Cryptic solves stupid character names

In news I’m sure all but two of you will love, Cryptic may have found a way to forever rid MMOs of player avatar names such as Sephiroth339 and Vegeta123.

In the company’s latest “Ask Cryptic” column, the developers explain:

“Rejoice, the days of name-squatting are over! In ‘Champions Online,’ character names are unique to a single player’s account. Everyone can now be ‘Odysseus.’ Each account can only have one ‘Odysseus,’ though. If ‘Champions Online’ can’t figure out the precise character you’re referring to, you specify the player who owns the character. This is done by appending the player’s handle (also call an @name or public name) to it. For example, ‘Odysseus@poz,’ ‘Odysseus@Simmons,’ and ‘Odysseus@Homer.’”

Ok, so it’s not news related to free-to-play MMOs (our specialization here at MMOHub), but couldn’t other developers utilize this concept in existing and/or future products? Wouldn’t that be neato? If everyone started adopting this idea, we could finally be free from seeing someone walking around with a name from a popular anime or videogame followed by a series of completely random numbers, just so their MMO character could have Legolas somewhere in their name. Of course, this means if I DID see anyone like that traversing the virtual landscapes that my reaching into the Internet to slap them with their own hot pocket would totally be justified. Totally.

Posted by Kyle Stallock

May 1st, 2009

If you are a game developer or publisher and would like us to write about, review and update your games, then contact our editors. Please email: press@mmolife.org. and send us your latest press releases, game updates, images and videos.