How would you feel if in the land of Terminus there could be multiple people with the same first name but no one could share your first+last name combo ? You would have to choose your last name at character creation which is what VG did anyhow. This way if you really wanted a certain first name it could be yours. Throughout your journeys thus you might meet several people with the name Klaudia but only one Klaudia Krieg and only one Klaudia Sturmkind. Obviously in friends lists and in chat there would be a need to see last names because of this.
POLL:
https://www.pantheonrotf.com/polls/view/242/identical-first-names
A couple of games do this and I like it. Beats all the different ways I have to spell Zariya lol. Plus it is nice to the community If someone else wants to have a certain name they have an easier chance of getting it. A name is very important to some people - for some of us it is our online identity that we have had for years. I think if someone called out Zarriya while I was shopping I would probably respond to it!
Personally, I like everyone having a unique first name. It makes it much easier to send tells when all you have to type is "/t jason".
Taking out the convenience factor, however, I'm not opposed to your idea of nonunique first names. Although it would make the Pantheon backer reward for early name reservation less important.
Aradune said:
I like the way we did it in Vanguard. You choose your first and last name. The combination of the two have to be unique. Then you can earn Titles and such. Thoughts?
I like the way you guys did it in Vanguard as well. But if i remember correctly, two people could not have the same first name. Just like in Everquest 1.
Aradune said:
I like the way we did it in Vanguard. You choose your first and last name. The combination of the two have to be unique. Then you can earn Titles and such. Thoughts?
I like it.
I'm not at all a fan of multiple people having the same first name. I like distinct identities, and I also liked the way it worked in Vanguard, as long as we don't have to create a last name at character select. Its hard enough deciding which race, class and first name I want without having to pick a last name too!
Aradune said:
I like the way we did it in Vanguard. You choose your first and last name. The combination of the two have to be unique. Then you can earn Titles and such. Thoughts?
I like the way it was handled in VG too. First name had to be unique which I think is important for character reputation, in games like EQ/VG your actions within the community mattered and were remembered, so having 26 Aradunes running around would be difficult to know which one was the friendly person who helped someone in a dungeon!
I would hope that we handled it in a similar way to VG, allowing both first and last names with unique first names.
While I can see the issue of not having unique first name leading to 20 barbarian warriors named Wulfgar I think a lot of that could be managed if instead or saying "That name is taken" it says there are 20 other people with that name and let the player choose if they still want it. I think most players will choose a unique spelling or something if given the option but if they really want a certain first name it would be nice if they could have it.
Actually this is something that would be interesting to play around with in beta IMO. It does not seem like a huge difference to give a warning about a first name while searching for a unique full string, its just one more query and during beta you could see how redundant first names got and how many complaints there were and so forth. And for people who have donated early instead of just being able to reserve their name early maybe they could reserve a unique first name to maintain the feel of getting something a little extra for being an early supporter.
Also I would be in favor of allowing hyphenation and certain unique letter in a name maybe accents, or umlaut's and diaeresis. Keep it limited enough that no ones names is in wingdings or something but it would add lot of unique combinations and a different sort of culture. In my mind one of the great things about Vanguard was how well done each continents cultures were and allowing players and NPC names to have the characters of the culture being represented would be awesome! I am no DB expert but my girl friend is and they do stuff like this all the time for personnel DBs.
Wellspring said:
Personally, I like everyone having a unique first name. It makes it much easier to send tells when all you have to type is "/t jason".
Taking out the convenience factor, however, I'm not opposed to your idea of nonunique first names. Although it would make the Pantheon backer reward for early name reservation less important.
/t jason would work as long as there were not 2 or more Jason's online, on the same server. If there were, you would have to /t jason lastname
-Brad
Joppa said:
Unique first name, let me choose a last name at a higher level once I earn it.
Then you get a very real issue we had in EQ 1 with multiple people wanting the same first name. They were not happy if they didn't get it. At times, later, when we were going open a new server, we allowed people to pre-register first names, but that still didn't please the person who didn't log in in time to grab their name first. The VG first/last name system worked very well. Avoids a big and real CS issue.
Instead of earning last names, you earn Titles, which solved that problem nicely as well. Also, last names for everyone support Progeny systems better.
Aradune said:
I like the way we did it in Vanguard. You choose your first and last name. The combination of the two have to be unique. Then you can earn Titles and such. Thoughts?
