What is the general opinion on the change to character naming for D2R? Do you like it, dislike it, or feel indifferent?
If you are unaware, the decision was made to use a naming system where an infinite number of duplicate character names can exist. This is the way it works in D3 and I personally really disliked it when I played that game. The system made it feel like character names had no real purpose. This was partly because only the BattleTag name was displayed regardless of what character you were playing. It felt like an odd system to use for an ARPG style game where you spend many hours building and customizing individual characters.
I believe that having unique character names is (in its own weird way) a part of the D2 experience. Myself and just about everyone I ever played with seemed to enjoy choosing unique names for our characters. It gave characters more of an identity and helped them to stand out from one another. One example of this would be when I have recognized players that I knew from 10-15 years ago just by their character names alone. The system that is to be used in D2R may have some pros to it but I feel they still do not make it a preferable change.
I believe that most longtime D2 players are not going to like the inability to have unique character names. I am aware the developers did say that the decision was made due to everyone being on one server. Their concern was that it would be difficult to obtain the name you may want. However, character names no longer feel quite as desirable/purposeful when any number of players can copy your name. I would rather not get the exact name I want than to have it under the conditions where any other player can have it as well. Overall, the change to the naming system just feels like a bit too big of an alteration to the original game.
This shouldn’t really be too much of an issue unless you are just using straight up character names from popular geek culture like videogames or anime. In the 20 years I’ve used the different variations of my account name, I’ve never seen a duplicate. I’ve run across other “Tanis” names due to that portion of my online handle stemming from Dragonlance, but never the same combination.
However, if you name your character “Cloud Strife” or “Kurosaki Ichigo” or something to that degree, you’ll find those names by the truckload.
Tanis 4 Life! When it comes to Kender, I’m more of a fan of Nightshade. While I didn’t care for how they handled some portions of the story in The Dark Disciple trilogy, Rhys and Nightshade stuck with me. Actually named my monk in D3 RhysMason in tribute.
Omg i love the change, i hated that in old D2 so much. I could not use normal names for my chars usualy as they were all taken. It was crazy sometimes how many names was Already use.
Although the idea of having the only guy named bonemancer or faulty or elementalcase was appealing it stopped being appealing after the 00s when I could never get the names I wanted anymore.
I support this decision 100%. I think that any game that restricts name usage because someone in the world already uses the name is absurd and old school. I usually spend more than an hour in these games trying to find a suitable name and uninstall the game after I finally resign.
Hopefully anyone in the world can choose the same first name as mine. This was only implemented because it was the easiest way to make sure that you could whisper or send an mail to the proper player. I’m so glad that they found another way and I think all games should use a similar implementation.
I can see where this would be a problem, especially if you become wealthy or well known in pvp circles, someone might just make a char with your name and masquerade as you.
I was quite a good classic barb vs barb dueler back in the day and if this system was in place, the numerous people who tried to imitate me would have had a field day.
I think it’d be coolest if our character names are visible above our heads in game - and we could right click or hold the cursor over someone or something to see the unique battle tag.
I seriously hope it’s not our battletags running around in game - that is a terrible decision. Talk about immersion-breaking. But there could be a couple “Throg” barbarians, why not? That’s realistic. Then we could just find out each unique player ID if we wanted to.
But I really hope the battle tag isnt running around with our characters in game. That’d be just so lame.
Raistlin was the best even though he was a bit messed up
@ op even though the name you really wanted was always taken and obviously they had to do something like this I will still miss the old days of trying to grab your name on reset day.
I never did find out who it was used to steal my names whoever that was F UUUUUU
I hate the idea that my character names won’t be unique anymore, but with the merge of all regions and a much larger player base they probably didn’t have much of a choice.
If you aren’t simply smashing your head on the keyboard even in OG D2 it is hard to find a good name that isn’t already taken.
Also this will put an end to people hoarding good names and selling them off for horrendous prices.
