Brainstorming for the Roleplaying Support in WQ:AE

[TommiH]

Hello everyone!

I'm Tommi, a WolfQuest dev. Now that multiplayer is making good progress, we'd like to discuss one aspect of it that's especially close to my heart: roleplaying.

WolfQuest, as I've understood, has a very active roleplaying community, and some of you hopefully see this and can give us some pointers on what kind of RP you like to do, so we can do our best to support that as seamlessly as we can.

From the mechanical standpoint, I've been thinking about the following matters, for instance. (Please note that this is all brainstorming at this stage.)

1) Time progression: WQ Anniversary Edition has a lot more going on, in terms of time, than 2.7 did. There's a day cycle, with each day typically lasting about 20 minutes of play time. I know this is pretty quick for roleplayers. In addition, you now have sleep and hunger meters to worry about, so if you spend a lot of time just chatting and roleplaying your characters, you'll soon get into trouble.

2) Chat, emotes, etc.: There are many typical ways roleplaying is specially supported by the chat system, for example by a distance-based chat or typeable emotes ("/me looks angrily at everyone" etc.).

On top of brainstorming concrete ideas, I'd also like to learn, in general, what kind of roleplaying you like to / would like to be able to do in WolfQuest.

Thanks in advance for your ideas and support!

[シャドウ]

Up the age requirement for Multiplayer for starters, I see some pretty questionable stuff go on a lot in the 2.7 roleplaying servers. Make it so people MUST be 16 instead of 13 to even access multiplayer with text chat. Also try and moderate it as much as you guys can once multiplayer is done to weed out the kids doing rated R/rated M rp on there. Plus people younger than 13 often are told to lie about their age by their parents or lie about their age anyways to get text chat. Younger players don't really know how to behave on there anymore with other people...

•Increase the chat box size and the number of characters for the text character limit since people often have to do multiple messages for more literate roleplaying on 2.7. 4 or 5 lines of text instead of 3 would be helpful.

•Don't censor as many words, only censor bad words, because I remember back in 2.5 you guys didn't even let us give the gender of our wolves in chat and we had to say M or F, or even sometimes led for lad and less for lass. For some reason the word "Prince" is actually censored in 2.7, yet "King", "Queen", and "Princess" is not censored.

•Allow us to add a readable description for our server that players can read before they join our server, so that instead of having to go over our rp rules when people join our servers a bunch of times. We can just put our RP rules in the desc as well as explain what the story is about if we are doing an rp with a specific story. So not just a title for the server that players can read, but a description for the server as well that we can write what the rp is about and what our rules are for people who join.

•Use stricter chat filtering if you can to make it scan for special character bypasses as well, people on 2.7 are using special characters like $, @, !, as well as other language letters to bypass the chat filter currently, last time I was on there, there was not a single server that one or more people were not bypassing the chat to swear in the rp using this technique. Make sure you think of everything and anything when it comes to the filtering to cut back on how much a player can do to break the No Swearing rule.

•Make it so clicking on someone else's wolf can pull up a UI with the description the person wrote for their wolf as well as stats, gender of their avatar, and personality values. It would be nice to just be able to click on someone's avatar or name in the pack stats UI and just pull up a description about their character, instead of us having to go in the chat at the beginning and do our Wolf character's description that way.

•Allow most of the actions that you can target with AI wolves in the game, available for players to do to each other. One of the most awesome things that I seen when playing the WolfQuest: AE, was the emote wheel that you could do so many different things with. It has a lot of great roleplaying potential if you make it all available for players in multiplayer too. Something that I should add, if someone does run an action on someone else's character, maybe make the action cancel if someone moves their avatar so that it can't be used to annoy people as much.

•Keep your older players in mind, don't just focus on the children. You guys may not realize it, but you use to have a lot of people who enjoyed your game that were actually 17+, not just little kids. Make sure you think about them too, because back in the day it was a good mix of everyone on that game. Now it is mostly little kids in 2.7.

•Allow kick, but keep the system you currently have where you get only so many kicks and on your last kick your server gets hidden from the server lists. The system you have right now works well, since it limits the immature ones who would abuse it, but still enables the honest server hosts to get rid of jerks that enter there servers and start being disruptive.

•Allow actual territory marking in the pack life mode for multiplayer servers. This could help out much if a server was going to have two packs for an rp or just even for realism in the multiplayer servers really. Also if possible make the marked places actually show up on the multiplayer map like the AI packs in single player do.

