Please forgive me if this has been discussed elsewhere.
If it hasn't been addressed before, I was wondering if there would be a way to reserve global/character names prior to launch.
I've got three names I really want to use and would hate it if someone else beat me to it!
Perhaps in the later days before launch, we can make a donation for such a thing - unless you folks feel that would decrease public favor in the eyes of your adoring fanbase.
Thanks for your time.
—
Those who have no idea what they are doing have no idea that they don't know what they are doing. - John Cleese
I could be wrong, but I am unsure that they will implement something like this. I think the best bet is if we're in beta stages and we take the names we want and get to keep them before launch. (Which of course is a long long ways away.)
[size=10]Globals: Darkshot Avenger | Red Ice
CoH player from 9 Mar 2009 to 30 Nov 2012
• Nigredo Fist/Schwarzen Strike
• Cyclone Shield
• White Mender
• Silver Speed
• Centershock[/size]
[size=10]Server: Virtue
Discord: Leif#2990[/size]
The major thing to worry about would tbe the global name.
Character names are NOT going to be unique due to the single server setup (think Champions Online single server setup, rather than City of Heroes multiple servers)
I seem to remember something on the Kickstarter about this. Wasn't there a support level that mentioned earlier access and the ability to thus get your name before (hopefully) someone else beats you to it?
I personally changed my global chat handle on CoX once or twice, and I would note that this is sometimes a highly desirable thing to be able to do. Maybe letting people do it willy-nilly is bad, but at least making it possible in a "last resort" sense somehow, by charging money or limiting how often it can be done.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
From the Kickstarter, for those who pledged $25 or more: "First, you’ll get the opportunity to reserve your Global Nickname before the general release."
- - - - -
[font=Pristina][size=18][b]Hail Beard![/b][/size][/font]
Support [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/52149#comment-52149]trap clowns[/url] for CoT!
^This.
So if you didn't donate, don't tell anyone the name you want to use for your global, and you have a better chance at getting it.
Thanks for refreshing my feeble memory. I donated, so I'm good to go. I'm hoping launch will be no later than Dec 2016. I'll turn 50, lol. It'd be a nice present to be able to play again.
Those who have no idea what they are doing have no idea that they don't know what they are doing. - John Cleese
I don't think anyone has said yet - and they may not know at this point - but I'd be curious to know what restrictions there will be on global names. Minimum number of characters, numbers, special characters, etc.
Im guessing min 4 characters... max 40 (not because of disk space, maybe because of screen real estate)
Spaces will most likely be allowed for Toon Names, but any kind of abbreviations that aren't normally used as names for Heroes or Villains might not make it in.
Dashes "-" might.
ex: "Spider-Man".
Globals? Errr... I myself would try and keep it as simple as possible. So, for Gobals, i would not allow Spaces or Dashes or anything beside 0-1, a-Z. And 1st character of the Global cant be 0-1, just a-Z. But thats just my preference. :)
[color=green]Punky Brewster[/color][color=red]@[/color][color=blue]IzzysGlobal[/color] might work for me. :D
[img]http://www.brewdog.com/uploaded_images3/12_540_01.jpg[/img][img]http://i.imgur.com/HUlIqKk.png[/img]
Maybe the chat log can let players click on the @ and it would show/hide the Global?
ex: after clicking on the @ in the chat log, it shrinks only that users chat entries down,
from: [color=green]Punky Brewster[/color][color=red]@[/color][color=blue]IzzysGlobal[/color]
to: [color=green]Punky Brewster[/color][color=red]@[/color]
either that or just hide all globals using Options setting. but thats a pain too.
I just want Quickly See what the global is, and then hide it... all in one second length of time.
I guess if you Hide it from Options, but you Hover the Mouse Pointer over the "[color=green]Punky Brewster[/color][color=red]@[/color]" part, a tooltip could show up with the Full Global?!? Errr.. something context based. :)
Wait.. you didnt really think it was this Punky Brewster did you?
[img]http://i.imgur.com/xB8I42o.png[/img]
If you did.. U 2 OLD! ;D
I'm so old my back goes out more than I do
I'm fine with global names and unlimited name choice (or not, either way), but I do hope the globals will be subtle, and hidden wherever possible. I didn't like how prominent the global was in Champs, it distracted from the name. And for those few of us who get our globals early enough to make them fit, that's great. But for everyone else, it's going to be an ever-present string of trash letters after their name unless it's handled (get it?) well.
