Guild Wars 2

Hello!

So i made my 2. character today, and i spent like 20-30minuites for both characters just to find a good name which is not taken… Now the main problem is that we can only use letters, ok i understand that numbers cant be used, symbols too, but at least allow players to use >>’<< this, its used in many fantasy books, and it would make many more options, so there wont be so many taken names….

Regards.

Psssttt.. you can use the weird letters with dashes and stuff over them…

Yöu cóùld bé créätïvê wïth nàmes

Aerlen.5326:

Psssttt.. you can use the weird letters with dashes and stuff over them…

Evans.6347:

Yöu cóùld bé créätïvê wïth nàmes

Perhaps the OP is talking about using names like O’Leary?

kitten , Shadow was taken? And Shadow Killer also?

#rageaboutmymmonameistaken

penelopehannibal.8947:

Aerlen.5326:

Psssttt.. you can use the weird letters with dashes and stuff over them…

Evans.6347:

Yöu cóùld bé créätïvê wïth nàmes

Perhaps the OP is talking about using names like O’Leary?

Yes i ment those But i didnt know about these letter äáé neither, since it says “The name is using only English letters”…
And i tried like 100names already all were taken, its not about my main name and things

Out of curiosity, what were you going for?

Evans.6347:

Out of curiosity, what were you going for?

Well i tried many names, characters from books i read with cool names (i read many books, so there were a lot), i tried putting 1-2 extra letters in the name, then i tried some made up names too etc…

I would just add some kind of title or a surname. There should be enough combinations then. Foreign languages might be a solution, too (if there were only English letters allowed, all us French/German/Spanish players would have a serious problem).

If you want to be a Stark (or some japanese anime character), you’re doomed though.

You could try looking to literature for inspiration. I have a Sylvari Ranger named Vertu La Fleur (inspired by the prologue from Canterbury Tales).

“Of which vertu engendred is the flour” which, when translated from Olde English is "To generate therein and sire the flower; " and seems to have a bit of significance for Sylvari

Well at the end it become Crimson Fear… (a thief with a red hair..) its lame but i didnt have any more time to try the names so yeah… and i used Skullprox for my hunter :’D

It’s not lame, you put thought in it.

I think apostrophes and hyphens should be allowed for names, but obviously there has to be restrictions on how many of each you are allowed in a name. 1 of each should be sufficient. Plenty of real life names use these symbols.

Otherwise you’d end up with names like ‘-’—‘-’-. Or even rude words spelt in morse code.

SkullProX.7083:

Well at the end it become Crimson Fear… (a thief with a red hair..) its lame but i didnt have any more time to try the names so yeah… and i used Skullprox for my hunter :’D

If you like the name, it’s not lame.
It’s a name you like, a name you love.
Now go out and punch some Skritt
And reign death down upon them from above.

Welcome to Tyria, and happy adventuring! =)

SkullProX.7083:

Evans.6347:

Out of curiosity, what were you going for?

Well i tried many names, characters from books i read with cool names

Stop right there. That’s your problem right off the bat.

This is an MMO – a massive multiplayer online game (millions of copies have sold worldwide). There will be people who have taken the name from your favourite book/movie/tv show series, and yes there will also be people who have rip-offs of the name too. Misspellings, accents, you name it.

Solution – be creative and original with your names instead of using something that about a thousand other people will have thought of as well. This game has been out for almost 3 years. Of course that character’s name will be taken.

~~~

As to having apostrophes and lower case middle names (like Vincent van Gogh or Mippa the Grand, for instance), I do agree we should be given these as options.

Miss Lana.5276:

SkullProX.7083:

Evans.6347:

Out of curiosity, what were you going for?

Well i tried many names, characters from books i read with cool names

Stop right there. That’s your problem right off the bat.

This is an MMO – a massive multiplayer online game (millions of copies have sold worldwide). There will be people who have taken the name from your favourite book/movie/tv show series, and yes there will also be people who have rip-offs of the name too. Misspellings, accents, you name it.

Solution – be creative and original with your names instead of using something that about a thousand other people will have thought of as well. This game has been out for almost 3 years. Of course that character’s name will be taken.

~~~

As to having apostrophes and lower case middle names (like Vincent van Gogh or Mippa the Grand, for instance), I do agree we should be given these as options.

The real problem here is that names aren’t server specific, like in proper MMOs.

unicorngirl.1487:

The real problem here is that names aren’t server specific, like in proper MMOs.

And quite rightly, too, considering we can see players from all different servers at once because of the megaserver.