•Get rid of the option to have a two player server. Many people on 2.7 actually use the 2 player only servers for more inappropriate purposes than just a two person game. Make it no longer an option to have a 2 player server and encourage players to do a private server with their friend if they rather only have two people in it. Instead of allowing people to make public servers that are only two players allowed. I can get into detail about what kind of Inappropriate stuff I am talking about if you guys want, but not going to in this post.

(I will add more if I think of them, here is what I have for now though for you guys. Have a lovely day! )

[TommiH]

Thanks, ShadowMT13, for these very practical tips!

I'd also be curious to learn what kind of RP you've seen and like(d) to play yourself. I understand there's been various levels of realism, for instance, and various ways to use / not use the game's systems to support your RP.

[シャドウ]

Originally posted by TommiH:

Thanks, ShadowMT13, for these very practical tips!

I'd also be curious to learn what kind of RP you've seen and like(d) to play yourself. I understand there's been various levels of realism, for instance, and various ways to use / not use the game's systems to support your RP.

Well I personally prefer ranked pack rp with the classic rp ranks Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Zeta, and Omega. I know real wolves don't have ranks and are a family, not a hierarchy, it's still fun though to play with ranks.

I use to rp a lot on WolfQuest back in the day, but the rp on there just isn't the same anymore and pretty much anything goes and everyone is using the excuse "It's just rp". But the thing is, I don't really find rp fun unless there is some kind of structure within the storyline. I stopped rping on WolfQuest 2.7 around 2019 honestly. I hope the new game will bring back some of the veteran roleplayers like myself who do actually like to rp for real and do care.

As for the various levels of realism and stuff, that use to exist, but now has been thrown out the window unfortunately by most of the players currently on 2.7.

Back in the day it would be like this though:

RP Skill Level: How good you were at rping. There was literate which meant proper grammar longer rp lines, and more advanced vocab. There was Semi-Literate which is like literate, but doesn't really require as much as literate. Then there was illiterate which would be things like "m8 why u biting me" bites back . Which Illiterate honestly kind of bothers me when people rp like that. Because I feel like they aren't even trying.

RP Style: This one was just how you rped, some people used script rp which worked something like this "How are you? I trust your doing well." *Sits down next to packmate as they speak.* . Then there is novel style which literate roleplayers use to use the most which would pretty much be like this The masculine padded along the snow covered land as he scented the air for the herd. Upon picking up on the scent he notified his pack to join him for the hunt "We will target the older cow for this hunt, stay close and be careful." He said to his pack. Novel style rp is more akin to how a book is written.

RP Theme: What the rp was about pretty much. Common themes I use to see the most on WolfQuest back in the day was Ranked Pack RP, Realistic Wolf RP, and Pack Vs Pack RP.

Lastly there was levels of realism which is what you mentioned and seemed to want to know about.

Level of Realism: Realistic, this was no ranks and one or two pack leaders, and the pack functioned more akin to how real packs do in real life. Semi-Realistic, this was basically realistic, but usually used ranks and allowed for LGBTQ+ based characters. Other than that there was unrealistic, these ones typically were the most unorganized of them and didn't really have any way they did things specifically (I don't really like unrealistic myself, because it just doesn't interest me specifically and seems rather messy). Lastly there was Fantasy, which meant you still played as a wolf, but would typically have superpowers, wings sometimes, or were a different race of wolf. (I actually loved these kinds, but for some reason others don't).

That is pretty much the basics to how rp use to go on there. It isn't like that anymore, but hopefully with the arrival of multiplayer to the new one, it will bring back more of the roleplayers who do care, the ones I have fond memories spending night after night playing on there rping with.

It does seem like a lot of rules for the rp community with how things use to be, but at the end of the day it was just fun. A hobby for people to relax and chill with other people, allowing their creativity flow in the form of acting out events as characters they made.

[シャドウ]

I am honestly surprised no one else has replied to this topic yet, usually if it is anything about asking for tips and suggesting features everyone jumps on that. This is actually the first time I have ever been the first to post on a game ideas topic in general. XD

Thank you guys though, for taking your roleplaying community into consideration though, I and I am sure a lot of your other older players who were around for 2.5 appreciate it!

[TommiH]

Thanks again for the breakdown, ShadowMT13, glad to hear you're hoping to get back into roleplaying in WQ:AE!

