Shorten Names Poll

[Aleczan]

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Of course you would expect most people to want to keep what they have without rational reason to keep them as they are now. Perhaps it is natural aversion to any kind of change.

Did any of you consider that there may be storage and programming reasons why it would be necessary to shorten names?

It may be that when they change the UI, that the screen will have difficulty with names as long as they are now.

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Wrong. Not me.

No. Not me.

Maybe.


Wrong. Not me. - Because I have presented my rational reasons.

No. Not me. - If it is a programming reason, we will know. We will get a flat out "no" for last name, then (either when time comes, or in advanced). And if it is the case, I assume we wouldn't be asked by Yoshi-san for our feedback and opinions. The only reasons why he wants our feedbacks would be, I think, because our opinions will count.

Maybe. - But time will tell. They will let us know if that.

So he wants different opinions from players in order to make a decision on this, or in order to find the best approach. We're willing to help. What I can do is to present my honest and sincere answer based on current experience and expectation for the future. What other undisclosed/unannounced reasons behind it (like the UI or programming issue you speculated) are beyond my grasp and thus I choose to disregard it.

[Hyrist]

Honestly, searching by first name only should be good enough to solve search issues, or you can even separate to search by first or last name if you wish.

But adding Surname into the mix was a nice addition to adding identity to the character and I would like to see it unchanged.

[KyanaSkye]

I feel like they should keep the length of the names you can use the same. However I've never been a fan of the last names, but of course some are big fans of them. I think they should simply make last names optional. This way everyone will be happy. Also, if someone wants just a first name they can take it. If someone else wants that first name as well, they have to have a last name so they can have the name too. Just my opinion~

[Sathie]

I don't like such long names, but at the same time I somewhat like last name. I also would like to just have an option to have one name.

[Dragon]

I feel like they should keep the length of the names you can use the same. However I've never been a fan of the last names, but of course some are big fans of them. I think they should simply make last names optional. This way everyone will be happy. Also, if someone wants just a first name they can take it. If someone else wants that first name as well, they have to have a last name so they can have the name too. Just my opinion~

Sure, make them optional. That's a fine middle road.

[Ruisu]

I like last names, they've help immerse me in the game more than anything else aside from the lore.

[Alcide]

I can't belive ppl are using tells and party invites as arguments... are you retarded or what?? Geez it's not like people are spelling their names, all you have to do is READ and TYPE, if you can't do that I highly suggest you to delete your char and go attend primary school.

I'm sorry but all the argument against surnames are just ridiculous, while they have so many pros: they add depth to the char, create connections betwen chars (i know many ppl with the same surnames that are either relatives or close friends) and obviously they make sure that everyone get to call themselves how they want.

Asking to get rid of surnames implies that A LOT of ppl currently playing will have to change their names into something that isn't their first choice and that just because some ppl were too lazy/dumb to deal with surnames... imho that's quite selfish.

[indira]

people want to lose the surname?
everyone already knows if they made it first name only there would be a crybaby post of why they had to change the name of there character and the ones who want to drop the surname will be the ones to post there mad about it.

I think the naming system is fine. Changing it will just create problems like when people got server merged/world transferred in FF11 and had to end up changing their name.

yup, and this time the all the "worlds" will be one big world

[OJtheLIONKing]

Sure, make them optional. That's a fine middle road.

They've taken a lot of middle road options even when they probably shouldn't have because of a vocal minority against anything that's not from FFXI. For instance, remember when everyone was complaining about levels and such being displayed on monster names? Yet I haven't run into a single person that has those turned off nowadays, it only confuses new people because some of the options are off by default.

This is a bigger case of that. This is a case where it's not really feasible to have one name or another, among other things it'd impact ingame communication and social lists. I say they should keep the last names, because not many MMOs have them, and without the last names you tend to get a lot of cookie cutter names with one letter changed. People can be more unique with this system.

[Fensfield]

They've taken a lot of middle road options even when they probably shouldn't have because of a vocal minority against anything that's not from FFXI. For instance, remember when everyone was complaining about levels and such being displayed on monster names? Yet I haven't run into a single person that has those turned off nowadays, it only confuses new people because some of the options are off by default.

This is a bigger case of that. This is a case where it's not really feasible to have one name or another, among other things it'd impact ingame communication and social lists. I say they should keep the last names, because not many MMOs have them, and without the last names you tend to get a lot of cookie cutter names with one letter changed. People can be more unique with this system.

Well, I keep level and aggression icons turned off, for my part, so here's one person and extremely glad the developers were willing to do so. I much prefer that stuff be limited to the targeting readout. And the reason why you haven't seen anyone who has them off.. well.. why would you? It's not like you see other people's UI's, and people don't tend to trumpet to the rooftops the fact that something isn't bothering them. People only tend to get vocal when something is annoying. Sure the people leave this stuff turned on are probably the majority to some extent, but god knows, I know a fair few don't among my friends.

Still, you make a valid point, in a way, but only with regard to stuff outside the UI - I think there should be as much support for people's preferences with regard to what parts of the default UI they use as possible, not least because those are much easier to accommodate than things linked into character motion, game systems, and the way the database works, but also because flexibility in those areas is just plain good game design. I know the enjoyability of my experience would be reduced had they not been so accommodating, and the first add-on I'd be hunting for come 2.0 would be one to cut out the elements I don't want on-screen.

That aside however, I agree in this case - although not quite for the same reasons.

I'm strongly in favour of keeping surnames. I like it simply for being able to have it, yes, but I am so, so glad of the game not only letting people have whatever forename they want, but also giving us the off-chance of meeting people chose similarly.

All those against it, I mean.. why? The only argument approaches valid that I've seen is one of convenience, and there are so many functions that make it unnecessary to ever type out a player's name more than once per session; thrice if you consider some of those functions to be less convenient than simply typing. And if it's a convenience issue with interface functionality, well, why not ask and suggest ways for that to be improved? It even goes a short way to discouraging names that use bizarre letter/number/punctuation patterns, though some still will for more deliberate reasons - even if others subsequently think they look weird for it. Meanwhile, if you force their removal, you deprive the people who enjoy those various advantages, and while I'd be alright with a middle ground.. how would you enable that?

The system as it is now enables people to share identical forenames or surnames as long as both are not exactly the same as another character's. The option to have a forename alone would mean at the very most, only one person could have a particular lone forename. It would also blunt the system's effectiveness when it comes to discouraging the habit of players using bizarre names like 'XxSephixX' and the like, which forename/surname being non-optional goes a fair distance toward averting. And that's setting aside the issue of rebuilding the game's database structure to support it, which would probably be a monumental task given I can't think of any game system that might not be in some way linked to our chosen names.

The only middle ground I can realistically imagine is giving people the ability to disable surnames being displayed on-screen at all times without hiding forenames, too. I'd be more than okay with that. Well, and perhaps further iteration on the convenience measures, like being able to create shortcut tags for your friends' names that could be used with /t and the like. Or, hell, even just developing and publicising a bit more the pages that describe those convenience measures, given how many of the people here obviously haven't read them.

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On another note, hi OJ. Thanks again for helping so much with the tropes page and all >.>