I listened to Brad's interview on the Countdown podcast. He mentioned that he and the lead dev were debating between getting a last name at ch creation vs earning it. I vote for earning it. I remember in EQ where you couldn't get a surname until level 20. I felt so accomplished when I dinged 20 and could choose my last name! That is all part of rewarding dedication.
HemlockReaper said:I vote for choosing it myself, I don't mind waiting to a certain level, or even have it approved by a VR Representative, but I don't trust a random name thought up by an unknown person.
I don't really think choosing vs having it forced was the point. It was mostly : At level creation or at a certain level attained, both beeing choosable.
I liked how it turned out in EQ (Lvl 20 for surname) but I don't feel it's logical. Our characters are supposed to have a familly, to be born somehow somewhere, thus in every culture where surname is transmitted to your descendance it's more logical to be baseline. However in a culture where a surname is earned throught accomplishment, it should be logical for it to be obtained later.
MauvaisOeil said:HemlockReaper said:I vote for choosing it myself, I don't mind waiting to a certain level, or even have it approved by a VR Representative, but I don't trust a random name thought up by an unknown person.
I don't really think choosing vs having it forced was the point. It was mostly : At level creation or at a certain level attained, both beeing choosable.
I liked how it turned out in EQ (Lvl 20 for surname) but I don't feel it's logical. Our characters are supposed to have a familly, to be born somehow somewhere, thus in every culture where surname is transmitted to your descendance it's more logical to be baseline. However in a culture where a surname is earned throught accomplishment, it should be logical for it to be obtained later.
I'm stating my opinion with the assumption that “earning” means selecting from a list upon some achievement or reaching a certain level.
When I say choosing it myself, I mean typing it in, not selecting from a list. I don't know what details of the debate were regarding “he and the lead dev were debating between getting a last name at ch creation vs earning it.” ,but it seems more likely to be a debate over allowing players to make one up (regardless when) or be given one (or an option of a few) upon some completed critiea.
Lots of pros and cons at work here. Certainly, we should get to input a surname of our choice at some point. Either during character creation, or upon some momentous even in life, such as the EQ approach of reaching level 20.
1) a lot of characters are created, trialed, and abandoned before 20 (potentially locking out surnames for others use)
2) some players will want to share their surname between all/some of their characters. Potentially across more than one account.
3) I assume there is a possibility of choosing “titles” earned during play. Prefixes like “Sir” and postfixes like “The Sly”, but I am not certain about these. (I do know what “assume” can mean)
4) there Will also be the different nameplates, icons and colors for displayed names being utilized by Pantheon that signify the different pledge levels, and donations.
5) hopefully all these different name display options will indeed be “optional”, and player controlled
6) something to ponder, could these extended displayed names be put into a “geofenced“ mode. An example : in town the name would show “Journeyman Weaponsmith Joe Blow The Magnificent”, while adventuring in landscape it would show “Joe Blow Orc Ender” and in raids only “Joe Blow”would show, if the raids allowed displayed names.
of course sticking with the vintage EQ system of choosing a surname at 20, and having a few text colors to denote certain things would never be wrong IMO.
This is one of those issues where whatever they decide is fine with me. I can see points for either choice and don't have strong feelings either way.
There is something fun about hitting level 20 in EQ and earning the ability to choose your surname, but it's not something experience-defining to me.
Considering that surnames are likely to play a role in the as-of-yet unrevealed Progeny System, I’ll be very interested to see what their decision is.
Their decisions will likely affect, how we choose a surname, when we get a surname, whether it is account-wide or character specific, etc.
I am not at all sure that what we are discussing is actually the issue. If surnames in the traditional sense are at issue I would be in the wait until level 10 or 20 or other appropriate level camp ...BUT.
The issue may be whether to have unique first names with no duplication allowed or whether to have all characters created with a unique first and last name combination with no duplication allowed.
This would allow dozens or hundreds of us even on the same server to have the same first name.
Advantage - no one would have to ever do without their favored first name if they were willing to switch last names around until they got one they could live with.
Disadvantage - confusing as heck to have 500 characters on a server with the same first name.
Variant of what I said - a requirement that a player choose a surname to serve as an account identifier so that every character on the account has the same last name. Major disadvantages here - especially on roleplaying servers people may want different last names to go with race or class or first names. Plus a common last name makes obvious that characters are in the same account and some people do not want other players to be able to identify who their alts are by glancing at names.
All of this discussed in other threads a while back - maybe many times. And Brad has said in the past that they were considering this type of system where choosing a last name at creation was mandatory.
