Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I’m what some people would call a roleplayer. Not a hardcore roleplayer as some, but still a roleplayer.

I love guild wars, and I don’t like WOW very much (please don’t flame me with this), but a feature I loved with WOW was the fact we can post with our character name instead of our account name.

I know guild wars 2 is not really about roleplaying (hey, how can you seriously roleplay in a game where when you add someone as a friend you add his whole account and not just a character ?), but I think allowing to post with a character (instead of with an account name) will be very fine.

Sure we will still log with our account, so for the support and moderators they can see the account behind the character name, to prevent system abuse.

We could even imagine to add some things like being able to post only with a character level 40 or above, this way nobody will create a new character just to hide behind a fictional character. Hey, if you take the time to level a character up to 40, really you deserve the right to post with its name ^^

When I’m in guild wars 2, and the forums is a part of guild wars 2, I’m not “hithlain” anymore (or the real player behind this account name), but I’m (for instance) Marie Aeryal, the female human guardian…

(and I would like the account name to be hidden in game as well, with the way it is now, usually I don’t want to add friends in game, just because I don’t want other players to know my account name and the name of my other characters)

Thanks

The account name is nowhere to be seen, because it is your email. The DISPLAY name is the one you are talking about and Anet intended it to be just for forums and ingame names to be used. Character names change because you can delete your character or your main character will change. Display names are to stay and that is what Anet and players can use to identify players because it stays and because it is unique. That is the one that cannot be changed (unless it is against the rules and then it will be changed by Anet not the player).
Display names don’t compromise substantial information about the account as well. Such it is secure and that is essential.

So I conclude: Display name is a good solution. Anything else seems to be a way where somebody might abuse the system.

Yes in fact I made a mistake, I was talking about display name, not account name. For RP purpose I would like to post with a display name like my character name

You don’t have to RP in the forums, and this would allow people to change names in the forums all the time, since you could simply delete the character, and then the forum would be forced to ask you for another name.

I’m not against of picking a character to represent you in the forums so its name and portrait will appear in your posts and profile page, but the display name should still be visible at all times anywhere where your posts or info appears.

Have an option to display chosen alt-character name, avatar and level underneath account name then.

And why the display name should remain at all time? To me, that a moderator should be able to see it, I agree, this is their job, they have to know who we are… but what about the other players? Knowing who we are really, that the beautiful female elementalist “Amber NightShade” is the same player as the male norn “Sven Eriksson” is none of their business.

(And I’m not just talking about the forums there, but in game too, this is why GW2 is an anti RP game, because only the account matters, not the character)

And about deleting a character, this is why I thought of perhaps a 40 or 60 level requirement to be able to use a character in the forum. People would really be mad to level a character that long just to use it in the forum, and they will not delete it and create another one and level it that long again just for that…

This is as well because of this GW2 “feature”, the fact that if in game you add someone as your friend he will be able to see your display name and he will be able to see all your characters, that I near never add someone as friend, and that I do not post my character picture on the forum or say my character name on the forum, because I don’t want anybody to be able to link my in game character to my forum display name…

This forum isn’t RP-like.
Most players have a main character and they feel very close to it as being their main representation in the game.

What about those players that have a level below 40?

AION had the character representation and it was used by some players to represent different impersonations in the forums. That means: they attacked others and switched to another name / character, when the old name had a bad reputation. And some even attacked others for changing the name just in order to assume they had something to hide (even if the contents of their posts didn’t show any evidence at all).
So, for me that is a way straight into desaster. If such kind of mimikry would be allowed, the climate in the forums might decrease.

Final personal verdict: too many risks involved.

If you want people to be able to identify you as a particular character you can always put the character’s info in your signature, plenty of people do. Doesn’t solve the hiding of the display name though (but at the same time it’s your “Display Name” so hiding it kinda defeats the purpose).