Marriages have always been a key part in Tibia - as the community thrives on strong marriages throughout the continent and its many different servers. An actual marriage system is still relatively new. It was on July 1st, 2009 that the Tibia world as we knew it changed.
It was then when players who just waltzed around marrying others every other month were finally put on a stop. The true sense of family had start to begin, and the weddings being held by Llathriel in Ab'Dendriel, Lynda in Thais, and even Ferus in Kazordoon had begin to finally rise. The sense of being with your partner forever and having that "special person" was a true hit in Tibia. But, almost two years later, approaching the next summer update, the importance of family ties is still broken. Sure, you can marry who you wish and be with this person forever, but what about your family? How does it grow? Of course you can start with a guild and having co-leaders having the same surname, and with the possibility of changing character names now, the importance of family ties has become even more prominent. Have you ever seen someone's comment say something about their family? Maybe, to be more exact, say something like:
"My family:
My daughter Cherry-Blossom
My son Everseer
And my son Wargher Blacktome ^^ "
"Proud member of the RDS.
Son of Jack Bonecrusher and Pallinexa :)."
And those are just from one character - our former staff member, Elu Longin, just to name one! Not everyone needs to be married in a game to have a family. Some prefer to look up to others that may consider them "fathers," and others may be advisors and consider others their children. The importance of role playing depends on these kinds of relationships. Sure, someone can just "claim" you are their child, or that they are your parent, but it was the same with marriages before. Having an actual family by implementing an adoption feature and showing a family ties and trees would be essential to the roleplaying push that the MMORPG Tibia needs. To date, there is no proposal to even have this feature become permanent or even be added to the game on the Community Manager Proposal selection. This calls for a major roleplay cry. Enough focusing on balancing the vocations. Enough of the adjusting magic and skills. It's time to bring back the massive multiplayer online role playing game back to where it belongs, and bring it back with the community first. It's time to focus on role playing and community.
Amaranth Family (Rubera)
Henceforth Family (Rubera)
Kosmos Family (Antica)
Family Kyotekisei (Balera)
Calmerian Family (Calmera)
Drunk Family (Calmera)
Family Dragons (Calmera)
Inova Family (Calmera)
Spider Family (Candia)
Family and Friends (Celesta)
Arashi Family (Fidera)
Extended Family (Fidera)
Perfect Family (Fidera)
Chikibbys Family (Fortera)
These are guilds that distinctively share the same surname for the purpose of role playing and being one big "family." Many other guilds consider their guildmates family as it is, whether it be a brother, a sister, a cousin, wife, daughter, son, or husband.
Speaking to a TibiaNews staff member, Blamina, this is what she had to say about marriages and family ties in Tibia.
"Since marriage and divorce gives an achievement, there is not much room for family ties anyways.
First guild I was in was a Mexican guild. They only invited me because they needed a vice. Then it turned out, that they all were very fond of ingame families. The leader and a vice were my first ingame sons and at least one of them, Xool Overlord, still plays. We don't really roleplay though, not in the sense "roleplayers" use this word. One of my "sisters", Iris Danfordiae, has put it like this: "I don't roleplay, except if it's about chocolate." My ingame mother, Zazzedel, used to tuck me in bed though and give me a cup of hot cocoa. So maybe we used to roleplay chocolate and family.
Like I said earlier, we don't do that anymore. I still have ingame sons though, but Napoleona Blanaparte married one of them, because we both wanted to get on the wedding isle. I would never divorce for an achievement though."
Although it may seem like many Tibians are married, and everywhere you go you may see a wedding band sitting in a house, or go to a character's page and they are married and have a spouse, only 2.24% of all characters are married. Only 1.62% of male characters are married, while 5.18% of female characters are married. And, of all married characters, 60% are male, and 40% are female.
So, what's this mean? Does this mean that CipSoft shouldn't focus on family ties, children, family trees, etc. because not many players seem to be focusing on the marriage part of Tibia anyway?
Well, no.
To be honest, especially now - players are needing something to consider the game a roleplaying game again. With the flash update coming up, many are making comparisons to World of Warcraft, or other MMORPGs, and Tibia, which was a semi-stronghold of roleplaying, is losing its roots and straying from where it belongs. There's talk about how it could be fixed and what to do about it, and honestly, one of the few things to do that would be simple and spark player's eyes once more would be a family system. The importance of family ties is imminent.
Do you have a family? A wife? A son? A brother? A husband? A sister? Grandparents? Do you think the importance of family ties could effect roleplaying as we know it, and only improve community aspects? Let us know on our forum, and let's press for a new way to look at Tibia in the future!
