Curse

MCS · Jul 17, 2005, 02:20 AM // 02:20

Okay well this was pretty much thought up because of this quote.

Quote:

GW-NL: Sometimes you create a character and after a while playing you're not happy with the name you chose, but it would be a waste to delete the character and start again. Also, sometimes a guild leader quits leading a guild and hands over the guild to someone else, who might want to change the guild name to something of his own choice. Will ArenaNet sometime in the future add a possibility to change a character name or for a guild leader to change the name of the guild? (This could maybe even be done for a fee in certain towns as another gold-sink.)

Gaile: You know, at first I looked at this and I thought, "What a great idea!" But then, a few concerns arose in my mind, and talking to Designer James Phinney, the concerns solidified into a regretful but certain belief that we simply cannot offer this feature. Why? Because it would probably have a cost for the community as a whole, and there is nothing about which we are more protective than the Guild Wars community.

Renaming a character would be super for an innocent individual - a good player - who simply decided to make a harmless change. But what if abusive players or scammers had renaming opportunities? What if such players could bury the past with a new name? They could change names and start right in again with abusing other players because, with a brand new name, there would be less likelihood that they would be avoided, less chance that they would have been pointed out through community discussion.

I really think we should have a Global Account Name. New members would be forced to choose it when they make their account and existing members would have to choose one too, perhaps issued numbered ones until they do.

They would not be able to change this name at all.

This name would be easily accessible for anyone.

It would be the same for ALL your chars which would help identify people easily despite character or name.

Like say some guy is scamming and people start pointing him out when he attempts to scam, so he switches to one of his other chars and starts it up again.

Well now lets say his Global Account Name is Bob Owns You or something like that. He can switch all he wants anyone who wishes to point him out as a scammer can because they will know him as Bob Owns You.

Now for whispering, normally you have to add them to your friend list to see what account they are on. Well now you could just use their Global Account Name. Since some names might be the same as char names they could do something like DiabloII had.

If you were whispering an account name on DiabloII you had to put a * in front of it. Like /whisper *BobOwnsYou DOOD U SCAMMER I HATE J00!

No more "My IGN IS Master MCS OR Sissy Boys Go Boom OR Jangle Cant Flame" Simply "My Global Account Name is M C S"

So thoughts, improvements, support?

EDIT: On second thought, they wouldn't be issued numbered ones until they do, they simply wouldn't be able to sign in until they do.

Ignotus · Jul 17, 2005, 01:24 PM // 13:24

Short: I like the idea.

Long:
I think there is something very similar to that already built in. They just need to make it visible to everyone. Foccount with the same name? If you don't have a character with that name,r example, when I log on and open the guild window, if I hover over my character name when I'm playing an alt, it says in parenthesis below that what my original character's name is. That's a step in the right direction. I don't know what happens if I delete that character though. It may default to the next oldest character on my account, which would defeat the purpose. If there was a "global" name, would you be able to create a character on your a there would have to be a way to prevent someone else from creating a character with your global name. The "global" name should be different than the login name for security purposes. As long as the normal naming rules are applied to the global name, I don't guess it wouldn't be a problem. The naming rules are so relaxed that it should be easy for everyone to come up with a unique global name.

Sereng Amaranth · Jul 17, 2005, 06:39 PM // 18:39

A guy in our guild deleted his main character. In our Guild Status, it still said his original name.

xarchitect · Sep 18, 2006, 03:05 AM // 03:05

Digging up a really old thread, but since it was never implemented, I thought it should see the light of day again. It can be frustrating when you create a new character and it takes everyone in your guild a month to recognize you, not to mention those in your alliance who don't have access to the guild roster to get a reference. I would like it as an option to use in guild/alliance chat instead of your character name.

Edit: My reason for digging this old thread up really had little to do with scammers. When I recently started a new character, and it is really annoying to write something in alliance chat and have typical responses of "who are you?" It is not a problem when a "Friend" or "Guild" member makes a charater with a new name, because you do have the guild or friend list to check to see who it is. But the same list does not exist for alliances. I would like to see an option in the Guild Window that lets you select account name or character name to enter into the chat window.

Click on Character Option looks like this -- Cydney Bristo[LoR]: Hey Everyone!
Click on Account option -- xarchitect[LoR]: Hey everyone!
Or as an alternate it could look like this -- Cydney Bristo [xarchitect-LoR]: Hey everyone!

In all of the other chat options, only the character name would show. That way they can allow the use of the same account name for multiple people. When you join a guild it would ask for an account name and you would enter it then. Or if that is too complicated, they could make it so that each account name is only used once in all of the game.

Ristaron · Sep 18, 2006, 04:30 AM // 04:30

The only problem I can see arising is if someone similarly blunders on their account name and wants to change it. Then you're back to square one on that point.
At least, though, it solves other problems (like xarchitect and ignotus mentioned).

Viper1769 · Sep 18, 2006, 01:36 PM // 13:36

i dont see the problem at all ... creating a new char does NOT affect the friends list or the master name on the guild roster... therefore allowing a person to do a char name change would not affect the names on either of these 2 lists (to me ..it would be EXACLT the same a deleteing the char and starting a new one). and as for scammer... ignore list is the same it ignores all names across that account

mega_jamie · Sep 18, 2006, 03:06 PM // 15:06

I dislike the idea also that it takes ages for people tofigure out who is who when you make a new character. Especially annoying when myself or the fellow officers do it, especially all at once, and nobody can figure out who is who.

But I dont think it would help in the war on scammers too much, so what they cant change char and continue again in the same area, they can change district, or outpost and keep going.

Kool Pajamas · Sep 18, 2006, 08:17 PM // 20:17

If the only reason for not being able to rename is because of scammers than they need to get over it. If you get scammed its your own fault. I've been scammed once and had other times when people have tried to scam me but failed. If it happens to you its your own fault.

Winx.ZN · Sep 28, 2006, 12:45 AM // 00:45

with whatever name you add someone to the guild or flist is the name that will permanently remain.
eg: My pvp chars usually have the same stem but different word at the end
Oracle Mesmer
Oracle Bloody
Oracle Samson

Whoever added me with which ever name is the name they will always see me with (so i get pms from people who call me samson, others bloody, others mesmer). Same goes for the invite to a guild (I got an invite with a silly pvp name and thats my name on the list till I left).

Dunno if that helps or hurts. Info. Enjoy.

gameshoes3003 · Sep 28, 2006, 01:26 AM // 01:26

As guild leader, I don't have a problem figuring out who a mysterious person is..... But also sometimes I would like to change the Guild Name. Well I mainly want to change my Guild Name because it has a spelling error but that's it.. or MAN BEAR PIG it!

=HT=Ingram · Sep 28, 2006, 05:44 AM // 05:44

basically all they need do is expose the account id in trade channel... that would solve a ton of things right there... If your scamed SS the thing with their Account ID # and prob solved... There is an account ID in the database for all trades... but its not exposed any place in the game itself. I don't remember if we have ever seen the our ID# in game or not... If we did it was back in the beta before the presearing test... cause thats the only ones I don't have Screens Shots from on this system. But I seem to remember seeing them at one point.

Lynxius · Sep 28, 2006, 12:07 PM // 12:07

Actually i sugest implementing name changes in to the game.

But offer certain resctrictions such as, character name change is only useable twice a year or so.
This would restrain people from abusing it, and actually being very careful about what name to have next.