The obvious solution to the name problem

[Arkerus]

The name problem I define as the restriction on most MMO servers that each character name be unique. Essentially, this boils down to databases and their fundamental requirement for one unique field (that is, one particular characteristic that is unique for every database entry). Character name is the obvious first choice for this unique field, because names are easy to remember. However, this causes other bothersome issues with the player base, beginning with frustration when their desired name (and the first half-dozen alternates) are all taken. The problem grows as the server population does. And when you add in server merges, you get players up in arms at the prospect of losing the name they've played under for months.

 

The obvious solution is to choose another unique field. For instance, what about a six- or seven-digit number? Most servers will not see 10 million players, so this number can easily be unique. Also, every player in real life has to deal with ten-digit numbers on a regular basis (phone numbers). Format the number correctly (in three- to four-digit blocks) and present it as a "Galactic ID number" or "Universal call code." Implement a context-sensitive search function on mail and social windows, where the entry of a character name or partial number will result in one or more database entries, complete with character name, class, level, ID number, and perhaps other information, all in one line. EVE Online has such a function, so it is certainly doable. Also, perhaps a tooltip that displays caller ID over a character's name in chat. If a player wants to name his character John or Luke, he'll just have to make sure to tell people his call code.

 

Lol. I highly doubt the character table uses a NAME field as its unique index field. More so they intentionally made that.

[Tmanarl]

Hey 9612358874 how you doin?

[Geoduck]

or they could make the legacy the unique field, seeing as its already treated that way. I see no reason to limit first names in this case, so long as you make legacy available on character creation for servers and then either lock xp access to it or something similar until level X

 

If they were to do that, then people would be crying about how "Their" legacy name was taken on the server they transferred to, and want to have yet another solution.

 

As said earlier in the thread, the best solution is to deal with it and move on.

 

[Rafaman]

Interesting discussion, but unfortunately there is no solution in my view. But the reason why is not because a well thought out scheme that would allow multiple "Yodas" on a server is lacking. It is quite simply because Yoda from origin server "x" wants to be Yoda on destination server "y" and be as unique as he was on his origin server.

 

My guess is if you implemented a solution that would allow multiple Yodas with a unique identifier, people would complain they are not in fact unique. lol. Yoda wants to be the only Yoda and not Yoda 8675309.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Rafaman

[Larishet]

Interesting discussion, but unfortunately there is no solution in my view. But the reason why is not because a well thought out scheme that would allow multiple "Yodas" on a server is lacking. It is quite simply because Yoda from origin server "x" wants to be Yoda on destination server "y" and be as unique as he was on his origin server.

 

My guess is if you implemented a solution that would allow multiple Yodas with a unique identifier, people would complain they are not in fact unique. lol. Yoda wants to be the only Yoda and not Yoda 8675309.

 

There is a solution. Some games only keep one unique account name. So, if I want to be Yoda, I could be Yoda@Larishet and you could be Yoda@Rafaman. We could both be Yoda and both see the same character name. The only thing that changes is the way to invite players. If you want to invite someone, you can click on their name or invite by their account name.

[Scorpienne]

Guys, given the amount of pixels and rage that have been spilled over the name issue, don't you think that if it was *that* easy that BW would have already done it?

 

 

It reminds me of one of one of my favorite movie scenes...

 

O-Ren: You didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did you?

 

The Bride: You know, for a second there … yeah, I kinda did.

 

 

This sort of Monday morning quarterbacking by people who largely do not have the skillset to be commenting on how to change complex code in a complete and launched game is ultimately not useful to anyone. I doubt the BW devs are even listening to this, because I'm sure that they have experienced programmers who are intimately familiar with the game code who have been wracking their brains about this problem for months.

 

Though if you find it personally entertaining... do keep on. No harm or offense in it... it's just not useful.

 

 

Paige

[Valkirus]

Legacy needs to be chosen at character creation. Don't let the points start accruing until the end of chapter 1 as currently, but if they make Legacy unique, and first names not, then it has to be done that way.

