Guild Wars 2

Before you read: I’m not complaining that I can’t get MY specific name, just that naming is a headache in general. Just thought I’d clear that up as I’m not trying to be salty, but have a real discussion on the issue.

I’ve long thought this game had an issue with names. 2 out of the 5 races do not have surnames, which means if you want to fit the lore you pretty much aren’t going to as almost every conceivable name is taken. I tried to make do with it for a long while by simply spending days, sometimes weeks trying to come up with a name for a character. I thought anet had their reasons, as the game is supposed to be one you can pick up again if you’ve been away for some time, which is rare with MMOs and is one feature I like about this game. But today after being frustrated at not being able to find a surname for my human, I decided to see what would happen if I kept adding X’s to his name until I found a version that was available. While I understand this is a very common name, I can usually get away with Knoxx or Knoxxe in other MMOs. This is just absurd.

Anyways, discuss. Am I the only one who thinks naming in this game is ridiculous? Are you for or against the release of unused char names and/or do you have any better ideas to solve the naming issue?

I would love to not see char names like “Learn To Play” any more.
It is funny, but there are so many “Kings”, “Xxxproxx”, “Zzzzz Sleep Zzzzz”.

insane^^

I loved Neverwinter way of doing it: the name had to be unique only within your accout, meaning you could have only 1 character named Knoxx, but other players could have Knoxx as well. It was done by adding account name to your character (Konxx@accountname), but displaying only the character name part. Since after adding someone to friends we can know his acc name, i think it would work in GW2 as well. And i would love it

Since the game started over 10 years ago it’s always been this way. They do not and will not take any names away even if the person has not been in the game for years. They have said so several dozen times.

Loki.9462:

I loved Neverwinter way of doing it: the name had to be unique only within your accout, meaning you could have only 1 character named Knoxx, but other players could have Knoxx as well.

I would love to see this feature and I think this probably would be a better solution than releasing character names, but I wonder if it would get confusing as people can pretty much already have the same acc name with the difference being the last 4 digits. One can dream I guess.

PyrateSilly.4710:

Since the game started over 10 years ago it’s always been this way. They do not and will not take any names away even if the person has not been in the game for years. They have said so several dozen times.

They also promised us a full set of legendaries with HoT.

I think there’s nothing wrong with the naming system. Players who have named their characters 3 years ago may come back. The game is designed to be ‘play whenever you want’. For them to come back to the game for whatever reasons, it wouldn’t be right for them to come back to find their character’s name has to be re-written.

Asura and Sylvari don’t have surnames, but you can still give them a title if the name is already taken.

For instance, instead of trying for Memp (I personally know that Asuran name is taken) try Golemancer Memp or Lionguard Memp etc.

Or for the Sylvari Caerven (again, I know it’s taken) – try Warden Caerven or Agent Caerven.

They still conform to the lore, and depending with who you want your character to be (especially for RP) your character will have deeper meaning.

@penelopehannibal: I avoid titles for asura because I don’t want my character to be permanently locked into a job or role. As an RPer I like my characters to have the ability to grow and change without having to fork over $10. Sylvari generally do not have titles with the exception being warden and members of the 3 orders, so nothing can really be done there if your character falls outside of those categories.

there is nothing to discuss here, no delete names its b2p ppl take time off and come back later.

As someone who likes short one word names, I understand the issue rather well.
Still, don’t want them to take any names. Even if I have to resort to some rather “creative” names since I do not like RP surnames.

Also, nothing would work better at keeping players from returning after a long inactivity phase than taking their beloved names. Let alone the scamming that might end up happening.

Try a google search, this has been discussed to death. A sticky at the top of this forum shows how.

Short answer: No.

No i paid for 3 Hot expansion accounts and dont want my names to be stolen when i use one account and the other is on break for a time. I can think of Tons of good unique names for new characters, guess not everyone is as creative as the other.

