Names and globals discussion

[Golden Ace]

With the toggle on

GladDog[01]
Golden Ace[01]
indigowulf[97]

and with the toggle off

GladDog
Golden Ace
indigowulf

would a date be okay instead of a number?


With the toggle on

GladDog [07/04/2019]
Golden Ace [07/04/2019]
indigowulf [12/01/2019]

or maybe a date and a number?

GladDog [01] [07/04/2019]
Golden Ace [01] [07/04/2019]
indigowulf [97] [12/01/2019]

and with the toggle off

GladDog
Golden Ace
indigowulf

[KeyboardNotPresent]

My proposal is the have a simple hidden number designator after each name that can be visible with a toggle.

With the toggle on

GladDog[01]
Golden Ace[01]
indigowulf[97]

and with the toggle off

GladDog
Golden Ace
indigowulf

One of the things that makes superhero games fun is the ability to be creative and there is also a bit of personal prestige that one can garner from that such as when another player says "nice costume" or, "I like your character name" or, "your concept is cool".

I like the idea above because it is simple and even when toggled on is not very obtrusive. A simple way to give the player that is first to choose a name a little recognition could be to make the name a different color. Anybody that saw the character in game would instantly recognize him as the original. Sure, at first we would have a bunch of people running around with "golden" (for instance) names but after a while it would be neat to see the guy that came up with a unique (golden) name.

Or, to keep with a comic book theme, the first to choose a name would get that name. Anybody after would get the name but also have a subtitle of "Legacy Hero" (in addition to an incremented number as above).

Those that donate to reserve a name or names get that name and nobody else can ever choose it, ever.

[Midnight]

The thing is, in my opinion, if someone wants a certain name they've seen, they'll find a way to do it.

"Oh...GladDog is a great name," one thinks to oneself. "I'll make a character named GGladDog."

So even if we don't have a system of allowing copying of names, it will happen in one way or another. I agree that having the toggling of unique identifiers would be a great solution.

[Kelha]

I'm fairly certain this is a question that already has an answer. If I want to donate 50 dollars for the unique character name, then any compromise would make that donation pointless if all i had to donate was 25 dollars to get everything else that I'm gonna get anyway because anybody can have that name. A unique cape isn't worth 25 dollars. We know that extra 25 dollars is to make sure you get the name you want.

[GladDog]

How about this; If you donated to the point you have a name reserved, the name you pick is unique to you, even if they go with global names?

Lets say I reserve the name, 'GladPickle'

I make 3 other characters, Gladdddd, Gladddd and Gladdd.

There could be many Gladdd's in the game, mine would be Gladdd@77, assuming I am the 77th person to register. There may also be a Gladdd@196 and a Gladdd@3154

But there would only be one GladPickle. Mine, No global name, just GladPickle. No one else in the game can take that name, and my global identifier is not applied. I could proudly swashbuckle about, knowing I am the only GladPickle in the game!

And post 1111 for emphasis!

[Kelha]

How about this; If you donated to the point you have a name reserved, the name you pick is unique to you, even if they go with global names?

Lets say I reserve the name, 'GladPickle'

I make 3 other characters, Gladdddd, Gladddd and Gladdd.

There could be many Gladdd's in the game, mine would be Gladdd@77, assuming I am the 77th person to register. There may also be a Gladdd@196 and a Gladdd@3154

But there would only be one GladPickle. Mine, No global name, just GladPickle. No one else in the game can take that name, and my global identifier is not applied. I could proudly swashbuckle about, knowing I am the only GladPickle in the game!

And post 1111 for emphasis!

That is an idea I like. When someone else tries to enter that name at character creation they get an error message "invalid user name"

[Warhead]

But as has been said before, there are still plenty ways around this. You may be GladPickle, but there could easily be a Glad Pickle or GLADPICKLE or .GladPickle. Still could cause the same confusion. Again, I know people want the names to be unique, but after a while you run out of unique names for an electricity controller or ice wielder. That is why I'm ok with duplicates and if someone does a view info like in CoH the global name could be seen.

[GladDog]

But as has been said before, there are still plenty ways around this. You may be GladPickle, but there could easily be a Glad Pickle or GLADPICKLE or .GladPickle. Still could cause the same confusion. Again, I know people want the names to be unique, but after a while you run out of unique names for an electricity controller or ice wielder. That is why I'm ok with duplicates and if someone does a view info like in CoH the global name could be seen.

