Sorte said:I really do not hope the plan is to have me pick a surname that then will be the same for all my characters. That would make me sad :'(
-sorte.
I kinda doubt it. Doesn't really make any logical sense for your Dark Myr and your Human and your Halfling to all of the same surname.
Maybe it's just because I've played a lot of games that had mandatory surnames, but they don't feel hard to do to me - then again, I've got that history built up.
So "Nephele" was "Nephele Starshadow" in Wildstar, Vanguard, and sort of in SWG (I used the last name in SWG, but not the first). In EQ, Nephele was an alt, and while I think I got high enough with her to /surname her, I honestly can't remember. In several other games that didn't use or factor surname into name uniqueness, I had to constantly fight to get/keep Nephele's name - especially at server merges. LOTRO was a great example here. In LOTRO, Nephele was a relatively high level ranger. Then one day there was a server merge and I lost the name. I was so angry and upset over this that I stopped playing the character and shortly after, the game.
I know some folks really are used to thinking and talking about their character with a single name, but from experience it's really not a big deal. Everyone who knows me as my character never mentions my surname at all - they just call me Nephele or Neph. The surname just allows them to say "this is our Neph" when confronted with multiple Nephs to choose from (thankfully, not too many of those around in most games). The only other time the surname would actually matter to anyone might be an in-game marriage proposal or something :P
So my point here is that no one should think of having to choose a last name as a big deal. Just pick something you like and odds are, it'll be unique. Remember that it's the combination of first + last that has to be unique, not just the last name itself. A funny story about that actually. My *other* name that I use a lot (from my main in EQ) is Talaen, or Tal for short. In FFXIV, that character's last name is Hawke, which is a corruption of what I have used for him in previous games. On my server, there are three or four other people that also all (independently) chose the last name Hawke. None of us knew each other or anything like that. But every so often we run into each other in towns/cities, and we'll wave to each other and joke about how the "fam" is spread all over the world. It's a conversation starter and it can lead to meeting new people.
If none of this babbling made sense at all, blame the lack of coffee :)
Aradune said:We're contemplating setting up a way pre-launch for people to reserve names (even earlier registration is in some of our pledges). Also thinking about making First and Last name have to be unique ala Vanguard. Last names would also play a part of the Progeny system.
Is there a system in place to put a name on our whole account like Black Desert Online? One thing that this disallows is the ability of people to "hide" behind alts. You have an account (family) name...and then every alt you make on that account is linked to each other. I liked Firona Vie because like this, to make an "anonymous" alt, you needed another account to do so. Also, a family (account) name may fall in line with your Progeny system.
Hateborn said:Is there a system in place to put a name on our whole account like Black Desert Online? One thing that this disallows is the ability of people to "hide" behind alts. You have an account (family) name...and then every alt you make on that account is linked to each other. I liked Firona Vie because like this, to make an "anonymous" alt, you needed another account to do so. Also, a family (account) name may fall in line with your Progeny system.
Personally I wouldn't be opposed to having all of someones characters be listed somewhere when inspected, as long as there are robust options for appearing offline. I'd like to be able to toggle being seen as offline for: Everyone, people not on friends list and/or guild, and everyone except whomever you toggle to be known to.
I don't care if someone knows all my characters as long as I can still do my own thing on alts without being bothered by people looking for one of my other characters.
My Character name depends on how much I like the game, how cool my character looks, and how I intend to play the game.
So for my serious RP character I will probably put a lot of effort into my name (and character looks).
For my fun with friends character will probably have something dumb like Beaverbiscuit.
Wandidar said:Bazgrim said:Aradune said:3. This greatly helps with realm/server transfers. No more issues there we hope. Will a name, first and last, need to be together unique not just across a realm but across all realms? Likely so, yes.
Thanks Aradune.
I like this point. Nothing more annoying than when servers merge and you get a "-1" tagged to the end of your name because there was already someone on that server with the same name.
It may seem silly, but I think a character with only a first name just sounds so much more legendary, like Madonna, Beyonce, Rihanna, Oprah, Adele, Drake, Kesha, Usher... the list goes on and on. All the players I looked up to in EQ only had a first name, so maybe that's just what I'm used to.
