Release Names or Tie to Global
By
Ad Astra,
Posted on: 2009-11-11 12:02 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Agreed. Checking my characters, I've got: Quenya, English, English, Japanese, Arabic, Latin, Russian, Middle English (nice thing about archaic terms: you can say things that would get you generic'd in modern English), Spanish, heraldic terminology, English/Quenya, and Greek.|
Originally Posted by Primal
It amazes me how few people bother with trying out foreign languages for their names. So many languages out there, with wonderful names, and most of them virtually untapped. Strange that we live in an age where we have tons of online resources right there for the searching, yet apparently it's thought better to just try the same old thing, hope for the best, and inevitably be disappointed and discouraged without even trying something else. Even characters that are American through and through can have parents (or distant ancestors) that come from somewhere else, with names that have meaning and provenance. I have characters with names from Arabic (Egyptian and Moroccan), Hebrew, Swahili, and German, and they all sound pretty cool to me.
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The only one I had trouble with was the Latin name: in hindsight, I should have expected that someone in the past five years would use "Panthera Tigris" as the name for a tiger-themed scrapper. I wound up using a junior synonym instead.
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Make it an optional system then.|
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
That has the same problem I have with secret identity ideas in general - almost none of my characters have them. I can count the number of characters who even HAVE identities different from their super ones on the fingers of one hand, and I'd be hard-pressed to find even one among them whose identity is SECRET. As such, this would cause me to fill in a name box that simply doesn't apply. Either that, or I'd end up becoming "Samuel Tow (Samuel Tow)" which... Isn't really to my taste.
I admire the idea, though. It is creative and it tries to use an in-character concept to justify a game system. I'm just not sure I can deal with mandatory secret identities, is all. |
It would be like giving everyone the chance to use a longer name. If you want to be Stratos (which I am sure is taken on most if not all servers), and you find it is taken, you ahve the option to be Doctor Stratos, etc (same as now) OR you can decide that Stratos is your hero name, and will use another name so that you can keep the main one. Thus, you would be Stratos (Mike Augustine).
I think it is a fairly elegant system that is automatically backward compatible as well.
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Agreed. Most of my characters are plant people, mutant cats, cyborgs, undead, robots, giant bugs, or otherwise *really* unsuited to having a secret identity. (Beast Boy: "Take off my mask? But what about my secret identity?" Raven: "What secret identity? You're GREEN!") And for the few that do have secret identities... well, they're *secret.* Kind of defeats the purpose of having a secret alter-ego if you have to wander around wearing a nametag that says: "Hi! My name is Bob Henderson!"
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
That has the same problem I have with secret identity ideas in general - almost none of my characters have them. I can count the number of characters who even HAVE identities different from their super ones on the fingers of one hand, and I'd be hard-pressed to find even one among them whose identity is SECRET. As such, this would cause me to fill in a name box that simply doesn't apply. Either that, or I'd end up becoming "Samuel Tow (Samuel Tow)" which... Isn't really to my taste.
I admire the idea, though. It is creative and it tries to use an in-character concept to justify a game system. I'm just not sure I can deal with mandatory secret identities, is all. |
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Look up a post on my suggestion about his/her suggestion. |
Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
Agreed. Most of my characters are plant people, mutant cats, cyborgs, undead, robots, giant bugs, or otherwise *really* unsuited to having a secret identity. (Beast Boy: "Take off my mask? But what about my secret identity?" Raven: "What secret identity? You're GREEN!") And for the few that do have secret identities... well, they're *secret.* Kind of defeats the purpose of having a secret alter-ego if you have to wander around wearing a nametag that says: "Hi! My name is Bob Henderson!"
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... really?
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Originally Posted by je_saist
The type of person who visits Hero-Con is more likely to be more accepting in changes to the base-gameplay, and are more likely to have better ideas about how the gameplay should evolve.
Hero-Con makes players put their money where their mouth is. The Forums. Don't. |
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Well, put it like that - I can't see it hurting anything presented like that, so I don't see a reason to argue against it.|
Originally Posted by Thirty_Seven
Make it an optional system then.
It would be like giving everyone the chance to use a longer name. If you want to be Stratos (which I am sure is taken on most if not all servers), and you find it is taken, you ahve the option to be Doctor Stratos, etc (same as now) OR you can decide that Stratos is your hero name, and will use another name so that you can keep the main one. Thus, you would be Stratos (Mike Augustine). I think it is a fairly elegant system that is automatically backward compatible as well. |
I do, however, feel compelled to restate a possible problem with this - it DOES give you an elegant solution to having a longer/non-unique name, true, but only if your character is applicable for a secret identity. That sort of puts an incentive out for people to have secret identities, which might end up with them even on characters that don't really work with one.
