A formal pronouncement of (ingame) marriage
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 29th 2007 at 7:30PM
Rezist has an interesting idea on the forums. We've already seen lots of ingame marriages happen, just for fun, but what if the marriage process ingame was formalized? Right now, you can buy a tux and a dress and pretend to get married, but what if the tabard vendor also sold a marriage license, so that you could formally connect two characters in marriage? Of course, it would have to actually mean something-- maybe the two characters could share a bank, or even get some kind of combat bonus when they were grouped up or near each other. With a Valentine's Day patch coming up in a few months, it might be a fun twist to put in there.On the other hand, marriage itself brings up its own set of problems. Would marriage between people of the same sex be OK? Odds are that's a bomb that Blizzard doesn't want to deal with. And how would divorce work? A formalized ingame marriage could be as messy as marriage in real life if not dealt with properly.
Later in the thread, Nethaera shows up to turn the conversation from RPing in general, and I agree with her-- we're already playing characters here, and there's nothing wrong with doing something cute like this to let two people playing the game show a little affection for one another. But unfortunately, odds are that this is a little too messy an issue for Blizzard to put much work into.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
drbubbles Nov 29th 2007 7:40PM
Mograine and Whistmane:
"Arise my champion!"
"At your side, my lady."
Paul Nov 29th 2007 7:42PM
bow-chicka-wow-wow
Nathan Nov 29th 2007 8:08PM
Mankrik's wife unavailable for comment.
fLUx Nov 29th 2007 8:10PM
Yeh great idea, but the sharing of the bank would be bad - if you split up, how do the items/cash get split up??
The bonus when together would be good though...
Though, I would proberly end up marrying my mate who I quest with alot just to get that bonus! xD
Kahja Nov 30th 2007 10:20AM
New Litigation profession helps decide who gets what. The higher level the profession is, the more you get as a return. The gold fee's for these people are astronomical though so make sure you start saving the day you get married. Also, leveling this profession is done only by "winning" against the litigator hired by the other party involved.
Icepuck Nov 29th 2007 8:11PM
"maybe the two characters could share a bank, or even get some kind of combat bonus when they were grouped up or near each other".... Lamest idea ever, As soon as that happened, everyone would get married just for the bonuses and extras. How many 1 player guilds are ther now cause of Guild Banks.
Would like to see that any bonus is cosmetic or informational only... if your married you get to rename one of your current rings "Wedding Ring" and in yellow text a custom engraved message from your partner. (but allows the ring to keep its combat stats)
Maybe allow instant mail between the two accounts if they are paid for by a shared credit card too.
Icepuck Nov 29th 2007 8:17PM
Just to addd....
If marriage is a buff, everyone will have it... it wont be sepcial.
"Do you love him" "No, I just do it for the buff"
In game marriage is just a player event to either RP a fantasy, or celebrate a real life marriage with their online friends.
Any additional done for marriages has to be either to facilitate such events or mark the event permanently (ie ring engraving idea)
ErsatzPotato Nov 29th 2007 8:27PM
In A Tale in the Desert marriage is a Test [think: very important quest]. Once married there is no divorce and the other player can log on as the spouse's character *without knowing the password*.
Not something you do lightly. If the other player steals everything you own or even suicides your toon, the GMs won't fix it. A lot of players have second accounts and marry their mule.
That obviously wouldn't work in WoW, but some formal but useless version would be good for the RP crowd. A short quest to get a marriage certificate to stick in the bank. Maybe a small one hour buff for a wedding party of ten. Any lasting buff or effect would cause too many problems.
"rename one of your current rings "Wedding Ring" and in yellow text a custom engraved message from your partner. (but allows the ring to keep its combat stats)"
I like the engraving idea, though maybe not it being renamed.
Zeplar Nov 29th 2007 8:53PM
In Booty Bay there are four or five wedding rings already. Unfortunately, they all have lame tooltips ("small but nice" and for cubit zirconium "she'll never know..." or some such). The only ring with a positive tooltip is "The Rock" ("It's Huge!") but that costs 80g. Blizzard needs to add just a regular "Diamond Wedding Band" ("")
p51baby Nov 29th 2007 9:04PM
Just adding onto what some people are suggesting already. Perhaps a special Valentine's epic questline only available during February along the lines of the hunter/priest epic quest, but intended to be done in pairs (if there are more than one in the party, then the quest fails). At the end of the quest, each person gets an epic ring (class specific) that has a yellow text saying who you are "married" to in order to finish the quest. That should be an incentive for both RPers and non-RPers. ;)
JMCampbell Nov 29th 2007 9:49PM
Then it would be hilarious when they find an upgrade ring and Dis their wedding ring!
