Adding marriage - poll about how you find its priority

[StefanPravda]

For starters I'd love the marriage thing even just for the fact of having someone always with me, I don't really care if she would help me or not. Will liven up my cabin. Anything else comes as a bonus.

[jonottawa]

I'd rather not see politics in the game. I play the game in part to escape politics and introducing 21st century SJW orthodoxy into a late stone age game would ruin most of its charm for me. So for that reason, I think introducing marriage is a bad idea.

[Roheline]

I think it's possible to add this feature without it becoming political. I'd like to second for the notion of more complex "bonding relationships" between characters as suggested by Dr. Hossa above. If the relationship isn't directly spelled out, then there's no need to be overly concerned with being PC, as people can fill in the gaps as they like with RP (isn't that what we do anyway?).

I also like the idea of PC's relationships with NPCs going beyond just the "marriage" definition. Maybe an old man comes to live with me and I roleplay it's my aging father. Or a child is an adopted orphan. Or a fellow woman is my sister or my cousin or my weaving apprentice...you get the idea.

Perhaps a feature could be added where if a young man and young woman (either one being the PC) live together for at least one game year, there's some percent chance a baby appears. If some players feel strongly against this, it could even be a toggle on/off option.

To be honest, for me personally it's less important to have the game be a marriage simulator than it is just to have some kind of more complex social interaction so my world feels less empty and lonely. Just the addition of villagers remembering and greeting me made a huge difference, having a complex companion option would be icing on the cake. Even before adding a marriage feature, I would adore it if we occasionally ran into village events like harvest festivals, solstice ceremonies, the weddings of the villagers themselves, etc. Or if the replies to "How's it going" gave more answers than "Fine" - perhaps things like "It's great, we just had a baby born" or "What terrible weather, the crops might fail!" (which could prompt extra gratitude if the PC gifts food) or "Where did you get your fancy axe (shirt/shoes/etc)?" or "I'm fine but you're looking hungry, have some bread!" if the PC is a tribesman/woman with a good relationship with the village and is starving.

[StefanPravda]

Since when marriage is something political? Let's leave out 2020 drama out of this, this is a game in another period of time. The elks should decide what to add, if they decide to add something, based on what happened then, aka history, not politics.

I personally definitely want somekind of marriage and even the possibility to have toddlers, even if they will never grow up. For an added challenge and for the fun of it. Since little cubs have been implemented in the game, why not have a few kids too.

[jonottawa]

Since when marriage is something political? Let's leave out 2020 drama out of this, this is a game in another period of time. The elks should decide what to add, if they decide to add something, based on what happened then, aka history, not politics.

If they decide to do that they will be called nasty names. Most people who get called those nasty names capitulate to the people doing the name-calling. Rather than that happening, I'd rather see things remain as they are.

[StefanPravda]

If they decide to do that they will be called nasty names.

There is a simple solution for abusing people. It's called banning them. So if someone becomes like that, bye. I don't see why the rest of the people have to be punished because of a small minority of aggressive persons.

[Labtop 215]

If they decide to do that they will be called nasty names.

There is a simple solution for abusing people. It's called banning them. So if someone becomes like that, bye. I don't see why the rest of the people have to be punished because of a small minority of aggressive persons.

I think I get what Jonottawa is getting at.  Social Justice Warriors.  Essentially people that can leverage a ton of bad press and possibly get the game "cancelled" as far as the mainstream is concerned.  Potentially anyway, but not necessarily.

If this did happen, I don't think such a campaign would be successful if Sami sticks to what is historically accurate and doesn't give in by apologizing for doing nothing wrong.  Him and his team would also have to be careful not to fan the flames of outrage if this came to pass, but I think URW would get through the drama unscathed.

Marriage is on the development table, what form it will take, we don't know.

http://www.unrealworld.fi/urw_development.html

[JP_Finn]

Is it still an issue, if people play female player character who wishes to marry a strapping tribesman from nearby, or faraway, village?