The difference is that the name I reserved, GladPickle, would not show a global name, since it is unique. All of the other names would show a global identifier; even if the global name was hidden, there would be some type of verification - maybe a numeric identifier - the team would need this in the case of an abusive player.

[Phantom Mouse]

While it may be an unpopular opinion at the moment, and the cause of it may be rare, I would like to see non-unique names with globals.

I could see a group that plays together playing a concept of a Multiple Man style character. With non-unique names, they wouldn't have to resort to using upper case I's and lower case l's and 1's to make the characters they want.

What is more pertinent to me, is that in CoX, the roleplaying super groups I joined wanted names made out of proper words, with no numbers attached, or any of the above tricks. With non-unique names we don't have to worry about a concept having to be scrapped because of the name you want already being taken.

[Avatar PDM]

Though I understand your thought Phantom Mouse, Multiple Man character could also consists of Multiple Man 1 to 100 so that won´t be a problem
And if you are Electro (just using a existing name for the example, I know ) why not being Electro2000 or Electro-Omega?

Whatever, I understand, that some people here do have the fear, that they will be restricted in their freedom of creating their character with the name they have in their minds.
Others fear, that the promised Indivdiualsm of their characters will go to hell! I will not say, that any side is wrong, because they are not!

When I stumpled over CoH the first time the game was around for a few years already, so I had to live with the fact, that some typical Names where not available anymore. That kind of frustrated me, because I wanted to play the characters I created in my own universe in that game. For example my comic universe got an Angel - for CoH I renamed her Ayara because Angel was taken already (what a surprise). A short moment I was kind of annoyed but I got over it very fast. And in looking back I have to say, I would not have wanted the Angel name if that would have meant, that I am one of numerous Angels, because that wouldn´t have given me the feeling neither

Now I don´t want to be the pessimistic guy here, but I believe it will be a while before we even have to really think about getting out of names, to tell the truth I think it will take a while until we have to be creative at all. And creativity should be a basic tool for people who live in a superheroic backround anyway.

And though I understand, that there is only supposed to be one server I think it should be considered if more servers could make sense eventually in reasons of gameplay. I mean, I am not the greatest Villain Player anyway, but if I think about the approach of CoH I think they did it wrong! Of course it can be fun being in a City of Heroes and trying to do your stuff underneath their eyes (which never happened anyway - I mean otherwise Villains would have had to walk the same areas and would had to be free for attack) - and having a part of a City or Ship of Heroes which was taken out of control of the Heroes and is a law free area can work a bit.
But haven´t we talked about an extra ship of villains a while ago? It would make sense, as I see it, if they have their own server since they got their own ship too. And therefore, there should propably be a third PvP Server where Heroes and Villains (and those in between) can kick each other into oblivion as much as they want. All of that of course goes a long way down the road (as Ship of Villains too) and until then the community will hopefully be big enough to make us think about it).
That will as I see it also not lead to Server Rivalries because the Servers serve different purposes anyway.

Back to the topic - of course you could have a plattform, where you have several people using one name and if you klick on them for contact or whatever you see who is behind it
But I believe that will kill the feeling of that "Universe".
I mean, all of you have talked about having individual names or having the name of your choosing, but have you considered, what makes kind of the feeling at DC or Marvel for example? You see a costume and you know that is Spider Man or Superman and you know - or think you know everything about it - that created their legend and legacy. And I don´t know if there are exception but believe me I know nobody who wasnt in given time pissed about those confusion storylines where people wouldn´t know who is the real deal in the story. Anyway, my point is part of the feeling being a Super Hero (and what didn´t work at DCUO) was, creating your legend, your legacy! And how should you do that, if your name is not one of a kind?
Yes, I know people could notice who are around because of the costume - what if I change the look? One could klick on the caracter and see the number - who likes to do that all the time (not me, not for that reason)
It could be visible all the time - well then I could name him Elektro 2394 from the beginning where is the difference?

I think the question is what is more important - the individualism, which creates legacy (and creativity)
or the freedom which creates - well freedom to name it
And as many might have guessed already - for those who don´t I make it clear here - I vote for the individualism and accept, that if somebody else takes my whish name I have to do what any comic company has to do too - think about another name.
Because I don´t believe your character would feel unique, would feel the same if you know there are others around who could be mistaken for you even if they might not be online at the moment.
(though it might be an idea to have a time limit included - so if somebody won´t go online for a certain time which has to be thought through of course, which hints that the player might not play anymore - the name will be available again)