Case in point: Back when I was making Samuel Tow, I tried a few names. I tried "Sam," and was not surprised it was taken, shocker though it might have been. I tried Samuel, and that too was taken. Working outwards, I eventually got Samuel Tow, which is what I've stuck with pretty much since release. Now, if I hadn't gotten Samuel Tow (no-one would be dumb enough to take it, but for the sake of argument, let's go with it), I would have run out of options. I'd either have had to improvise or, with this secret identity system in place, had to "cheat" and give him a fake secret identity just so I could get the name. The man doesn't NEED a secret identity, but since that offers a direct, tangible benefit, why not fudge something anyway?
I actually don't have a good idea how to make this work, however.
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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.
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you don't really read the suggestions that flow in the forum do you.|
Originally Posted by UnSub
... really?
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or in other words, since I know this is the only way some people are actually going to understand the bleeding obvious: Ya Rly.
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Yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat. I have, let's see... Four characters who all come from the same alternate universe and are all nearly 300 year old master combatants, a blue alien girl heir to great power, a red alien woman born of infernal magic, a giant green Troll woman, a pink bunny with wings and master archery skills, a magical panda, "fallen angel" concept with two missing arms, a missing leg, a missing eye and burned wings, an amorphous blob of cancer cells with a metal helmet, a hideously mutated yellow guy who can make his bones shoot out of his body, a hollow suit of armour animated by 2000-year-old ghost, a dead woman whose spirit currently occupies an artificially-created, grey body... And that's just my heroes, and even then only the ones I can think of.
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Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
Agreed. Most of my characters are plant people, mutant cats, cyborgs, undead, robots, giant bugs, or otherwise *really* unsuited to having a secret identity. (Beast Boy: "Take off my mask? But what about my secret identity?" Raven: "What secret identity? You're GREEN!") And for the few that do have secret identities... well, they're *secret.* Kind of defeats the purpose of having a secret alter-ego if you have to wander around wearing a nametag that says: "Hi! My name is Bob Henderson!"
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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.
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I'd rather they have another name purge on graveyard subscriptions than implement Champion's charactername@playername format. Wouldn't be long before people complained, "There's no good globals left."
Cyclops@Cyclops
Cyclops@RandyBeamer
Cyclops@XXxBooyahxXX
Cyclops@CoinOperatedGirl
Cyclops@YerMumLolz
Cyclops@I'mOnABoatBish
To me, global identity would seem to supercede character identity.
"A book should serve as the axe for the frozen sea within us." - Kafka, in a letter to Oskar Pollak
National Book Month is in October. National Novel Writing Month is November. Slice_O_Pie is mm mmm gewd all year...
I find using two words for a character name helps a lot, in the last month I have added the following to my list of alts:
Metal Spike
Solar Power
Atomic Punk
Stray Shot
Gold Face
Admittedly this is on the Euro servers so it may be slightly easier.
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works for NA servers too. I've said before when making my aviation-themed character how I couldn't get "Ace" or "Barnstormer", so I took both, and LOVE my new name "Ace Barnstormer".|
Originally Posted by Star_Seer
I find using two words for a character name helps a lot, in the last month I have added the following to my list of alts:
Metal Spike Solar Power Atomic Punk Stray Shot Gold Face Admittedly this is on the Euro servers so it may be slightly easier. |
More recently, I kept hitting the wall of taken names when trying to find a name for my new fire/kin. I kept trying names that implied "fire dance". A little out-of-the-box thinking suggested considering "what is fiery in nature, but not necessarily fire?" and "what kinds of dances are there?" I ended up liking the sound of Chili Fandango. So there are still ways around the ordinary name and the sure-to-follow "unavailable" statements.
Btw, "Chili Flamenco" was not taken on Virtue, last I checked. Get it while its hot!
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Just uping the character limit from 20 to 32 could do wonders and be backward compatible.
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Originally Posted by Thirty_Seven
Make it an optional system then.
