Quality of life: Character names

"

Charan wrote:

You're citing this as a role playing game but don't want people to have unique names?

Ever met John Smith? No, the other one. No, not him either; the other one.

;)

"

Red_Frostraven wrote:

Why do character names HAVE to be unique?

Perhaps because GGG decided to not want to implement a second (invisible) 'layer' for storing the chars in their database. Maybe as they start, they never imagined how many chars they'll have to manage... ;)
The main problem is, that the charnames are taken to 'address' someone in chat; if they wouldnt be unique, how should the game decide where it should send your messages to? YOU cant tell him. (imagine, not someone from your friendlist, but an unknown char for a trade etc)

One of the things I liked about Diablo 3 is that they automatically add and hide numbers after your name so it's always unique. People can easily find you by name and you ignore the numbers any time it's not necessary, which is virtually always.

For all its flaws, D3 had a few good ideas like that.

Once again: this does NOT work in chat (as it is now). Could be a significant less issue if we'd talk to an account instead of a char (20 times less need of 'uniqueness'), ofc. And maybe, it should not be a complicated change, since it is already 'redirecting' messages from any of your chars as recipient to the one that is online.
Main issue: in the account names are a lot more character options allowed than in char names; I think this would cause a lot more irritations while typing/reading.

What I'd like to see for easier/faster access: self-definable shortcuts to members of your friendlist/guild.

Dive into some other language than English and you'll find plenty of cool names / words, that are not xXxLeggulassxXx

Yeah it's fun going through /whois and seeing all the OG names that haven't logged in over a year.

This game sucks ass in that regard. With no expiration period like D2, there is no way to cycle inactive accounts/character names. Oversight imho, but being a free to play game, I can see it not being a high priority.

There is no real investment in each char. Power players run through multiple characters trying out different builds of the same exile, so I suppose in that regard, finding unique names for each and every one of them would have been a hassle.

What I've done so far is pick some random names to start off with, and when I level them up and feel that they're solid in their build and gear and dedicated, I'll submit a ticket to have a name change.

GGG should just do the blizzard thing and name you Realwolf #937 or whatever.

"

morbo wrote:

Dive into some other language than English and you'll find plenty of cool names / words, that are not xXxLeggulassxXx

Last character I created, the first six names I tried were in German. They were all taken.

I have much better luck in Arabic, though.