I'm curious: After the RP about hunting tactics, would you then typically go find some elk in the game and hunt them, or would you simply "pretend" to do that in text as well?

And how would you typically incorporate powers and other fantastical elements into the game? Would you, say, type something like "flies down on the elk like an eagle" and then run and attack the elk normally?

In general, how much value do you think the game mechanics lend to the RP?

Everyone else is welcome to comment on these topics as well, of course!

[シャドウ]

Originally posted by TommiH:

Thanks again for the breakdown, ShadowMT13, glad to hear you're hoping to get back into roleplaying in WQ:AE!

I'm curious: After the RP about hunting tactics, would you then typically go find some elk in the game and hunt them, or would you simply "pretend" to do that in text as well?

And how would you typically incorporate powers and other fantastical elements into the game? Would you, say, type something like "flies down on the elk like an eagle" and then run and attack the elk normally?

In general, how much value do you think the game mechanics lend to the RP?

Everyone else is welcome to comment on these topics as well, of course!

In rp we would actually hunt the real elk herd in the game, not just rp it happening. The pack leader in the rp would legit send people playing as pack members to go bring down a kill for the pack as part of the rp to eat when our health deteriorated over time (In the actual game health bar, not in the rp). We never really just pretended to hunt, which is pretty cool.

Well, typically I myself would usually just do the actual hunting and kill an elk, THEN rp how my character did it with powers. Other people do things differently though sometimes, not everyone did it that way. We did indeed still kill the actual elk though in the game and actually used the hunting mechanics and gameplay that you guys gave us along side our rps.

The game mechanics are actually very useful in rp, it adds more realism and activity so that we are not just sitting around at one of the den sites just typing stuff. We actually move around the map, will hunt the actual elk in the game when rping a hunt, and did use the emotes we had for 2.7 such as play bowing, adverting gaze, rolling over, and wagging the tail to interact with one another while rping.

[Loach]

I said this on the Discord server but I mostly only RolePlayed waayyyyy back in the old days, when Amethyst Mountain was the only episode available and the maximum amount of players in a game were 4 instead of 2.7's 8.

Back then I was a kid and I'd typically run into other kids (from what I remember of our behavior, at least. We all seemed to have the same level of maturity) and a lot of it was treating the whole Amethyst map like it was our playground. The chatbox was mostly used for dialogue, actions or OOC and anything that required actual movement we would act out in game.

If we were doing a pack or loner RP and I was a loner the pack would usually hunt an elk and I would typically sneak into their territory or steal food off their kills (or pretend to, anyways, since it's not like I didn't have low health that required me to eat much).

It's usually go like "Loach caught a scent of something dead on the wind. From the direction it must be in pack territory, but hungry and more than a little curious, she decides to take the risk and investigate."

Then I'd actually move to where the carcass is in scent view and either get found by the pack or type about my wolf eating it (whether I actually ate off the carcass or not would depend on my HP back in those days).

This isn't a very common type of RP game you'd find these days, though. But it's the ones I tend to look for and enjoy the most.

[シャドウ]

Originally posted by Loach:

I said this on the Discord server but I mostly only RolePlayed waayyyyy back in the old days, when Amethyst Mountain was the only episode available and the maximum amount of players in a game were 4 instead of 2.7's 8.

Back then I was a kid and I'd typically run into other kids (from what I remember of our behavior, at least. We all seemed to have the same level of maturity) and a lot of it was treating the whole Amethyst map like it was our playground. The chatbox was mostly used for dialogue, actions or OOC and anything that required actual movement we would act out in game.

Yeah, it is more that people have zero respect on there for others now in the current situation of 2.7's community. Not so much about maturity, people just don't respect others on there anymore, which is why one of the suggestions I made is to up the age requirement for text chat multiplayer and TRY to moderate it regularly. Not sure if you have been on there lately, but it's so bad. XD

I gave up on 2.7 around 2019. But I am hoping for a brighter future with the new game, because it has a lot more to offer and may bring back some of the old days roleplayers. I am willing to give WolfQuest a second chance once more of this game is complete.

Originally posted by Loach:

It's usually go like "Loach caught a scent of something dead on the wind. From the direction it must be in pack territory, but hungry and more than a little curious, she decides to take the risk and investigate."

Then I'd actually move to where the carcass is in scent view and either get found by the pack or type about my wolf eating it (whether I actually ate off the carcass or not would depend on my HP back in those days).

Same here actually. I also would rp this way and add in the actual game mechanics with the rp I was doing. I am glad they are thinking about the roleplayers from their community now!

