Character naming in Massively Multiplayer Online Games can be quite troublesome. One hope is to have a random name generator, which hinders immersion. Another is that your desired character's name has not yet been taken (however unlikely that may be). Other complications arise from the current implementation for designating characters. While GuildWars solves this issue, the fact that you don't always know what characters your friends are playing does arise, due to each character having a completely different name. A supremely simple solution occured to me, and it puzzles me now why this has not been in place: unique surnames. Instead of using the proper name for character differentiation, the possibility of using surnames opens up many options. For example, all characters on a player's account could share the same surname, and thus be instantly recognizable by any friend of said player. This also allows a vastly more freeform naming scheme; and while there may be a thousand characters named Gandalf, there will only be one Gandalf the Gray. People associate more closely on a first name basis, and allowing a bit more immersion simply by allowing the player to select a name he or she wishes. Any thoughts on this matter? -Greven

I'm a little confused. Are the first names required to be unique or is that the last name? You say both "unique surname" and "same surname", so I'm a bit baffled. Sorry if I've misread something.

While I would personally prefer both the first and last name to make a "character's name" I do not see (from a design standpoint) it going over well. For what I propose, I shall form an example: * requiring uniqueness.
(Name) (Surname)*

Consider Player A's characters:
Fred Flintstone
Joe Flintstone
Jake Flintstone
Mary Flintstone

Now, Player B's characters:
Fred McClain
Joe McClain
Jake McClain
Mary McClain

Player A sending a tell to McClain would send it to whomever of Player B's characters is online at the present time.

-Greven

Personally, one of the primary reason I make alternative characters is precisely so that people cannot associate the new with the old.

What if your unique surname in, say, World of Warcraft, is already taken when you join Sims Online? That defeats the whole purpose of trying to make all of one player's characters identifyable as theirs.

Quote:

Original post by Telastyn Personally, one of the primary reason I make alternative characters is precisely so that people cannot associate the new with the old.

What, you like to piss off people and have to hide? Or do you just like to hide?

Quote:

Original post by sunandshadow What if your unique surname in, say, World of Warcraft, is already taken when you join Sims Online? That defeats the whole purpose of trying to make all of one player's characters identifyable as theirs.

Moreso than having the first names taken? Can't really regulate between games, ya know.

-Greven

Quote:

Original post by Evil_Greven Quote: Original post by Telastyn Personally, one of the primary reason I make alternative characters is precisely so that people cannot associate the new with the old. What, you like to piss off people and have to hide? Or do you just like to hide?

I usually run clans/tribes/guilds in online games, and doing so brings quite a bit of messaging and responsibility. Some days I don't want to deal with all of that, I just want to play the game.

I see your point, but I'm not saying the surname *has* to be the same for each character, only that this opens the possibility that it *could* be.

-Greven

some thoughts:

How about making the surname system generated to fit with the story and let the player make up the first name ie (ChukKnorays BloodBath the Orc). System generated names can preserve the feel of the world while uniqueness is enforced. Then you could let the Roleplayers turn off/hide the first names so they will not have to see "ChukKnorays", only Bloodbath the Orc or something.

Although some people might not like the system generated names.

Why do names have to be unique at all?

You don't have to use the character name to login; as such you can differentiate characters by the account used to create them.

If someone's looking for you to friendlist you or something, support an 'account profile' system that lets you check on who a character belongs to, then people can see that Evil_Greven is Brett Jones and not someone else. (Of course, it'd be up to you how much info you make publicly available).

A character's name only need to be as unique as an MSN display name (i.e. not at all).