Allow Characters to Have the Same Name

Yes, not a bug per se, but it is a suggestion, so here goes.

I think of all the things I see listed as needing a change, this is #1 for me personally.  The whole concept of reserving a name and sitting on it is broken.  And while I agree with the current policy allowing names to be taken by another if the character is inactive, I think the root cause here is that players really should be allowed to have the same name.  That would fix it for everyone.  No more being paranoid that someone will steal your name someday, and no more waiting around hoping that someone else will inadvertently relinquish the name you really want.

That's about it, I can't think to add any more.  There's quite a few folks who are volunteering in the Developers thread, and while I'm sure this is opening a can of giant-sized interstellar void worms, I think it's feasible with enough effort, and maybe some slight compromises in the client design.  (I think if this goes through the /tell command is likely toast, it'll have to be a name picked off a menu.)

Thanks.

I would heavily /jranger this.

I do not want other people running about with my character names. The magic of CoH is the personal attachment and immersion, which is broken if anyone can make anything.

Might as well call all heroes GenericHero1 and eliminate naming.

It's already been suggested as part of the Naming Policy - dev's shot it down for now -

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,2356.msg15159.html#msg15159

So this has been bought up a few times. The simple answer is that rewriting the game ot allow this would be a major undertaking. Newer MMOs (like Champions) are designed to use Character@Account names by standard but CoH wasn't and back engineering it in now it not really practical.

If this happens, I will find a different server to play on. This game has NEVER needed this. This game has ran for many long years and never once needed this. If you cannot create a name, then then try and think outside the box. I would even be willing to help you come up with names. We do not need 50 people running around with identical names.

I /JRanger this thread...and I am not the type to /JRanger anything....this is my first.

Nothing against you personally, OP...I just really hate this idea with a huge passion.

Edited: My first edit was a bit harsh.

1) As already stated, the game was not built to allow for such a thing.  Making it available is probably no small feat at best, and may require a massive effort.

2) Without easy access to global handles, it could allow for a massive amount of trolling and in-game fraud.  This is another thing that would have to be changed, not just letting people use the same names as other players.

3) It goes against the source material.

Yeah, I know that this isn't the best argument against it, but I rather enjoy the fact that every character is the one and only.

Also, I am aware that there have been occasions where two characters have simultaneously had the same name, but it was usually a source of contention and one of the characters stopped using the name.

There are plenty of examples of names being abandoned and adopted by someone else.

I sincerely hope that you didn't just see someone else's character and think "cool name.  I want it", because the lack of imagination involved in that hurts to think about.

But if you have a name, however imaginative you may have thought that it was, but someone else has it, there are ways around that.

Add letters.  Add numbers.  Change letters.  Add colors or other adjectives.

So I really wanted to make a character called Titan.  Basic, but that's what I wanted.  Unfortunately, it's taken or otherwise unavailable.

Okay, I have options.

Titan 1

T1tan

Red Titan

Titan Red

Tytan

Titanic

Tytanic

Titanik

Tytanik

Ti-Tan

Ultra-Titan

Dr. Titan

Everything still contains that base Titan, but allows not only whoever has Titan (assuming it's not banned for use for whatever reason) to keep it unique to themselves allowing them to build a reputation of their own, but it also allows you to have an identity and reputation of your own, too.

I would heavily /jranger this.

 

I do not want other people running about with my character names. The magic of CoH is the personal attachment and immersion, which is broken if anyone can make anything.

 

Might as well call all heroes GenericHero1 and eliminate naming.

City of Heroes has the core strength of character identity behind it.

I can make a character look and play almost any way I want and make it uniquely mine. In comparison to most other MMOs which limit avatar looks and feels. Names are a part of this identity. People build reputations within servers and communities. People are recognized, positively and negatively. To allow everyone to use the same name would take away part of what makes this game special. I don't want to be a generic hero or villain. I want to be *my* hero or villain.

If people are having a hard time with names... there are tons of good ones still out there. Even in i23 there were good names for the taking. It just takes imagination.

