Guild Wars 2

I’m not a fan of 2 word names and really almost all 1 word name I can think of is taken. Even as a headstart player, logging on right at the moment the game went live, some of the one word names I wanted were already taken due to them being saved to Developers’/ANet employee accounts(not fair but it’s their game). I thought all single word names were up for grabs on day 1 according to Mike O’Brien but I guess that statement was inaccurate.

Anyway, can we get more options on character naming? Maybe make them server based or something.

How do you know they were being saved for them and not just them grabbing the names as soon as the servers went up on day 1? (after all, they would be the first ones online then).

The main problem I see with names being server based is how to deal with guesting in the first place.

Developers getting first shot at names is completely fair and reasonable. It prevents or at least limits people from impersonating them. Granted, the impersonators would still be missing the Arenanet emblem by their name, but there are enough shmucks in this world to fall for it that people might complain.

1 word names were up for grabs afaik. My brother took a one word name during the BWEs and couldn’t get it release day since it seems he was too slow :P Also, lots of people “reserved” their two-word names by creating alts on GW1 as placeholders when they linked their accounts, so I’d suspect most people on the first days were creating almost exclusively their desired one-word name characters.

Sorry for the bad luck. I guess you’ll have to just try being more creative with the names :/

My problem with the names is that the reserved space is always 1 character too short for something fun, such as “Branded Sylvari Male”,

Secondly, no special characters – so “O’Brien” wouldn’t even be possible.

No mid-name Capitalisation, so “McDonald” also isn’t possible.

All in all, too restrictive even for real names, let alone fantasy ones.

One of the best things about GW2 is the way names are game-wide and not server-specific. Having server names would break a large number of game mechanics. It’s not impossible, but it would take so much effort to do that it would not be worth it even if a (doubtful) majority wanted things that way.

I also strongly disagree on the implication that all “good” one-word names were taken by ANet employees. I bought two accounts with the “early start” option that let you start playing 3 days early to ensure I could get all the names I wanted. I got all of them and more. The few others I knew at the time who were also jumping in with the early option also got all the names they wanted.

I can understand how if you did NOT take the head-start option, you might not get your desired names, especially if you have relatively common tastes in names (eg. you want “Sephiroth”, “Drizzt”, or “Harry Potter”). I think you do ANet a serious disservice by implying “they reserved all the good names for themselves”.

OTH, there is one aspect of the naming where I agree with you. I wanted to use Ø (Nordic O slash) in one of my Norn names and the game doesn’t allow it. This is despite permitting many MANY other alt-coded symbols in names, such as accented and umlauted characters. I suspect all it would take to support Ø would be to just remove the line of code that currently prohibits it.

I definitely think some special characters should be allowed. NPCs get to have apostrophes in their names (Sayeh al’Rajihd comes to mind, and if Largos ever get released as playable, I’d too like an apostrophe), and I really can’t see what harm it could do.
Speaking of Sayeh al’Rajihd, it would be nice if you can uppercase/lowercase whichever letters you feel like after the first one, just like in her name.

What I did to make sure I got the names I wanted during the headstart was: create a bunch of random preset characters, skipped to the naming part, and deleted them right afterwards in order to have that name reserved for 24 hours. Left a lot of time to focus on character creation without worrying about it getting taken.

Okuza.5210:

One of the best things about GW2 is the way names are game-wide and not server-specific. Having server names would break a large number of game mechanics. It’s not impossible, but it would take so much effort to do that it would not be worth it even if a (doubtful) majority wanted things that way.

I also strongly disagree on the implication that all “good” one-word names were taken by ANet employees. I bought two accounts with the “early start” option that let you start playing 3 days early to ensure I could get all the names I wanted. I got all of them and more. The few others I knew at the time who were also jumping in with the early option also got all the names they wanted.

I can understand how if you did NOT take the head-start option, you might not get your desired names, especially if you have relatively common tastes in names (eg. you want “Sephiroth”, “Drizzt”, or “Harry Potter”). I think you do ANet a serious disservice by implying “they reserved all the good names for themselves”.

