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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My Snowbeast still is pining for the ability to wear dark glasses to make his secret identity complete...|
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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| 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) |
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I had written out a longer post but it was eaten by an annoying ISP bug, so here is the brief version:|
Originally Posted by je_saist
you don't really read the suggestions that flow in the forum do you.
or in other words, since I know this is the only way some people are actually going to understand the bleeding obvious: Ya Rly. |
1) Hero-Con attendees might be more interested in the game, but they don't have any inherently better suggestions than those that appear on the forums.
2) I've read a lot of suggestions and generally only see echoes of suggestions I've seen made since before launch. Being paying since about launch and have put my money where my mouth is every time I pony up my sub fees.
3) A lot of Hero-Con / forum posters are long-term CoH/V players who typically don't want to see the status quo changed. They like having a unique name on their server (and sometimes on every server).
4) The reason why unique names cause problems is that it advantages long-term players because they've had the most chances to obtain them. It disadvantages new players.
5) It is unfair to expect a new player on the first day of their trial to have an English dictionary, a thesaurus, several English / other language dictionaries, a working knowledge of both real and CoH/V history and extensive patience to play the word game that is finding a new available character name.
6) The system doesn't have to look like <charname>@<globalname> at all, but the function should be there. GoRo is expecting to bring in a whole heap of players and that is going to see a rise in the number of people running into problems finding the names they want. There are obviously trade-offs in the unique character names vs non-unique character names issue, but the barrier to new player entry should not be discounted.
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I find it interesting that people think new players are more likely to prioritize being able to have any name they want for their characters as higher than protecting the uniqueness of that name once they generate it. Making names non-unique only attracts more newer players if you believe they wouldn't want the same uniqueness protection we currently have now.|
Originally Posted by Umber
I'm a little surprised at how many folks don't like the idea of tying character names to globals, seems like a fair and equitable solution. Whether it'll happen or not, guess it depends on how Paragon looks at CoH from a big-picture standpoint.
If their focus is upon retention of the existing playerbase they'll probably leave unique names in, might irk too many players when someone who has been using the oh-so-unique "Hyperman" for years suddenly finds other Hypermen running around. If they shift focus to gaining a new audience (which we might see with a big GR push) then something will probably need to be done to make the simpler names available to newcomers. |
I don't think there's any evidence that such a system would be preferred over unique names by a majority of the prospective customers of the game in the long run. If it was the case that this was something only the long-time players liked, and newer players did not like, then by now the vast majority of players - most of which joined the game significantly after launch - would want this reversed. But I haven't seen such a trend. This suggests to me that the current naming system is unlikely to be a significant deterrent to people subscribing to the game (even if the game self-selects people that won't quit over the feature, its statistically unlikely that it would do so in a way that wouldn't at least admit more people that were opposed to the feature but were willing to tolerate it to play the game).
Personally, I think the global@character naming system to be ugly beyond belief myself, and I can think of no palatable alternatives that accomplish the same thing.
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Heck. I'm just going to quote myself from a thread earlier this year discussing nearly the same topic!
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
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It may just be me, but i accually like the fact i have to work hard at finding a good name. The more common ones are taken, so i have to get creative. It's lead me to a few names I'm accually kind of proud of. |
Originally Posted by Celestial_Lord
Would it be possible for NCSoft to release some no longer used character names? Say characters under level 25 on accounts that have been expired for a year or more? Or, better yet, find a way to tie character names to the global name, so everyone can be Captain Bob?
I became inspired to create a new Radiation Blast / Energy Manipulation Blaster tonight. It took me about 45 minutes or so to get the costume right, mostly black with a splash of bright red. When it came time to choose a name, I tried "Celestial Striker," figuring it would be taken. It was. Darn. Okay. How about.... "Atomic Striker?" Taken. Hrm. Okay, let's try... "Celestial Fusion." Taken. Grr. "Atomic Fusion." Taken. "Scarlet Fusion." Taken. Tried a few others. All taken. So, that character I spent 45 minutes putting together a costume for was never created, as I spent a good hour trying to come up with a good available name, only to come up empty handed. Really, it's gotten pretty difficult to come up with a character name that doesn't use leetspeak like C3lesti@l, or throw random letters and / or numbers in like Celestial A 3, or use a foreign language like Latin. Perhaps I'm uncreative. |
And i'd rather not have CO style naming. (everyone can have the same name) I just don't like it. Yeah, IRL, there are tons of Christophers out there, but this isn't RL, it's a game, and i like being the only Carbide, or Zero G, or Savage Raven on my server.
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So you spend a long time working on an outfit likely done with the hopes that it will be unique. Although, you think it would be preferential to have a name that is not. Color me confuzzled.