One only needs to look at OPs signature “I’m only here because sometimes I just like to watch things burn.” to understand what this thread is really about.

particlepinata.9865:

guess not everyone is as creative as the other.

Or maybe we just RP? lol

Also, I should have added this to my initial post but I didn’t want to make it too long: I am talking about removing names from people who have been gone literally so long they likely won’t even remember what their char name even was. Example: People who played for a week at release and literally never touched the game again. They probably never will come back and even if they do char name is likely not going to be something they even remember.

Aguri.2896:

Anyways, discuss. Am I the only one who thinks naming in this game is ridiculous? Are you for or against the release of unused char names and/or do you have any better ideas to solve the naming issue?

I have never, ever had an issue getting the names I wanted, be it they being fantasy related for RP reasons, or following a theme, or following a Naming convention, so I am fine with the current system.

While I could get behind a system like what Neverwinter does where everyone has an applied Surname with their Account name, IE: (Name@AccountName) because to me, that would make it much easier to keep track of who is who in guild chat.

But, that aside, really, how hard is it to get a decent name?

I could see a few hours, looking for a specific theme based name, like for example, I have a guild mate that names all their Sylvari after plants, which it seems, so do a lot of other people in GW2, so they sometimes have a little difficulty trying to get an exact plant, but a large part of that is due to their own stubbornness to want that exact plant, for example, they wanted to use, I think it was Poison Ivy as name, (not really 100% sure) so they went about looking at all the veins, technical names, and everything they could think of to get that name for their Sylvari. They ended up using special characters to make it happen. I got a laugh out of it, But, all their frustration, they brought upon themselves.

So as opposed to saying much more, I am just going to provide some helpful links.

Really Nice Fantasy Name Generator This one even has a sub-set, just for GW2, Divided up by each of the Races. Check out the Sylvari list, or if you need it, the Human list. You will find much better options then “Knox +more x’s”

If that does not curtail your thirst of making new names. Here is a bit more generators at your disposal.
Cutesy Fantasy Name Generator
Generic Fantasy Name Generator

If you feel the need to Pick your own name.

List of Names
More Names
And even MORE names

So, I personally don’t think there is an issue with the way names are handled in this game, I think the issue is more with how small a pool people allow themselves to swim in when it comes to looking for a name.

@STIHL: Like I’ve said many times in this thread, I like sticking strictly to the lore (so names like plant names won’t work for me) and the vast majority of good name generator names that adhere to that, are unfortunately taken (for asura/sylvari anyways) and are generally… just not that good to begin with. I didn’t actually name my character Knox + a bunch of X’s btw… just to make that clear to people. I was just shocked when I saw how many other people DID. I have never seen that in an MMO in my 13 years of playing MMOs, not even in WoW.

While I appreciate you trying to help, the point of this thread is not to try and help me come up with better names but to actually discuss the naming system and ways to improve it in itself. I can easily think of names, whether those are names I want to actually use is a different story. Your post could have been summed up for the most part with just the last paragraph.

Edit: After seeing your sig, I wonder what possessed me to even post in these forums anyways. Because it’s so true lol (heck, look at my sig… I’m no exception)

As others already said, a person should be able to take an extended time away from the game without worrying that their character names will be erased in their absence. Generally speaking, I think the naming system is fine as it is.

Much like the last dozen times this has been suggested by the same two or three people. No.

We need a sticky;

No open world PvP
No mounts
No name deletion
No damage meters
No gear inspection

Just another No.