Although there are a lot of people whose reason is that it's too easy for some troll with the same first name as you to tarnish your reputation. And I would agree with that too. A lot of people work hard for their good reputation - myself included. But hopefully people can be more discerning and pay attention to people's last names. It might feel weird to have introduce myself with my character's first and last name at a Fantheon, but I could probably get used to it. Your persona in a game is very important for sure, but I think part of it is that you be easily recognizable.
Pros and cons as always.
Time to see if I come up with a cool last name that's easier to spell and pronounce.
Just a thought on the one name thing...
1) Perhaps they permit you to hide your last name if you choose to... such that you have one (required) but people will only see your first name unless a conflict arises that needs to be remedied (They do a /tell Bazgrim and it says there are 4 of them)
2) Perhaps the UI allows you to hide all last names on your screen to mitigate screen clutter. For example, back in EQ my ranger was Wandidar Aroundidar. You get 100 people on a screen taking up that much tag space over their head, and you get a very cluttered screen.
It looks like that's actually at least how it is in the current version of the game - you'll notice in the streams that no one has a last name over their head, even though they must have one somewhere. Wouldn't mind that being the case.
Although at the same time, if someone briefly sees another "Bazgrim" being an asshole and doesn't figure out what their last name is cause it's hidden, they could be mistaken for me. But maybe I'm overestimating how often that would happen?
I realize that what I want is totally conflicting lol. I guess the solution would be unique first names, but I'm not the one that has to deal with the CS side of things. I can see why this is such a tough ongoing discussion internally.
Bazgrim said:Wandidar said:Bazgrim said:Aradune said:3. This greatly helps with realm/server transfers. No more issues there we hope. Will a name, first and last, need to be together unique not just across a realm but across all realms? Likely so, yes.
Thanks Aradune.
I like this point. Nothing more annoying than when servers merge and you get a "-1" tagged to the end of your name because there was already someone on that server with the same name.
It may seem silly, but I think a character with only a first name just sounds so much more legendary, like Madonna, Beyonce, Rihanna, Oprah, Adele, Drake, Kesha, Usher... the list goes on and on. All the players I looked up to in EQ only had a first name, so maybe that's just what I'm used to.
Although there are a lot of people whose reason is that it's too easy for some troll with the same first name as you to tarnish your reputation. And I would agree with that too. A lot of people work hard for their good reputation - myself included. But hopefully people can be more discerning and pay attention to people's last names. It might feel weird to have introduce myself with my character's first and last name at a Fantheon, but I could probably get used to it. Your persona in a game is very important for sure, but I think part of it is that you be easily recognizable.
Pros and cons as always.
Time to see if I come up with a cool last name that's easier to spell and pronounce.
Just a thought on the one name thing...
1) Perhaps they permit you to hide your last name if you choose to... such that you have one (required) but people will only see your first name unless a conflict arises that needs to be remedied (They do a /tell Bazgrim and it says there are 4 of them)
2) Perhaps the UI allows you to hide all last names on your screen to mitigate screen clutter. For example, back in EQ my ranger was Wandidar Aroundidar. You get 100 people on a screen taking up that much tag space over their head, and you get a very cluttered screen.
It looks like that's actually at least how it is in the current version of the game - you'll notice in the streams that no one has a last name over their head, even though they must have one somewhere. Wouldn't mind that being the case.
Although at the same time, if someone briefly sees another "Bazgrim" being an asshole and doesn't figure out what their last name is cause it's hidden, they could be mistaken for me. But maybe I'm overestimating how often that would happen?
I realize that what I want is totally conflicting lol. I guess the solution would be unique first names, but I'm not the one that has to deal with the CS side of things. I can see why this is such a tough ongoing discussion internally.
The solution I think, which is almost always the case when it comes to UI/Ux, the displaying of information, etc. is to give the player options. Turn names off completely; only show first name; show first and last name; show alias instead of player name; only show the name (in the format you want) for people in your group or your guild; etc.
Aradune said:The solution I think, which is almost always the case when it comes to UI/Ux, the displaying of information, etc. is to give the player options. Turn names off completely; only show first name; show first and last name; show alias instead of player name; only show the name (in the format you want) for people in your group or your guild; etc.
