Community Names

[Tim_Rocks]

I want a feature to be able to have a new tab in player on the RC for community names. I'm not a fan of the 'Graal######' (I'm sure you agree), so here is the issue.. When I'm looking for a player and their account name happens to be 'Graal######' it's inconvenient to have to search around for the player when all you know them by is their community name and even if you did know their 'Graal######' you still have to look through a long list of other 'Graal######'..

[cbk1994]

Down with community names!

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by cbk1994

Down with community names!

this

[Admins]

It's showing the community name in an updated (my) version of RC, not sure when we can provide that though.

[Door]

What exactly is the purpose of community names anyway? It seems like so many limitations implemented in Graal have no true benefits, or if there are any, they're vastly outweighed by the discouragement created, the negative aspects, and the inconvenience to both players and staff.

Stefan, I suggest you and unixmad just buy a "Business for Dummies" book and learn something.

[fowlplay4]

Originally Posted by Door

What exactly is the purpose of community names anyway? It seems like so many limitations implemented in Graal have no true benefits, or if there are any, they're vastly outweighed by the discouragement created, the negative aspects, and the inconvenience to both players and staff.

Stefan, I suggest you and unixmad just buy a "Business for Dummies" book and learn something.

u go girl!

[Admins]

The community names greatly simpify the account creation and player identifcation system. It makes it possible to have people without any account (guests), players with accounts identified by emails and creation of namesless (Graal#) accounts, and still provides compatibility with the guilds system and login for forums and wiki. It's the base for the guest system (login without subscribing) and is also important for the iphone players which are identified by device id instead of account name.

Please stay on topic and make suggestions for improving the community name support.

[cbk1994]

Originally Posted by Stefan

The community names greatly simpify the account creation and player identifcation system. It makes it possible to have people without any account (guests), players with accounts identified by emails and creation of namesless (Graal#) accounts, and still provides compatibility with the guilds system and login for forums and wiki. It's the base for the guest system (login without subscribing) and is also important for the iphone players which are identified by device id instead of account name.

Please stay on topic and make suggestions for improving the community name support.

There is absolutely no reasonable benefit that is derived from using community names. The only possible thing I can see is that community names make it so trials don't use it up all "good" account names. Hooray!

That small benefit doesn't even come close to making up for the inconveniences and frustrations they cause. Account names worked fine.

Listen to the players, the developers, even the global staff. None of them like community names. Maybe they're on to something.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by cbk1994

There is absolutely no reasonable benefit that is derived from using community names.

Perception is reality. The benefits are from an accounts management & administration side. There are problems with the way they're handled - it's difficult for staff. That's why Stefan is trying to accept suggestions, but he's not getting many here.

[Tigairius]

Originally Posted by cbk1994

There is absolutely no reasonable benefit that is derived from using community names. The only possible thing I can see is that community names make it so trials don't use it up all "good" account names. Hooray!

That small benefit doesn't even come close to making up for the inconveniences and frustrations they cause. Account names worked fine.

Listen to the players, the developers, even the global staff. None of them like community names. Maybe they're on to something.

Prior to community names, there was no way to rename an inappropriate account without simply deleting the account and that person losing all of their items on all the servers. That problem is solved now.

Prior to community names, good names were being taken by trials that were never used. Now that problem is solved.

There are two reasonable benefits right there, and the list goes on.

I am not going to debate community names with you. The problem was not with them implementing community names, the problem was them implementing community names without properly updating the tools used by administrators (for example, you have to add the communityname to server options, but to edit their rights you have to use their account name, which makes it confusing to add new staff), but that is being corrected over time.

If there is a problem (aside from just "get rid of community names"), then just report it and it can get fixed. Community names are not going away, and they shouldn't either. They add more flexibility to the accounts system.

Originally Posted by Stephen

Perception is reality. The benefits are from an accounts management & administration side. There are problems with the way they're handled - it's difficult for staff. That's why Stefan is trying to accept suggestions, but he's not getting many here.

Exactly.

[cbk1994]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Perception is reality. The benefits are from an accounts management & administration side. There are problems with the way they're handled - it's difficult for staff. That's why Stefan is trying to accept suggestions, but he's not getting many here.

This doesn't matter whatsoever. I don't give a damn how easy it is for them to manage accounts, and neither do players. Players want to be able to have their own unique account names, not some generic Graal#. They cause headaches for developers who are already pushed close to the edge by lack of updates, and they are an inconvenience to players as well.

Originally Posted by Tigairius

Prior to community names, there was no way to rename an inappropriate account without simply deleting the account and that person losing all of their items on all the servers. That problem is solved now.

So we should let a small minority ruin it for others? If they make an inappropriate account, ban/disable the account, and force them to make another. It's their own fault, and the other players need not be punished.

Prior to community names, good names were being taken by trials that were never used. Now that problem is solved.

