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Character Names: Realism or NøT

mrwafflesmrwaffles Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
For everyone born after 1990 creating screen names most likely has numbers trailing after the actual name they wanted. Some of you might remember the xxUserNamexx trend :( . There have been MMOs, and other game genres, which try to add more realism by forcing players to not have numbers in their name. Picking a first and last name, or a unique name that can't have numbers or symbols.

Our avatars are our MMO personas and when we can't lock in our name first, the majority of us, tack on numbers or symbols to still maintain that persona.

Question to the community:
Is realism so important you'd want AoC to force non number/ human readable names?



Invalid name examples: xxFartManxx, DerpMasterFlex123, ©arl





My take on a solution
Some gaming clients have started to allow aliases for users. In real life you have a baby and name him John the attending nurse doesn't go "Nope try again John already exists...Do you even love this baby?" As amazing as that would be to have happen it does not. There are loads of Johns wondering around. So when creating your AoC character you can choose to have it be a non unique plain text name but the system will generate a trailing number tacked onto the end.


Issues and solutions

Issue
In global chat how do we DM/Whisper the right Waffles if there are two (Waffles#123 and Waffles#987)? Both show they are talking in chat so it looks like they are the same person.

Solution
In chat yes we can't truncate the numbers. They'd be left on but simply reduce the contrast a little bit so they were just slightly harder to see.

Issue
I have two "Quail Man"s in my friends list. Who the flip do I tell them a part?

Solution
Steam allows for you to have a custom alias for your friends. that only you can see. So in your list it would read:

Quail Man (Not Doug)
Quail Man (Doug)



In the world you'd just see their name. Yes you could bump into two people with the same name but TBH this happens to me almost regularly. IRL I have the same name as a bunch of dudes (thanks mom...).



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Comments

  • Cold 0ne FTBCold 0ne FTB Member, Alpha One, Adventurer, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Honestly the only people that would really care about this are rpers as names with numbers and symbols are not proper birth names or realistic nicknames. These kinds of names break their immersion and ruin some of the realism of rp events.

    This can create a barrier as people who want to try rping may not think of this a head of time or even know this and when the start they end up either having to start a new alt or change their character's name, which depending on the game may cost money.

    Personally I would not restrict names but I would ensure that there is a name change system in the game. Whether it costs gold or embers it doesn't matter as long as the price is fair and the option exists.
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    That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.
  • rodzorrodzor Member, Braver of Worlds, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Right so basically you are seeing if they are going to have names act like Discord usernames or just simply unique names. I prefer unique naming myself.
  • I think the game should do this for you automatically so there can be multiple people with the same name. If done this way then it won't show the numbers in game, but just the name.

    I think it's too big of an immersion issue if people can't pick the same name. It's usually my least favorite thing in MMO's to pick the name because all of the ones I would pick are always taken. However in real life there can be infinite people with the same name. They don't even have to be the same gender and share the same name sometimes.

    Some things converted from real life to a game can be a bad idea, but I don't think this one is at all.
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    U.S. East
  • mrwafflesmrwaffles Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Personally I would not restrict names but I would ensure that there is a name change system in the game. Whether it costs gold or embers it doesn't matter as long as the price is fair and the option exists.

    I've always thought this is a great feature till I created it for some of my clients (in software not in games). Take for example AoC. What would the ramifications of changing a name for Bounties or crafted Items. Yes you could simply just swap them 1:1 and the bounty reads the new name, and all crafted items read the new name as well. What does this do to the system and the player base. I not making an argument for/against name changes. Just curious your thoughts with name changing and the known AoC mechanics.

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  • Cold 0ne FTBCold 0ne FTB Member, Alpha One, Adventurer, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    mrwaffles wrote: »
    Personally I would not restrict names but I would ensure that there is a name change system in the game. Whether it costs gold or embers it doesn't matter as long as the price is fair and the option exists.

    I've always thought this is a great feature till I created it for some of my clients (in software not in games). Take for example AoC. What would the ramifications of changing a name for Bounties or crafted Items. Yes you could simply just swap them 1:1 and the bounty reads the new name, and all crafted items read the new name as well. What does this do to the system and the player base. I not making an argument for/against name changes. Just curious your thoughts with name changing and the known AoC mechanics.

    When people name change in ESO it changes on the items they crafted without any issues. If ESO can do it I am sure ashes can.
    ZxbhjES.gif

    That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.
  • They can just require an account number attach to the item, but write it as a formula so that the name is directly copied from the account attached to the account number. It's pretty basic excel script you can just copy the idea into the game.
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    U.S. East
  • AeriAeri Member, Settler, Kickstarter
    Due to the way AoC is supposed to work, name changes (outside of a GM-enforced change for something that breaks rules) shouldn't be allowed at all, IMO.

