Reputation systems
The world tracks how factions, towns, or individuals regard the player, and reactions shift accordingly: prices, dialogue, quest availability, guard tolerance, faction hostility. Unlike a single morality meter, reputation is plural — you can be the savior of one faction and a war criminal to another, which models social consequence far more believably than a good/evil axis. Designers use reputation to make the world feel like it remembers, to gate content socially rather than mechanically, and to let players occupy nuanced positions. Key decisions: granularity (per-faction, per-settlement, per-NPC), visibility (Fallout: New Vegas's labeled thresholds — 'Vilified', 'Idolized' — make standing legible), decay and repair mechanics (can infamy be laundered?), and disguise interactions. The implementation cost is mostly content: every reputation band needs reactive dialogue to feel real. Pitfall: reputation that only changes vendor prices is bookkeeping; the payoff must be dramatic — doors opening, doors closing. When quantized into named tiers (neutral, friendly, honored, exalted), reputation doubles as a progression track with rewards gated per level — the MMO-style variant.
- Dev effort: Medium
- Timing: Real-time or turn-based
- Common in: rpg, open-world