For the party, no. Clutter.
For your target, yes. Immersion.
No one bothers to go first person, zoom in and take note of what the person/thing you are talking to or attacking looks like, but your avatar sure would have a good idea.
I think a target portrait is great for an immersive analog of your avatar's attention.
Class icons being the primary focus of the character plate makes them so cold and impersonal, and reinforces the idea that it is the class that matters more than the player.
Of course, I don't say that to mean that I think character class shouldn't matter. I still firmly beleive that class choice should matter, and that group makeup should matter, and knowing someone's class is still important information that needs to be displayed.
But, at least going by the mock-up that was posted, I would prefer character portraits with a class icon next to the player name, or a color coded bar around their name signifying their class.
Another place where toggles and the ability for players to customize the UI to their liking would solve this issue. Let people who want to see their character's face on their player have that and those who don't give a crud about it can do away with it. Not that difficult of a decision, really.
Thorndeep said:This is something I have no strong feelings about either way. A toggle and letting each person decide would be a great.
Yeah this is one of those things where a toggle is fine. It's a personal immersion vs. UI clutter choice and has almost no effect on the 'shared experience'.
I guess you could get occasions where one player might say "I'll meet you at the guard with the moustache" and, if another player had portraits off, they might have no idea what you are talking about, but it would be pretty rare I guess.
Should it be supported for UI's? I think so. It is minor and some people would love it.
Do I want to see it on the default? No. There are plenty of UI options I don't want to see that people love. I prefer the complete minimalist ideas for the UI. I need just enough UI to control my PC properly.
I don't think we really need to talk about UIs until Beta though.
Kilsin said:This topic has been promoted for my CM content, please continue the discussion and have fun! :)
"Community Debate - Player Portraits in the UI, Yay or nay and why? Join in on the community discussion here: https://seforums.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/13063/player-portraits-in-ui-yea-or-nay#MMORPG#CommunityMatters"
Yay definitely it makes more immersive.