It would be like giving everyone the chance to use a longer name. If you want to be Stratos (which I am sure is taken on most if not all servers), and you find it is taken, you ahve the option to be Doctor Stratos, etc (same as now) OR you can decide that Stratos is your hero name, and will use another name so that you can keep the main one. Thus, you would be Stratos (Mike Augustine). I think it is a fairly elegant system that is automatically backward compatible as well. |
@Texarkana
@Thexder
Thesaurus. Learn it, love it. That is all.
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
I play surrounded by book shelves. If I'm stuck for a name I scan the spines. Names I've gotten in the last year:
Hasta (Latin for "spear")
Zoolook
Caisson
Talavera
Dolce Vita
Decameron
A friend got Riflewoman just yesterday. This is all on Virtue. I honestly can't remember the last time I didn't get the name I wanted by the second try.
Given the length of time this game has been running, there's probably far more good names tied up by retired level 50s then there are by inactive level 6s, and Paragon won't touch those as long as there's a sane dev left in the building.
[edit] Another friend just logged in and got Stage and Gasket Case on the first try. No good names left? *shrugs*
"He may be arrogant, but he happens to be correct" - Ellis
"The server is full of crazies" - New_Dark_Age
Rainbow Arcana / Diamond D: Legion of Freedom - Virtue
lof.guildportal.com
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If we are going to do that why not lengthen names and given the option to use more special characters?
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Originally Posted by Thirty_Seven
Make it an optional system then.
It would be like giving everyone the chance to use a longer name. If you want to be Stratos (which I am sure is taken on most if not all servers), and you find it is taken, you ahve the option to be Doctor Stratos, etc (same as now) OR you can decide that Stratos is your hero name, and will use another name so that you can keep the main one. Thus, you would be Stratos (Mike Augustine). I think it is a fairly elegant system that is automatically backward compatible as well. |
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
NO NO NO! Under NO circumstances would I ever want to be known as global name@player name. I've seen this in action, and it's fugly. This is one of the quickest ways to make me disregard names in general and overall stop reading chat. Absolutely, positively NO global-appended names. I don't care about name uniqueness, I just don't want the horrible ugliness that is this approach. It looks THAT BAD.
As for name purges, I'm not against running another one, but it won't give you any new names. They ran a purge of characters under 36 on accounts 90 days inactive, and the purge freed up almost nothing. I always say the same thing when people ask for this - the names you want ARE NOT taken by throwaway characters on the accounts of people who left years ago. They're taken up by the kind of characters who won't be de-named anyway. The first purge proved that to evidence, and so the subsequent purges have been level 6-and below. That's where all the freed names were, anyway. And I've never felt names were sparse. OBVIOUS names are, like Something Man (both literally and as an example), but the solution to that is to have a name that is no some combination of your power source, colour, archetype or gender (honourable mention goes to Miss Blaster). It's never really guaranteed, but it's far from impossible. For instance, a couple of days ago I got a name that a friend of mine described as generic. I snatched "Pandala" on Victory, which was taken on Pinnacle, and doing research on it, I see it's not very creative at all. Lots of people have used it in their fiction, and there's even an area that looks like a large plane in Zambia called that. It was also taken on other servers, so it obviously isn't so unique. But you know what? Any name I can get through character creation is unique just by default. It doesn't matter if it's unique because no-one thought of it, or because EVERYONE thought of it but everyone thought it would be taken so no-one bothered to try. As long as it goes through, it's unique enough. In conclusion, I don't mind the occasional name purge as long as it follows the same parameters in the past, and I don't mind non-unique ways, as long as they're implemented in a way that's not ugly and yet makes it clear who the character belongs to (ain't that a catch 22). At the same time, however, I don't see making new names as problematic. It may require some lateral thinking, but good names are far from running out. They gave you a name check at character selection and they gave you the ability to start with the name and work backwards, exactly so you wouldn't end up with a costume and no name to put to it. So if you worry about your name, then start with it. |
This.
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I know the person that has that name on Virtue. Anyway, I normally have few problems snagging the names I want. Of course, I usually have rather unique names or odd spellings; Raina Sylvir, Aysun Tempest.. but I've managed to snag codenames: Niteshadoe, Pyre Curse, and Shadow Charm for example on Virtue.. and Night Lotus and Lady Moonlight on Protector.
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Originally Posted by Sailboat
Penny Dreadful was taken, on every server. (Nice catch, people!) I would have to look further. |
I personally use Japanese a lot, other wise I create Characters that just shouldn't cause conflict.
Doom/Batman in 2012
The Resistance has boobs too, and better hair!
The Resistance has boobs too, and better hair!
