Guild Wars 2

Hi there,

I’ve been trying to find an answer to this question but haven’t had much luck finding one.

So first question is in the subject title, but I’ll repeat it.
Question 1: What is the reason for the max number of characters in a name being restricted to 19 and why?
Question 2: Is there any plan in the future to increase the number of characters a name can have? If so, what would the new maximum number of characters be and when could we expect this to happen?

If anyone could help or has any information please respond as I’d be grateful.

Reason I am asking these questions, I decided to make a new character, give them a wicked theme, but the name that I wanted, was 1 character over the limit, so I ultimately decided to remove 1 of the spaces in the name, which combined 2 of the words which made up the title in this characters name (when I name a character they tend to have a name and a unique title of some sort to match the theme).

This also brings me to making a suggestion on top of these questions, if there is no intention of increasing the number of characters a name can have. I was curious if anyone in the past ever suggested (if it’s possible), making it so that only letters counted towards the total number of characters a name had, therefore making spaces not contribute to this number. Of course if this was to be implemented, I would recommend putting in a cap on how many spaces a name could have to avoid players abusing this.

I’m not sure of the reason…data storage, or something? But, it’s been 19 characters for the last 10 years (Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2), so unlikely to change.

Good luck.

I think the max limit if character is so people won’t abuse it by making ridiculously long names. One of the reason is probably a design choice.
I’m sure there would be idiots that tried making a name of like 45 A’s or something, which would be annoying for other players since it would be long enough to break through the borders of the target displays, the guild member list and/or would make the chat difficult to follow because you’ve gotta scroll so far to right to see what everyone wrote.

Illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

That’s all I have to say. Also, if you use something similar to the above currently (you know who you are). I hate you.

It’s probably something to do with how many bits of data it takes.

Same reason stacks of items are limited to 250. If I remember correctly the maximum number they could have in one stack without requiring extra storage space for the data is 255, and since that would look odd they reduced it to 250.

I can never remember how it actually works though. I have been told a few times over the years but all I can remember is it’s something to do with bits and bytes and binary numbers.

Because I do not want to be clothes lined by your long name when you run past me, that’s why.

It is a mix of data storage and also UI layout.
If they allowed longer names the UI would also need to support it, like party window, friend list, chat box, combat log and so on.

Too bad it’s not 20, because then I could drop my Meatballs quote: “Is that what they teach you in that school of yours? 20?!”