Moreover, we can send mails using a player’s character name.

I too find this the worst part of character creation. I tend to spend more time on this stage of it. I have even abandoned the process due to frustration and lack of time at that moment. I’ll admit that perhaps my name ‘creation’ is not as ‘Creative’ as it should/could be. But to waste that much time at the final step is a major PITA! I had issues during the head start weekend and spent quite some time creating a few characters that day and I still have issues sometimes. The only names that I didn’t have trouble with that day were the ones that came from linking my GW1 account.

Here’s a thought: Currently we can search the leader boards for rankings of other players on this site. Could there not be a character name search screen developed by the Anet team? All names must reside in a database somewhere, why not allow us to query that table prior to our attempt to create a new character. The odds of the name you decide on being taken by someone else while you are creating the new character 10 minutes later are quite unlikely 3 years into this game. Just a though…..

i never find i a taken name because my names are usually completely out of the box like

The Wizarding
Arobain
Ronui
Telkiruon

i often make up names in 2 minutes lol

A 20 million search query is quite a thing to handle. I don’t think it would be too bad though, if it’s not too tough.

I often find myself sitting their scouring translation pages and the internet looking for good, fitting names for my characters. Usually I default to German names, since I’m fluent in that as well, but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it. The naming process takes how long it does because that is what makes our character a full investment. The last character I made, Aerge Pyrudora, is an elementalist, whose name is a combination of the Greek words for Air (Aero), Earth (Ge), Fire (Pyro), and Water (Hudor). I had tried 3-4 names prior to this that were taken, so the process is difficult, but unless Anet is going to delete characters that people have, then the naming will be difficult to get something unique.

In GW1 there was a notification that said if the name was available (or not) when you were typing in a name at the end of character creation- just like all of the other requirements (at least 3 letters, under 20 characters, English characters etc).

I don’t know why this isn’t the case in GW2- it would be a great QoL feature and many have been asking for it.

Seeing as how we all have our unique account name/number (Tachyon.5897) I fail to see why the same name can’t be linked to multiple accounts. A name is hardly unique, hell, in real life my best mate works with a guy with the exact same name as his.

Tachyon.5897:

Seeing as how we all have our unique account name/number (Tachyon.5897) I fail to see why the same name can’t be linked to multiple accounts. A name is hardly unique, hell, in real life my best mate works with a guy with the exact same name as his.

Wouldn’t that be difficult to send mail or add to friend’s list without clicking on said character?

How about reporting? Sometimes bots or such teleport away before being able to click on their name. But, if you’ve seen it, you can type it in to add to your friend’s list.

MiniEquine, The query should be quite simple, it only takes milliseconds for the game to tell us we can’t use the name we typed. As a database designer/developer I’m used to doing simple queries to multi-million record tables. The key is in the indexing! ( Big fan of Oracle ).

I do agree that creativity and thinking outside the box is the key. Often I and I guess others, draw their inspiration from all to common themes. In GW1 I went with a Celtic theme for my Elementalist naming him after a Celtic fire festival. Then preferred to use Air magic and ran an Air Spiker build. Go figure. Hoping to redo my fun character, I went with an Air themed name in GW2, and find I use Fire most often. The class is not at all the same game play. I’m not ready to pay for a name change contract!

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Tachyon.5897:

Seeing as how we all have our unique account name/number (Tachyon.5897) I fail to see why the same name can’t be linked to multiple accounts. A name is hardly unique, hell, in real life my best mate works with a guy with the exact same name as his.

Wouldn’t that be difficult to send mail or add to friend’s list without clicking on said character?

How about reporting? Sometimes bots or such teleport away before being able to click on their name. But, if you’ve seen it, you can type it in to add to your friend’s list.

There’s also impersonation. Currently, it would be difficult to impersonate somebody- the closest you could get would be using an accented letter or a misspelling, perhaps. Of course, impersonation could lead to fraud or defamation.

If players could use the same name as somebody else, it would become inconvenient as you’d have to check somebody’s account-name every time. Pop culture/character names would be everywhere- I can imagine there would be hundreds of “Arya Stark”s and “Jon Snow”s.

In the current system it’s very inconvenient to check account names of everybody using chat- you either have to click report to see their account name or add them to your friend list.

Tl;dr- would create more inconveniences and would require a load of work from A-net to change current systems to use account names only.

SkullProX.7083:

Well at the end it become Crimson Fear… (a thief with a red hair..) its lame but i didnt have any more time to try the names so yeah… and i used Skullprox for my hunter :’D

I’m amazed Crimson Fear wasn’t taken.