For me, creating the name, and yes making multiple attempts sometimes, is as much of a challenge and reward as getting that costume just right. I pull out dictionaires, thesauruses, online translaters; anything that will help me come up with a name that fits the theme or concept.
I'm all for releasing names on inactive accounts, but I vote no on tieing names to globals or having duplicates.
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This is the part I don't get. Do people really make that many copies of the same character (I could see on two or three, but all of them?), or do they do this just for the sake of uniqueness? Future server transfers? The practice seems a bit...hoggish.|
Originally Posted by UnSub
3) A lot of Hero-Con / forum posters are long-term CoH/V players who typically don't want to see the status quo changed. They like having a unique name on their server (and sometimes on every server).
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Overall I don't think there's really that much of a problem, though I've not made too many new characters recently. A few past conflicts were worked around pretty easily; Blue Agave --> Blue-Agave, Blue Blazes --> Blu Blazes (which I like better now anyway), Liquid Gold --> Oro Liquido (I agree that language variation is a good option). Some other names I've used for are dictated by theme; if it's an odd theme, unlikely to run into problems.
The "Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)" idea is an interesting one, if it could be done only when a conflict arises and not at other times. Even if it's just "Green Lantern (I)/Green Lantern (II)". I have no idea what coding such a thing would entail (not only teams, but would you have to check each time someone entered a zone? What about the market?)
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Originally Posted by Westley
For some reason this reminded me of Zathras...
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Some, yes. |
Originally Posted by gec72
This is the part I don't get. Do people really make that many copies of the same character (I could see on two or three, but all of them?), or do they do this just for the sake of uniqueness? Future server transfers? The practice seems a bit...hoggish.
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Think "Alternate timeline" or "What if."
For instance, I *do* have Memphis Bill on - well, most servers. Why?
- One is there because it's the original, and no, I'm not deleting him. He's 50, I've enjoyed playing him - and still do.
- Two are there because... well, it IS me. "Name recognition," I suppose, but there on two different servers because I was joining groups with my "signature name," if you will.
- One is there because Dark armor (which fit the character far better) was only available with superstrength to Brutes, so I made (and still play) a "what-if" character. I have a few other "What-ifs," as well, but that has a specific reason.
- One was made when Dark armor became available to tanks.
I have another character (my first 50) on three different servers - one's the original, one's because I got with some friends who wanted to make a theme team the character fit, and one's another server to re-run that character (since the original got to 50 before the GDN, ED, and IOs and I wanted to see how going 1-50 would play out again with that powerset, but with all these other things in play.) So I used the same name.
Neither of these names are ones I think anyone is going to be stomping their feet over not getting.
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Not to be a grammar Nazi here, but I believe that the correct spelling is 'fulgurite'; did you check that one?
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Originally Posted by Obscure Blade
One thing I find helps a lot is to add a title or adjective to the name you want. For example; Stormwraith, Blackstorm, Contamination, and Fulgarite were taken; Lethal Contamination, Mistress Blackstorm, Lady Stormwraith and Fiendish Fulgarite were not.
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"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
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Pretty sure you aren't being a grammar nazi over correcting peoples spelling. You may be a spelling nazi, however. |
Originally Posted by srmalloy
Not to be a grammar Nazi here, but I believe that the correct spelling is 'fulgurite'; did you check that one?
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Ever since I happened to see (probably a glitch) Unicode characters in chat in CoH, I've almost exclusively made characters with names from other languages, partially for getting names easier, and partially for the amusement and extra bit of characterization from making chat binds in the character's native language -- which can be startling when people see them in the chat window. Because extrapolating from the real-world history opens so many options, a lot of mine have Russian backgrounds -- Yadernii Ogon (Ядерный Огонь -- 'Nuclear Fire'), Ledyanoy Kulak (Ледяной Кулак -- 'Ice Fist'), Umstvenniy Ulan (Умственный Улан -- 'Mental Lancer'), BRIGADYR (БРИГАДИР -- 'Taskmaster') and KOMANDYR (КОМАНДИР -- 'Commander'), Ogon Moroza (Огонь Мороза -- 'Fire Frost'), Tenevoy Ogon (Теневой Огонь -- 'Shadow Fire'), etc. Some of them come out hard for people to type, like Zvukovaya Radiatsya (Звуковая Радиация -- 'Sonic Radiation'), but it hasn't affected them getting onto teams. I'd prefer to have the names in Cyrillic in the game, but then I'd never get remote team invitations, because it's so hard to type Unicode characters with a default US installation of Windows.
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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.
And then there's, you know, a name like Volt Spike. Which I snagged for a Spines/Elec Scrapper when the last Issue came out. Metallic spines, obviously. Looks really cool, gotta hand it to the BABster. |
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
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That's what the "Invite" button in the search window is for, or alternatively, "/i $target"
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Originally Posted by srmalloy
I'd prefer to have the names in Cyrillic in the game, but then I'd never get remote team invitations, because it's so hard to type Unicode characters with a default US installation of Windows.
