What's with the generic names?

[BurtHutt]

On 11/28/2020 at 6:08 PM, Player2 said:

Unique names is a crap system.  Names are not unique in the real world, and hell they aren't even unique in comic books among superheroes.  There've been as many as 4 Spider-Men running around simultaneously... 2 Supermans (and other Justice League members) also...  and over time, names have been passed around.  Captain Marvel has been used by like 8 or 9 different characters... two at the same time in different comic universes.

 

We need non-unique naming with names tied to players' global chat handles, and then we can stop seeing all the xX(name)Xx, oO(name)Oo, as well as numbers as letters and a dash or period before or after a name... except where people REALLY want that as their name.

Disagree. 110%. I like the unique names and not having 20 characters running around that may have the same name. I got on here summer 2019 and found a lot of names I liked. I continue to do so. I like being creative and having to think up some new names/ideas/concepts. 

 

This isn't the same for all but count me in as liking the system.

[Rishidian]

I found this: 

------------

What is this name release policy I've heard about? Is it in effect yet?

The name release policy is not in effect yet. Here's how it'll work once it is enabled:

• Characters will be flagged as ‘inactive’ when the following time thresholds are met:
  • Level 1-5 characters will be flagged as inactive if they have not been played in the last 30 days
  • Level 6-20 characters will be flagged as inactive if they have not been played in the last 90 days
  • Level 21-49 characters will be flagged as inactive if they have not been played in the last 365 days
  • Level 50 characters will never be flagged as inactive
• When a character is flagged as inactive they are not immediately renamed. Instead, their name is simply no longer locked. This allows another player to create a character with that name, at which point the original character will be renamed.
• You can remove the inactive flag on a character at any time simply by logging them in.

---------------

 

So, unused character names should become available

--Of course, if the policy is not active...

[UltraAlt]

On 11/28/2020 at 6:39 PM, The_Warpact said:

Just seems weird...

Agreed.

 

I think it is a creativity issue or a lack of connection to a character.

I have over 70 characters and I pretty much know what I'm getting into when I log them in even if I don't read the power sets that are listed directly underneath of the character on the character log-in screen.

 

I know that sometimes there are people that try to get a name and they try 10-15 times and they are already taken. Not so much of it is that any of those names were bad ideas or obviously they wouldn't be taken. Problem is that they were generic enough to be thought of easily.

 

I mean even Spider-man is The Spectacular Spider-man and Peter Parker The Amazing Spider-man.

Sometimes all it takes is that adjective to change that name from one that is already taken to the one on your character.

[Rishidian]

I also disagree with having duplicate names.

 

--Last I checked, Marvel didn't have any characters named SuperMan, or Wonder Woman.  In fact, they keep updating Captain Marvel so they can keep that name.  DC also doesn't have any Spider-Men, or Hulks.

 

But actually, it doesn't matter.  Coming up with unique names isn't hard.  A random Name Generator (like what Star Wars The Old Republic has) [oh, how I HATE comparing games!] might be helpful.  The name may not be unique, but it could give a kickstart to a unique name.

 

There are a few threads on this forum about names - I found them very useful and I found me some new ideas for name generation and concepts.

[Oubliette_Red]

 

1 hour ago, Player2 said:

1 hour ago, The_Warpact said:

I thought after 30 days of inactivity the name frees up.

I believe the policy you speak of is for character levels 1-5.  6-20 it's 90 days, and 21-49 is a full year.

But I also believe that policy has not been initiated yet.

I'm not sure how the HC devs' version will work, but on Legacy it was a script that had to be run and they only did it twice during the life of the game. It wasn't something they just turned on and stayed active.

 

[Player2]

2 hours ago, Rishidian said:

I also disagree with having duplicate names.

 

--Last I checked, Marvel didn't have any characters named SuperMan, or Wonder Woman.  In fact, they keep updating Captain Marvel so they can keep that name.  DC also doesn't have any Spider-Men, or Hulks.

 

But actually, it doesn't matter.  Coming up with unique names isn't hard.  A random Name Generator (like what Star Wars The Old Republic has) [oh, how I HATE comparing games!] might be helpful.  The name may not be unique, but it could give a kickstart to a unique name.

 

The reason Marvel doesn't have and Superman or Wonder Woman characters (or DC not having Spider-Man or Hulk) is because of trademark law and big companies doing what they can to protect those trademarks because if they don't they risk losing them by having legally abandoned them because trademark law works differently than copyright law.  But that doesn't mean those names are unique within the universe of their own characters.  At least 4 different people went around calling themselves Spider-Man at the same time for awhile.  Same with Superman after the whole Death of Superman storyline... and recently DC ran a Chinese version of the Justice League with their own Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Batman.  Captain Marvel has been used by 9 different characters over the years by multiple companies.  DC continued to use Captain Marvel for quite awhile despite Marvel owning the trademark to the name because Marvel came in with the Mar-Vell version during the Shazam version's downtime... DC maintained it by publishing his comic as Power of Shazam, but eventually just gave up on the confusion caused by this and just renamed their character Shazam because that's how most people identified the character anyhow.

 

And coming up with unique names may not be hard for some... but it can be especially infuriating if you've come up with a given character name and used it plenty for years on one of a dozen shards on the Live servers back in the day only to come back to the game late and discover the name of one (or more) of your main characters has already been claimed on one or even all five of the current shards at Homecoming.  And having to use the numbers to letters substitutions, adding a period or hyphen where they don't belong, intentionally misspelling a name, or just coming up with an entirely new name can be a real buzzkill for the love of an old character or a even a new idea.