I see it as 'making a name for yourself'. Like if i start a character named John through the newbie leveles people will know him as John, but once you've reached a certain level you become John Goodman...(the heroic)! or whatever. and if you see people that you leveled with from before they are like, "Oh, I see youre creating a name for yourself John Goodman. Well done." as an example.
Earn the right to have a surname after a certain level. That was an awesome milestone hitting lvl 20 and getting to put in any surname I chose. The little things are actually extremely gratifying!!
All games now days have your account name and character name available. Mighy as well have some fun with the surname on your character.
I personally don't want a surname. I want to be nomadic or like Bel-iris & not know who my parents are. I want each toon I roll to be unique & not tied down to a family/surname. :)
If I'm in a good mood feeling like I got a halo over my head. I want to play my paladin. If I'm in a bad mood or just feeling devious I want to play my Skar. (Not sure what class I'll go with my Skar)
Point being, they are unique and polar oppsite of each other and totally diffent races. I'll have a hard time in my mind RPing them as a family. I'm not opposed to surnames. ( let the people choose/decide how to play their toons) I just want the option to choose not to choose a surname.
Let me be known by my first name & my deeds. Be it good or evil. I'm going to play both.
( Now since this is 2019 & you have to spell out everything for a lot of people this day and age because they can not discern for themselves. I was coming from a RPing point of view. I'm not talking about the jerk that plays a monk per say a trains people often than FD's because s/he is a jerk.)
I vote for lev 20, like in EQ. Not sure what games hemlock and mauv played, but I have NEVER seen a MMO game that makes you choose from a "list" when it comes to last names....
very strange.
in EQ, it was very simple. when you ding 20. you type /surname "name" and done. .... inside the quotes is the name you want.
I do not want 75 Drizzts running around with different last names. So unique first names. "earn" the last name with the earn meaning i made it to X level. I don't want to be forced into the same last name on an alt that my main has either (SWTOR does this, hate it) each character has its own story.
it's really fun seeing
Drizzt Do'Urden
Drizzt Do'Urdin
Drizzt DooUrden
etc. etc.
I truthfully don't care whether it's done at character creation or unlocked later, except for one thing:
I don't want to have to try to race or fight people to be able to name my characters. In most games where you get a surname at character creation, that surname is part of the name uniquenes check. Which means that I could name my character Nephele Varandar and someone else could name their character Nephele Sarain and a third person could name their character Nephele Someotherlastname and everyone would be happy and get the name they wanted.
On the other hand, if there can only be one Nephele on a server, ever, no matter what last name is used - no. That simply will not work in this day and age.
Names are vastly important to people. Everyone needs to be able to get the name they want for a character when they create that character, as long as it's not offensive or something. If the surname is needed at character creation in order to make sure they can do that, then that's where surnames need to be chosen. Period.
Earn it for sure. I just would make it optional though with the ability to add it later on as long as you've earned the ability to do so.
Although I'm not one of them, there are some players that enjoy getting married or whatever in game. It gives them an opportunity to add it when they feel appropriate.
I always loved the mechanic of getting your surname at level 20. I would always get excited for it around level 15 and by the time I was 19 I was DEAD SET on getting to 20 so I could get my surname. It was exciting, I thought!
Those types of little milestones are super important, I think.
HemlockReaper said:MauvaisOeil said:HemlockReaper said:I vote for choosing it myself, I don't mind waiting to a certain level, or even have it approved by a VR Representative, but I don't trust a random name thought up by an unknown person.
I don't really think choosing vs having it forced was the point. It was mostly : At level creation or at a certain level attained, both beeing choosable.
I liked how it turned out in EQ (Lvl 20 for surname) but I don't feel it's logical. Our characters are supposed to have a familly, to be born somehow somewhere, thus in every culture where surname is transmitted to your descendance it's more logical to be baseline. However in a culture where a surname is earned throught accomplishment, it should be logical for it to be obtained later.
I'm stating my opinion with the assumption that “earning” means selecting from a list upon some achievement or reaching a certain level.
When I say choosing it myself, I mean typing it in, not selecting from a list. I don't know what details of the debate were regarding “he and the lead dev were debating between getting a last name at ch creation vs earning it.” ,but it seems more likely to be a debate over allowing players to make one up (regardless when) or be given one (or an option of a few) upon some completed critiea.
That's not it at all. He's talking about reaching a certain level or having to do some quest, perhaps, to earn the surname. Nobody has ever suggested that names be "forced" or limited to "selecting from a list". I have no idea where you are getting that but it has nothing to do with this topic.