OTH, there is one aspect of the naming where I agree with you. I wanted to use Ø (Nordic O slash) in one of my Norn names and the game doesn’t allow it. This is despite permitting many MANY other alt-coded symbols in names, such as accented and umlauted characters. I suspect all it would take to support Ø would be to just remove the line of code that currently prohibits it.

I didn’t say all good one-word names were taken by ANET (if you read my post). I said "some of the one-word names I wanted.

As to you locoman, on headstart, as soon as I created my first character, I added the person that got the name I wanted on friends list and the person wasn’t even online that whole night. I finally was able to see him online a day later and chatted with him just to congratulate him and ask how fast did he have to go online to get the name because when I tried to get that name, I even skipped all the character creation crap and just jumped to last step to enter that name. This was exactly the first second the server went live. Btw, I found out he was a staff when I chatted with him. lmao

As to how ANet can implement this, I see the why server based can be problematic.
Maybe a force name change is a prerequisite if your name already exists in that server you’re joining.

ExTribble.7108:

Developers getting first shot at names is completely fair and reasonable. It prevents or at least limits people from impersonating them. Granted, the impersonators would still be missing the Arenanet emblem by their name, but there are enough shmucks in this world to fall for it that people might complain.

1 word names were up for grabs afaik. My brother took a one word name during the BWEs and couldn’t get it release day since it seems he was too slow :P Also, lots of people “reserved” their two-word names by creating alts on GW1 as placeholders when they linked their accounts, so I’d suspect most people on the first days were creating almost exclusively their desired one-word name characters.

Sorry for the bad luck. I guess you’ll have to just try being more creative with the names :/

I don’t see how you can impersonate a staff if the name you’re(the one they got) after is totally a fantasy name say Legolas/Ironman etc. It’s not the staff’s name

Calmwinds.4753:

ExTribble.7108:

Developers getting first shot at names is completely fair and reasonable. It prevents or at least limits people from impersonating them. Granted, the impersonators would still be missing the Arenanet emblem by their name, but there are enough shmucks in this world to fall for it that people might complain.

1 word names were up for grabs afaik. My brother took a one word name during the BWEs and couldn’t get it release day since it seems he was too slow :P Also, lots of people “reserved” their two-word names by creating alts on GW1 as placeholders when they linked their accounts, so I’d suspect most people on the first days were creating almost exclusively their desired one-word name characters.

Sorry for the bad luck. I guess you’ll have to just try being more creative with the names :/

I don’t see how you can impersonate a staff if the name you’re(the one they got) after is totally a fantasy name say Legolas/Ironman(these are just random examples) etc. It’s not the staff’s name

Calmwinds.4753:

Maybe a force name change is a prerequisite if your name already exists in that server you’re joining.

I think you’re not seeing the problem. The problem to implementing your desire is that guesting, tells, and mail currently depend on names being unique over the entire game. Forcing names to be unique on a server doesn’t address this. Yep, there are all kinds of simple kludges they could slap together to undo one of the best features of the game that they worked very hard to implement and that actually works both fairly and well.

But, uh, why would we even want to have a “Tifa Lockheart” on every single server?

There’s some 170,000 or so words in a dictionary.

Somehow I doubt that Guild Wars 2 has the required amount of 29,404,018,576 characters to cover all of the possible combinations of two words.

I it is still very much possible to create characters with good names, even with only 1 word.
Personally I have Oíche (made on first day prestart), Zeefa (same as Oíche), Kiliasja (same yet again), Spraoi (created months after release), Qiuppa (very recent character).
It is a question of getting creative.
For me it depends on the race. Sylvari and asura I give 1 word names, charr and norn get 2 word names, humans both ways work.
Why? it just seems most common for sylvari and asura to have 1 word names and common for norn and charr to have surnames.

