The latest “Ask Cryptic” had an incredibly eyebrow-raising answer to the question of unique names in the game:
Rejoice, the days of name-squatting are over! In Champions Online, character names are unique to a single player’s account. Everyone can now be “Odysseus.” Each account can only have one “Odysseus,” though. If Champions Online can’t figure out the precise character you’re referring to, you specify the player who owns the character. This is done by appending the player’s handle (also call an @name or public name) to it. For example, “Odysseus@poz,” “Odysseus@Simmons,” and “Odysseus@Homer.”
As far as I know, no other major MMO lets you duplicate character names (although, nerds of the world, please prove me wrong!). Off the cuff, my pros and cons:
PRO: No player has to worry that their name will ever be taken, even if they start up the game six years after launch. Since superheroes in particular have a special bond with names, to throw wide the doors to every player is a big gesture.
CON: Duplicate names decrease the value of a unique name. You roll “Darkfire” and then see ten other Darkfires in the starting zone alone. If you ever come up with a truly awesome name, it is fully open for name theft (homage?) by anyone who sees you. It won’t be as easy to keep characters sorted out in the game, even with their “@” thing. Characters with bad reputations might ruin it for the rest of the ones with similar names. And speaking of similar names, there will be a billion “Docs” and “Batmans” running rampant.
I… feel that this is a good thing. Maybe? It’s definitely interesting. Cryptic could probably make a mint down the road by offering a RMT deal where you can pay a limited fee to protect your name and claim ownership to it. At the very least, they should let you see how many other characters have that name before creating your character. What do you think?
I had a bit of a rant about name squatting a while back. Glad that one of the MMO companies is finally designed a solution.
Only problem I forsee is the 1000 “Britney Spears” and “Drizzt Do’urdens” running around. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.
That’s an innovation I never saw coming. I’ll need to ponder a while before deciding if it is a good idea, but I certainly haven’t heard of anyone else going for that.
City of Heroes has raised the possibility of cross-server teaming, which would lead to Batman of Virtue, Batman of Pinnacle, Batman of Justice, etc. Not the same thing, but it’s the closest I’ve seen around.
No, no, no, no. I don’t like this one little bit. I agree with every con you listed. The benefit to this system is too weak to counteract the negative aspects. I prefer CoX’s system (which has probably been used elsewhere) where players lose the rights to their name after a certain period of inactivity. The seems like a much better solution to the problem of name-squatting.
We can all be a Syp!!!
This definitely will post problems for bloggers…
I think the negatives outweigh the positives. I like to be immersed in my games and having to remember that wolverinne is actualy wolverinne@frank will jar me out of the game every time.
I would be quite suprised if this makes it past beta
Wizard 101 allows duplicate names. But this is great news!
I can’t hardly wait to make Superman, Flash, Storm and Jean Gray without having to put lots of extra letters in!
It does get very annoying when you start an alt and nothing is left to use. In WOW even the most of the radom names on old server are gone. I would imagine this is a much bigger deal for RPers.
I learned my lessen in WOW so when WAR launched I grabbed a bunch of names for alts, and felt like a total turd for doing it.
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Don’t you just hate it when all the other players named “ipwnyou” ruin the name’s rep for the rest of us?
It’s nice, I guess. It will be a pleasant change to not have to try 3+ different names before finding one that’s not already taken.
On the other hand, I agree that making names only account specific kind of takes away the uniqueness of your name. Like you said, your cool, unique name becomes another option for the uncreative. I might be Raegn on one game but if there’s 10 other Raegn’s running around… does it really matter?
It makes me wonder how they’ll separate out the people with multiple names when it comes to grouping. There has to be some easily identifiable differentiation tag so I know that “Darkfire” (1) isn’t the same as “Darkfire” (2). I just hope it’s that people’s name plates don’t become muddled with account tags.
Sword of the New World has a unique family name, but you could have the same first name as somebody else. Nerd of the world responds.
Does anyone else WANT to be Syp? That’s a scary thought…
I’m kind of mixed on this… yeah, it means I might not have to claim names at the start, but still… potentially having multiples running around? I don’t really want anybody else with my name, it seems too weird and interferes with my “i am a unique snowflake”-ness.
On the other hand, it’s not like it doesn’t have ANY precedence in comics. Like Superman vs. red Superman vs. green Superman. Good Spiderman and Bad Spiderman. Clones, the same hero from an alternate universe, etc.
Very interesting idea. Finding a good name for a character is definitely a problem for any popular game, I recently spent quite a bit of time trying to find a good Hobbit name that wasn’t taken on Landroval, but I don’t like the @account solution that Cryptic is using. I’ll be interested to see how this feature actually turns out once the server opens and the hordes are unleashed. The implementation details for how tells/mails work and name plates are displayed will make a big difference on whether or not this works.
There are 2 other MMO’s that let you duplicate names, those are ToonTown Online and Pirates of the Caribbean….
I’m Syp and so is my wife!
Seriously though, I have mixed feelings about this. I think it’s good to work out a solution to name shortages, and prevent the need for name squatting (something I’ve never done and never intend to do). I also have concerns about how easy it will be to differentiate between Syp, Syp, Syp, and Syp… if e.g. they all wear the same costume, will there be some visual indicator? Will we see the @ handle with the name floating over their head? If not, I can see some serious problems with griefers working to sully Syp’s good name.
No, I mean the other Syp, obviously.
Ultima Online…. The grandaddy of MMORPG’s lets you have duplicate names (as far as I remember anyway…)
My CoH name was Airstrike. I hovered over my computer just waiting for the servers to open for the fist time after the final day of beta, just to reserve the name. Waste of an evening. Naturally, I applaud Cryptic on this feature.
I just started playing CO and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the names I wanted were available. I expected to have to get very “creative” (i.e. convoluted) to get a name that was even close.
For me, it’s a no-brainer; this is a good thing.