There are other solutions to this, as well. For example, force trial accounts to use Graal######, but when they upgrade, they can change their account name. There could be a global event triggered on all servers when account name changes take place, and the stats could be transferred. Or you could go back to the old (better) trial system where stats are reset, force them to use a Graal######, and when they upgrade, they can create a new account. It's not even that big of a problem, most online services (e.g. Google) do it exactly the same way.

If there is a problem (aside from just "get rid of community names"), then just report it and it can get fixed. Community names are not going away, and they shouldn't either.

We've made tons of posts on the forums about the problems already.

• RC player list needs to show community names
• Commands like /open, /opencomments, etc do not accept community names (/openaccess does, though)
• Server options require community names, which is bad because community names can change.
• There are no proper scripting functions (getAccount(), getCommunityName()), just some unknown sendtext stuff

There are more as well, just go look at the threads.

They add more flexibility to the accounts system.

So?

[Door]

Originally Posted by Stefan

The community names greatly simpify the account creation and player identifcation system.It makes it possible to have people without any account (guests), players with accounts identified by emails and creation of namesless (Graal#) accounts, and still provides compatibility with the guilds system and login for forums and wiki. It's the base for the guest system (login without subscribing) and is also important for the iphone players which are identified by device id instead of account name.

I read: "It's easier for me, even though all players and (unpaid) staff complain about it."

Originally Posted by Stefan

Please stay on topic and make suggestions for improving the community name support.

I suggest you stop using this ridiculously inconvenient and impersonal system, at least for players who use a PC to play. It might be a little harder to keep up, but then perhaps you might actually be earning some of the money that players are paying. Stop trying to make things easier for yourself when this game is almost completely autonomous without you, yet you still profit from it.

[Tigairius]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Please stay on topic and make suggestions for improving the community name support.

The "/global communityname account" command was an excellent addition, but if you could add a command like '/getaccount' or even '/account' to greatly reduce the amount of typing involved, it would be very helpful

[Tim_Rocks]

Well the tools need to be updated and released, that's a must. Also another suggestion, when you look at some ones profile, it says the account name at the top corner, that should be updated as well. So I think it should read community name:, account name:, then nick.

[Admins]

Originally Posted by Tim_Rocks

Well the tools need to be updated and released, that's a must. Also another suggestion, when you look at some ones profile, it says the account name at the top corner, that should be updated as well. So I think it should read community name:, account name:, then nick.

I've updated the scripted profile for v6 to display the account name as well.

[cbk1994]

Originally Posted by Stefan

I've updated the scripted profile for v6 to display the account name as well.

Can we un-do this? Players shouldn't need to see the Graal### of anyone who has a community name. If there's a way to keep it for staff only, that would also be acceptable.

[DustyPorViva]

So there is a new version of RC? :o

[Hiro]

the problem i see is that now you are giving people two names per account to be recognized with instead of one. if you can either make half of it completely useless when actually on graal and work strictly for the creation process and the other work like classic accounts when actually on graal, it would remove the complexity

for example, why not use the graal# only for login purposes, and the community to work with everything else (including RC and such) to remove the use of the "graal#" completely. if it only helps administrators, let it only become a hassle for administrators as much as possible

[salesman]

Originally Posted by Hiro

the problem i see is that now you are giving people two names per account to be recognized with instead of one. if you can either make half of it completely useless when actually on graal and work strictly for the creation process and the other work like classic accounts when actually on graal, it would remove the complexity

for example, why not use the graal# only for login purposes, and the community to work with everything else (including RC and such) to remove the use of the "graal#" completely. if it only helps administrators, let it only become a hassle for administrators as much as possible

Community names can change

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by salesman

Community names can change

that could easily change

[DustyPorViva]

I have always gotten the feeling that the new system was to work like so:

Graal12345 accounts were supposed to be for system and data checking. A static and reliable value. This is something that should be completely behind the scenes. Players should never have to see them.

Community names are what players should be seeing. They are what players desire to see(their own picked names), and still reflect a somewhat-static representation of the player, even though they can be changed. However, if they changed, the data falls back on the graal12345 value, thus everything goes smoothly.

But like my last post says, it wasn't added in a seamless way and not much consideration was taken into account in how these changes clashed with the out-of-date client and tools.

[DustyPorViva]

Problem has always been that graal12345 accounts and community names have been poorly implemented. This pretty much falls back on the desire not to update things, and thus being stuck years after they have been implemented with tools and clients that weren't made with community names in mind.. If they were properly implemented, they could have been added and been working in the background and no one would have ever noticed.

[EclipsedAngel]

Why not just have guests having these crazy IDs and actual accounts just be regular? No one is going to remember Graal+a bunch of random numbers. That's completely unmemorable.

[Admins]

Actually people don't need to know their Graal# name for login, they can use the e-mail address.

[fowlplay4]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Actually people don't need to know their Graal# name for login, they can use the e-mail address.

It's more so for other people, your chance of remembering someone with a unique account name is much greater than remembering a Graal# account.

It's quite surprising how many recognize each other by account name.