 

First names need to be unique within the same legacy, but not unique on the server.

 

This would work perfectly. So when you wanted to whisper to Bob, you would whisper something like "Bob Walters".

Walters being his Legacy name. It is forethought like this which BioWare has been lacking.

[Valkirus]

Guys, given the amount of pixels and rage that have been spilled over the name issue, don't you think that if it was *that* easy that BW would have already done it?

 

 

It reminds me of one of one of my favorite movie scenes...

 

O-Ren: You didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did you?

 

The Bride: You know, for a second there … yeah, I kinda did.

 

 

This sort of Monday morning quarterbacking by people who largely do not have the skillset to be commenting on how to change complex code in a complete and launched game is ultimately not useful to anyone. I doubt the BW devs are even listening to this, because I'm sure that they have experienced programmers who are intimately familiar with the game code who have been wracking their brains about this problem for months.

 

Though if you find it personally entertaining... do keep on. No harm or offense in it... it's just not useful.

 

 

Paige

 

I am not a mechanic ether, but I can tell a car company how I donot like his product and make solutions for the car to be better. Such as" your car does not accelerate smoothly, it hestitates and is anoying". It is up to the company if they can do it or not. A lot of improvements have come to products because of customer feedbacks.

[Malastare]

I am not a mechanic ether, but I can tell a car company how I donot like his product and make solutions for the car to be better. Such as" your car does not accelerate smoothly, it hestitates and is anoying".

 

Sure, but most of the comments here are more analogous to:

 

"Your car doesn't accelerate smoothly, you should fire the spark plugs at twice the current voltage"

"Your car doesn't accelerate smoothly, you should add huge spoilers to the front and back."

"Your car doesn't accelerate smoothly, you should add an extra cylinder."

 

To a novice, those sound like helpful suggestions. To an experienced mechanic, they are idiotic.

 

The vast majority of posters here have next to zero knowledge about software and because of that, their suggestions on how to fix issues range from the insultingly simple-minded ("Apply unique id numbers to names? What an innovative approach....") to the destructively bad ("Just allow duplicates of names. Who cares?")

 

And in the end, pretty much everyone (on this topic) is suggesting changes in the foundation of the game and a number of high-profile UI flows to fix the "problem" that their incredibly unique and personal name is not at all unique or personal, and they refuse to let go.

 

So, whatever. Do your thing, I guess. Keep on tossing your suggestions ("Hey Ferrari, your cars aren't fast enough, you should add two more tires!"). I'll keep laughing at all the people using weird accent marks to try and get their "cool" name.

[PainOfDemise]

this is an egghead solution. So you'd need to know the persons id code to invite, mail, whisper etc?

 

Ahhhh it's the Wii Friend Code all over again!!!!

[Alphasgimaone]

Sure, but most of the comments here are more analogous to:

 

"Your car doesn't accelerate smoothly, you should fire the spark plugs at twice the current voltage"

"Your car doesn't accelerate smoothly, you should add huge spoilers to the front and back."

"Your car doesn't accelerate smoothly, you should add an extra cylinder."

 

To a novice, those sound like helpful suggestions. To an experienced mechanic, they are idiotic.

 

The vast majority of posters here have next to zero knowledge about software and because of that, their suggestions on how to fix issues range from the insultingly simple-minded ("Apply unique id numbers to names? What an innovative approach....") to the destructively bad ("Just allow duplicates of names. Who cares?")

 

And in the end, pretty much everyone (on this topic) is suggesting changes in the foundation of the game and a number of high-profile UI flows to fix the "problem" that their incredibly unique and personal name is not at all unique or personal, and they refuse to let go.

 

So, whatever. Do your thing, I guess. Keep on tossing your suggestions ("Hey Ferrari, your cars aren't fast enough, you should add two more tires!"). I'll keep laughing at all the people using weird accent marks to try and get their "cool" name.

Completely false.

