Hero/Villain Names Tied to Global

Remember that game that failed? Champions Online? They had one thing out of the gate that I thought CoX should implement. The attachment of your global to your hero name, so that it would be impossible to have duplicate names outside of your own characters, and so that you could name your hero whatever you wanted. It wouldn't matter even if you transferred servers.

It might take a bit of re-coding, but I believe it would be less taxing on the servers in the long run because it would eliminate having to check names when you make a character, and it would allow new players to not have to endure the frustration of sitting at the character creation screen, trying in vain to come up with a character name, until, finally they name their character something like Captain Colossal22 because most of the interesting names are taken, and they don't want to have to write a thesis just to create a new and interesting one.

Just my thought. I think it'd be a massive QoL improvement.

100% /unsigned. there is no problem coming up with a name.

No. We don't need to tack our global names to our character names. I *like* the fact that originality is required in naming our characters, and each name is unique. But...if you want to add your global in order to be unoriginal, you *already* have that option. My character name Solicio is already obviously taken, but you could name one of your characters Solicio@Joe_Blow or something similarly hideous. It's already an option. Making it mandatory as they did in CO? No. Freaking. Thanks.

The only way I see this happening is if there's ever a server merge (partial or complete).

I'm never going to vote for this no matter how many times it comes up. It's clunky, fugly system that really cannot be made to work in any way that would satisfy me. The reason for this is because my requirements to support such a system are that it is always invisible and never unambiguous. Those requirements contradict themselves pretty much entirely.

Yes, I've heard the arguments. Hide global name, and just have it technically appended. This creates ambiguity. No, friends lists, name colours and "telephone numbers" appended will not solve this. If I don't SEE anything to tell one Awesome Man from another, it's ambiguous. Even if it doesn't happen much, it WILL happen sooner or later, and the mere possibility that it might is enough for me to dislike the idea.

On the flip side, having people constantly walking around as Samuel Tow@Samuel Tow is incredibly ugly. It's immersion-breaking, it's distracting and it just looks BAD. I WILL NOT support such a system under any form.

Addressing the root problem, itself, good names have not run out. Anyone who is willing to look can still very much find a name that he or she is happy with. The only people who have a legitimate problem are the people who need one specific name and no other name will ever do. For these people, non-unique names are the only solution. However, I have yet to see an implementation of this solution that won't be ugly and/or ambiguous suggested.

Quote:

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 current system is unfair. Let's say you created 'Super Duper Man' back when the game started, and want to transfer to a busier server, like Virtue or Freedom, but some temporary account used your name four months ago and never signed back on. It is now unavailable to anyone forever, and you are forced to either re-name your character, or keep them on their original, dead, server. Great choice, eh?

I don't buy the argument that it forces originality either. How many people just add a number or an extra letter, or use a capital 'I' in place of a small L to get the name they need, or even just butcher a name altogether to get the name they want. I see dozens of them every day. But you know what I see even more of? People not even trying anymore, because all of the REALLY catchy names are taken, both by actual comic book writers or by other players, many of which have quit.

Personal story: I created Joe Blow years ago over on Liberty. Joe Blow was a normal looking, small framed person who just happened to be a SS/WP brute. I typed in the lame and lo and behold, it accepted it! I was thrilled! I played until a little less than a year ago and quit, only to come back a month ago and reactivate. I decided moving to a new server might be the cure for what ailed me, so I came to Virtue via the free character transfer month. Joe Bow was already taken, so initially I was going to leave him on Liberty to collect dust, but a number of my old friends encouraged me to transfer him, so I did. He's now named Joe Blow v1.0. Yep, stupid, but it is as close as I could get to the original name without doing something dumb like eliminating the space between Joe and Blow, or by calling him Joe Blow with a period at the end, or by misspelling his name intentionally (Jo Blo, Joh Bloh...gimme a break.)

The older CoX gets, the more difficult it will be to come up with unique names. Even worse -- if server merges become inevitable, people may find themselves forced to rename characters which they believed had perfect names. This solution is not perfect, but the current system is far worse.

For what it's worth...

Because of free transfers, a guy I play with frequently moved over to another server temporarily to participate in an event. A well-known griefer on Justice immediately took his now-available name on Justice. He is charging two billion influence to give it back.

This isn't right, no matter how you look at things. And this shouldn't be allowed to happen. If names attached to globals keeps this kind of nonsense from occuring (especially if transfers become more commonplace) then I am all for it.

Silliness.

Is it that time of the month again?

No, thanks. Just like every other time this comes up. For exactly the same reasons.

See my Guides and Tutorials

No, the system isn't unfair and /unsigned on non-unique naming.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper While others may feel otherwise, I'd rather CO didn't fail. Not because I like the game, but because I think having a competitor is good for this game. Also, their developer Balseraph is an acquaintance of mine (I'd like to call him "friend", but I'm not sure we were ever really that close), and I'd rather he not need to go looking for a new job

Same here. CO and the upcoming DCUO are driving forces behind advances in CoX. Competition makes for growth.

Definitely no on the Global name thing for the same reasons others have stated.

However I would have no problem with re-introducing the program of freeing up names from inactive accounts. Personally I would say names on a Trial account that lapsed more than a few months ago should be freed up regardless of level (since they are extremely unlikely to come back). For non-Trial accounts make it scale with the length of time inactive, maybe for every 6 months increase it by 10 levels (so 6-months inactive level 10 or lower, 1 year level 20 or lower, 2.5years and all of your characters are at risk).

So, I realize now this subject has been discussed many times before. Searching the forum more thoroughly might have saved me time and you guys frustration. I didn't mean to troll.

Apologies to any and all I have perturbed.

I am very against the Champions Online naming convention.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood Definitely no on the Global name thing for the same reasons others have stated. However I would have no problem with re-introducing the program of freeing up names from inactive accounts. Personally I would say names on a Trial account that lapsed more than a few months ago should be freed up regardless of level (since they are extremely unlikely to come back). For non-Trial accounts make it scale with the length of time inactive, maybe for every 6 months increase it by 10 levels (so 6-months inactive level 10 or lower, 1 year level 20 or lower, 2.5years and all of your characters are at risk).

Honestly, I wouldn't give trail accounts more than 6 months and full accounts more than a year. They aren't deleting the characters, they are just "freeing up the name".

If you log into a character who has lost their name, you get to pick a new name. It isn't like you lost the progress on that character. (If no one else picked the name by the time you log back in, you still have the name - it doesn't take the name away from a character "when it is free-ed up" only after someone picks it after it has been "free-ed up".)
And, if someone doesn't care enough about their character name to log their characters in during the "couple times a year free-reactivation weekend", then I wouldn't think that they really cared enough about their character name to make it worth holding it for them.

Mixed feelings.

On one hand, I like the uniqueness of a name, even if most of the good ones are taken.

On the other hand, I like the idea of a fluid server environment this would bring us closer to.

Thus /unsigned, but only somewhat.

An open letter to NCsoft

Ah, my bad. I guess I never paid a lot of attention to that policy.