Character names becoming hard to come by

Absotlutly agree. While johnny may say people have the same names in real life, it's not flashed above their head as it is in the game. And given these are superheroes, in comic books most characters have unique names. There have been different people take up the mantle of The Flash, but it's still The Flash. There weren't very many times where there were 2 of them active at the same time.

Actually, even people who have the same name in real life are usually restricted to having the same first name. Having the same last name as someone else, unless you are directly related, is fairly rare and most often occurs with famous people more so than with people you meet in real life. And even THEN, people actually have three names, and I have a really hard time imagining an instance where all three names match up exactly, with the same spelling, ESPECIALLY in English. I was in the same class as a person who shared my name in university, and have had at least five or six doubles of same-first-name classmates throughout school and university. Usually, one retained his first name while the other went by last name..

In a game like this, one name is all you have, and being that we don't have a system for nicknames (aka - Super Man, the Man of Steel), there really is little way to distinguish between different characters of the same name. When it comes to my anecdote above, I rarely have a good idea of what people's characters look like. Bubba has a pic of his in his avatar, sure, but not everyone does that. A lot of people I know in name only from here on the forums, based on their screen name and character list sigs.

And here's something interesting - even if we went the Champions way and followed the Character Name@Global Name ugliness, you still end up with a global name which HAS to be unique. Purely mechanically, SOMETHING has to be unique along the chain, I know I've heard people complain they couldn't use the Global name they wanted, or couldn't change it to the one they wanted because they're limited to one change (for the most part). If Global name will appear in character names, wouldn't that be the next thing to want to make unique?

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

The way I understand CO's current system, to use an example we all seem passably familiar with, the @DaveNSmith can be hidden, so you are only seeing hero names. There is also an autocomplete feature that remembers who you've talked to in the past so you don't have to type all that out.

I only played through the end of CO beta, but I thought the form they had it in right before launch worked beautifully.

I'm sure that if Paragon Studios implemented something similar, they would make the UI just as nice and polished as the rest of the game. They excel in that regard, so that just isn't a worry for me.

This is actually a reasonable suggestion and I'd support it.

I'm sorry you feel the need to call me a liar. I would hope that you would refrain from that in the future.

However, what you describe has nothing to do with unique naming. What you describe is common to both games. Unless drastic changes have been made to CO since the end of closed beta, it would be impossible for people to have those names you describe - Cryptic's name filter would have prevented it, and it was quite draconian in its application.

No doubt people were duplicating the appearance of those characters, but that has nothing to do with the unique naming issue, and exists in CoX. Both games rightfully encourage petitions to report such behavior.

I stand by my statement: I do not see people complaining about the unique naming system on the CO boards. There was a lively debate in both the open and beta forums prior to launch, but now that it is a fait accompli, I do not see people complaining about the system on a daily basis or about problems arising from the system.

If you want to insist on calling me a liar, feel free to PM me some links to specific threads (I doubt we are encouraged to post them on the boards, otherwise I would support my position with links.)

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Well, since it appears we all have stated our positions and stated them well, I say my farewell to this thread. I'm sure there will be another one in a week or two. I'm likely to chime in again to register my opinion, but hopefully we can avoid getting personal with the name-calling next time. Thank you Forum Cartel for keeping the thread active and drawing attention to it through debate. It isn't my thread, but it is an important subject to me.

I'm also thankful to Paragon Studios for having a Suggestion & Ideas sub-forum in the first place. While I am subject to the limits of the existing code, it is gratifying to know that the developers are open to ideas for improvement and change.

I can see that be immersion breaking. However, from what I saw of CO, I never once saw the same name used twice.

Not to say it didn't happen, just that I never saw it.

And even with that type of naming system, I saw names like "To Elite 4 U" o.O

Actually yes it does have everything to do with unique naming. In this game the GM's only have to deal with one person at a time using clone names. In CO the GM's can't keep up with them because there are quite literally hundreds if not thousands of them using the same names.

The truth is they were lax about enforcing the issue during beta because they deleted all of the beta testers characters before it went live. It did nothing to stop the playerbase from creating thousands of new clones the day it went live.

The filter's can only block what's on the list. They can't anticipate every permutation, which is why they fail. They may block Hulk but they may not block H U L K. Then before you know it and can add it to the list there are dozens if not hundreds of H U L K's and each one then needs to be genericed individually. No game has enough GM's to keep up with it.

Had a multi-name policy been enacted before I created her, I would be stuck with my level 50 Tanker "Blue Bunny" instead of "Lapin Lazuli". I have grown very fond of "Lapin Lazuli", because of its cleverness and how well it relates to the character and her costume, and have been complimented many times in-game for it.

If the character were still "Blue Bunny", I'd be far less fond of her, perhaps to the point I never would have gotten her to 50.

