the signs you marked them with ...etc.
• Blocking a player and all alts of course.
• An option for each player for allowing his alts to get added or not individually. (maybe if someone adds you there will be a popup that allows you to also add your alts individually and ofc autosettings)

Friends list: Character Based (Real friends will likely know the alts anyway and will accept a friends request at some "peace time")

Ignore list: Account Based (A jerk behind one character is going to be a jerk behind another). I would also like to add that players not be able to buy/sell from an Ignored players store/stall/ect. Give us a warning if we try to do so. Often, we/I will ignore someone for being a jerk and simply forget about them. I don't want to support their ability to continue being a jerk by shopping/selling to them.

However, we need the ability to set statuses such as DND, and/or Busy.

I agree we never see any great tools or ideas for the friends list but for most of us it's the first thing we check when we log on.

Now if we don't cut it up those poor crafters will always get hit up to log on a character just to craft something, happens to me in every MMO as soon as become that guy who will do it for free or have a rare pattern.

I'd like too see EQN really add some cool tools and filter to the friends list

I'm for number 2. Allow us to have the option. What I really want to see, especially with the life of consequences, is the ability to see anyone on your "anti-friend" list with their alts.

What I mean by this is, lets say I had a bad experience with "Sigfried the Priest of Black Powder" Instead of sticking with the group, he just kept running around the area shooting things and shouting "Pwned j00 newb" to every voxel he destroyed. I may not want to group with any incarnation of said player. I would like to have a way to know that I'm not grouping with his other alt "Gun Happy Jack". (ok, I went a bit tongue in cheek here)

Perhaps I'm asking for an account wide "anti-friend list" of sorts. Ignore works to some extent, but it never squelched every player on the account.

This is really a 'non question' as the solution is implicit in the question itself.

Why not do both, then have a filter to show 'friends made from this character', and if it's ignore, ignore on this character or ignore on all characters.

I really can't fathom why this requires community feedback, it's not as if any solution is going to be far away from my proposal. You wanted feedback both good and bad, so I want to ask, what was the purpose of asking the question, when the solution is to give flexibility?

Agree, make it an option

I think the option should be up to each individual.. If someone only wants their character to show online then it should be up to them.. If someone wants all their characters to show up to friends it should be a option.. What I dont want is it forcing you to show all characters to all people on your friends list or guild roster..

Sometimes I like to make alts where I am not bothered by friends or guildmates..

Yeah, this is definitely a less stressful question. *This* won't break the game for anyone.