Generally speaking the typically most reliable way to get a name is to add a title, or a surname.

One of my Asura is names Frokk. Of course Frokk is taken, it’s a great name. So I just made him Instigator Frokk, no trouble.

My eventual Revenant will be named Scythe, that has been gone for a lone time, but by giving him a surname it doesn’t matter.

Yes thats why im saying to at least add the >’< character to the name option, it would create many more creative ways to name a character, and its present in many fantasy name, so i dont see a problem why not.

They may not allow the apostrophe, but what if you did something like “O Leary”? It’s still pretty close, and it gets the point across.

SkullProX.7083:

Yes thats why im saying to at least add the >’< character to the name option, it would create many more creative ways to name a character, and its present in many fantasy name, so i dont see a problem why not.

I agree, one of my Guardian’s should have an apostrophe in her name. I don’t see the problem either.

Kal Spiro.9745:

SkullProX.7083:

Yes thats why im saying to at least add the >’< character to the name option, it would create many more creative ways to name a character, and its present in many fantasy name, so i dont see a problem why not.

I agree, one of my Guardian’s should have an apostrophe in her name. I don’t see the problem either.

For a start, there is no apostrophe in “guardians”… clearly you cannot be trusted with apostrophes.

I do like what one can do with apostrophes and maybe having just one available per name would allow some nifty names. Though I don’t know they would fit Tyria; are any Tyrian names in lore apostrophed?

In ESO I turned my WoW nelf name into a Redguard: Frelle in game, Tenefrellendion ICly, Tenefrelle as a DK “ebil twin” troll, became Tan’Afriel as my Redguard, “Tana” for short. I would have been quite sad not to have the apostrophe there. Or the dash in my Argonian name, Leaf-Over-Ant’s-Nest, which I had to have since that is always how I hear the radio announcer say the pianist’s name Leif Ove Andsnes.

In GW2 it would add to possible name combinations but might not fit the feel of the world, maybe? I’ve never had trouble finding a name fairly quickly, especially if I designed it myself instead of using a generator, even for one-word names. I just made my revenant name place holder a few days ago. Because the alt I made for the first beta stress looked so Germanic, I named him Hernst Wieder. That’s a very German first name without being a standard one, and the last name is German for “again.” I used the name in the beta and as of this week no one had taken it, hurray. Maybe they thought it an ugly name?

The point is you can make real-sounding names that people in the world would really have, and not be blocked for thirty minutes, if you just think of something new that isn’t already part of media read or watched by hundreds of thousands of people.

Well personally I like the fact that you can’t add symbols or numbers to a name. It’s bad enough you can just use those éäïêïà letters to copy someone else’s name, the last thing we need is making it even easier. I played almost since launch, and put a lot of thought into my alts’ names, and also time and gold into making sure their armor, weapons and professions fit their name. Then I see some scrub walking around looking like Goober McNewbgoob with MY name just spelled with those alternate vowels. No sir, you are not me. So I bought a few more accounts and have been reserving alternate spellings to minimize that sort of thing.

I’m glad names were shared across all servers. One of the things I hate most is server merges which butcher your names.

At least in GW1/2, your name is your name and that’s that.

For the record I have pretty awesome names in game.

You are talking about a massive game that is nearing three years old. There are people that played for the first month and never came back that have killer names just rotting away. That is the nature of a MMO this popular

unicorngirl.1487:

The real problem here is that names aren’t server specific, like in proper MMOs.

Considering in those “proper MMOs” you are bound to one server and one server only, I’d say that it’d get a bit confusing if we were allowed to have the same name on different servers considering that we are now all lumped into the megaserver.

-adds Fluffy Bunny to friend’s list-
Which one?
The one on JQ?
The one on TC?
The one on Kaineng?
The one on SoR?
The one on HoD?

The list goes on and on and on.

My character names always start with an adjective followed by a noun, and they must make as minimal sense as possible. I.e. Agitated Toast, Swift Napkin, Agile Rock…

Rogue Potato.4723:

My character names always start with an adjective followed by a noun, and they must make as minimal sense as possible. I.e. Agitated Toast, Swift Napkin, Agile Rock…

So you’re one of those people with interesting names in the Wordament high scores, got it …

Two of my characters have single names, both of which I was surprised to get. The others all have two (or more) names, like Indigo Darkmoon and Blue of the Heavens. I’ve only had one two-name combination I wanted come up negative.