[TommiH]

Thank you both! This is all very useful info for nailing down the kind of RP we should do our best to support.

[Dinocanid]

I haven't RP'd much since the original wolfquest. I did try in 2.7 though, and I'll explain why I didn't really like it and ultimately just stopped:

1. Limited text chat. Way too many harmless words were censored, making it feel like I had to fight with the filter sometimes just to type (not only MP chat either, same goes for wolf names)

2. Lack of order/streamlining with multiplayer. I know it's been confirmed that server hosting won't be happening, but it'd at least be helpful if sessions were more customizable. When joining a server, have a place where the owner can describe the RP in detail, and what the rules are. That way they don't have to be repeated to every person that hops into the game. I've run into a lot of realism RPs that were just chaotic because there's wasn't any agreement on what is/isn't realistic. A place for the owner to put the rules would help so much with that

3. A "returning" setting. It used to be a huge problem where you'd jump into a public server only to immediately be told to leave (or were kicked), because they were waiting for someone who left to return. Perhaps the server owner can grant a certain permission to a user where their slot is "reserved" until they return. Owners would also be able to revoke their reservation (freeing the slot again) in the event that said member leaves and just doesn't come back.

Another way to do this is to be able to set these slots upon creating a server. So let's say there's the owner and their 4 friends, and they want the remaining slots available to anyone who wants to join. In the MP session creation menu they can add the usernames of their friends to into the slots. So if the server has a max capacity of 10 people, then 6 slots would be left for anyone to join. Just like I mentioned above, the owner can go into the session settings menu at any time and clear out a reserved slot, so once that friend leaves then it's open to anyone.

-----
I also have some suggestions as MP settings:

1. A rank setting. If enabled, the owner can assign ranks/titles to members of the server, which would be visible under their floating username. I say ranks in general because I have seen WQ used to hold non-wolf RPs (warrior cats RPs were big last I checked), so letting the owner assign the rank names themselves instead of through a dropdown would be better.

2. Pack settings for users. I know Pack versus Pack for multiplayer was said to be a possibility for EP3, but what if it happened earlier? A lot of RPs split the players into seperate packs anyway, and it would open up to much more interesting scenarios. With 10 slots, that's enough for players to split into two 5-member packs. Each pack could have their own territory markers, and their pack name floating with their name. In slough creek, each pack could have their own den and set of pups to care for. Whoever reaches the rendezvous point first wins.

In addition to that, users could set themselves as a dispersal (loner) and not be part of either pack. The chat could also be split into local, global, and pack chat.

3. In addition to #2, PvP. I'm not sure if PvP is expected to be added before EP3, but it would be amazing if it was.

4. In the event that it is ever considered far in the future, server hosting. Being able to have a larger server that doesn't close when the host logs off would really being multiplayer to the next level imo. I'm sure people (including myself), would be willing to pay for a pingperfect server or something to have a dedicated space for RP. Dedicated servers can also hold much more players with more reliability than someone's personal PC, which I think is pretty important with a map as large as they are now.

[Dinodogdude209]

Originally posted by Dinocanid:

I haven't RP'd much since the original wolfquest. I did try in 2.7 though, and I'll explain why I didn't really like it and ultimately just stopped:

1. Limited text chat. Way too many harmless words were censored, making it feel like I had to fight with the filter sometimes just to type (not only MP chat either, same goes for wolf names)

2. Lack of order/streamlining with multiplayer. I know it's been confirmed that server hosting won't be happening, but it'd at least be helpful if sessions were more customizable. When joining a server, have a place where the owner can describe the RP in detail, and what the rules are. That way they don't have to be repeated to every person that hops into the game. I've run into a lot of realism RPs that were just chaotic because there's wasn't any agreement on what is/isn't realistic. A place for the owner to put the rules would help so much with that

3. A "returning" setting. It used to be a huge problem where you'd jump into a public server only to immediately be told to leave (or were kicked), because they were waiting for someone who left to return. Perhaps the server owner can grant a certain permission to a user where their slot is "reserved" until they return. Owners would also be able to revoke their reservation (freeing the slot again) in the event that said member leaves and just doesn't come back.

Another way to do this is to be able to set these slots upon creating a server. So let's say there's the owner and their 4 friends, and they want the remaining slots available to anyone who wants to join. In the MP session creation menu they can add the usernames of their friends to into the slots. So if the server has a max capacity of 10 people, then 6 slots would be left for anyone to join. Just like I mentioned above, the owner can go into the session settings menu at any time and clear out a reserved slot, so once that friend leaves then it's open to anyone.