Ways to handle (get it?) this would be to give an option to only show globals on mouseover, and when you search for a name to give a list of all globals currently in the zone with that name.
Maybe I'm being picky, but "Incredible Man@wiggidywiggidy" and "The Dark Avenger@Iheartcats" is a little immersion breaking for me.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Completely agree, Empyrean. I'd hope for a selection of display options such as you describe to suit a player's preferences.
And BOOO! re: "handle" :-)
Spurn all ye kindle.
I still don’t like that multiple players can have the same name I liked how COH had that it was used already but guess I’ll have to deal with it
I'd rather not have a perfectly good name wasted by someone who hasn't signed in for years and only made the account once, rendering it unusable to all.
Hence was the reason why I clung to CO, the use of having a name tied to an @handle allowed for anyone and everyone to have the same name and still be able to tell the difference between the two players in question. Despite what many may think, it's actually quite rare you'll really find those who may have chose the same name as you. More times than not, most will simply opt for a name that's less common.
"If I am to die in battle, Remember me for who I was and not what I've become..."
CO showed you can have an awesome name and not see it used by others, who thought some crappy name like Fish-head was good :p
Only with the name Halo did I ever run into someone else using the same name.
Yeah, during my time in CO I only ran into one character that shared a name with one of mine, though not while I was playing that character.
On CoH I tended to run into people with very similar names quite a bit especially when it came to patriotic heroes.
Oh, and on another note I don't think I ever ran into someone using a name I tried to use but was already taken in CoH.
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
I had the name 'Bang Gang' (Thugs MM) generic'd in CoH and two days later I found a guy running around with it. I asked him how he got such a cool name , without saying I had it before, he told me he was the one who reported it so he could use it himself.
It's unlikely this type of douchery would become common but the truth is IMO there is just no good reason to make a characters name unique in CoT.
^This! And I ran into at least a handful of characters in COH with a name I tried to use but couldn’t. Besides there are several examples in comics of multiple characters with the same name despite being sometimes very different characters. It’s an unnecessary and frankly not very player-friendly convention to require utterly unique names. Having said that I did try to create as unique a character name as possible just cause it’s fun to do. The creativity involved in character creation is a huge part of what made COH such fun, imho.
I’m all for having the global hidden unless you want to see it with a mouse-over if you really want to see it.
"A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space." ~ Thomas Carlyle
[img]https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/namespace_land_rush.png[/img]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_HUdf89hI8]Send out your signal, call in your hero
I kidnapped his lady, now his power's are zero.
[/url]
How weird. In my experience in Co* if I ever spoke to someone whose name got Generic'd, the name actually got Blacklisted so no one could use it again.
It was not, "Oh this name is on time out!" it was "Oh this name [i]should not have been allowed in the first place[/i]." and they just disallowed the use of it. Period.
Super weird.
I'd really expect descriptive globals to be big:
Assuming @global.local:
@TheIncredible.Arcanum
@TheUnstoppable.Targe
@Ultimate.Targe
@TheAmazing.Swiftshade
Or names with fun requests/commands:
@DontShootAt.Targe
@LookAt.Swiftshade
@KindlyGiveTo.Targe
@Invite.Targe
@HideBehind.Targe
@Protect.Targe
Of course, there will be those that push boundaries and dedicate accounts to parodies of other players' characters
@naked.Targe
@Reverse.Targe
@goateeUniverse.Arcanum
@theSmart.ChaseArcanum
And those that lament the fact that there aren't distinct character names by choosing a global that asserts true ownership of a name:
@theOriginal.Targe
@OneAndOnlyTrue.Targe
@Prime.Targe
@I.Targe
@TheOnlyRelevant.Targe
@JustAnother.Targe
... I have to reconsider my initial plan of just using my forum handle. I can already see some canine-themed characters addressing Tabby:
"@Chase.Tabby, ...Chase... Tabby... ok! arfarfarfarf..."
