Dose any one know if we will be getting this ? And if we do what lv do you think we should lv 20.. 25 half way a quest for it? I kinda like it being once you past the point that you no longer given to baby steps some point after the free to play lv are don and at a lv people may look up to you so i say 15 or 25
Last I heard, you'll have a surname from the start. When you create your character, you'll use this format to name it: firstname.surname. So, one of my characters might be named jack.shucklighter. You can read Brad's posts about it here.
Shucklighter said:Last I heard, you'll have a surname from the start. When you create your character, you'll use this format to name it: firstname.surname. So, one of my characters might be named jack.shucklighter. You can read Brad's posts about it here.
This is correct. Although that format has probably changed. Either way, the plan is you'll get a last name at creation. Brad posted this nice explanation just last November:
"I think names are already incredibly important, and becoming moreso day by day. At TwitchCon we had so many people introducing themselves to other fantheons by their in-game name -- it is what it is -- your in-game persona, especially in a social community focused game like Pantheon is *everything*. This is why we continue to head down the road of assigning a first and last name to your character upon creation. Rushing to reserve names, finding out one you've used for years has already been taken, etc. just causes so much unnecessary angst and disappointment.
Just as RL civilization went to two names (and then 3+, I have a first, middle, and last of my birth certificate), so also must virtual civilization.
There is some downside... there could be 2+ other Aradunes running around, but at least you could be Aradune combined with a last name that together makes you unique. Not to mention how this could be tied into the Progeny system, etc.
The concerns I've heard range from 'I don't want to have to think of a second name', to how cool it was to get your last name at 20 in EQ, to UI/Chatting issues.
I don't have much to say in regards to the first. I do agree it was cool to get your last name at 20 in EQ and in fact the idea certainly wasn't mine -- MUDs had been doing that for years, since the late 80s at least. But I think we can offer titles and other ways to recognize and reward.
Lastly the UI issue(s) I think are fairly easily dealt with:
1. If you were logged in and there were, say, 3 Aradunes logged into the same realm as you, and you typed '/tell Aradune Hey man, let's meet up at the bridge', the UI would simply let you know with a pop up list the three people logged in and you would choose one.
2. Example 1 above, however, would happen infrequently, especially if it already happened at least once. We will have an Alias system for this and other reasons (e.g. it's not just to address the more characters logged in with the same first name issue). Essentially you can take anyone from from a Names List (note you'll be able to have multiple lists, say a friends list, an annoying persons list, etc). You can then assign an alias to any of those names. Like I said, this is to address more than just the 2+ names list -- say you have a person you chat with who insists his character's name is some crazy long authentic Sindarin name "Arkininathdunearinatha". I would immediately do /alias Arkininathdunearinatha Arky. Then when I do a '/tell Arky hurry up and meet at the bridge slacker!' it just works. He doesn't know you've renamed him/given him an alias, but your config does, and you no longer need to type or worry about his long name. Same with multiple people with the same first name. '/alias Aradune Mithara Stinky' and now you just use Stinky to refer to him (me?).
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.
One thing to keep in mind too is that this is very much a CS issue, moreso than a dev or design issue. Frustrating people by not allowing them to have a name very important to them creates not only an emotional and negative scenario, mad rushes to try reserve names (were we to allow that), but it just gets worse and worse the bigger and more successful the game gets. So the player isn't happy, and then he or she communicates their unhappiness to a CS or GM, taking up valuable resources on our end as well.
I do realize the issue is controversial and trust me, we've given it a LOT of thought. It's something that has plagued CS since the early days of EQ, and it's only grown by orders of magnitude since then with so many more people playing online games where their online persona is very important to them, has a reputation, has sentimental value, etc. In fact, I personally reached out to my friend Rob Pardo (co-creator of WoW, etc.) and he let me know he wished they'd done it this way, that this was a huge issue with WoW, with not only a lot of frustrated people but a huge load on CS. They finally automated it to some degree, but had he a time machine, he'd also approach this issue similarly."