    Players/characters are supposed to have a reputation in this game. Being able to change your name whenever you want defeats that.

    I also hope that there is at least some enforcement on naming rules, so that you don't have any xXThisIsMyNameXx characters running around.
  • My favorite is when those super creative types just HAVE to use a certain name that is already taken, so the server has 54 people named Carl, Karl, Charl, CCarl, KKarl, xkarlx, XCARLX, caarll, carll.

    I personally don't like seeing Call of Duty style names in high fantasy (xxcoolmagexx, C0-ViD, ganjajohnbro420.) I don't think it fits at all, and it leaves me thinking the person is trying to distance themselves from the character and game, like someone is going to catch them playing and they can say, "Yeah but I don't really get into it. That's why my name is fluffybunnie$."

    I wouldn't bother with having name restrictions at all unless it's on a designated RP enforced server. If there are none to be made in AoC, a I suppose a player could just put the non-RP names on an ignore or ban list It likely won't be a problem.
    Where words fail, music speaks.” ― Hans Christian Andersen
  • AtamaAtama Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I agree with the spirit of this idea. It irks me when I see ridiculous names, and lets be honest most of the names you see in any online game are embarrassingly bad.

    But I don’t know how it’s technically feasible. Sure you can eliminate names and special characters from a character name, and that’s a good start. But how are you going to weed out names like ChickenheadJoe, LukeSsskywalker, or even Dregyjvdujvfhb?

    I remember EQ was crazy strict about names. I knew a guy named Snowtire who had a GM change his name to Snowflower without consulting with him, he was ticked. Another person I knew was Frodo Bagodonuts and his last name (not the first name) was changed, I don’t remember what it was changed to but he was allowed to pick it. They actually went after people whose names didn’t fit the fantasy theme. I think the GM-to-subscriber ratio was much higher back then though, I doubt a game could afford to do that sort of thing these days.
     
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  • mrwafflesmrwaffles Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Atama wrote: »
    I agree with the spirit of this idea. It irks me when I see ridiculous names, and lets be honest most of the names you see in any online game are embarrassingly bad.

    But I don’t know how it’s technically feasible. Sure you can eliminate names and special characters from a character name, and that’s a good start. But how are you going to weed out names like ChickenheadJoe, LukeSsskywalker, or even Dregyjvdujvfhb?

    I remember EQ was crazy strict about names. I knew a guy named Snowtire who had a GM change his name to Snowflower without consulting with him, he was ticked. Another person I knew was Frodo Bagodonuts and his last name (not the first name) was changed, I don’t remember what it was changed to but he was allowed to pick it. They actually went after people whose names didn’t fit the fantasy theme. I think the GM-to-subscriber ratio was much higher back then though, I doubt a game could afford to do that sort of thing these days.

    Frodo Bagodonuts :D

    But I agree about the GM ratio now-a-days isn't possible which is why I was thinking about an automated system. @Cold 0ne FTB mentions the RP groups and how this is more for them. I more am trying to remove numbers. Where I think "Frodo Bagodonuts" is not a name I'd pick (for an mmo or otherwise) it's loads better then 420SmokeWeed69.

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  • AeriAeri Member, Settler, Kickstarter
    Atama wrote: »
    I agree with the spirit of this idea. It irks me when I see ridiculous names, and lets be honest most of the names you see in any online game are embarrassingly bad.

    But I don’t know how it’s technically feasible. Sure you can eliminate names and special characters from a character name, and that’s a good start. But how are you going to weed out names like ChickenheadJoe, LukeSsskywalker, or even Dregyjvdujvfhb?

    I remember EQ was crazy strict about names. I knew a guy named Snowtire who had a GM change his name to Snowflower without consulting with him, he was ticked. Another person I knew was Frodo Bagodonuts and his last name (not the first name) was changed, I don’t remember what it was changed to but he was allowed to pick it. They actually went after people whose names didn’t fit the fantasy theme. I think the GM-to-subscriber ratio was much higher back then though, I doubt a game could afford to do that sort of thing these days.

    GMs back in the days of EQ were actual GMs - they interacted much more with the players in general, and weren't just strictly for handling player reports and such like they are nowadays. While they still do those things, they also did stuff like running events, and were more a part of the world, not just some faceless GM-837465 here to help you.