"heel"
Maybe
@IBlameLag
@Fhtagn
@Cthulhu_fhtagn
Bring back the old, super creative Sonic characters:
@Pain.wav
@Screaming.mp3
And of course The Executables:
@Hero.exe
@Villain.exe
To be perfectly honest I would have assumed that's the way it did in fact work in CoH for [b]all[/b] cases. But if what Brainbot said is correct (and there's no obvious reason to think otherwise) it appears CoH had some bad GMing loopholes to say the least.
One would think that if a name ever got generic'd based 100% solely on the name itself that there would never be a reason why anyone else would (or should) ever be able to use it again in the future. If it's bad enough that one person couldn't use it why would anyone else get to use it for any reason?
Of course the very concept of "banning names that are deemed inappropriate" is going to be a little more problematic for CoT due to the global naming system. For example let's say a GM sees someone in-game named "Dwayne Dibley" and decides that's offensive (for some reason). Is the GM going to bother to 'generic' that one single character knowing there might be a dozen other Dwayne Dibley's in the game or, perhaps more dramatically, is that GM going to be able to wave a proverbial "admin wand" and 'genericize' all of the Dwayne Dibley's in the entire game automatically? It'll be interesting to see how they handle this kind of thing in practice.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
It wasn't based solely on the name. The character had a mature background.
Ex-adult film star who got mixed up with drugs and after contracting a disease, forcing him out of the business, ended up a criminal. He was an MM but in the background it was the gang that were in control. It was loosely based on the story of John Holmes.
The 'GM's' of CoH were just customer service with a fancy title and were notoriously understaffed and inexperienced.
I really hope that CoT does not give their customer service reps the ability to enact global decisions in regards to names. There is too much opportunity for stupidity when Ted from Iowa just doesn't understand the difference between a copy, a homage and a new interpretation.
Sun Wukong is the mythical 'Monkey King' but he also a character in countless movies and in the RWBY series. I don't want some schmuck making a ripoff character called Sun Wukong and have every use of the name banned when it gets reported.
Agreed. The names "Sun Wukong" and "The Monkey King" are as public domain as Shakespeare. Using the images of the movies or anime/manga still in copyright with the name should be acted on, but the name isn't the threat without the image.
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
.
Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
And because of that multiplicity, 'Sun Wukong' shouldn't be subject to trademark or copyright.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Happened to me with the name Void Girl :/
To be clear I am not in favor of games like this banning names of characters based -just- on the perceived, subjective judgment of a single GM and/or player. I have never been under the delusion that any random GM of a game is somehow a fully trained/licensed arbitrator with a college doctorate in customer relations. I was just making the point that if a game ever allows such an individual to 'genericize' a name like that that the "ideal scenario" would be that the name would be universally banned and not be allowed to be re-used again by anyone else. The very idea that someone could get away with reporting your character's name just so that they could turn around and grab it for their own use is the very obvious definition of "that sucks and shouldn't be allowed to happen".
To be fair it sounds like the combination of your vaguely "questionable" MM character concept paired with name was enough to get you slapped by the GM in question in your situation. But somehow I doubt the guy who stole your name used it on his/her own innocent Mother Teresa type concept themselves. But despite whether the 'genericization' was actually appropriate in your case or not I too hope that the GM policing in CoT is not so sloppy/arbitrary. At the very least people should have the right to plead their case if they ever get questioned about something like that so that they have a chance to avoid permanent consequences.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
What's wrong with "Void Girl"? Was that a name of some obscure DC/Marvel character?
Again like I just said earlier I'm not in favor of GMs unilaterally smacking names unless it's clear it's absolutely necessary. At the very least there should be a formal way to protest the banning.
Perhaps because the global naming system of CoT will let people have any names they want there will be less of a reason for people to "falsely report" other people just as a dirty means to steal their names. *shrugs*
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Nope. I even looked after the generic naming, because I was all "What? It is?" thinking maybe it was like you said, some really obscure hero/villain.
The response was "Sorry for the mistake."
Damage was done and I lost the name.
Wow. Again I actually had no idea that names which were 'genericd' in CoH were ever "released" to be useable again. That seems to run completely counter to the whole rationale of GMs bothering to 'genericize' names (for any reason) in the first place.