[salesman]

Community names are a pain. As a scripter, the biggest problem I've run into is having to keep track of BOTH a player's account name AND their community name. For example, a guild system that displays a list of members will need to display community names because "Graal3453534, Graal345345, Graal345345" looks retarded.

What does this mean for me? My SQL table now has two columns, member_account, and member_cname. And my guild system is checking everytime a player logs on if their communityname has changed.

I've noticed that most servers have not bothered with this trouble and still use the account name for everything -- even simple chat commands (":kick account"). This is why player's hate community names. They're difficult for developers to work with, and in return, even more difficult for the players. A guild leader is not going to remember who "Graal542342" is and whether or not he needs to kick him. Logical solution in the guild leader's eyes? Don't recruit Graal# account noobs.

K.I.S.S. -- You're making it way too complicated for everyone with this stupid system.

[Crono]

Stop accepting registrations with Graal#### and open up the old system again is wut I suggest. Trial accounts that are unused after a certain period of time could be deleted to solve the "TRIALS R STEALIN OUR NICKS" problem which isn't really a problem anyway but ok O_O.

[cbk1994]

Originally Posted by Crono

Stop accepting registrations with Graal#### and open up the old system again is wut I suggest. Trial accounts that are unused after a certain period of time could be deleted to solve the "TRIALS R STEALIN OUR NICKS" problem which isn't really a problem anyway but ok O_O.

It's not really possible to delete an account, it would still leave things behind on servers; imagine registering an account, and even upgrading, only to log on a different server and find you already are known by reputation, and perhaps are even in jail/have a jail log.

Besides that, servers like Zodiac (and eventually Era) would keep the items even if the account is traditionally reset.

I just don't think it's a big enough problem to worry about. The major problem with community names is just the lack of scripting support.

[Crono]

better than graal40598305893459 mate u_u

[Rufus]

Client bugs that are players are exposed to:

• If I'm on a server and viewing people on the other servers through the playerlist, both the tooltips and the profiles will display Graal# instead of the community name.
• If I get a PM from someone who isn't on my server, again it will show their Graal# instead of their community name.

Unless I'm forgetting something, these bugs are the only things that expose the Graal# accounts in the Graal client itself. Everything else I've experienced seems to have to do with the local scripting. Not even going to argue about the concept itself though, it's just not executed well at all and everyone knows it.

[WaDaFack]

Usually when I signup for a game,
I spend hours trying to think of a name,
Man, all that went to shame
I guess this game is getting lame!

Im #1 rapper.

[CremisiSteam]

I was wandering.

Graal###### accounts have a unique ID.
Other Graal Accounts had the chosen id.
As for the community name. Can it be the same as someone else community name? (If so than there would be no need for account names such as sephiroth123 because someone already got sephiroth as an account name.)

I actually wish there was a website out there that listed all anime / manga / popular game character names that companies could look up and REFUSE ANY AND ALL STUPID PEOPLE REQUESTING TO USE SOME FORM OF SOME POPULAR IMAGINARY CHARACTER for an account/user name.

You all have real names. Do you really need to copy some video game character/anime character/manga character?

[xXziroXx]

Originally Posted by CremisiSteam

You all have real names. Do you really need to copy some video game character/anime character/manga character?

Dude, shut up, I'm OneWingedAngel666 4lyfe.

[Liberated]

Originally Posted by CremisiSteam

You all have real names. Do you really need to copy some video game character/anime character/manga character?

yes,
1)It's cooler.
2) It protects our identity better then using our real name.

Me, i don't use anime character names tho, i make up my own. Even cooler

[Demisis_P2P]

Originally Posted by CremisiSteam

You all have real names. Do you really need to copy some video game character/anime character/manga character?

I wouldn't be going around spouting this nonsense with a terrible first name like Cremisi.
I bet I know what your parents got at the baby shower.

[Door]

DBZ accounts are where it's at, you. SaiyanPrincess89

[Engine]

Originally Posted by Door

DBZ accounts are where it's at, you. SaiyanPrincess89

Pokemon is better ;[ pikasaurus

[CremisiSteam]

But its not cooler. Its actually stupid.

If one person got Sephiroth than fine its your fault for not trying to get it beforehand.
We do not need omgiamrealSEPHIROTH1923i924u193u51 Just because you have to have sephiroth in your name

[DustyPorViva]

Originally Posted by CremisiSteam

But its not cooler. Its actually stupid.

If one person got Sephiroth than fine its your fault for not trying to get it beforehand.
We do not need omgiamrealSEPHIROTH1923i924u193u51 Just because you have to have sephiroth in your name

Why does it seriously matter to you, in even the slightest amount?

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by CremisiSteam

But its not cooler. Its actually stupid.

If one person got Sephiroth than fine its your fault for not trying to get it beforehand.
We do not need omgiamrealSEPHIROTH1923i924u193u51 Just because you have to have sephiroth in your name

get your selfishness out of this thread, you opinion has no weight to it at all and hardly adds anything to this conversation