"I'm sorry, honey. I think I dropped it down the drain....
but look at the bonus this one gives!"
Delta Nov 29th 2007 10:13PM
Meh, Ragnarok Online had that whole marriage thing you can do complete with the dress and all that, used to always get the /tells in Prontera with stabbymcstabs is to wed merchantczar or something stupidly similar. The concept is cute, but it just doesn't gel with a game like World of Warcraft unless you're on the RP servers, and even then it's still silly.
Sean Riley Nov 29th 2007 10:15PM
Randomly, if they did do the formal wedding thing, I'd prefer, instead of a wedding ring as uniform thing, for each race to get its own version: While humans may have a wedding ring, orcs may (as an example) have a wedding trinket. Tauren may have a wedding cloak. (OK, I can't see many more options than ring, trinket or cloak unless you also have tabard in there, but how many people will give up their guild tabard?)
And if you marry outside your race? You get your partner's particular wedding commitment. So you really get your item based on who you marry, not whom you are.
Girl Meets WoW Nov 30th 2007 1:26AM
So... my boy plays a male dwarf warrior, and I play a tiny white-bearded gnome mage. While I'm all for gay marriage, having my *own* would just be weird.
But I'd probably do it for a PvE buff, because I'm a min/maxing obsessive.
Seperioth Nov 30th 2007 1:54AM
ummm why do you need anything if you get "married"?
Just a title would be cool to most. Like when you get the marriage lisence.. have a text box that you can put your characters "last name" into it. EG. Tattoo Smith and Tonny Smith.
As for the same sex thing.. thats kind of dumb.. there would be no trouble allowing that.. the gay bashers would be upset, but it goes on in RL and no one cares.
Ingame males and females do hug and kiss emotes to their respective sex all the time. Anytime that i've seen has been a joke between friends.
This would be easy to implement and their would be no ramifications.
Ryan Carter Nov 30th 2007 1:54AM
So dualboxing would be off limits? Sorry, really...
Fizzl Nov 30th 2007 4:20AM
In A tail in the Desert there was a ritual of marriage that advanced you through the worship path, you went to an alter with your future spouse and two friends, performed the ritual and pop you were married. And what did marriage bring? A new button on your menu that said 'Log in as my spouse'.
I'd put forward that characters who are married in wow should be able to pass soul bound items to each other.
Mainman Nov 30th 2007 6:29AM
I always liked the hidden love test game in Phantasy Star Online. While in Online mode, you and a character of the opposite gender (regardless of race) had to start the Towards the Future quest together and talk to a new NPC who had appeared next to the bank.
Once you actually started the mission, the idea was that you and your hubby had to stay as close to each other as possible throughout the entire run. Being too far apart set off a loud beeping sound, with the minigame delared failed if you were apart for too long. After the mission, you could return to the NPC for a reward based on how 'compatible' you were, giving out some standard items for people who failed, and a special item/weapon (can't rememberwhich) for the 'winners' that wasn't found anywhere else. The key point of this example is that you could run it with a complete stranger (provided you could listen to each other and make it to the end), and run it several times over with different people.
If this were a quest in WoW, I'd imagine that the two participating characters would receive a special buff, and be told to maintain this buff until they reach the NPC that ends the quest. The buff itself would have a ten second duration, and would cause an AOE effect every 5 seconds that would refresh the buff's duration on nearby party members (but wouldn't refresh their own timer). Cheating via Warlock summoning would be impossible due to a rule that only a party of two could take the quest, and adding or dropping people from the party would mark the quest as 'Failed' in the log.
...Actually, I think I'll pitch this idea on the Suggestions forum and see what happens. Does anyone else like the idea?
Minibro Nov 30th 2007 9:50AM
I laughed - in the last month or so, you guys have put forward permanent death, taxes, and now marriage as possible game modifications. What's next, an incurable wasting disease that permanently diminishes your stats and gives your toon running sores? Why would you want to bring the ills of the real world into this carefully-crafted virtual one? Here's a proposal - we can have in-game marriage when we add lawyering as a profession. Mmmm, lawyers!
monkeyhouse Dec 6th 2007 2:53PM
OMG NO PLEASE NO!
this game is all about getting away from real life and all the hassle and drama!
that is why i'm a giant cow thing being that shoots fricking lightning bolts at walking tress beccause some mad zombie in a tower asked me too!
lets leave marriage in the real world! what's next? adopting orphans all year round? choosing drapes for the guild house? getting yelled at for giving an enchantment to a Belf chick? getting /ignored coming home late from a raid, drunk?
(BTW i love being married and my wife plays WoW, but its nice to get out once in a while, even in the game)