If people are having a hard time with names... there are tons of good ones still out there. Even in i23 there were good names for the taking. It just takes imagination.

There may, however, not be very many ones available that in fact fit your concept for a character. If you have a fantastic idea for a villain named The Cockatrice then there might not be other names that work and you have to come up with something else entirely. Sometimes that's okay, sometimes it's a disappointment.

It isn't like costumes are exclusive or like there can't conceptually be more than one person with a particular name so that CoH character names are exclusive is mainly because of the technology used.

If people are having a hard time with names... there are tons of good ones still out there. Even in i23 there were good names for the taking. It just takes imagination.

 

There may, however, not be very many ones available that in fact fit your concept for a character. If you have a fantastic idea for a villain named The Cockatrice then there might not be other names that work and you have to come up with something else entirely. Sometimes that's okay, sometimes it's a disappointment.

 

 

It isn't like costumes are exclusive or like there can't conceptually be more than one person with a particular name so that CoH character names are exclusive is mainly because of the technology used.

Let's see...

• The Green Cockatrice
  
• Cocatris (from the old French)
  
• Calcatrix (Latin)
  
• Ichneumon (Ancient Greek)
  
• Basilisk (similar creature)
  
• Cock-a-trice
  
• Cockatrice Forever
  
• Magical Cockatrice
  
• Le or La Cockatrice (add a foreign word gender modifier in there
  
• Here's some similar stuff from Thesaurus.netj - I like Roc,
  

etc... etc...

If people are having a hard time with names... there are tons of good ones still out there. Even in i23 there were good names for the taking. It just takes imagination.

 

There may, however, not be very many ones available that in fact fit your concept for a character. If you have a fantastic idea for a villain named The Cockatrice then there might not be other names that work and you have to come up with something else entirely. Sometimes that's okay, sometimes it's a disappointment.

 

 

It isn't like costumes are exclusive or like there can't conceptually be more than one person with a particular name so that CoH character names are exclusive is mainly because of the technology used.

 

Let's see...

 

 

• The Green Cockatrice
  
• Cocatris (from the old French)
  
• Calcatrix (Latin)
  
• Ichneumon (Ancient Greek)
  
• Basilisk (similar creature)
  
• Cock-a-trice
  
• Cockatrice Forever
  
• Magical Cockatrice
  
• Le or La Cockatrice (add a foreign word gender modifier in there
  
• Here's some similar stuff from Thesaurus.netj - I like Roc,
  

 

etc... etc...

None of those have the simplicity of just "The Cockatrice". Basilisk is likely taken already as well because it's a similarly known mythological creature. Maybe even more so because iirc there's one in the Harry Potter films. A roc-themed character is quite good but it isn't really the same creature.

The issue is not in the supposed difficulty of adding an adjective, it's that doing so changes the name you really wanted.

you can always be T1T4N or Titan420 or xXxTITANxXx or Titan1111 or Titan.

I'm sure you'll still feel cool and awesome.

While having names be tied to a global account would help alleviate the really convoluted measures you have to go to to get a character name late in a server's life, it will never happen in CoX cause nerds here have this weird pathological attachment to their characters.

https://i.imgur.com/jewvU3d.gif[/im

I am not mocking your viewpoints or your suggestions. I'm explaining why adding things to a name is not always sufficient. Being unpleasant to me is not warranted.

People like to identify with their characters, especially those that RP. I myself use the names of characters I've created for my comic book series. These characters are older than COH, some created in the 90's for submissions to Marvel and DC before the bubble burst. Seeing a dozen Sabertalons or Titanicus running around would be just simple. I'm looking at Marvel's failed hero game where you could play as one of their characters and not able to create your own. Seing a hundred Wolverines running around with a hundred Deadpools and fifty Thors was just stupid, plain and simple.