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http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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Stop being such a nazi nazi |
Originally Posted by Morac_Ex_Machina
Pretty sure you aren't being a grammar nazi over correcting peoples spelling. You may be a spelling nazi, however.
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Well said. I've only been playing for 4 years, but I hate to think how hard it is for new players today to find a good name. It was hard enough trying to find a name when CoV launched (when blue side had 2 years to take up the names on the servers). Yes I said it. Some of you might not like it, but that doesn't make it any less true. Which brings me to - |
Originally Posted by UnSub
4) The reason why unique names cause problems is that it advantages long-term players because they've had the most chances to obtain them. It disadvantages new players.
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Originally Posted by UnSub
5) It is unfair to expect a new player on the first day of their trial to have an English dictionary, a thesaurus, several English / other language dictionaries, a working knowledge of both real and CoH/V history and extensive patience to play the word game that is finding a new available character name.
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Does this make you a nazi nazi nazi? Ohnoes! Nazi-recursion!
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Originally Posted by Jophiel
Stop being such a nazi nazi
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@Morac | Twitter
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Please, "appellation nazi" if you will.
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Originally Posted by Jophiel
Stop being such a nazi nazi
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Old players come up with NEW names that haven't been taken all the time. New players can easily do the same.
If you are having trouble coming up with a name, it simply means you aren't being original or creative enough.
I never have a problem. Then again, I also almost always think of my name and check it before doing anything else, so there's that too.
I refer the honourable member to an answer I have given this house previously
Thelonious Monk
Sometimes I want longer names, though. I wanted to make a Warshade named Vampyroteuthis Infernalis (Vampire Squid from Hell), but unfortunately the name is too long 
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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It's not a glitch. The game has supported Unicode for years. When it made the jump to multithreading, it actually prevented people from switching keyboard layouts to type in nin-English languages, but that has been fixed for probably a year now. The game currently supports, displays and allows the typing of Unicode characters, and the Microsoft Language Bar offers keyboard layouts for everybody. And even if it lacks a specific keyboard layout (like Bulgarian Phoenetic - curse you XP!!!), you can download the layout off the 'net (mine is from some dudne named Ilia Dankov).|
Originally Posted by srmalloy
Ever since I happened to see (probably a glitch) Unicode characters in chat in CoH...
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Then again, there isn't much use for Unicode in the game outside of making novelty binds.
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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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Yes, and I sincerely hope they listen to us. I can not stress enough how much I do not want names tied to globals. I like having unique names, I hope that is maintained. I think that if we allowed multiple characters of the same name on a server, it could open up a lot of griefing potential. If someone is upset with you, they could make a character that looks just like yours, name it the same thing, and then go act like a jerk, or mock you in some way. Also, it's just silly to have 50 Captain Awesomes running around a server. |
Originally Posted by The_Chosen
There may be a good chance of this happening again at some point. The question came up during Hero Con in the 'Wouldn't It Be Great If..." panel discussion and the question was posed to the audience with a thundering "YES, we would like to see this happen". They also asked us how we felt about tying names to Globals, so that anyone could have any name (multiple toons with the same character name running around on the same server) and that idea received a resounding NO by just about everyone. So, hopefully, they got the message that we would like to see names freed up but at the same time keep names unique on a server.
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I would much rather see a huge and sweeping purge of names. If someone hasn't had an active account in three years, why are they allowed to keep a name tied up, level 50 or not? I sincerely doubt someone is going to come back after that amount of time.
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I personally dislike CO's system. If you want to see why, go to their new character browser, and type in an easily thought of name. There will probably be at least twenty characters that use it. Also, unless you disable the option, everyone has their name displayed as "stupidlylongmisspelledname@209348209384HAH" Half the chat box is used up just to show the fracking name.
I don't find it terribly hard to come up with interesting names. I sometimes find it difficult to think of an interesting name that actually fits the character I want to make. And for the record, the ten zillion pound gorilla of MMOs also enforces totally unique names. Granted, as a fantasy MMO, names like "Tanislee" make a little more sense. However, you're still faced with coming up with some combination of letters that hasn't been used yet, and that you don't mind having attached to your character forever.
I don't buy the argument that not being able to choose any name you want will drive away new players. Personally, when I first started it became sort of a challenge to find a fitting name that wasn't already taken.
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This is the most succinct and accurate argument against global naming I have seen yet, and I could not agree more. Bravo on this Claws.
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
I don't want to end up being Snowstrike@Claws and Effect because someone decided they have as much right as I do to a name I thought of first.
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@Arwen Darkblade
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Arc ID #86194 "Cry Havoc"
Arc ID #103934 "Dr. Thomas' First Day"
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