-----
I also have some suggestions as MP settings:

1. A rank setting. If enabled, the owner can assign ranks/titles to members of the server, which would be visible under their floating username. I say ranks in general because I have seen WQ used to hold non-wolf RPs (warrior cats RPs were big last I checked), so letting the owner assign the rank names themselves instead of through a dropdown would be better.

2. Pack settings for users. I know Pack versus Pack for multiplayer was said to be a possibility for EP3, but what if it happened earlier? A lot of RPs split the players into seperate packs anyway, and it would open up to much more interesting scenarios. With 10 slots, that's enough for players to split into two 5-member packs. Each pack could have their own territory markers, and their pack name floating with their name. In slough creek, each pack could have their own den and set of pups to care for. Whoever reaches the rendezvous point first wins.

In addition to that, users could set themselves as a dispersal (loner) and not be part of either pack. The chat could also be split into local, global, and pack chat.

3. In addition to #2, PvP. I'm not sure if PvP is expected to be added before EP3, but it would be amazing if it was.

4. In the event that it is ever considered far in the future, server hosting. Being able to have a larger server that doesn't close when the host logs off would really being multiplayer to the next level imo. I'm sure people (including myself), would be willing to pay for a pingperfect server or something to have a dedicated space for RP. Dedicated servers can also hold much more players with more reliability than someone's personal PC, which I think is pretty important with a map as large as they are now.

I completely agree with most of these ideas, and I think that most of them would help to make roleplays in Anniversary Edition more cohesive and an overall nicer experience. I pretty much completely stopped roleplaying in 2.7 in early 2019, and have not done so since, just because I felt like most people who were still playing 2.7 at that point weren't very good roleplayers, plus the overall WolfQuest RP experience was something that I had simply started to lose interest in. I might consider trying out WolfQuest RPs again if some more things like this are added to multiplayer in Anniversary Edition to help create a more cohesive and fun roleplaying environment. I also definitely hope that dedicated servers can be added to the game someday as well.

[シャドウ]

Originally posted by Dinocanid:

1. A rank setting. If enabled, the owner can assign ranks/titles to members of the server, which would be visible under their floating username. I say ranks in general because I have seen WQ used to hold non-wolf RPs (warrior cats RPs were big last I checked), so letting the owner assign the rank names themselves instead of through a dropdown would be better.

Real packs don't have ranks, so this one likely won't be happening in Multiplayer for WolfQuest since they still want to try and keep it realistic. Because they want to keep the realism of the overall game, is the same reason why they didn't add an option to give your wolves blue eyes either, since real wolves never have blue eyes, that is only a dog thing and is only seen in wolfdogs and regular dogs. Thus they take the realistic aspect to heart it seems and at the end of the day WolfQuest is suppose to be a realistic wolf life simulator.

Of course, I don't know what they have planned, because I am not helping them make the game. But in general, the chances of a ranking system of any kind would be very unlikely seeing as what WQ team is aiming for when making the game. Wolf packs having ranks in real life is a very serious misconception, probably one of the biggest misconceptions that humans have about wolves which some human (especially younger children, which are who WolfQuest is trying to educate through their game) actually still believe. Thus, I doubt WolfQuest will allow this for the purpose of fun, when their other goal is to teach players about wolves as well as make sure the game is enjoyable.

I guess all I am saying here, is best not get your hopes up about that particular thing. Since ranks/titles don't exist in real life wolf packs and likely won't exist as a feature in a game that is meant to educate people about real life wolves.

Or at least I would hope it wouldn't because that would just add on to that particular misconception and one thing I always appreciated about the WQ Devs was that they do care about educating their players as well as making sure the game is fun.

A part of the FAQ on the Forums posted by Koa:

"What is a wolf pack?

A wolf pack is a cohesive family unit consisting of the adult parents and their offspring of the current year, and perhaps the previous year and sometimes two years or more. Wolf parents used to be incorrectly referred to as the "alpha male" and "alpha female", or the "alpha pair", but these terms have been replaced by the more appropriate "breeding male", "breeding female", and "breeding pair”, or simply "parents". The adult parents are usually unrelated, and other unrelated wolves may sometimes join the pack. The acceptance of other wolves into the pack is uncommon, but possible. See also: Wolf Pack Hierarchy for brief explanation and background, Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs for a more detailed and in-depth analysis, and "Alpha" Wolf? for video commentary by Dr. L. David Mech."