I am for adding a bit more spelling freedom, add a few letters that fit in, add ways of spelling that are used in rl names. The ´and uppercase once inside the name (allowing McSomething) but there has to be limitations… don’t wanna see stupid names with numbers and messing around upper and lower case… the eyesores…

Zeefa.3915:

don’t wanna see stupid names with numbers and messing around upper and lower case… the eyesores…

McAllister is an eyesore? Because Mcallister certainly is.

Could we choose our own title? That would be fun. All i see around is Volunteers and Healers. Pretty monotone.

First thing I did at headstart open was log in and randomize a character with my name, then head back to bed

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Zeefa.3915:

don’t wanna see stupid names with numbers and messing around upper and lower case… the eyesores…

McAllister is an eyesore? Because Mcallister certainly is.

xXxTrippleKillah1337xXx

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Zeefa.3915:

don’t wanna see stupid names with numbers and messing around upper and lower case… the eyesores…

McAllister is an eyesore? Because Mcallister certainly is.

If you read my entire post you would know that, that is ok. McSomething or the other is fine. I am cool with that. But if it people use KiTTenS or something like that it is an eyesore… read the whole post please.

I understand, but by preventing one, you automatically prevent the other, which is a shame. People are already facing consequences for not adhering to the naming policy, I don’t see why this couldn’t be expanded to “no nonsense capitalization”. If this was addressed on the level of policy rather than technology… it would allow for more flexibility. (While being a lot more work for ANet staff in removing names that violate the policy.)

I think allowing 1 additonal capital letter, hyphen or apostrophe per name would be a fair compromise, AND possible to solve via pretty simple code (rather than policy).

I’m missing apostrophes, and forced capitalization is the worst idea ever. I’m playing a nobleman and would normally be called "Forename von Surname", GW2 makes it "Von" though. Also I guess many French names don’t work at all due to the lack of apostrophes. From a roleplay perspective, that’s devastating. But GW2 isn’t an MMORPG anyway as it seems, so...

Pixelpumpkin has a good idea, allowing just one special extra. I’d add in making that one a lowercase start. My main is Donari Mal di Bette, but the game makes it a Di not a di. That would help Iruwen as well, allowing the von.

Someone above complained about two word names. Note that mine is four words! Though I did have to shorten it as originally it was Malo not Mal. 19 characters is a lot but not quiiiite enough for a few of my favored names.

Obviously the restrictions are there to prevent egregious leet speak names that really don’t fit the world, but some loosening could permit a wider range of good names.

Not to mention all the name change contracts ANet would be able to sell if Mcallister, Obrien & co were able to get their intended capitalisation, apostrophes etc…

I’d instantly buy one so I could change my name.

Olba.5376:

There’s some 170,000 or so words in a dictionary.

Somehow I doubt that Guild Wars 2 has the required amount of 29,404,018,576 characters to cover all of the possible combinations of two words.

Go ahead and let me know when you want to make the character “Connection Limp” or “Tampon Lampshade”.

Da Sonic.6521:

Olba.5376:

There’s some 170,000 or so words in a dictionary.

Somehow I doubt that Guild Wars 2 has the required amount of 29,404,018,576 characters to cover all of the possible combinations of two words.

Go ahead and let me know when you want to make the character “Connection Limp” or “Tampon Lampshade”.

Limp Connexion could pass for a band name. Band names are always good.

Tampon Lampshade sounds like a trope. Tropes are always good.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

I think allowing 1 additonal capital letter, hyphen or apostrophe per name would be a fair compromise, AND possible to solve via pretty simple code (rather than policy).

You know that was what I was suggesting -_-

After re-reading your earlier post: you’re right, I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry and I’m glad we agree.

Maybe my post was a bit messy
I tend to write what I think as I think it, making some of my post lacking in struckture xD

Okuza.5210:

OTH, there is one aspect of the naming where I agree with you. I wanted to use Ø (Nordic O slash) in one of my Norn names and the game doesn’t allow it. This is despite permitting many MANY other alt-coded symbols in names, such as accented and umlauted characters. I suspect all it would take to support Ø would be to just remove the line of code that currently prohibits it.

Yes please. My Norn’s name really needed the Icelandic þ, and it wouldn’t let me