"A Character with this name already exists."

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XCodes wrote:

...... instead of a random noob with no creative ability).

Perfect description for someone who can't come up with a name that is not already taken :-p

I don't see why you care so much about the name of your character, when you yourself said that the names were meaningless. My 2 standards characters have names that I slightly thought about, but my Nemesis Shadow is just called "StabbySlashyCutMan".

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Alysma wrote:

Finding Names for your Characters - List of Resources :-)

/thread =^[.]^=

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sturglemeister wrote:

I like the unique names system. It means that I AM TheGoddamnBatman. And no one can take that away from me.
Also, this thread seems to be one or two people arguing really loudly about something that has been like this since I started, at least, (back in 0.9.2). I really hope GGG o not review their policy on this as one of the worst things to see on entering town is a mass list of the same boring name.
The current method forces either originality, which is well received in the wider community as an example of cleverness, or laziness. By laziness, I mean, TheGoddamnBatman22 kinda jazz.

So, instead of complaining, embrace some originality and creativeness in your online gaming. I NEVER (A little bit of exaggeration, I've seen it once or twice) see this screen unless I'm trying to remake a character and forgot to delete it first.

Again, it is a fallacy to equate perfect uniqueness with any degree of creativity or originality (or even laziness). If you have an idea, ANY idea, then it's not at all unlikely that someone, somewhere else has also had that idea at some point in time, and it almost certainly won't be the case that someone down the line won't come up with that idea independently of your own. There is an entire section of patent law written up to deal with these eventualities in terms of inventions.

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Alysma wrote:

Finding Names for your Characters - List of Resources :-)

Potentially decreases the chances of problems, but does not solve the issue.

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Emjayen wrote:

"

Because as meaningless as character names are, I still have to attribute SOME name to them, and if my first choice is taken then I'm being forced to play some kind of absurd guessing game with a computer instead of smashing zombie faces in.

That's a mere usability issue.

"

In other words, character names are meaningless, but the code of the game treats them as something special, and the conflict is somewhere between annoying and frustrating.

I understand however I fail to see your point. Do you simply want players to be identified by their account names (or within some other global namespace) just so there are no collisions in the character name namespace?

It's a "mere" usability issue that really isn't at all difficult to fix. As for how players can identify each other, account names are certainly one possible solution, at least for the public side. In the code we're probably all identified by ID Numbers regardless.

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Alysma wrote:

"

XCodes wrote:

"

Alysma wrote:

Finding Names for your Characters - List of Resources :-)

Potentially decreases the chances of problems, but does not solve the issue.

Of course, but it's very likely the system won't change, at least not anytime soon. Countless threads like this have been around since the second guy wanted to name a marauder Conan. And then found out that Crixus was already taken, too. So that list is just a more proactive approach :-D

Heh. Just on a lark, I got Amra_The_Lion a moment ago! =^[.]^=

Waaaah, boo hoo, cry cry, whine whine, whinge whinge ....

PoE is like soooo unfair cos Sonic_The_Hedgehog was taken ...





Waaaaaaaah!!!! Sob, sniffle.

@TC: Check your inbox.

I don't get the problem.

If you enjoy the process of naming a character, you can craft a name, and if it's taken you just craft another one because you enjoy the process of naming a character. On top of that, it's easy to accept someone else coming up with the same name first if you consider the uniqueness of a name to be important.

If you think names are totally meaningless, then just input whatever name you want, and if it's taken just add a 666 to the end of it, or a 9642, or whatever number, and there's your meaningless name.

If you want to name yourself after something specific, and somebody else took it, then you can either expand, contract, or mutilate the name until you have what you want (even if nobody else recognizes it), or else hold a grudge against that other guy who took the name and pick a different reference to make.
References, unlike creative naming, are limited by sheer existence (and to a certain extent by popularity), and there is no reason or need for GGG to bother allowing a thousand different shadows to name themselves Drizzt Do'Urden when unique names solves a bunch of chat and identification issues without their having to lift a muscle.