Servants: Paid or Not?

[Harroghty]

There are currently a number of humanoid minions available for purchase in the game. Currently, these are either fighting minions (very rare intentionally) or they are slaves (rare because they are really just flavor for a part of the game world). What do people think about there being also some humanoid minions who are more like servants? They would not be meant for combat (lower-level, generic class, no default armor), but would be an RP-driven choice for minion without the RP stigma of a slave.

Is there an interest in these? Should they be restricted to PCs of a certain level or some other qualification? Should they have a program which requires that they be paid on a time-table (maybe every in-game month or quarter or something).

I am looking to do something with the old dwelling minions that just sit there and steal oxygen.

[Lirith]

I like this. There have been a few people I can think of who had one of the slave minions to serve in this purpose that might have chosen something more like this if they’d had the option.
I don’t know how popular they will be, but it’s a good option to have available.
I think they should need to be paid, maybe a few warnings (or requests from the servant to be paid) before they pack up and quit in disgust.

[Enig]

I like the idea a fair bit. Minions are great, but slaves tend to push one pretty heavily towards evil. As a thought, it might be nice to allow higher ranking members of various organizations, chiefly faiths, to be able to hire/requisition lower ranking NPCs, ie. a prelate might be able to 'buy' an initiate to follow them around taking notes, etc.

[George]

I like this idea very much! Thank you.

[Jarah]

I like this idea as well. I can see wizards getting research assistants and such. I also think they should be paid. They could send their person tell "Hey sonso, it's payday. Pay up by tomorrow or I'm going to work for someone else!"

[George]

This gave me a picture. You log in and your unpaid employee is just standing there with its arms crossed and tapping one foot. Servant: Ahem.

[Amira]

I do like the idea and I am for having to pay them. After all if you don't, they are really just slaves. It would be a nice rp option.

[Harroghty]

I have a version of these live for testing with some folks. More to follow.

[Ralthasar]

It'd be neat to have things like a "page" or "squire" npc that can follow knights around as well.

[Narishmar]

Purely from an RP standpoint I think this is a good idea. In my experience with the Golem "Gritt" that Aunwald used to own I personally found a lot of entertainment having a minion that wasn't focused on combat and wasn't quite a "pet" either. Others seemed to be amused by the antics of such RP and such minions would without a doubt add some fun and creative diversity to any number of mundane IC interactions.

EDIT: I'm also all for the idea of paying the minions, it will bring a good sense of realism. I am concerned about how this will be implemented though. Will the minions demand to be paid once every so often depending on your time played? Or will they drain from your bank account overtime? I would hate to see anyone log in to find themselves broke simply because they decided to hire a personal shoe shiner.

[Harroghty]

Payment model is built and works. They prompt your PC for payment face to face.