So the impact this policy would have on me had it been implemented before, and should it be implemented in the future, is to rob me of the opportunity to come up with a name that means far more, both to me and to the character, than a generic name like "Blue Bunny".

While I'm not saying either way if I want CoH to go the way of CO.

And I admit, I understand where the OP is coming from. Even if many of the posters in this thread do not, or just don't want to.

Who's to say you wouldn't have been fond of Blue Bunny, if you did get that name?

The CO name feature also wouldn't rob you of creating a name like "Lapin Lazuli" at all. In fact, any name you did want to use, which wasn't copyrighted of course, you'd be able to.

I'm saying it. If she was Blue Bunny, I would not be as fond of her as I am. I probably would have deleted her by now.

I have a few other characters I don't like playing, but I'm holding on to because the names illicit a smile from me. Names mean something, and I view CoX's "unique name" system as a sort of creativity filter; if a name is taken, I haven't really taken enough time to let the concept gel in my head, and the name I'm trying for clearly is not the right one.

Funnily enough, in my small town of 2000 odd people my father shared his name with the Catholic Priest. When your first and second names are very common then you do run into clones. And not everyone has 3 names, I don't.

Yeah, that's just the first editable slot. Generic. I save the good stuff for my signature images that need to be resized.

I'm sorry that you are not happy with the naming conventions here. I really am. I on the other hand am quite happy with the status quo.

There are a lot of words in the english language, finding an alternate name should not be that hard.

"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho

I meant to say, how do you know for sure?

That said. I love the name "Dark God". Tried it for my toon, got it. Made me smile.

Decided I'd make the same toon as a different AT as well. "Dark-God". Got it.

Then I wondered, and looked, "DarkGod" was taken.

Did that just make my name less unique?

Does that make the other names I have less unique? Noisemaker? Was suprised it wasn't taken when I got it when Sonic Blast/ powers were introduced.

Now I've rerolled the toon as Traps/Sonic Defender, as I like the concept for it more.

My point being, this isn't a name I got from a thesaurus. I wouldn't call it all that unique. For all I know, I could see it used in a comic tomorrow, then get genericed for it, because it is such a simplistic, comicbook sounding name.

Brand-X. I know, I'm not the first to use this one. But I got it without trying any other variations, when I snagged it (and many variations there of).

Though to the original poster, I do have a suggestion.

If he's adamant about not trying to see if the name is available on other servers, he might want to send the person with the name a tell, see if they are still using it. Or /friend the name, then keep an eye open for it, if it becomes available.

I also wonder if the name he wants to use isn't already copyrighted.

For instance, in a manga I read, there are characters named "Sword" "Lance" "Mace" ...these are also names used by people in CoH. Are they violating copyright using them or are these rare enough not to matter?

Because I've thought about it a lot. Basically every time I see her name in my character selection screen.

If nothing else, her power sets are entirely wrong. If she was "Blue Bunny", she'd need to be /Ice, not /SS.

A quick google search will give you at least 10 name generators that cover different themes. But a name chosen from there looses some of its originality.
Anyway,when i made an illusion controlleer and the name Light was taken I simply put in the name L I G H T. And then i made a fire controler with the name A l e x a n d r a.
Vets have their rewards and names should not be one of them.

Villain, actually.

Honestly, I have to agree on the fact that Vets shouldn't, I repeat, SHOULDN'T get a 'first come, first serve' deal. Just because a person discovered the game before others or has the $$ to afford to play for longer does not mean they should get priority.

As for names, I've had my fair share of trouble but like everyone else has said, generators, translators, dictionaries and Thesaurus's are your friends

and sometimes even the simplest of names are available like surprisingly without even expecting it to be open, a few days I got to name my fire/plant villain Vine Fire or my others like AtomicFlux, Corpse Weaver, Spirit Vine, Wonderhawk, Psychic Haze. I even at one point had a 'Miss Nuclear' and I have only been around for 9 months on and off. Sometimes it just takes a mix up of words or a thesaury to check and see what else is available. Trust me, you tend to be pleasantly surprised by what is available.

I'm... confused by this statement. The naming is already first come, first served, and vet status has nothing to do with it. I mean, in a way yes, vets HAVE had first shot at names since they've had longer to try to GET them, but nothing stops someone who's had the game paid for and installed for all of ten seconds from getting X open name right off the bat.

The only way a vet could get "priority" on any given name at any particular point is for someone to submit a name, and then to have them email every vet (starting with the longest, down to the person who joined two minutes before the new person) asking if THEY wanted the name instead.

See my Guides and Tutorials

At this point it time, no, you probably wont see too many duplicates or triplicates. Five years down the road (granting that CO is still here) I'm pretty sure it will be a lot more common.

Angel Red
"We're heroes. Fighting injustice is the thing we do." ~Rebel Scum