This is a cool option, since most all of us have shorter version of names we call each other anyway, even when that player is on an alt, we often use their shortened main characters name when talking to them in chats.
To take it one step farther, maybe an option to show "First (alias)" IE: Suppose I am playing my alt, and someone has "First (alias)" as display, they would see "Marconis (Fulty)"
I've always been against the idea of someone else being able to have the same name as mine, but I guess looking at the bigger picture, a unique first-last across all servers is a good idea. I would be willing to try it. Maybe it's a good thing you will let people have stupid first names, that way no one will want to have the same name as you ;p
Not important whatsoever. I'll come up with something I like if the names I used in EQ2 (game I played the longest and since, have an attachment to a certain name), but if that doesn't happen, I won't lose sleep over it. I'll come up with a new name and carry on smartly.
Kilsin said:How important is your characters name to you, do you put time into creating it or is it just random and meaningless to you?
It is really important to me. I tried to keep the same names from a game to another. 'Ithaca' is over 10 years old. I would not be happy playing a character if I do not really love my character's name.
I have a funny story about it. I usually never play a female character. For some reason, I created a alt female Defiler in Everquest named: "Coquine" because I never expected or wanted to play her. "Coquine" in French means something like mischevious, little devil but also naughty in slang.
Long story short, it became my main, my guildies used to call me "Coq" short for "Coquine". I hated it because it means "rooster" and sound like the anatomy of men that is often use in a vulgar way or to insult people. I ended up paying real money to change the name of that character after many months of suffering :)
My characters first name are very important to me. When I first started in EQ, I put a lot of thought into my character names and tried to tie them into either their class or race, but they all had some personal meaning to me, too. Later on I had some fun with some of the character names, but on the whole, I tried to make them fit my play style and be part of the RPG world as a whole.
Last names not so much, but tended to be similar in feel or sound. So if one was Avalanche, another would be Rockfall or such like. Again though, I tried to make them fit their race and class and I can see last names being useful for the progeny system.
Aluccard: It's cool when you enter a new game and people from other games remember you. I've been reintroduced to old friends that I had lost touch with this way.
I totally agree. Bumping into a character name you recognise or someone doing the same to you, is a great feeling. Then you start to think about the people you both grouped with, it is fun and a great way to find those people you may have lost contact with.
Iksar said:Hateborn said:Is there a system in place to put a name on our whole account like Black Desert Online? One thing that this disallows is the ability of people to "hide" behind alts. You have an account (family) name...and then every alt you make on that account is linked to each other. I liked Firona Vie because like this, to make an "anonymous" alt, you needed another account to do so. Also, a family (account) name may fall in line with your Progeny system.
Personally I wouldn't be opposed to having all of someones characters be listed somewhere when inspected, as long as there are robust options for appearing offline. I'd like to be able to toggle being seen as offline for: Everyone, people not on friends list and/or guild, and everyone except whomever you toggle to be known to.
I don't care if someone knows all my characters as long as I can still do my own thing on alts without being bothered by people looking for one of my other characters.
Personally I don't like the idea of people being able to see who my alts are whether it's toggleable or not. Don't need guilds setting up rules preventing people from toggling it off, and I'm honestly one to go onto a alt and relax to get away from having guild members constantly asking me to join there groups. It sucked sometimes being needed so much and being the one seen as always being able to help. My main's guild always got the majority of my time but it didn't mean they had to get all of it.
As for names, for my main character I always keep the name of my first EQ1 character. Last name will be the one I came up with a bit after for a different game, don't even remember which one. Generally after that I find a decent fantasy sounding name that starts with a N all my alts start with a N.
If you have Last names, first names don't need to be unique. There are a million people called Bill, but only a few are known as Bill Murray.
The issue is when we get into sending messages. At that point, it's almost like sending an email /tell Bill@Murray.servername Hi, is the the right Bill I'm talking to?
panopticon said:
The question: "How do we allow future players to own names and, when it comes to more common names, how do we do this fairly?"
This still a fantasy game. Why are people creating last names that are common. Be unique. My name is Quidard LonBonafide I'm not going to go into a game and be Jim Smith.
There is no reason last names can't be forced to be unique just the same way they currently force first names upon character creation to be unique.