STIHL.2489:

…for example, I have a guild mate that names all their Sylvari after plants, which it seems, so do a lot of other people in GW2, so they sometimes have a little difficulty trying to get an exact plant, but a large part of that is due to their own stubbornness to want that exact plant, for example, they wanted to use, I think it was Poison Ivy as name, (not really 100% sure) so they went about looking at all the veins, technical names, and everything they could think of to get that name for their Sylvari. They ended up using special characters to make it happen. I got a laugh out of it, But, all their frustration, they brought upon themselves.

yep. guilty. XD actually, my most recent sylvari had the strangest round-about name choosing yet… lol. my first sylvari was a thief. named her Deadly Nightshayd. made sense to me, extremely poisonous deadly plant goes well with thief, which frequently uses poison. my 2nd was a druid that i had originally planned to specifically be a healer… a very common healing herb is sage. i went to the scientific name and tried every combination of letters and name+surname that i was willing to settle for and didn’t hit anything. i finally ended up using special characters and got Sälvïä. that brings me to my aforementioned most recent sylvari… i wanted to make a burn guard. had a concept in my mind of some kind of angelic avenger raining fire upon her enemies… blah blah yadda yadda, so i googled angel flower. got a hit for angel trumpet (which happens to be related to the nightshade family), one of the varieties thereof is called Datura… a beautiful flower, but also a potent possibly poisonous hallucinogenic i went with it, but still had to fight to get the name i wanted with the spelling i wanted. ended up with Datura Innoxiä. i even went one step further and each character’s main color is the color associated with their respective plant name… nightshade is a deep dark (sometimes reddish) purple, sage has pinkish lavender flowers, and datura is white.

but like Stihl said… i brought all my frustration on myself restricting myself to a certain name or certain few name choices. i’ve had no such trouble with the rest of my characters (15 in total between 2 accounts)

About 2 months ago I made a new sylvari and asura. I was able to get one-word, lore appropriate names for both. (Aurhedryn for the sylvari and Ambage for the asura.) In the process I also tried out several other names which were available, but I didn’t like as much for the characters.

I make new characters on a regular basis and the only times I’ve had trouble getting names is when it’s a temporary character and I’ve just put in the first thing I thought of (like when I tried to call an ele Ellie). If I actually take the time to think up an appropriate name for them (one which suits their personality and the backstory I’ve given them) I usually find not only that name is available but also several similar ones.

But even if that wasn’t the case I would be absolutely against taking character names away from people, no matter how long they’ve been gone. That might be ok for people whose character names are just a random word or words, but for people who take the time to come up with something appropriate to the character you may as well be suggesting randomising their race and appearance. If I ever came back to a game after a break to find all my character names had been removed that would be the last time I ever considered playing that game.

Fortunately Anet has already said, repeatedly, that they will never do this.

Loki.9462:

I loved Neverwinter way of doing it: the name had to be unique only within your accout, meaning you could have only 1 character named Knoxx, but other players could have Knoxx as well. It was done by adding account name to your character (Konxx@accountname), but displaying only the character name part. Since after adding someone to friends we can know his acc name, i think it would work in GW2 as well. And i would love it

Agree, this would be awesome. I still don’t know why more games don’t do this.

The problem with releasing names is that it’s hard to tell when a name is inactive. Since this is not a subscription game, people go inactive all the time. For example, I took a two year break from the game after my daughter was born, and would have been unhappy if my names had disappeared when I came back.

Aguri.2896:

Before you read: I’m not complaining that I can’t get MY specific name, just that naming is a headache in general. Just thought I’d clear that up as I’m not trying to be salty, but have a real discussion on the issue.

I’ve long thought this game had an issue with names. 2 out of the 5 races do not have surnames, which means if you want to fit the lore you pretty much aren’t going to as almost every conceivable name is taken. I tried to make do with it for a long while by simply spending days, sometimes weeks trying to come up with a name for a character. I thought anet had their reasons, as the game is supposed to be one you can pick up again if you’ve been away for some time, which is rare with MMOs and is one feature I like about this game. But today after being frustrated at not being able to find a surname for my human, I decided to see what would happen if I kept adding X’s to his name until I found a version that was available. While I understand this is a very common name, I can usually get away with Knoxx or Knoxxe in other MMOs. This is just absurd.

Anyways, discuss. Am I the only one who thinks naming in this game is ridiculous? Are you for or against the release of unused char names and/or do you have any better ideas to solve the naming issue?

Anet’s already stated they will not purge names. Ever. Time for you to get creative.