First, a caveat: I literally only read the OP's post, none of the many many replies. That said....
I understand that many people play an MMO for a while, get tired of it and shelve it, only to come back to it later. So we need to make sure a name retention policy doesn't burn those folks. However, I think it's fine setting an upper bound. For example, I think it's a safe assumption that if an account has been inactive for a solid uninterrupted 48 months, it's unlikely that player is going to return, and those names should be freed up.
If someone does return after more than 4 years of solid inactivity, it's doubtful they even remember their old characters, let alone feel any sort of attachment to them. It's not like they'd go "oh man, I was SO looking forward to playing this character I made in 2005; I can't believe I lost the name. After 4 years of never even logging in I was prepared to subscribe for the next several years but without that character name I won't do so."
Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.
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Special characters would be great provided there's a limit on which ones are available. The "other MMO" allows pretty unlimited use of special characters and there are a lot of grotesquely ugly and immersion breaking names because of it. Accented characters commonly used in languages like French or German would be nice.
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Originally Posted by Mr. NoPants
If we are going to do that why not lengthen names and given the option to use more special characters?
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"He may be arrogant, but he happens to be correct" - Ellis
"The server is full of crazies" - New_Dark_Age
Rainbow Arcana / Diamond D: Legion of Freedom - Virtue
lof.guildportal.com
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Actually, I'm not against special characters in names IF I can type them on a standard keyboard. I don't mind asterisks or slashes or dashes, but accented characters are NOT something I want to see. I don't have them on my keyboard and even though I could probably pull a German or French layout off the Microsoft Language Bar, I'd have no idea which button corresponded to what anyway.|
Originally Posted by Rainbow Avenger
Special characters would be great provided there's a limit on which ones are available. The "other MMO" allows pretty unlimited use of special characters and there are a lot of grotesquely ugly and immersion breaking names because of it. Accented characters commonly used in languages like French or German would be nice.
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Why no foreign names? Well, let's see you invite Голям Бабаит on your keyboard
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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.
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As mentioned on the first page of this thread, forum-posters and HeroCon attendees are not a good representation of everyone who plays this game. However, I find that concept to be similar to saying that people who vote are not a good representation of the entire population. While either statement may be true, the people voting on decisions (or discussing things with devs/on forums) are the only ones with their opinions out there where others can see them. A strong opposition to an idea is no good if you keep it to yourself.
I am STRONGLY opposed to non-unique names. I like knowing that I'm the only one on my server with a certain character name. Sometimes, I feel proud of my creativity in coming up with a great character name. Other times, I feel like I'm pounding my head on a brick wall when I can't think of anything. When that happens, I just save the character's costume and put the concept under "to be named" in my brain. Most of the time, I come up with a decent name in a couple days. If I can't, I go back to other costumes I've saved and think about using one of those on my current concept character. This usually works, and I come up with a name. I've gotten to the point where, using the methods I've described, I can come up with a name for any given character by the end of the week 90% of the time.
I tend to go through names quickly, since I've got alt-itis out the wazoo, but I still love the unique names. If I had to be Somebody@So-and-So, I don't know that I would stay. There aren't any superheroes in any stories named Somebody@So-and-So. Forcing my characters to use such a name would ruin the feel of the game, and make it feel more gimmicky than a bad sci-fi/horror film.
*Obligatory disclaimer that the above is my opinion stated in as polite a manner as possible. Usual request for responses to be as polite as possible as well.*
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Yeah, I was kind of ambivalent when I first heard of the Other Game's intent to do this; it wasn't until I ran into it in play that I discovered how much I loathed the x@y format. I'd be hard pressed to pick a specific reason why it bugged me so much, but it certainly looks stupid.
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Originally Posted by Lucretia_MacEvil
I tend to go through names quickly, since I've got alt-itis out the wazoo, but I still love the unique names. If I had to be Somebody@So-and-So, I don't know that I would stay. There aren't any superheroes in any stories named Somebody@So-and-So. Forcing my characters to use such a name would ruin the feel of the game, and make it feel more gimmicky than a bad sci-fi/horror film.
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@Mindshadow
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No, it was definitely 90 days - accounts inactive for 90+ days, exactly as was posted.
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Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
^ were they really doing 90+ days inactive? I was under the impression it was much longer.
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One of the things I HATE the most about Cryptic games is this:
Ami Chan@Perfect_Pain said: fkh;sfkdljs;kldjf'sljf'sfj
Dumbest **** ever.