character names [rant]

[Karyuu]

*shakes her head* I was talking about IG roleplay identities, not forum ones. There are plenty of people whose forum names do not match up to their IG characters, and they have no problems with this. I don\'t see why it\'s such a problem - again, people are just being stubborn. It\'s no longer an issue of \"There will be no more names,\" because that is just horse manure. It\'s individuals who are so stuck on names they wanted being already chosen that they want a complete reworking of the system.

Imagine being in the tavern with 5 other Jon\'s. What is the chat window going to look like? Imagine trying to figure out who said what, when two of those Jon\'s look completely the same. It won\'t work unless the chat also displays people\'s last names, and who wants to see:

Jon Aadac says: \"The ale is good here.\"
Jon Laglai says: \"Not as good as the drinks they serve in Ojaveda. Those will set your mouth a-fire...\"
Jon Iunoth says: \"Is that where the cat people live?\"
Jon Aadac says: \"Live and flourish. Jonny, pass me some ale, eh?\"
Jon Iunoth says: \"What? Me?\"
Jon Laglai says: \"No, think he meant me.\"
Jon Aadac says: \"Wait. What?\"



Just pick another first name. It\'s not a big deal.

[Harkin]

i thought for sure my name would be gone by the time i could create an account, but Harkin was still available! whoo

i figured seeing on the boards someone <.< >.> would have taken it...

opinion: first names unique, last name not... middle names GOOD!

[Under the moon]

That is exactly why I don\'t have a forum name yet.  That, and Under the moon really stands out. :]

I\'m done arguing though.  All of you had good points. But whatever we think, the current system is not likely to change. So the points are moot.

[Lhun Duum]

First, I\'ll choose my side : freedom for both firstname and lastname, but I know this will never happen...

Don\'t tell me it\'s impossible to implement something like that in Planeshift because that\'s false. In fact it\'s almost possible to do so.
Planeshift users aren\'t only qualified by their character name but also by a user account name (email address). So, if we enforce the user to create is 4 characters with different name, we\'ll always have a unique qualifier email_address:character_name.

/say is no more a problem, use the email adress instead of the name to qualified the recipient (we don\'t have to use the full qualifier since we have only one connection at any time for a given account)

BUT drawbacks of this implementation make it worse than what it was supposed to solve.

using email in /say is not really \"Role Playing\" complient

email are longer to type than most names

you cannot do fun things like creating an evil char to do bad things and a good char to help others while keeping others to know that they are played by the same player since the qualifier would be the same email address for both characters.

MOST IMPORTANT, it\'ll take a long time to develop the new system and planeshift\'s developers sure have better things to do (like allowing us to open the door :p)

We are left with the possibility of allowing anymone to choose whatever name they want to but for sure communication will turn into nightmare.

Conclusion, the existing solution is not perfect but it\'s better than my solution (it\'ll be even better if lastname musn\'t be unique, so I hope this is really a bug)

By the way can we choose the same name as Planeshift NPC or are their names reserved ?

[Black_rose]

ok just go with my idea. and you could have a temperary buddy list as well to just cclick on the names

[Karyuu]

How about no. How about we leave it the way it is because it just makes sense and everything else is too problematic. Buddy lists should not be necessary to talk to someone, as Kixie mentioned. And I mentioned a rather odd scenario with several people of the same name in one place, such as a tavern. If you have any flawless fixes for that, then please, do share.

I am absolutely adamant about unique first names and GM-changeable last names, or a sort of registered \"family tree.\" I would not want to pause before every person who has the same name as a friend to ask if he/she is who I think he/she is, or a random person. I would not want to run into someone of the same last name as me because my character has an incredibly rich tribal history that another person is not going to know or understand without deep explanations, and I would not want others to mistake a random person for one of my character\'s tribe. I would not want to see someone of the same first name running around, because in games my character can make something of herself and set herself apart from others, so that even those who do not know her may hear her name and know what it entails.

I\'ll argue for this tooth and nail.

[Hatchnet]

Originally posted by Karyuu
*shakes her head* I was talking about IG roleplay identities, not forum ones. There are plenty of people whose forum names do not match up to their IG characters, and they have no problems with this. I don\'t see why it\'s such a problem - again, people are just being stubborn. It\'s no longer an issue of \"There will be no more names,\" because that is just horse manure. It\'s individuals who are so stuck on names they wanted being already chosen that they want a complete reworking of the system.

Imagine being in the tavern with 5 other Jon\'s. What is the chat window going to look like? Imagine trying to figure out who said what, when two of those Jon\'s look completely the same. It won\'t work unless the chat also displays people\'s last names, and who wants to see:

Jon Aadac says: \"The ale is good here.\"
Jon Laglai says: \"Not as good as the drinks they serve in Ojaveda. Those will set your mouth a-fire...\"
Jon Iunoth says: \"Is that where the cat people live?\"
Jon Aadac says: \"Live and flourish. Jonny, pass me some ale, eh?\"
Jon Iunoth says: \"What? Me?\"
Jon Laglai says: \"No, think he meant me.\"
Jon Aadac says: \"Wait. What?\"



Just pick another first name. It\'s not a big deal.

You know something Karyuu?

When I first logged into Crystal Blue I expected to see everyones full name in the chat window and you know what I didn\'t care either.

I wonder just how many people feel the same way?

[Karyuu]

Originally posted by Hatchnet
I wonder just how many people feel the same way?

Maybe you should make a poll :rolleyes:

[Merdarion]

There is one major flaw in your wish.

Buddy lists, groups, telling, guilds, maybe even GM options go trough first name.

You dont type
/tell Sirvius Sirilus how are you?

It would make it much more complicated, to have an first/lastname question each time someone uses a /tell command.

+ You would have to remember First and Last names of everyone you want to /tell something. What is it so important to have a certain name? (Well if you arent moogie, or grono)

[Moogie]

People are starting to repeat themselves... if anyone would like to officially \'wish\' something from this debate, feel free to post ideas in the Wishlist, but take into account what all sides have said here.

If anyone would like to say anything direly important after this point, please let me know. For now, this topic comes to a well-worn conclusion: Nobody agrees, and only the devs will change it if they don\'t like it.


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*Moogie rolls 1d20 and gets a 20!*
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