    As for the names, while you certainly can't weed out everything with automated systems, you can certainly do things like no triple-letter combos (So LukeSskywalker could bypass that, but LukeSsskywalker wouldn't be viable), and at least some of the more egregious random-letter things could be taken care of (i.e. no asdasdasd character names).

    Also, normally, if these rules are put into place, while players could get past them initially, it's a small thing to put in a reporting feature, which would allow a GM to basically just press a button and force the player to change their name on next login, or something, without having to go through a lengthy process. It won't catch everyone, but it can help significantly.

    On a funnier side, while I don't RP myself, I could totally make an argument that a character named Chicken-head Joe was totally within bounds. :D
  • lunarskylunarsky Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I disagree. I would personally prefer unique names for everyone instead of the #1186 system. You're supposed to be building a reputation for yourself on the server and a unique name helps identify you and avoid doppelgangers and confusion. If I am looking for MrWaffles the best weaponsmith on the server to craft a sword for me because I saw his signature on an amazing sword I don't want to have to sift through 62 MrWaffles#34873 either or figure out which one specifically crafted it as it may not appear that way on the item when you inspect in-game. If the original name that you wanted is taken then you'll have to come up with a new original one. Luckily name reservation is something a lot of companies are offering now if you purchase their game early but I always have multiple names prepared just in case.

    I think there should be limits on special characters too. @#$& etc symbols shouldn't be in a name and depending on the special character can make it annoying to even message people at times if you don't know the input to create that symbol. I like the first name last name system with an optional last name as that should create enough space to avoid most duplications except for those people naming their character after someone else. If you want the name Cloud Strife you better have name reservation unlocked and be ready to fight for it.

    Future Py'rai (M) - Shaman, Enchanter, Soul Weaver, Templar, or Necromancer (Pending)
    Future Crafting Plans: Herbalism > Alchemy & Scribe or Mining > Metalworking > Jewel cutting (Pending)
  • mrwafflesmrwaffles Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    lunarsky wrote: »
    I disagree. I would personally prefer unique names for everyone instead of the #1186 system. You're supposed to be building a reputation for yourself on the server and a unique name helps identify you and avoid doppelgangers and confusion. If I am looking for MrWaffles the best weaponsmith on the server to craft a sword for me because I saw his signature on an amazing sword I don't want to have to sift through 62 MrWaffles#34873 either or figure out which one specifically crafted it

    :D I know you did this for an example, but this sounded so dope! I for sure am aiming for this title without question.
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  • Don't you ever disrespect the best name in MMORPGs... xXDESTROYERXx
  • lunarskylunarsky Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    mrwaffles wrote: »
    lunarsky wrote: »
    I disagree. I would personally prefer unique names for everyone instead of the #1186 system. You're supposed to be building a reputation for yourself on the server and a unique name helps identify you and avoid doppelgangers and confusion. If I am looking for MrWaffles the best weaponsmith on the server to craft a sword for me because I saw his signature on an amazing sword I don't want to have to sift through 62 MrWaffles#34873 either or figure out which one specifically crafted it

    :D I know you did this for an example, but this sounded so dope! I for sure am aiming for this title without question.

    Then you'll have to beat everyone to that Mr Waffles name so there can be more imitations. Don't want anyone ruining your brand.
    Marcet wrote: »
    Don't you ever disrespect the best name in MMORPGs... xXDESTROYERXx

    You mean XxXSephirothXxX
    Future Py'rai (M) - Shaman, Enchanter, Soul Weaver, Templar, or Necromancer (Pending)
    Future Crafting Plans: Herbalism > Alchemy & Scribe or Mining > Metalworking > Jewel cutting (Pending)
  • I admit to hating either players with stupid names or having things like numbers in them. It does break the immersion factor a bit.

    I personally like the first / last name thing. The chance that someone else will choose the same first AND last name is extremely small (unless you BOTH chose the name from the same book, movie, etc. in which case you should both choose something else)

    You know, I say all of that and then fondly recall one of the best names I have ever seen in a game, "Purple Purple Cookies" (From Shadowbane for those interested). Still makes me chuckle.
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  • CaerylCaeryl Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I’m in the camp of not allowing any name changes (outside of GM decisions) and not allowing numbers in the naming process.

    Names should only be able to contain letters, dashes, apostrophes, and spaces. Any restrictions beyond that would be overkill.

    And as cringe as xXxNOOBxXxSLAYERxXx is, I don’t necessarily think it should be forbidden. Ok maybe “xXx” specifically could be banned.
  • mrwafflesmrwaffles Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited August 2020
    PlagueMonk wrote: »
    I personally like the first / last name thing. The chance that someone else will choose the same first AND last name is extremely small (unless you BOTH chose the name from the same book, movie, etc. in which case you should both choose something else)
    .