I agree with this. I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't choose my favorite two names Anasyn/Nysana. I've played under other names before but these are the two names most people know me by. I also enjoy having a last name with both first and last names being unique to one player. I really hope titles will be very limited and special. I don't enjoy seeing 50 titles available to me once I hit max level it takes the enjoyment and pride away from having a special title.
Some games also make it easy to contact folks by an account name so you can see them easier when they are on alts. This may help with contacting folks with the same first name but different last name.
I know I play a character a lot longer and have more fun if I have a great name and I love the appearance of my character.
Anasyn said:
Aradune said:
I like the way we did it in Vanguard. You choose your first and last name. The combination of the two have to be unique. Then you can earn Titles and such. Thoughts?
I agree with this. I wouldn't know what to do if I couldn't choose my favorite two names Anasyn/Nysana. I've played under other names before but these are the two names most people know me by. I also enjoy having a last name with both first and last names being unique to one player. I really hope titles will be very limited and special. I don't enjoy seeing 50 titles available to me once I hit max level it takes the enjoyment and pride away from having a special title.
This is actually often a large factor for my selection of servers. If I can't get my preferred name for my main I tend to go server to server to find one I can and for my current play style being on a much less populated server is not the best becasue I easily get behind the level curve and have trouble grouping.
Aradune said:
I like the way we did it in Vanguard. You choose your first and last name. The combination of the two have to be unique. Then you can earn Titles and such. Thoughts?
Sounds good! Having to have a unique first name in MMOs has always been a huge pain for me. It doesn't really prevent people from copying eachothers name if you think about it, Legolas just turns into Legolaz Legoles Legolez Legolasz Leggolas etc etc.
Aradune said:
I like the way we did it in Vanguard. You choose your first and last name. The combination of the two have to be unique. Then you can earn Titles and such. Thoughts?
I agree on this! :)
Aradune said:
Joppa said:
Unique first name, let me choose a last name at a higher level once I earn it.Then you get a very real issue we had in EQ 1 with multiple people wanting the same first name. They were not happy if they didn't get it. At times, later, when we were going open a new server, we allowed people to pre-register first names, but that still didn't please the person who didn't log in in time to grab their name first. The VG first/last name system worked very well. Avoids a big and real CS issue.
Instead of earning last names, you earn Titles, which solved that problem nicely as well. Also, last names for everyone support Progeny systems better.
For me, this issue will likely be a, "Let's try some different things in Alpha/Beta and see how the majority feel". I understand the concern about players being unhappy they didn't get their name (I've felt the pain of that at times as well). However, the "solution" being to allow 10 Joppa's to run around in the world as long as they have different last names (exaggeration I know) is more experience/immersion breaking for me personally.
You also run into the issue of having to remember a player's first and last names if you want to communicate with them. If I want to send Jason a tell, and he's the only "Jason" on at the time, I can /tell Jason no probs. But the next day, when there are 3 players named "Jason" online, suddenly I can't send Jason a /tell, realizing I have to know Jason's last name to do that. That always felt disjointed to me in VG, and I often didn't pursue further relationship building or group sessions with certain players b/c I simply couldn't remember their last name in the moment.
Without unique first names, you cut down on the iconic and identifiable names of players across the server. There was only one Fansy the Bard on that server. For me, in the first few months of the Prexus server, there was only one Fistandantilus, only one Ramuu, only one Yost, only one Myrdinn and Essie - those players and their names are iconic to me and I still remember them to this day because they were the only ones on that server.
When it comes to titles, they are only special to me when they are extremely rare and challenging to get. Otherwise, you just get used to seeing players with names 3 miles long b/c they've looted more bone chips than anyone else.
Last thought, on something like a Progeny system, depending on how we designed it, I actually think it makes perfect sense to have to earn a last name before you can bestow it on future characters.
Great discussion everyone - Brad and I are being a little internally transparent talking through this idea on the boards, but I like it. Keep the feedback coming!
Joppa said:
Aradune said:
Joppa said:
Unique first name, let me choose a last name at a higher level once I earn it.Then you get a very real issue we had in EQ 1 with multiple people wanting the same first name. They were not happy if they didn't get it. At times, later, when we were going open a new server, we allowed people to pre-register first names, but that still didn't please the person who didn't log in in time to grab their name first. The VG first/last name system worked very well. Avoids a big and real CS issue.
Instead of earning last names, you earn Titles, which solved that problem nicely as well. Also, last names for everyone support Progeny systems better.