Crimson Clouds.4853:

I think apostrophes and hyphens should be allowed for names, but obviously there has to be restrictions on how many of each you are allowed in a name. 1 of each should be sufficient. Plenty of real life names use these symbols.

Otherwise you’d end up with names like ‘-’—‘-’-. Or even rude words spelt in morse code.

Sounds like an interesting idea. Two names in one.

Miss Lana.5276:

unicorngirl.1487:

The real problem here is that names aren’t server specific, like in proper MMOs.

Considering in those “proper MMOs” you are bound to one server and one server only, I’d say that it’d get a bit confusing if we were allowed to have the same name on different servers considering that we are now all lumped into the megaserver.

-adds Fluffy Bunny to friend’s list-
Which one?
The one on JQ?
The one on TC?
The one on Kaineng?
The one on SoR?
The one on HoD?

The list goes on and on and on.

Many people in real life have the same name. I think people can handle having the same in a game. There is no need for any sort of per server restriction either.

They ought to just cull names like so many other games do. Once a year you just sent out a warning that any characters that haven’t been logged in to within a couple weeks will lose their names, then mass rename them all with _1 appended to the end, to open up names from accounts that have been abandoned.

You know you’re getting old when you hardly ever see Drizzt, Drizzl, Drizzit….x Drizzt x, XX Drizzt XX, xXx Drizzt xXx…etc

Khisanth.2948:

Miss Lana.5276:

unicorngirl.1487:

The real problem here is that names aren’t server specific, like in proper MMOs.

Considering in those “proper MMOs” you are bound to one server and one server only, I’d say that it’d get a bit confusing if we were allowed to have the same name on different servers considering that we are now all lumped into the megaserver.

-adds Fluffy Bunny to friend’s list-
Which one?
The one on JQ?
The one on TC?
The one on Kaineng?
The one on SoR?
The one on HoD?

The list goes on and on and on.

Many people in real life have the same name. I think people can handle having the same in a game. There is no need for any sort of per server restriction either.

Sure people in real life can handle that, but this isn’t real life. This would have to do with the identification of the particular Fluffy Bunny that I want to add to my friend’s list.

Here’s the deal. You program a way for multiple people to have the same name on the same server without the game going haywire and not knowing what to do, then send it in to Anet. Otherwise I doubt that A) it’s gonna happen, and B ) they’ll have the resources to do said programming.

Miss Lana.5276:

Sure people in real life can handle that, but this isn’t real life. This would have to do with the identification of the particular Fluffy Bunny that I want to add to my friend’s list.

Here’s the deal. You program a way for multiple people to have the same name on the same server without the game going haywire and not knowing what to do, then send it in to Anet. Otherwise I doubt that A) it’s gonna happen, and B ) they’ll have the resources to do said programming.

I wouldn’t need to program anything since the code should already be like that. Characters should be referenced by some immutable non-reusable identifier. There would need to be some additions to the UI but that is mostly for QoL reasons.

Do that fancy letter thing….

Me for example is:

Knightrift
Knightrïft
Knïghtrift
Knïghtrïft

Donari.5237:

I do like what one can do with apostrophes and maybe having just one available per name would allow some nifty names. Though I don’t know they would fit Tyria; are any Tyrian names in lore apostrophed?

I can think of Sayeh al’Rajihd (a Largos)

Strange, usually when I make a new character I have a good name in 2 or 3 tries. My newest character is Ialena. I was so surprised that the name was not taken after more than 2 years!

For the most part, I use lore-conform names (name + warband for Charr, first name + last name for humans/norn, title + name for asura) and never ever run into problems.

I have a select few more gimicky characters with gimicky names that may have required a little more creativity. I have 1 cosplay character, but otherwise avoid using names from pre-existing characters/popular media.

I never use accents or umlauts, leading Xxx or similar – I find that extremely ugly, and so far unnecessary… but I would use an accent if it was part of the actual name, for example if it was a French or Spanish name.

I would very, very much appreciate if we could use apostrophes and/or mid-word capitalization, for names such as O’Brien or McAllister. Any abuse could easily be prevented by allowing players to use a maximum of 1 per name.

An extension of the character limit (currently 19) also wouldn’t hurt, as people use titles and middle names more and more often.

When naming characters, I usually take one or two descriptive words and run them through some online dictionary for several diverse languages – romanian, bantu, indian, etc. Basically anything I can think of for the moment, with a preference for languages that probably has not yet many native speakers in the game. Then I take the translation I like the most from the list.

I have never had to try twice.

For example, barefoot step would be Casruigte Ceum in scottish gaelic, and Hatua Hana Viatu in swahili.