Ylliarus Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 (edited) With the changes made to the ignore system, I was hoping to also suggest some changes to the naming system in SWTOR. Several MMO's out there allow 2 players to have the same character name, as the name will be tied to 2 different accounts. Could this system also be implemented into SWTOR? It seems a bit archaic that each character name has to be unique. Legacy names, for example, do not have this requirement. Besides, many players try to circumvent this system anyway by altcoding character names that have already been taken. Couldn't the system be simplified by removing the need for character names to be unique? The game already seems to have a system in place to allow for guilds to have the same name (I know it was because of the server merges) by adding @[insert server name] behind the name. The character name system could employ a similar system, but leave out the @[accountname] part from the display name. Or, give players the options to disable this part in the display name, but still be visible in the friends list or something like that. Edited October 22, 2020 by Ylliarus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTergon Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 I can see an issue, where two people with the exact same name are on at the same time, chatting . You'll see Person ****** Person ***** two people talking, but which is which? at least with alt chars you have Person ***** Pérson ****** And if the first is a troll causing trouble, the second might get ignored by accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ylliarus Posted October 22, 2020 Author Share Posted October 22, 2020 (edited) I can see an issue, where two people with the exact same name are on at the same time, chatting . You'll see Person ****** Person ***** two people talking, but which is which? at least with alt chars you have Person ***** Pérson ****** And if the first is a troll causing trouble, the second might get ignored by accident. Chats could have the feature of displaying Person @ Account 1 and Person @ Account 2. That would solve the issue, and players could be given the option to hide the @ Account part or enable it. That would solve the problem you perceive. Edited October 22, 2020 by Ylliarus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveTheCynic Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 Chats could have the feature of displaying Person @ Account 1 and Person @ Account 2. That would solve the issue, and players could be given the option to hide the @ Account part or enable it. That would solve the problem you perceive. OK, so what if Fred@Account1 and Fred@Account2 both choose to hide their @Account part? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xordevoreaux Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 (edited) Two people in my guild named John with legacy name Smith John Smith John Smith Both member rank. I'm told by another member that John Smith was spouting off racist comments in gen chat, which is enough to get anyone kicked out my guild. You tell me which John Smith I'm supposed to ban. Edited October 22, 2020 by xordevoreaux Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveTheCynic Posted October 22, 2020 Share Posted October 22, 2020 With the changes made to the ignore system, I was hoping to also suggest some changes to the naming system in SWTOR. I don't see how these two things are related. Several MMO's out there allow 2 players to have the same character name, as the name will be tied to 2 different accounts. Which ones? (Not saying you're making it up, but I'm curious as to which ones they are.) Could this system also be implemented into SWTOR? It seems a bit archaic that each character name has to be unique. Why would that be archaic? Of course, I get that there can be other people out there in the Real World called "Steve", and, indeed, there are three in my company(1), which leads us to a problem. For a while there were two of us, and the other's last name was later in the alphabet than mine, so I occasionally got email or instant-messanger chat for him. Fortunately, none of it was "sensitive" managerish stuff - he's a manager, and I'm not. Then again, for a while I worked at a different company, and the internal email system was shared with customers (it's a long story), and I occasionally received email for another Steve with the same last name as me. He worked for a customer company (a major investment bank), and some of his email that I got was *highly* sensitive company-confidential stuff. If duplicate names cause problems like that in real life, let's not have them causing problems in our video games as well. Legacy names, for example, do not have this requirement. No, but legacy names aren't part of our characters' "player-accessible" unique identifier, either, and never were. Besides, many players try to circumvent this system anyway by altcoding character names that have already been taken. Couldn't the system be simplified by removing the need for character names to be unique? No, it couldn't. It would make the overall system *more* complicated, not less. The game already seems to have a system in place to allow for guilds to have the same name (I know it was because of the server merges) by adding @[insert server name] behind the name. The character name system could employ a similar system, but leave out the @[accountname] part from the display name. Or, give players the options to disable this part in the display name, but still be visible in the friends list or something like that. If the character display name *doesn't* include account-specific stuff, then I can make you look bad by mouthing off on a character whose name is the same as your character's name, then quickly logging out. If the account name is visible, then a harasser can instantly tell that this other character belongs to the same account as the other that he has been harassing. Overall, what we've got is certainly not the best possible system, but it's probably close to the least bad. However, I'd add one other thing: The Secret World and Secret World Legends both have/had a system where your character has a first name and last name which aren't constrained to be unique, either individually or in combination, and a "Nickname" which is the player-accessible unique identifier. Nicknames were constrained to be unique, however. Anyone's character could have Melanie as a first name, or Roberts as a last name, or even be Melanie Roberts, but only *my* character could be Melanie "Truckslayer"(2) Roberts. (1) It could be worse. Back around 2000, I worked at a dot-com startup which had 120 employees at its peak. Twelve of them, including me, were Steve. (2) Inspired by a guy I knew in high school(3) who was run over by an eighteen-wheeler outside the school. After he recovered, he had the most *epic* set of scars all up and down both legs, and no fear of wearing shorts. He referred to *himself* as Truck-slayer. (3) I've had a complicated life. The less said about it, the better, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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