If the GMs of CoT are going to be able to wield the power to 'generic' a character's name that name ought to be maintained by the system even if it's destined to be forever hidden/unusable by the player in question. This would provide the fair opportunity for a player to petition to have his/her name easily restored if the case was properly presented to do so. Regardless I think CoT's global naming system will prevent players from being able to maliciously "steal" other people's names so that's an automatic step in the right direction.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
The only reason I can think of to globally generic a name is if it is a highly protected property, like superman, spiderman or wolverine. For more obscure or, in my case, risque names I can fully understand it only being generic'd on a case by case basis. If I make a rip off of Marvel's Puck character I should be generic'd but it should not make the name unavailable for anyone who wants to make a Shakespear inspired character...or even a hockey character.
I'd agree there should only be highly specific reasons why a name alone (without considering the context of the character concept/costume attached to it) would ever be generic'd on a universal game-wide level. Hopefully many/most of those cases (i.e. obvious ones like 'Superman' or the use of clearly overt profanity) would be prevented by the basic name filtering provided by the game's character creation system.
As far as the generic'ing of any other name goes that would need to be handled with the proper context in mind. If you tried to make an "exact clone" of an existing character (where you used the name and a concept/costume that closely matches it) then that should likely be smacked. But I would argue that if you made a character with a name/concept combo that was far enough "disconnected" from each other that it might be borderline acceptable. For instance (as a very hyperbolic hypothetical) if you created a character called "The Incredible Hulk" but designed it to look like a 5 year old girl in a pink tutu who used a magic wand to zap bad guys I would almost argue that should be allowable, albeit very weird/silly/questionable. If you varied that just a bit, like naming the character "The Amazing Hulk", then that should be totally legal.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I don't know. The name Bang Gang and Gang Bang, don't sound like names that should be genericed for any reasons, even if one could tie them to something sexual. They're not out right bad words. :p
Now, "You're About To Get F***ed Man" should probably get genericed (btw...this name is free to be taken by any readers of this post :p)
The name "Bang Gang" is a relatively clever play on words. The name "Gang Bang" (as a phrase) is probably always going to be questionable regardless, especially if you pay any heed to how that phrase is [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_bang]defined by its wiki page[/url]. ;)
I must admit that would at least be funny to see in game. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
There exist multiple valid reasons to genericize a name. However the only two that come to mind for myself are the matters of intellectual property rights -outright mimicry of existing copywritten materials, and those that fall outside legally acceptable free speech. Both are sensitive areas and should be closely reviewed to ensure all parties potentially involved are mutually uninfringed. By this I mean no character is genericized unjustly and that intellectually protected writers/artists rights are likewise respected.
I’m sure MWM will take appropriate measures to these ends. The sticky area is to what extent are they able/willing to extend vetting of a generated character prior to generecizing, be it the choice made. Legalities involved can be very nasty affairs for all. However if a method of archiving the character should they decide it is not a violation of any rights and restoration of it exist it would be a nice remedy for “mistakenly genericized” identities.
"A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly. If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space." ~ Thomas Carlyle
I disagree. We're making a character in a game. It shouldn't matter if it looks like some character that's already made. Just shows how unoriginal someone is. The game is just offering lots of options, it wouldn't be selling itself as "Make any DC character you want and play as it!"
No, the marketing is, "Make a hero and save the city!"
CoH would've won that law suit, but they just didn't have the money or desire to compete with them, so they compromised.
Now, if CoT started advertising using such character copies as well, I'd also say there's a case, but players just making a close proximity to the character shouldn't be any copyright issue. Others know, that's not Superman, the game isn't taking place in the DC Universe and the player is just uncreative.
I wonder if we'd have seen less clones if it wasn't made into such a big deal.
I agree that [b][i]ideally[/i][/b] it shouldn't be an issue for CoT. But why should MWM poke at that bear by taking the attitude that players creating anything they want is completely fine?
I'm good with MWM being preemptive via GM policing if for no other reason that if they do get sued at least they can make the credible case that they actively discourage that sort of thing. *shrugs*
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I've been seriously thinking of putting in some snark error messages when people try to use some of these.
"Oh, hi there, admin. I've noticed you've been trying to login via SSH with the password '0101' for years now. Right this way, sir..."
[i]* IP address banned.[/i]
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]