 

To use your poorly thought out analogy, it's more like "Why are you still using standard when other car companies are switching to automatic?" Or insert power windows, power steering, anti lock breaks, etc.

 

In less than five years time, this will not only be a standard feature in mmos, it will be expected.. It will have to be. The point here is, like everything else, BW continues to fall behind the curve.

[HarleysRule]

There is a solution. Some games only keep one unique account name. So, if I want to be Yoda, I could be Yoda@Larishet and you could be Yoda@Rafaman. We could both be Yoda and both see the same character name. The only thing that changes is the way to invite players. If you want to invite someone, you can click on their name or invite by their account name.

 

Cryptic's naming system is about the only thing they did right IMO, but many people don't like the idea of everyone knowing their account name, so that opens another can of worms. I like it so you can't be a total douche on one character anonymously.

[Tewnam]

Completely false.

 

To use your poorly thought out analogy, it's more like "Why are you still using standard when other car companies are switching to automatic?" Or insert power windows, power steering, anti lock breaks, etc.

 

In less than five years time, this will not only be a standard feature in mmos, it will be expected.. It will have to be. The point here is, like everything else, BW continues to fall behind the curve.

 

You act as if every other multiplayer game out there has this option. Very few do, and fewer still MMOs. The reason being is that MMOs require people to type other names often, compared to other games. If I see someone in the world, I'm only going to see their character name. How can I send them a message? They haven't typed into chat or anything where I can link directly, nor do I know their hidden character ID. This is why MMOs generally stick with unique names.

[Dejoule]

/invite TK421

 

That guy is never at his post, he's always afk during ops.

[Malastare]

To use your poorly thought out analogy, it's more like "Why are you still using standard when other car companies are switching to automatic?" Or insert power windows, power steering, anti lock breaks, etc.

 

That's a completely different topic than I was addressing: I was specifically talking about the (large numbers of) people who post comments saying that they dislike behavior X, think it should be fixed by doing procedure Y, and that Bioware's devs are idiots for not figuring that out.

 

Are there other ways of handling naming? Sure. Bioware picked the one with (one of the) cleanest UI flow(s). This is something that people largely refuse to admit or outright ignore, because they would make horrible game designers and never even thought about it. There are other schemes that are less convenient, yet allow for more naming possibilities. However, they always come at a cost, and again, the unqualified wannabe-game-designers on this forum never spend a moment thinking of them. For the most part, however, the bulk of the name complaints come from a group of people who would happily inconvenience large swaths of users just so they could be 'BobaFatt'. Overall, those people are a small minority, and game designers should ignore that sort of selfishness when designing a game.

 

And yes, the given-name:surname scheme is viable, however, it requires that people pick their surname at first character creation, and that they *always* be identified as given-name:surname in every single listing and display location. If you can't figure out why, then I don't have the time to explain it to you.

[GnatB]

This would work perfectly. So when you wanted to whisper to Bob, you would whisper something like "Bob Walters".

Walters being his Legacy name. It is forethought like this which BioWare has been lacking.

 

Except that, you know, not everybody in the same legacy should have the same last name. And I don't neccessarily WANT other people to know which characters are my alts, so it's quite possible I have the legacy name hidden.

 

 

So, uhm. yeah. Forethought like this is what BioWare HAS. The way it currently works IS the correct (I'd actually argue ONLY) way.

 

Now sure, it sucks if/when you're forced to transfer a character for whatever reason and your name is already taken, but THAT is a situation that (arguably) shouldn't have happened in the first place. But breaking a system that works well because of some other goofup (that's hopefully a limited issue goofup) isn't a terribly great idea.

[LeeSims]

Are there other ways of handling naming? Sure. Bioware picked the one with (one of the) cleanest UI flow(s). This is something that people largely refuse to admit or outright ignore, because they would make horrible game designers and never even thought about it. There are other schemes that are less convenient, yet allow for more naming possibilities. However, they always come at a cost, and again, the unqualified wannabe-game-designers on this forum never spend a moment thinking of them. For the most part, however, the bulk of the name complaints come from a group of people who would happily inconvenience large swaths of users just so they could be 'BobaFatt'. Overall, those people are a small minority, and game designers should ignore that sort of selfishness when designing a game.

