Another discussion about names

Actually Rachel the smaller the population the more likely you'll see someone using the same name. It's much easier to spot 10 Batman's in a crowd of 100 than it is in a crowd of 1,000. They can't get lost in the crowd when they make up a significant portion of the crowd.

Works the same way with the Search feature. The more people online, the more likely the search will be truncated and less likely you'll notice duplicate names unless they are listed consecutively.


Now that's assuming that they are online on those characters at the same time. What's far more likely to happen is that those ten guys with Batman will be on different characters at the same time.

I'm not seeing any explanation as to how name uniqueness is a part of character concept. I see an explanation as to why it irritates you to see people with the same name, but I don't understand what that has to do with character concept. Can you clarify?

You said that you feel name is an important part of character concept, and your conclusion is that names should be unique. I want to understand how you got from "name is an important part of character concept" to "names should be unique".

Exactly. Hence the further division down to .25 in 455. Since they've got 12 characters to choose from with a potential for up to 32 characters. And I didn't even get INTO zone divisions, either.

So while there might be the .25 in 455/hour chance, you've got to spread that .25 across 19 "City" Zones, 11 Hazard Zones, 4 PVP Zones, 2 versions of Oroborous, 4 Co-Op zones, and 4 Praetorian zones (6 if you divide the underground into sectors)

Let's skip the PVP zones and Oroborous. .00625 to 455 odds. That's 1 in 72,800 for those of you playing at home, assuming that only 455 people are on Virtue in a given hour.

And do you want to include instanced mission maps in that as well? How many are active at a given time? I'll ring the math up for you really quickly.

-Rachel-

Funny and we've not seen any valid explanation as to why names should not be unique. All we see are variations of people getting mad because they weren't the first to use it.

Why do we need to do the math when we apparently agree that the smaller the population the more likely you'll run into someone using the same name?

To make it easier for players to get the name they want for their characters.

Specifically, new players. Who might otherwise get frustrated at the lack of "Good Names" that are free. Two YEARS ago I saw a player on Virtue with a character named "NoGoodNamesLeft" or something similar to it.

-Rachel-

Sorry, but implying new players are lazy and unimaginative is not a valid reason.

The competition does it.

this is true for me as well.

my favorite example is my fire/rad controller.
I don't remember the first name I came up with, but it was pretty obvious and also taken. I cogitated for a while and came up with a much better name-

Three Mile Isleman

And another MMO (we can't name due to forum guidelines) based on a fantasy world *cough Gary Gygax cough* has been out for going on 5 years and uses the same unique naming policy we have and people have no trouble coming up with original names.

So your point is moot our competition also uses unique names.

Implying they might want a specific name for their character and be disappointed when they don't immediately get it?

That's not Lazy. That's not knowing the first name that comes to mind is taken.

If they spend the first two hours running through adjectives of "Fire" with nothing else -then- they're being lazy and unimaginative (according to many who wish to uphold the current paradigm).

Making it possible for new players to get what they want when they want it, when it has no other affect on gameplay (faster leveling, exploitative mechanics, etc) isn't a bad thing. Nor does it require them to be lazy or unimaginative.

It just requires them to want a character name which is taken.

-Rachel-

Our competition isn't fantasy though, our only competition is other Superhero themed MMO's.

I mean after all their are fantasy MMO's by the bucket load, but you've only got two, soon to be three when it comes to a Superhero MMO.

I'd like you to give a valid reason, why names on accounts that have not been subbed in four or five years, should still be locked out though.

In a Fantasy world MMO a collection of consonants with the occasional vowel (or apostrophe, if you're a dark elf!) is a fine name.

In a Superhero Genre MMO superhero names are generally made up of actual words strung together, generally representative of the character's powers, origin, goals, or something important to the character.

Your argument is invalid since the genre (and thus naming convention) is different.

-Rachel-

With 11 servers NA or 4 EU I find it highly unlikely that they'll spend 2 hours running through possible variations of "fire" to find one that's not being used.

I just got "Feurfly" on Virtue the day GR went live and I got "Deep Friar" in May/June I think.

Tell that to all the Deamons, Elfs, Vampires, Werewolves, Orks, Faeries, Witches, Wizards, etc running around in the game.

Fuer being German, rather than English. Did you even try the English words for fire or heat?

Most new players on an American server wil try to use English words for their characters.

-Rachel-

That, and it seems that any reason given to retain unique naming is dismissed or ignored.

My reason for keeping the current system and why I feel that having a unique name for my character is important:

I have a character on server X, and for sake of arguments, it's the first to have said name 'From the Depths'. It is a creature from the darkest depths of the oceans, which despises humanity and will do anything to assure it destruction.

I log in one day to see "From the Depths', a Demon Summoning MM. Well I guess the name fits, but it works against the convention of my own character's concept.

My character then travels to another zone and while heading to a beat-down on some vahzilok, runs across 'From the Depths' Joe Plumber who happens to be a sewer maintenance worker. A humorous take on the name, but also works against the convention of my own character.

All viable concepts.

The other two just happen to break the fourth wall for me while playing my character. To me it is immersion breaking.

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

Yes I did, and at the time I checked Firefly was taken (Don't know if it's freed up since then). Feurfly was my second choice.

Most new players have experience from playing other online games and are already familiar with having to come up with names. While we do get new players who have never played online games before, it's not a large percentage because the advertising this company does for this game (what little there is) sucks.

And to many of us seeing "Frum The Depths "Fr0m Teh D3pths" and other such names are far more immersion breaking.

Especially since, as I've shown mathematically, your chance of running into a SINGLE person who shares your name is remote, much less 2 others.

Meanwhile EVERYONE else who sees "Frum Teh D3pths" will have their immersion broken.

-Rachel-

Well what's good for the goose is good for the gander. We can dismiss their reasons just as easily and with the knowledge that the unique naming policy is already in effect and unlikely to change without a massive upswelling of players demanding it. Which the devs didn't get when they asked.

Actually, the closest thing I've offered to a "Dismissal" is showing how a single person's need for a Unique Name infringes on other people's need to have the name for themselves, as well.

I did this by pointing out how one person's "Immersion breaking" name-duplication becomes many people's immersion breaking name-faking.

And then there is the argument about being creative and inventive, which is just a -huge- load of bovine scat, since it's not a matter of creativity, but who was here, first.

-Rachel-

This is true.

I've also seen mentioned in the past that, non-unique names would be okay, if they all belonged to the same global.

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

"It's okay to share names, but only if you share them with yourself."

-Rachel-

That comment wasn't directed at you or some of the others. We've been civilly discussing different points of view, but we all know the ones who have been outright dismissive (and insulting) of anyone that doesn't agree with their world view of how the game should work.