Character names clashing

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JoannaDark wrote:

Im 100% in favor of unique naming. D2 had it, it was fine.

D2 had it per server, and with account names appended to your visible name.

You could make a character on USWest with the same name as someone on USEast. At which point, you were identified using the account name and the server.

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Player0 wrote:

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mrmath wrote:

I think that preventing someone in game from pretending to be someone else potentially maliciously outweighs any convenience benefit to having someone you know, but not well enough to actually communicate with, be able to find you by character name.

And ironically enough, an account-linked system - what you're advocating against - is the best way to accomplish that.

It's possible for characters to get deleted and someone to snipe a character name, or for people to mistake names and that of someone else. All of these lead to the "maliciousness" you just said is important to avoid.

And yet, it is only when you append the account name to the name of the character that this "maliciousness" becomes virtually impossible.

I think that this is an extreme outlier in terms of outcomes (deleted account name snipe). Also, appending every account name to every char would make handles extremely unwieldy, even if it solves the other problem we created by allowing duplicate character names.

I still fail to see any significant tangible benefit to modifying the current system

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mrmath wrote:

Also, appending every account name to every char would make handles extremely unwieldy, even if it solves the other problem we created by allowing duplicate character names.

This isn't - to me - about solving the issue of duplicate character names. There are some tangible benefits to that, but there are far bigger benefits to account linking in general.

And no, you're incorrect that it would make handles unruly. Handles were not problematic in D2, they're not problematic in STO, they're not problematic in D3, they're not problematic in SC2, etc. etc.

Yes, it does require a little bit of user-friendliness to implement (once again, a reason the devs may not want to do this, but that's something only they can really comment on), but has certainly not proved to be a problem in any of it's dozens of implementations.

I have had a hard time finding variants of my favorite character names already. When PoE releases it will be nigh impossible for people to get their standby character names. I dont think anything as drastic as most of the previous posts really needs to be implemented, but I think that simply allowing two or three word names a la Guildwars 2 would solve most issues. This solution also wouldn't be hard to implement for the devs

I think people are under estimating the difficulty of 2 or 3 word names.

That's going to require restructing the database, modifying XML (or their UI equivalent) files, and modifying parts of the base code used to identify characters.

That, best case scenario, will take a month or more to fully implement and bug test with the help of multiple devs working full time.

Account linking, on the other hand, is much less difficult because characters are already saved by account. That means no database updates (well, possibly some optimization updates), and *potentially* (although not necessarily) minimal programming updates.

It also provides the best features, making it justifiable for more than just "duplicate names."

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Pizzarugi wrote:

So with your logic, I assume the most idiotic person would have a character name of "xXs4wr0n_p0o_fl1ng3rXx"? :P

HAHA! Yes, this person entering a public group I was in would probably cause me to leave.

Nothing will come of this unless a dev actually responds. Which will not happen since they are working on the game.

Mods seriously need to start locking these threads. If it becomes a serious issue after OB, make it then. Or you could just use Latin spelling of names like I do.

I remember back in 98 when having X's before and after names was cool. I personally feel your name is like a title, and multiple people having my name that I took time to research would mean all of my chars would be "Jackel1" through "Jackel9" since I wouldn't care.

To derail the thread more:

I also remember back when "hella" started being said a lot. I thought it was the dumbest thing ever.

nothing is stoping people from making "Name"_X or whatever.

if you are to superficial to deal with a slight variation after your standard name you can go to hell as far as I am concerned.

non-unique names opens up scamming opportunites via imposters.

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FuzzyKittens wrote:

Okay, as an act of good faith, I'm prepared to release one of my reserved names to the OP. The choices are (remember, only one will be released):

Spatula_Failsafe
SchwaffleBerryShortcake (it pains me to offer this one, but if it keeps the peace, so be it)
CareBerry_RainbowCakes

These are all actual (lvl 1) characters, that I planned on using in OB. Generosity, meds, who knows? Either way, this is a one time offer!

Judging by the name. I take it that Careberry_RainbowCakes is a hard core cut throat league face breaker build?

I get as bummed as the next person when the name I want is already snaffled by some
hoozfluffler that just happened to choose it first. As I was saying goodbye to my current facebreaker character, and trying to think of a new name for the OB version (provided I ever acquire the necessary items) a great character name occured to me.

Taken!

I had a back up name in my mind.

Schnaffled!

think. think. think.

Ah ha!

Typity tap tap tap.

*sigh* Taken.

Hmmmmmm. No, too cheesy. Hmpf? Nah, that's a so so name . . .

Oooh. The perfect name for a facebreaker....

ArrGGGHHH! How could it be taken already? Gah.

Well, to be perfectly honest, it wasn't an original name. It was a character name in a popular production*, which is why someone else was able to woozle it before I could.

to the OP - I'm still poking about for just the right name, but when I do find it, playing that character will feel more enjoyable knowing there aren't a gazillion other characters with the same name- which would be the case with many popular names. That's my personal playing bias.

This is just my opinion, and I expect there are others who don't mind a bit if 21,374 people currently playing on the same server share the same exact name as them, so long as they get the clean (no extra characters) version of the name they want. This is also a personal playing bias.

These two biases are diametrically opposed. It isn't an issue of servers, account binding, identity confusion, or snobbishness. Its a preference for playing style, just like respeccing your character at any time is a playing style. One style takes more commitment and thought, the other style is more spur of the moment and less likely to stick around.

Maybe you've had the same character name in every game you've ever played, and now that name is already gone. I understand the frustration - it's happened to me before. Rather than take away someone else's joy at having a unique name, I would rather find another one.

Precedent already has a role in society's morals and legality. Being second place in a race is never as much fun as being the first, but we don't hand out equal place prizes. In my opinion, unique names help build a stronger sense of community. Non unique character names turn players into stat driven widgets - IMO again, other people's perceptions may vary.

In general, things that are worth having take more effort. Things that are more easily obtained hold less long term value. There are exceptions, but the basic concept holds true far more often than it doesn't - and that isn't an opinion.






*-The name I'd so unoriginally chosen for such a character was Tyler_Durden. Now that I've had some time to think about the name, I probably would have tired of it and stopped playing the character.

i got the names i want secured. =P

i like the old D2 way, which is poe, it will encourage people to make some funny names.