Anyway, marriage already was in game in mid ‘00
It was pretty expensive to woo someone. I recall silver jewelry, and some fine hides, then a fine knife. Not sure where the goods went, I’m pretty sure the goods didn’t stay/come with them. Almost like backwards dowry.

@Roheline, the NPC were really chatty in the past. They got converted to more Finn-like communique though. Most of the NPC response lines when translated to Finnish is what you’d hear in Finland, today. “Mustn’t grumble” “ei voi valittaa” (alternate direct translation “can not complain”)
Finnish folks unless talking with immediate family, don’t do ‘small-talk’. It’s short, to-the-point-of-being-blunt/frank”.
No one uses similar phrase to “let me be frank with you:...” in Finland. It’s the default setting.

[Brygun]

Well Frank is also a peoples that founded France, name in relation to the Francsica type blade.

So yeah..

I could see a Finn not wanting to be thought of as a Frank 

[redfish]

I think there are at least two aspects of this,

1. Having and raising a family
This I think this needs to be in the game at a mechanical level anyway, because we're also talking about things like animal husbandry and wildlife having young. It would also be nice to see this for the NPCs; to see children in villages grow up and for them to bond with other village members and also have babies. So ultimately what we're talking about is implementing some life cycle system to the game, which would also apply to human NPCs, and then would also apply to the player. The player should be able to do it, simply because NPCs should be able to do it.

You would find a mate, divide responsibilities, and then I think like others have said, the only real way to manage the baby is for it to happen all of the sudden because there's no good mechanic for it. Perhaps a chance that the wife gets pregnant if you're sleeping in the same room, with the chances going up the more time you spend together, or depending on some emotional relationship between the two of you that is tracked by the game somehow (such as the game determining if you're angry with each other or in positive relations, though I'm not sure how exactly that would be tracked). Then the pregnancy would come to term and there would be a baby.

2. The ceremony
This would be not just finding a mate to bond with, but having some type of ritual to mark the occasion and seal the bond and officially make you married. Generally speaking, I think it would be nice to see things like village festivals and festivities in the game. I can't speak much to what went on in Iron Age Finland, so I'm just thinking of what might go on in a Medieval village, where you might have some festival decorations like wreaths and garlands, and feasts, and music, and singing and dancing. I've been looking at old shepherd's almanacs, and the winter months after the harvest are set aside as a kind of feasting period. Then by May again, you get allusions to festivals again with May wreaths and so on.

The point being that right now it seems that there's no real social life to villages. Like a lot of things in the game, it feels villages exist to be primarily instrumental to gameplay, which is not the wrong focus for the start. But things can be expanded to make villages feel as if they have a life of their own, and then bringing the same mechanics for NPCs to the player also makes sense here.

[Fark]

Marriage would be a welcome addition to the game, but only if it's done without modern politics seeping through. I play the game to be immersed in Iron-age finnish culture and survival, not to be reminded about politics. Why on earth is it controversial to say that it is the norm for men and women to form relationships and become married in the first place? And why would it be considered controversial if it is traditionally implemented in a video game? Makes little sense to me.

As for children if they are ever added, I think the logical process would be to first implement animal husbandry (ie. aging from youth to adult). Obviously, I don't want to have the same speech options with my family as I do with local tribespeople, and preferably I think it would be a good idea for them to initiate conversations from time to time, or even ask for chores/tasks to be performed. I have no idea what we would talk about, but in such a survival game I'm sure there are many philosophical and spiritual ideas that may be talked about (solitude, respect for nature and so on).

I don't think many games actually nail down marriage well however, most of the time your spouse is just like another npc, or you are given a series of "quests" which develop your relationship, only to hit a brick wall at the end with your spouse reassuming their npc role.

[Kaleva]

For starters I'd love the marriage thing even just for the fact of having someone always with me, I don't really care if she would help me or not. Will liven up my cabin. Anything else comes as a bonus.

That's like my real life...