The mentioned post on the forums, speaking of Hierarchy. "Wolf Pack Hierarchy".
https://www.wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=942

Figured I should mention this to you, because once upon of time back in the day, I myself actually messaged them about ranks and why that wasn't a thing in the game. This was of course when I was much younger and wasn't made aware that ranks weren't real in wild packs. Having been exposed to movies after movies (Alpha and Omega, Balto 2: Wolf Quest, Narnia, ect.), stories (WhiteFang), and other wolf video games (Feral Heart, ect.) that all added ranks and stuff.

[Loach]

I'm going to agree on ranks to give users a bad idea. The sentiment sounds nice, but I just see a lot of problems and potential abuse with it. We never know what sort of ranks people will give those in their games and they might be inappropriate or may even go against the mission WQ has as a game (ie people using the ranks to give alpha, beta etc to their players).

[TommiH]

Thank you all once more for your input! It's been very valuable.

[Dinocanid]

Originally posted by ShadowMT13:

Originally posted by Dinocanid:

1. A rank setting. If enabled, the owner can assign ranks/titles to members of the server, which would be visible under their floating username. I say ranks in general because I have seen WQ used to hold non-wolf RPs (warrior cats RPs were big last I checked), so letting the owner assign the rank names themselves instead of through a dropdown would be better.

Real packs don't have ranks, so this one likely won't be happening in Multiplayer for WolfQuest since they still want to try and keep it realistic. Because they want to keep the realism of the overall game, is the same reason why they didn't add an option to give your wolves blue eyes either, since real wolves never have blue eyes, that is only a dog thing and is only seen in wolfdogs and regular dogs. Thus they take the realistic aspect to heart it seems and at the end of the day WolfQuest is suppose to be a realistic wolf life simulator.

Of course, I don't know what they have planned, because I am not helping them make the game. But in general, the chances of a ranking system of any kind would be very unlikely seeing as what WQ team is aiming for when making the game. Wolf packs having ranks in real life is a very serious misconception, probably one of the biggest misconceptions that humans have about wolves which some human (especially younger children, which are who WolfQuest is trying to educate through their game) actually still believe. Thus, I doubt WolfQuest will allow this for the purpose of fun, when their other goal is to teach players about wolves as well as make sure the game is enjoyable.

I guess all I am saying here, is best not get your hopes up about that particular thing. Since ranks/titles don't exist in real life wolf packs and likely won't exist as a feature in a game that is meant to educate people about real life wolves.

Or at least I would hope it wouldn't because that would just add on to that particular misconception and one thing I always appreciated about the WQ Devs was that they do care about educating their players as well as making sure the game is fun.

A part of the FAQ on the Forums posted by Koa:

"What is a wolf pack?

A wolf pack is a cohesive family unit consisting of the adult parents and their offspring of the current year, and perhaps the previous year and sometimes two years or more. Wolf parents used to be incorrectly referred to as the "alpha male" and "alpha female", or the "alpha pair", but these terms have been replaced by the more appropriate "breeding male", "breeding female", and "breeding pair”, or simply "parents". The adult parents are usually unrelated, and other unrelated wolves may sometimes join the pack. The acceptance of other wolves into the pack is uncommon, but possible. See also: Wolf Pack Hierarchy for brief explanation and background, Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs for a more detailed and in-depth analysis, and "Alpha" Wolf? for video commentary by Dr. L. David Mech."

The mentioned post on the forums, speaking of Hierarchy. "Wolf Pack Hierarchy".
https://www.wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=942

Figured I should mention this to you, because once upon of time back in the day, I myself actually messaged them about ranks and why that wasn't a thing in the game. This was of course when I was much younger and wasn't made aware that ranks weren't real in wild packs. Having been exposed to movies after movies (Alpha and Omega, Balto 2: Wolf Quest, Narnia, ect.), stories (WhiteFang), and other wolf video games (Feral Heart, ect.) that all added ranks and stuff.

I'm 100% aware wolves don't have ranks, you could've just asked me before making long post about it. I mentioned it because they wanted ideas on what players may want to use in multiplayer RPs. Based on one of the first posts in this thread, Tommi did seem interested in how fantastical RPs are generally played (and ranks are popular in non-realistic RPs)