Should Names Be Publicly Displayed?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Leviathan Alestorm, Oct 2, 2014.

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Should names be displayed publicly without you first telling them your name?

  1. Yes

    45.8%
  2. No

    54.2%
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  1. Leviathan Alestorm

    Leviathan Alestorm Avatar

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    To add to this, they already do this same function with NPC's and the game won't have a massive amount of people in one area as it isn't an "MMO" anyways.
     
  2. StrangerDiamond

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    They pulled the same excuse on me for so many subjects, this one was so irritating to me that I decided I wouldn't push it again... the fact that devs always seem to reply only to subjects which are easy only worsens my situation it feels complicit that they would let those excuses FLOAT(pun intended). In fact even with all the time I spent CARING about this game and wanting to give away my insights for free I don't even know yet who's the person responsible for scripting and coding. It's that bad... feels like noone here understand the ideas of the good friends I made on here as well ; whom are VERY articulate.

    Everything feels like a job, everyone thinks ah why do I have to work. Well if you don't like it FIND a JOB YOU LOVE ! It's supposed to be fun.

    "oh no we're going to have to get rid of this flaw and code a feature" OH NO...

    I'm just a garbled mess of self-censorship. I feel even my feedback is a skeleton without meat.
     
  3. Leviathan Alestorm

    Leviathan Alestorm Avatar

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    Coding is done already (NPCs), you don't need a 'huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge' database either. There is also no 'extreme' amount of network resources either (Again, it loads known NPC names individually for every single player in the world on every single hex)
     
  4. smack

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    I think it would be a fun option for some players to require others to ask them their name in some way.

    1) We already have this in-game with NPCs. The code and infrastructure is there that needs to be extended to players. We also already have Social lists that need to be maintained for friending, blocking, etc. We can only make assumptions on how much work this will be on the devs but the precedent has been set with NPCs.

    2) We already know exactly who the outlanders are simply by the fact that NPCs are type named. Merchant, Villager, Mercenary, Trader, etc. -- unless we inherit them too. Perhaps we can all be Villagers. But then again, this is such a non-issue because NPCs do not move (or jump even) and run around like players. Unless a player is walking around like a robotic NPC or just standing there you might not know....until their automatic /afk flag kicks in because NPCs don't go afk. And players don't bark text bubbles above their names like NPCs do.

    3) The name reveal mechanism should be simple and not have to get into complications with lying about your name. Although that would be a fun thing to try and do and perhaps affect virtue. Perhaps at the onset, if you have enabled "require players to ask my name" they have to right-click you and choose "Identify". You can agree with a yes/no click. Yeah, it's not as immersive but if you allow the free form chat box you get into complications about lying unless you force the real name despite whatever the person says in chat. So even if you say "Hi, I'm Lum", it will still reveal you as your real name.
     
  5. Trenyc

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    There's also the element of someone else telling other people your name. That's the part that's much harder to code. Sure, it's one thing if I say in a public channel, "Hello, Smack! My name is Trenyc!" then other people might hear that and know my name. But if, on the other hand, I generally make a strong effort to conceal my identity but happen to tell you, privately, what my name is, you should be able to tell others if you so desire (if our goal is greater facility for role playing). If you were to say quietly to another player, "See that mysterious figure with the wide hat across the way pandering all manner of wonderful wares? He rarely stays long in one place and so is known to few; he calls himself Trenyc," that other player should then know my name and be able to recognize me, right? But it would be very difficult or impossible to implement recognition of implicit references like "that mysterious figure with the wide hat across the way".
     
  6. Bodhbh Dearg

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    But you cannot do that for NPCs either... So I don't really see that as an issue...

    Another issue that would arise then is non-RPers, because they can tell everyone your name... So I think I would prefer only 1st person name resolution...

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
     
  7. Trenyc

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    What happens if you tell an NPC his or her own name when you haven't actually learned it from that NPC yet?
     
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  8. Bodhbh Dearg

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    Never tried...


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
     
  9. Trenyc

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    I've wondered before if they have any plans to use the name mechanic for NPCs in misleading ways, like an NPC lying about his or her name to try to trick you.
     
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  10. Bodhbh Dearg

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    Another option would be to automatically recognize when a player name is mentioned, and if he is within visual range, apply his name, unless the person using the name has "always show names" enabled...


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
     
  11. Borg

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    Anyone that played UO can remember how lagging is entering Luna if you have Show names activated, also in PVP deactivating Show names to reduce lag is a must.
    Anyway there is no sense about showing Unknown tag over people, you are assuming they will give there names when asked, but, what if they just don't want to?
    I can imagine people will try to exploit that in many ways.
     
  12. Bodhbh Dearg

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    Never noticed serious lag entering Luna with names on, and I played west-coast server from Europe!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
     
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  13. Borg

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    Define serious, lag is lag, and if you didn't notice any lag when running along vendor streets in Luna maybe you are the lucky one living next to the server, you have to think that not everybody has fast connections.
     
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  14. Biblik

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    I hate to chime in without reading all of the posts but from a gaming perspective this would be unbelievably awesome but from a technical perspective this would be very data intensive. Imagine that there are 5 million players, that means that each player could potentially have hundreds of thousands of records of whose name they know that has to be searched each time a new player enters the instance to determine whether they know the person. Imagine also that there are 100k users currently on, that would be millions and millions of read operations to support this.

    That being said it is an absolutely awesome idea. If you reduced it to something like each user can only know 200 people by name on sight it might be MUCH more managable.
     
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  15. adaamhimself

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    If this was made an option then I don't see a problem. Seeing a ton of players run around labelled "outlander" or "stranger" is just going to invite ridicule.
     
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  16. Borg

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    And what about harassment or exploit reporting?
    What a re you going to say in your report? I was harassed by Unknown?
     
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  17. Net

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    Maybe it would be best to not see any labels at all for unknown players and NPCs:)
     
  18. Net

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    That is good point. Maybe we cold get ID numbers for such purposes.
     
  19. adaamhimself

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    I'm not opposed to adding things like this for people who want a more immersive roleplay experience. That said I see no reason why everyone should be forced into it.
     
  20. Borg

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    I would rather prefer an option showing names only when you hover your mouse over a player or NPC.
    I really hate screen full of names, its not realistic at all.
     
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