Allow Character name Non-Unique, is Legacy is not unique

I hate to necro a 9 month old thread but there needs to be a better name solution than what we have. Almost everyone has to use special characters in their names now because most of the people holding original spellings are sitting inactive. I thought there had been an inactivity clause in name retention but it does not seem effective. You now have to jump through hoops with special characters to invite or mail things now and its ridiculous.

This has been changed. You now start out with a legacy name. I propose that they either make the unique identifier the combination of first name and legacy name, make the legacy unique again and make the first non unique (in either case they'd just display the legacy name along side the first.) or use a global identifier system with some careful controls.

By careful controls I mean making friends groups options, invisibility options, advanced ignore visibility, etc. so that if a person wants to "excuse themselves" to an alt they can first go invisible before logging out or have it set to always log in invisible. There are ways to make these systems work. The devs just have to exert a bit more effort to innovate instead of falling back on antiquated systems. Come to think of it the games I have played with the option of social invisibility have always made me happier because I could just drop off the radar if I got tired of dealing with people.

I think possibly the only type of game where this makes sense is in a super hero MMO. In that genre, there are a limited number of themes based around the kinds of powers you get, and you are creating an identity, not giving a name. In any game where you are creating a name for an individual, I am all for unique names, to force people to use their imaginations a bit and come up with something new.

I would be against this if only because it would result in a lot more Annnakkin, Anukan, Mallgis, and whatever stupid attempts to pretend your character is one of the iconic Star Wars characters people come up with. I wish someone would tell these people they don't look cool, they look like asses who can't come up with their own stuff.

It ponders nothing. Legacy name is just a visual adornment you give your account in association with a particular server.

Technically, those names are contrary to the Rules of Conduct. If you don't like them, report them.

Superhero MMOs are no more nor no less suited to or needful of unique names than any other genre of MMO. Every game needs a unique identifier for every discrete "thing" in the game. For player characters, name (be it first, last or a combo of the two) makes sense. Who wants to deal with some goofy, numeric UID?

Excellent, keep it going. More feedback please.

Wouldn't the majority of everyone rather have the developers concentrating all their efforts on designing new content, FP's and WZ instead of working on a suggestion to change name or legacy system?

New content is extremely important. I am not taking away from that. However from my understanding that team is split off from the other dev team(s). Instead of paying people to design more new crap for the blasted Cartel Market why not divert some of that team to making a few in game systems make more sense. This thread is about the naming/labeling systems so I will retain that as the example of choice but it isn't the only game system that needs an overhaul in my opinion. Grimly, we are headed toward names like Øßì-ŵąƞ of the Kenobi legacy. Of course in that example that person will be made to change it because it is a EULA infringement but you get my point.

Of course we would, but that would be based on the belief that their team actually would work on such things, rather than continuing to work out ways to monetize the game via the Cartel Market.

I realize eternal optimism is why the political landscape in America is as toxic as it is with these optimists buying into whatever slogan the next it boy/girl of politics parades around (Change We Believe In, etc), despite the wealth of evidence that would suggest we need to stop voting in more of the same, but that's no reason why this same sickness of blind optimism needs to ruin the gaming sphere as well.

Now, that said, names are a tricky thing. With so little else unique to a person's character, names were traditionally about it. However, times have changed. Appearance customization has increasingly become a norm, allowing one to visually make their character in relatively unique ways. I think the need for unique names is behind us, even if it would pain me to see someone else with my name running around, if only due to a relatively grade-school mentality that lurks within most of us that derives pleasure at having something no one else does.

However, if unique names go to the wayside, I still think there needs to be a way to tell individuals apart (beyond hoping they dress differently). In real life, it's fairly simple. In a game, it's more complicated. You've got some games that attach an ugly username to a player, but I've always thought that incredibly stupid, since it makes phishing and account hacking so ridiculously easy.

I'm not sure what a good answer would be, but I'm sure someone out there must have thought about this issue more than I have (as I haven't thought about it much at all).

I can only hope what you are asking never, ever happens.

I understand that, I was pretty annoyed that they made Legacy names non-unique. They totally did it backwards. >.<

A better suggestion OP would be to allow first names and legacy names be non unique but require the first name and legacy name combination to be unique and have the legacy name issued to the first character on an account at creation instead of the first act.