 

There's no need for name calling.

 

OK, sorry for the pun. Putting "obvious" in the thread title was a bit provocative, I admit. It implies either 1) that I am somehow much more intelligent than anyone else who has ever thought about the problem (unlikely) or 2) that there are "not as obvious" problems with the "obvious" solution that render it less than optimal. However, these problems can be overcome.

 

And yes, the given-name:surname scheme is viable, however, it requires that people pick their surname at first character creation, and that they *always* be identified as given-name:surname in every single listing and display location. If you can't figure out why, then I don't have the time to explain it to you.

 

One alternate way to allow surnames is to simply allow spaces as part of a name. So a character could be named "Bob Smith" without needing two separate fields. Problem is, this would allow people to use initial spaces: i.e., one guy is "Boba Fett", the next is " Boba Fett", and another is "Boba Fett", etc. Which is undoubtedly the reason why games stopped allowing spaces in the first place.

[LeeSims]

You do realize that the obvious solution to the name problem is stop taking names so seriously? This is just a game!

 

Well, it is a bit much to ask people to care enough to play a game for dozens of hours a week, interacting with dozens of other players, and not to care what those other players call you. If it was a single-player game, where the character's name is simply something that shows up on the character display and possibly in NPC dialogue, it wouldn't matter much (but if it was a single-player game, there would be no naming restrictions, either). Names matter to people. Do we not get annoyed (even if only secretly) when referred to by a hated nickname? Do those of us with unfortunate monikers not curse our parents for their lack of foresight or empathy?

 

It's just a game, you say. I don't know about you, but I play games for the enjoyment of it. That enjoyment is reduced if I'm stuck with a sub-optimal name that doesn't fit my character concept. Judging from the outcry over the character transfer name changes, I am not the only one. We are not stupid, or lame, or out of touch with reality. We just enjoy the game differently from you.

[EricJS]

To be honest, I haven't seen a single solution here that fits as smoothly as the proponent thinks it does. Which isn't to say that I'm against them all, just that people need to understand that just because you don't see a problem with your solution doesn't mean your solution is without problem.

 

Have all names be character name + legacy name? As has been pointed out, there's a lot of people that don't want their legacy names attached to all of their toons, and more than one reason for this. Since I don't display my legacy name on any of my characters, noone, not even my guildies, would know what it is. It also means more typing.

 

Use the name, and only require the legacy name if disambiguation is required. Well, that makes for less typing, but it can give some surprising results. /w bob with some secret, and you'd best hope that either your bob hasn't logged off and some other bob logged in, or that the new bob isn't interested in your secret.

 

Click on their name in a who list/guild roster/chat channel? Then how do we send mail to someone that's offline? Or add someone that's offline as a friend?

 

We've also seen people that object to account identifiers, so it's not like using that for disambiguation would be a solution that would make everyone happy.

 

I can't say what issues are important to the devs, but I can say that none of the solutions mentioned here are without issue. It all comes down to how big of an issue they see this as, and can they find a solution that doesn't cause issues that are worse than the one they're trying to fix.

[Knockerz]

That's nice and all, but I like to see you post your plan for BW to develop a new name system and code that will not hindering the resources to develop new content. If it were so easy you think BW or the developers would have done it already. The name issue is a minor problem with only a few vocal players on forum making the same type of threads or post over and over.

 

Like usual the forums don't really provide any useful feedback to the developers. What a lot of you players are doing is like some who can draw and asking a graphic designer to create a model of his drawing. That's exactly what is going in this thread. I'm sure BW has the statistics of how many players would quit or have quit over their characters names. If it were a high priority BW would had a solution, but since a very tiny percentage of the population would quit over their name BW should not waste resources on changing the naming system. If you don't like it quit.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Knockerz