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On Permanence (werewolf and druid)

Isabaal

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
Permanence in a game makes your decisions feel like they matter. It provides a thrill of finality when we are able to make choices that will have permanent effects on our characters. It can provide a definite and desirable game experience...

But...

That only really makes sense when we know what we're getting in to... and I don't just mean on the negative side.

I was excited when I find out I could become a werewolf in the game. That's going to be awesome I thought. Have to be a wolf during the full moon, sure I can do that, no problem. Because being a wolf is going to be awesome, right? Well, as I soon found out being a wolf was really, really, ok. I didn't love it. I barely liked it. It just wasn't for me. Unfortunately it's permanent.

Now sure, you TOLD me it would be permanent. You TOLD me that I would turn into a werewolf on the full moon (did you tell me that would be one day a week? If so I missed it, my bad). I had to click the accept button. And I did. And now there is one day a week that I just don't play because I just don't like being a werewolf. Unfortunately I couldn't have known that without hitting the accept button. Now that I have hit the button I know that werewolf just isn't for me. This puts me in a rough place. I can:

1. Play when I'm stuck as a werewolf, which as I said above, I don't find very enjoyable.
2. Chose not to play a game I really enjoy otherwise one day a week. (This isn't so bad except for when that one day falls on my weekend.)
3. Reroll and re-do all the work I've put into my character.
4. Quit. (Game is way too good for this option.)

One solution to this problem might be to have a short period in which someone can be cured after infection so that they can experience lycanthropy and know if it is for them? After some amount of time as a werewolf give them a 2nd choice point to either abandon the skill line or make it permanent. That way a person can know what they're getting in to.

Or make it possible to cure... but HARD. You want to cure Lycanthropy? Fine. First level it all the way up. Then do this long questline, etc, whatever, ad nausem and presto-chango, not a werewolf anymore.

While the druid "downside" isn't in the game yet (and seems like it might actually be fun) I believe the same concerns and possible solutions apply there.

tldr; we have to make the decision to permanently accept werewolf and druid knowing the "downside" but don't really know if the upside will be worth it without first accepting the permanent change.

Isabaal
 
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