    I'm always Mr Waffles. In games that make me do a first + Last i do 'Mr' 'Waffles' and it's always taken. then i have to go with Mister or Señor. :( I'm not unique enough...I'm just a basic waffle...
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  • Meh. Servers aren't real life. The population of a server is too small that you could randomly meet the same players everyday. Names must be important and only refer to their holder when being spoken of inside the server.
  • Honestly the only people that would really care about this are rpers as names with numbers and symbols are not proper birth names or realistic nicknames.

    Say that to Elon Musk's daughter.
  • Holy crap, I just looked that up.
    They named it X Æ A-12 Musk at first.
    I am so glad they decided to go for X Æ A-XII instead.
    The mother truly is right when she says roman numerals look better.
    If that's the reality of modern day names might not enforce "real names".

    On a more serious note, actual real names are so boring that nobody would pick something normal.
    I mean you don't go into a fantasy world to name yourself "Bob" or "John", that kind of defeats the purpose.

    Also there is something really good about a free name choice in online games.
    You instantly have a glimpse into someones mind, I mean what kind of persons would name themselves
    "xXxNOOBxXxSLAYERxXx" for example?
    Just give it a thought.

    Also in case you care:
    SeñorWaffles sounds good to me, it has a more exotic appeal than MrWaffles.
  • mrwafflesmrwaffles Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited August 2020
    @Grievousness

    God I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't know this and look it up lol.

    And thanks for the SeñorWaffles comment :) . When I get to choose my name during name reservation it's a consideration.
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  • DummoDummo Member, Alpha Two
    Also there is something really good about a free name choice in online games.
    You instantly have a glimpse into someones mind, I mean what kind of persons would name themselves
    "xXxNOOBxXxSLAYERxXx" for example?
    Just give it a thought.

    Definitely, I judge from the name.
    Dark Knight
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  • RavudhaRavudha Member
    edited August 2020
    Prefer everyone to have unique names, and the game to not allow numbers after names.

    When I play a game and see players with numbers in their names (Sepheeroth3142), I just can't take them seriously. To be fair, that's only when the player has obviously plucked their names from somewhere else or used something really generic instead of coming up with something original.
  • AtamaAtama Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    SeñorWaffles would come with a side of huevos rancheros.
     
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  • VhaeyneVhaeyne Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I just want a simple common sense "(first name) (Lastname)". A-Z only. Have the game handle case not the player. No Alt-codes. Each section can't be more than 12 chars.

    If we had both first and last names, We could have a lot of clouds and sephiroths with the right spelling.
    I am still going to hate them, but at least ill hate them for being a weeb, and not a weeb who tried every way to spell the name until they got one.

    I feel like that would solve a huge chunk of the problems. You would just have to get used to "/tell first last message".
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    This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
  • so me having the name "Heals_for_Gold" is problematic?!!? :p
  • NelsonRebelNelsonRebel Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I like that people can put in creative names, I get a good laugh from alot of them in ESO

    If you want you should be able to
    toggle names and their actually game account names via an ingame selection.
  • mrwafflesmrwaffles Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I like that people can put in creative names, I get a good laugh from alot of them in ESO

    If you want you should be able to
    toggle names and their actually game account names via an ingame selection.

    See I thought about that too. Mostly so switching between alts was a bit more easier to communicate with people. I talked about this idea with a friend and she mentioned that people might want to keep alts private even from others they are close with. She games with co-workers and likes to jump on the alt to be alone (also to not get caught playing on the clock lol ).

    As for having a good laugh at peoples name, my favorite all time was running into "BroboTeaBaggins" :D
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  • Cold 0ne FTBCold 0ne FTB Member, Alpha One, Adventurer, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    edited August 2020
    Aeri wrote: »
    Due to the way AoC is supposed to work, name changes (outside of a GM-enforced change for something that breaks rules) shouldn't be allowed at all, IMO.

    Players/characters are supposed to have a reputation in this game. Being able to change your name whenever you want defeats that.

    I also hope that there is at least some enforcement on naming rules, so that you don't have any xXThisIsMyNameXx characters running around.

    Reputation could be tied to the username of the player themselves. Personally if somebody had a bad reputation, I would extend that reputation to every character on that account.

    I think that each account should have two sets of name. An individual character name, this would act as away to distinguish inbetween different toons and an account wide username. Maybe add ingame settings that allow you to view people by either name or both at the same time.
    ZxbhjES.gif

    That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.
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