For me, this issue will likely be a, "Let's try some different things in Alpha/Beta and see how the majority feel". I understand the concern about players being unhappy they didn't get their name (I've felt the pain of that at times as well). However, the "solution" being to allow 10 Joppa's to run around in the world as long as they have different last names (exaggeration I know) is more experience/immersion breaking for me personally.
You also run into the issue of having to remember a player's first and last names if you want to communicate with them. If I want to send Jason a tell, and he's the only "Jason" on at the time, I can /tell Jason no probs. But the next day, when there are 3 players named "Jason" online, suddenly I can't send Jason a /tell, realizing I have to know Jason's last name to do that. That always felt disjointed to me in VG, and I often didn't pursue further relationship building or group sessions with certain players b/c I simply couldn't remember their last name in the moment.
Without unique first names, you cut down on the iconic and identifiable names of players across the server. There was only one Fansy the Bard on that server. For me, in the first few months of the Prexus server, there was only one Fistandantilus, only one Ramuu, only one Yost, only one Myrdinn and Essie - those players and their names are iconic to me and I still remember them to this day because they were the only ones on that server.
When it comes to titles, they are only special to me when they are extremely rare and challenging to get. Otherwise, you just get used to seeing players with names 3 miles long b/c they've looted more bone chips than anyone else.
Last thought, on something like a Progeny system, depending on how we designed it, I actually think it makes perfect sense to have to earn a last name before you can bestow it on future characters.
Great discussion everyone - Brad and I are being a little internally transparent talking through this idea on the boards, but I like it. Keep the feedback coming!
Great points.
I forgot to mention aliases. Basically, if there is somebody you send tells to often and don't want to have to type out their full name (whether it's because there are more than one of that person with the same first name, meaning you have to /tell firstname lastname) or their name is long and complicated, or really for any reason, you can create an alias: /alias firstname lastname Bob. Then, for you only, you can /tell Bob and it will send a tell to that particular person. Saves on typing and reduces confusion. The alias, if you wanted, could also show above the in-game character model.
I hated it when I went to log in to the Vanguard servers again after being away and I couldn't be my character there anymore because someone else had my name. But on the other hand, it bugged me more that someone else other than me was running around with one or both of the two names I have used since I started online gaming. I have always been a first name only kinda gal, never picked last name in EQ, had a rough time coming up with one for Vanguard...... So, I am not sure which option is best overall, but I am sure that having one's name stand for one's reputation was one of the very fundamental things that EQ got very right and made it a more pleasant gaming experience.
Aradune said:
Great points.
I forgot to mention aliases. Basically, if there is somebody you send tells to often and don't want to have to type out their full name (whether it's because there are more than one of that person with the same first name, meaning you have to /tell firstname lastname) or their name is long and complicated, or really for any reason, you can create an alias: /alias firstname lastname Bob. Then, for you only, you can /tell Bob and it will send a tell to that particular person. Saves on typing and reduces confusion. The alias, if you wanted, could also show above the in-game character model.
I agree I think the /tell issue in a lot of ways is a minor one. Most of the time you have some sort of friends list or something that will allow you to keep track of peoples last name and then easily create an alias. This might get into the concept of other things that come into play, we commonly have a Guild group and a friends group and I guess what Joppa is talking about are the people you might not call friends and are not guild mates but you might want to keep track off? Could be something that could be solved by simply creating a recent groups list or something? Maybe even a definable extra list?
I will also say all the problems listed exist with unique first names as well. When the names are one or two letters off it is easy to confuse them. There were many times where I sent tells to the wrong people who had an a instead of a u in their otherwise identical name.
I enjoyed VG system.
I don't see an issue with multiple people having the same first name, hell 3 people in my office all share my first name so to me it gives a bit more immersion.
On the titles please ensure these are hard to get and require lots of work before they can be obtained.
I liked the VG system, but i like the EQ system more. i like every few days being able to change my surname taking me from being Gawdly Heelz to Gawdly Notacleric (even tho i am a cleric) titles are fine, but they dont allow the same freedom of expression that surnames in the EQ system did.
Just to clear up any confusion, as I mentioned above, VG had unique first names, so no one had the same first name, which meant /tells and messaging were issue free.
You would have the choice of using a last name or leaving it blank from character creation but once that decision was made, you were stuck with it. (GM would do a one time change if you asked nicely)
Of course VG also used titles that I enjoyed a lot, they were earned, or basic ones bought from a Npc vendor but it would be nice if these were more difficult to obtain.