Guild Wars 2

Made a mockup of a minor change to the character creation which will help immensely which name choices.

Currently, I use a name change contract to check if a name is available, as it has a checkmark that tells me that before I click on “change name”. Clicking on “change name” then brings up the confirmation popup, which is fine. Once I’ve ascertained a name is available, I go into character creation and use the name.

Similarly, character creation should have that notification as well. Right now, if a name isn’t available, a popup appears saying so. If a name is available, the only way you’ll know that is if you click “Create” and the character is created instantly. The minor inconvenience here is that if you don’t like the spelling of the character name you just created, you would have to delete the character and start over, and then change the spelling. It would be nicer if the character creation window told you whether a name is available or not before you hit the “Create” button, so that you can keep changing the name until you find a spelling you like.

Mockup attached.

I fully agree. This would be a wonderful addition! It is a pain when you have a list of candidates for names and one that you try works, but you wanted to see if another was available too just before making that final decision to create.

You can always type the name in your friend’s list ahead of time to see if it’s taken instead of buying a name change contract or waiting till you get to the name part of character creation.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

You can always type the name in your friend’s list ahead of time to see if it’s taken instead of buying a name change contract or waiting till you get to the name part of character creation.

Huh. Did not know that. Although, it is still of a roundabout way of going about it.

Rashy.4165:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

You can always type the name in your friend’s list ahead of time to see if it’s taken instead of buying a name change contract or waiting till you get to the name part of character creation.

Huh. Did not know that. Although, it is still of a roundabout way of going about it.

Yah. I doubt many people do it that way, still it is an way to find out ahead of time if the name you want is taken, even if it is a clumsy one.

Plus it means that the name isn’t taken at that moment but by the time you create an alt it could be … I like the OP’s idea, it’s elegant.

Donari.5237:

Plus it means that the name isn’t taken at that moment but by the time you create an alt it could be … I like the OP’s idea, it’s elegant.

What you do once you find a name, is make a generic character with no customization, but has the name. Then delete the character. The name is reserved for 24 hours. Plenty of time for character creation.

Seera.5916:

Donari.5237:

Plus it means that the name isn’t taken at that moment but by the time you create an alt it could be … I like the OP’s idea, it’s elegant.

What you do once you find a name, is make a generic character with no customization, but has the name. Then delete the character. The name is reserved for 24 hours. Plenty of time for character creation.

Usually I can have a character created in about 10-60 minutes (not many options to really spend time on it, eg. I’d spend hours on Aion’s character creation) after checking its availability, so it’s not really a problem. Would be nice to have that right on the creation screen though.

Oh, I know! And I’ve made full use of that. I mean that even in the few minutes between checking and getting to the name page, you could lose out, at least in the volatile moments after a launch.

I have two name placeholders taking up slots at this very moment.