'What If' Mechanics: Notoriety
I got to thinking about the nature of quests in most MMOs, and how they're as generic as possible, to appeal to a specific class, or race, or faction. And then I was reading Kevin's Pirates of the Burning Seapost, and got to musing how cool it would be if there were a worldwide system in place to accumulate notoriety.
By that I mean, what if your in-game exploits actually affected the way you're perceived? What if you were such a notorious ganker, for example, that the game suddenly put a reward on your head? What if you logged in one day and found that you were on the Public Enemies list, and other players could receive substantial coin for taking you out? Or the opposite: what if you were widely known for your altruism, and that affected other players' perception of you, to the point where they would see actual physical changes in your avatar, such as a halo of light around your head?
MMOs are great for the shared social experience, but I'd like to see one's actions having a lasting effect in-game, where reputation affects more than your status among NPCs. Is this something that's already in place somewhere?