For the record my character pool includes:

Sabertalon

Deathshade

Darkmoor

Black Jade

Titanicus

Temper

Shadowstar

Deathbolt

Miss Lead

I've already seen someone has taken Titanicus and my comic title, Polaris Syndicate, on Everlasting but thats fine as it isn't my main server. Be original, if someone is using a name, then find another. Oh and here is a pic of my comic just for clarity.

https://i.imgur.com/jewvU3d.gif[/im

 

I am not mocking your viewpoints or your suggestions. I'm explaining why adding things to a name is not always sufficient. Being unpleasant to me is not warranted.

I am not defending the image, but sometimes "not always sufficient" is really "because I only want the one thing that I want and anything else, no matter how minor the compromise, is unacceptable".

Cockatryce

Cockatrise

Cokkatrice

Kockatrice

You know, just to throw a some more options out there that will probably be unacceptable to you.

But it's your call in the end.

Try a different server, find some way to alter the name, or not use the name in any form and possibly abandon the character concept.

https://i.imgur.com/jewvU3d.gif[/im

 

I am not mocking your viewpoints or your suggestions. I'm explaining why adding things to a name is not always sufficient. Being unpleasant to me is not warranted.

Ha, this is what constitutes a "fight" on CoH forums. We're the Canada of MMOs.  ;D

 

The issue is not in the supposed difficulty of adding an adjective, it's that doing so changes the name you really wanted.

I cannot fathom how someone would want to name themselves The Cockatrice when there is another Cockatrice fighting crime in Paragon. What if ten people wanted to call themselves the Cockatrice? It’d be ‘I’m Spartacus!’ only worse.

“Hey, Hero! Why you must be the Cockatrice! Thanks for defeating the Hellions last week! You didn’t? Hm, I must have heard about another Cockatrice. Is there a Cockatrice Corps?’

No thanks to this suggestion. I don’t sit on names, I make alts and play them. And I like that they’re unique. Thesaurus.com is my friend.

MCM

you can always be T1T4N or Titan420 or xXxTITANxXx or Titan1111 or Titan.

 

I'm sure you'll still feel cool and awesome.

 

 

While having names be tied to a global account would help alleviate the really convoluted measures you have to go to to get a character name late in a server's life, it will never happen in CoX cause nerds here have this weird pathological attachment to their characters.

I laugh at people who do that...it tells me they were so desperate for a name, they were willing to make the name look as goofy as anyone could possibly make it look in order to achieve getting that name. It shows lack of imagination...and quite frankly, lack of intelligence.

This is something I pitched early on as a possible project. It would be a lot more work than you'd think to hook globals into everything (like team invites), just because chatserver is an external thing that isn't always up and running. The dbserver/mapserver that handles all of the game logic isn't even aware of what your global name is. A ton of work to redesign all that but I didn't think it was completely impossible.

 

Surprisingly, the idea was really divisive even among the Homecoming staff. I can only imagine what it would do to the playerbase, so it's been shelved and probably won't happen here.

And in case you guys missed it, this settles it. Any conversation on the subject from here on out is simply blowing hot air.

There may, however, not be very many ones available that in fact fit your concept for a character. If you have a fantastic idea for a villain named The Cockatrice then there might not be other names that work and you have to come up with something else entirely. Sometimes that's okay, sometimes it's a disappointment.

What about say...using a different language than English? Write up a bio with the translation as "Spanish for The Cockatrice" and get creative. I've only really had to do this maybe twice since the game first came out. After that I even found it fund to make up whole groups of backstories using such a concept that has enable me to almost never have a naming issue. It even invites people to pay More attention to the efforts you put into that alt!

Ha, this is what constitutes a "fight" on CoH forums. We're the Canada of MMOs.  ;D

Well the game Was rated T-Teen I believe. :p

I cannot fathom how someone would want to name themselves The Cockatrice when there is another Cockatrice fighting crime in Paragon. What if ten people wanted to call themselves the Cockatrice? It’d be ‘I’m Spartacus!’ only worse.

From another game/series: Gary....Gaaaaarryyy (IE: Gary, Gary 23, etc)

Really don't want someone else running around with my name. A unique identity and server reputation is part of the fun of the game.