Relationship System



The Relationship System refers to a system in Sword Art Online and ALfheim Online that manages the relationship between players, including possible interaction features.

Types of Relationships

 * Strangers - players who have not listed each other as friends.
 * Friends - players who have listed each other on their friend list.
 * Guild comrades - players who are part of the same guild.
 * Marriage - players who have married in-game.

Strangers
In both Sword Art Online and ALfheim Online, players who have met for the first time cannot see each other's names. Additionally, in Sword Art Online, levels cannot be seen either.

In Sword Art Online, players who are not friends may use an instant message feature, but it will only work if both players are on the same floor and the sender knows the name of the recipient. Additionally, the feature allows only a small number of words to be sent and does not inform the player if the message reached its recipient.

Friends
Players can become friends if one player opens up their menu, selects the "Friends" option and sends a friend request to the other player and the other player accepts the request via a small pop-up window that appears as soon as the request is sent.

In Sword Art Online, friends are able to send short messages to each other without the limitation of having to be on the same floor. Additionally, it is also possible to use a quest reward item, called a «Ring of Angel's Whisper», to send a voice message to a registered friend once per month. Friends are also able to search for each other's location on the map and are able to set up a common inventory tab.

Guild Comrades
In Sword Art Online, in addition to the benefits given to friends, players partying with their guild members receive a slight increase in their stats and have a shared guild inventory.

Marriage
Players can become married if one player opens up their menu, selects the "Marriage" option and sends a marriage request to the other player and the other player accepts the request via a small pop-up window that appears as soon as the request is sent.

Players who have chosen to get married are able to see the status window of their partner at will and have their inventory merged with their partner and the new storage space would be counted as for two people. Additionally, players who are married have a marriage ring equipped on the finger of one of their hands and the ring cannot be removed unless the players divorce.

Marriage is not available in ALfheim Online. However, players who have been married in Sword Art Online and import their avatar data into ALfheim Online also import a hidden "married" status.

Divorce
Players who wish to divorce after getting married must choose one of the methods of item allocation: auto-allocation by value, auto-allocation by percentage, item choosing, to choose how they are going to divide the items in their shared inventory after their inventories are separated. Unconditional divorce may only occur if one of the players chooses the 0% allocation for themselves and 100% for their ex-partner or if one of the players is killed. If such an option is chosen, all items that do not fit within the player's inventory are dropped beside the player. If the two players do not agree on a method of item allocation, the system will not allow them to get divorced.

Trivia

 * In Sword Art Online, few couples went as far as marriage even among the closest couples due to the risk of scams when the players are married, as well as the unbalanced male-female ratio in the game.