 

Damn, I had a great idea for a character named Captain Awesome, but it and "Capt Awesome," "Capt. Awesome," "Captain-Awesome," and "Capt-Awesome" are all taken.  I guess I could make "Captain 4wesome" or just go with "Captain Something Else" but... nah.

 

Once one starts running into the name taken roadblock repeatedly, the idea for the character starts becoming less shiny and the challenge of finding the right name no longer worth it.

 

I'd rather a Captain Awesome (@Player2) and Captain Awesome (@Rishidan), and Captain Awesome (@someoneelse), as it would be more like the multiple company Captain Marvel naming convention...  Captain Marvel (™Fawcett Comics), Captain Marvel (™M. F. Enterprises), Captain Marvel (™DC Comics), Captain Marvel (™Marvel Comics).  People's global handles are the unique tags that would identify which character of a given name you are dealing with.

[Player2]

9 hours ago, Sailboat said:

I played a bit of Marvel Heroes online before it shut down.  Of course they're invested in their trademarked characters, so they use the names we're familiar with.  Up to 8 players could be on a team, sop sometimes the team introductions went like this:

 

"Hello, Hulk.  I'm Hulk."

"Hulk."

"Hulk."

"Hulk."

*nods* "Hulk."

"Hulk."

"Yo, Hulk."

"Me Hulk.  You Hulk?"

"Yep, Hulk, Hulk."

The difference between that game and COH with non-unique names is that if you somehow got a team of 8 people filled with the same names, they would still be different characters.  Marvel had a limited pool of characters to draw on and tried to make it a little more diverse by giving each character multiple skins so people could play with their favorite costume of their favorite character, but in the end all the Hulks are the pretty much the same as are all the Wolverines and Squirrel Girls and so on.

 

City of Heroes has a lot more diversity in the freedom to design our characters from the archtype and power set selection, and allowing us to create a unique look for our characters with the extensive options available in the costume creator.  8 characters with the same name on a single team would still be a unique experience of everyone filling a role.  But if you found yourself on a team with a bunch of other people with the same name as you, you could always decline the invite or leave to find another team after seeing what you've gotten yourself into.

 

But I really don't think it will come to that.  Sure, you would see some names doubled up on in play occasionally, but across five servers thousands of people playing aren't as likely to bump into each other with the same names as they would on Marvel where there was such a limited pool of characters to be shared by so many players.  It's a crappy comparison.

[srmalloy]

23 hours ago, Sailboat said:

I played a bit of Marvel Heroes online before it shut down.  Of course they're invested in their trademarked characters, so they use the names we're familiar with.  Up to 8 players could be on a team, sop sometimes the team introductions went like this:

 

"Hello, Hulk.  I'm Hulk."

"Hulk."

"Hulk."

"Hulk."

*nods* "Hulk."

"Hulk."

"Yo, Hulk."

"Me Hulk.  You Hulk?"

"Yep, Hulk, Hulk."

"Your name's not Hulk? That's going to cause some confusion; mind if we call you Hulk just to keep things straight?"

[thunderforce]

On 11/28/2020 at 11:39 PM, The_Warpact said:

Example, "Healing Defender" or "Fire Tank" or "Robot Mastermind "........or my personal favorite "Rad Sword"...can you guess what the powersets are?

I might guess wrong. Back in the day, some PVP groups on the EU servers tried a scheme of giving themselves a misleading name - a tanker called "empathy defender", and so forth - in the hope of confusing their opponents, or maybe just for a bit of amusement.

[The_Warpact]

5 minutes ago, thunderforce said:

I might guess wrong. Back in the day, some PVP groups on the EU servers tried a scheme of giving themselves a misleading name - a tanker called "empathy defender", and so forth - in the hope of confusing their opponents, or maybe just for a bit of amusement.

Yeah I remember or a team with all the same name but with subtle differences and same costume. 

Ground Pounder

Ground Pounder.

Ground Pounder

Etc....

[siolfir]

33 minutes ago, thunderforce said:

I might guess wrong. Back in the day, some PVP groups on the EU servers tried a scheme of giving themselves a misleading name - a tanker called "empathy defender", and so forth - in the hope of confusing their opponents, or maybe just for a bit of amusement.

My Psi/Bio Stalker, Worst Healer Ever, receives more blind invites than the rest of my characters put together.

[Rishidian]

Player2 - It maybe be we need to agree to disagree.  Thank you for your arguments - Thank you for letting me see another point of view.

 

You have a good idea and good reasoning.  I just don't think it's necessary - or feasible.

But, luckily, I'm not making the decisions.  And I'm glad for that, because I don't see the big picture.

 

[nightroarer]

I like the non-unique naming convention. However, I rarely team except with my family, so name collisions are unlikely to happen. I understand both the unique and non-unique name viewpoints and am fine with both.

 

That said, I haven't had much issue coming up with names for my characters (90+) thus far. I don't always get my first choice, but I've never "settled" for something I didn't like.

 

On the rare occasion that I have a name I specifically want, but it is take, I have employed a personal ID system (twice on the original servers, only once on HC). That is, I put the supergroup initials after the character name. An example from DC comics would be Superman. He was on both the old Justice Society and the Justice League. So If I were making a version of him in the Justice League but someone else already had the name, I might use Superman JL. (Note: This is just an illustration; I only create original characters in game :) )

 

Another option would be to add a relevant title. For example, on the old servers I created a villainous cyborg I wanted to name Decimator. That name was already taken, so I named him The Inhuman Decimator instead. Titles, ranks, colors, etc., can be added to keep the name and perhaps add personality.

 

There are a lot of options, synonyms, and variations that can be used--even without titles and workarounds. I think we are a long way from exhausting all of the good, creative character names.

[Sir Myshkin]

I think I'm too late to the trend. I tried to get "Shiny McShiny Claw" and it was already taken.