(You can read the full conversation here: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/3639/character-names-important/view/page/4 )
Also see these threads: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/4299/surnames/view/page/1
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2560/surnames-small-request
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/1923/identical-first-names
Bazgrim said:Shucklighter said:Last I heard, you'll have a surname from the start. When you create your character, you'll use this format to name it: firstname.surname. So, one of my characters might be named jack.shucklighter. You can read Brad's posts about it here.
This is correct. Although that format has probably changed. Either way, the plan is you'll get a last name at creation. Brad posted this nice explanation just last November:
"I think names are already incredibly important, and becoming moreso day by day. At TwitchCon we had so many people introducing themselves to other fantheons by their in-game name -- it is what it is -- your in-game persona, especially in a social community focused game like Pantheon is *everything*. This is why we continue to head down the road of assigning a first and last name to your character upon creation. Rushing to reserve names, finding out one you've used for years has already been taken, etc. just causes so much unnecessary angst and disappointment.
Just as RL civilization went to two names (and then 3+, I have a first, middle, and last of my birth certificate), so also must virtual civilization.
There is some downside... there could be 2+ other Aradunes running around, but at least you could be Aradune combined with a last name that together makes you unique. Not to mention how this could be tied into the Progeny system, etc.
The concerns I've heard range from 'I don't want to have to think of a second name', to how cool it was to get your last name at 20 in EQ, to UI/Chatting issues.
I don't have much to say in regards to the first. I do agree it was cool to get your last name at 20 in EQ and in fact the idea certainly wasn't mine -- MUDs had been doing that for years, since the late 80s at least. But I think we can offer titles and other ways to recognize and reward.
Lastly the UI issue(s) I think are fairly easily dealt with:
1. If you were logged in and there were, say, 3 Aradunes logged into the same realm as you, and you typed '/tell Aradune Hey man, let's meet up at the bridge', the UI would simply let you know with a pop up list the three people logged in and you would choose one.
2. Example 1 above, however, would happen infrequently, especially if it already happened at least once. We will have an Alias system for this and other reasons (e.g. it's not just to address the more characters logged in with the same first name issue). Essentially you can take anyone from from a Names List (note you'll be able to have multiple lists, say a friends list, an annoying persons list, etc). You can then assign an alias to any of those names. Like I said, this is to address more than just the 2+ names list -- say you have a person you chat with who insists his character's name is some crazy long authentic Sindarin name "Arkininathdunearinatha". I would immediately do /alias Arkininathdunearinatha Arky. Then when I do a '/tell Arky hurry up and meet at the bridge slacker!' it just works. He doesn't know you've renamed him/given him an alias, but your config does, and you no longer need to type or worry about his long name. Same with multiple people with the same first name. '/alias Aradune Mithara Stinky' and now you just use Stinky to refer to him (me?).
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.
One thing to keep in mind too is that this is very much a CS issue, moreso than a dev or design issue. Frustrating people by not allowing them to have a name very important to them creates not only an emotional and negative scenario, mad rushes to try reserve names (were we to allow that), but it just gets worse and worse the bigger and more successful the game gets. So the player isn't happy, and then he or she communicates their unhappiness to a CS or GM, taking up valuable resources on our end as well.
I do realize the issue is controversial and trust me, we've given it a LOT of thought. It's something that has plagued CS since the early days of EQ, and it's only grown by orders of magnitude since then with so many more people playing online games where their online persona is very important to them, has a reputation, has sentimental value, etc. In fact, I personally reached out to my friend Rob Pardo (co-creator of WoW, etc.) and he let me know he wished they'd done it this way, that this was a huge issue with WoW, with not only a lot of frustrated people but a huge load on CS. They finally automated it to some degree, but had he a time machine, he'd also approach this issue similarly."
(You can read the full conversation here: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/3639/character-names-important/view/page/4 )Also see these threads: https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/4299/surnames/view/page/1
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2560/surnames-small-request
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/1923/identical-first-names
As Bazgrim kindly pointed out, we already have an answer for this and an active thread, so please join in on that discussion as this one will be closed as a duplicate.