Give me an option to hide my @name

Kildayen · May 2016

Have you seen some of the ridiculous names that are allowed in this game right now? Do you really think ZOS is worried about your immersion?

Kaibeth · May 2016

My characters are "Kaibeth, Dra'Kaibeth, Kai'beth, and Kaibeth the Wanderer." My username is @Kaibeth, I'm pretty sure my @username isn't a big deal to me for others to know. I just hate looking at the new system. I'd prefer the option to only see character name. I don't understand the need to force me to see account names.

What was said earlier? It "ruins my immersion?" Something like that.

Tavore1138 · May 2016

my @name could possibly have lead to other online identities that I would not want to be easily open to the kind of asinine muppet who troll whispers me in PvP - ZOS were very quick when I asked for a change some time ago via a support ticket.

I would recommend that other people in the same situation do the same.

The ID was never secret BUT neither did you wander around Tamriel with it on a big placard either...

Troneon · May 2016

AdmiralSam wrote: »

When I heard nameplates were a thing, I thought I could customize what showed up above people's heads when I targeted

Wollust wrote: »

I still don't understand your issue. If you feel embarrassed because of your @name you might as well ask the support to change it for you. Other than that I don't see a reason why you would even care if someone knows or not. It is kinda to be expected in an MMO that your account name will be visible in some form.

No, it is expected that your character name will be visible. I'm not ashamed of my @name, I just don't want people to know. It's a privacy issue.

When I heard nameplates were a thing, I thought people could customize what showed up above their heads when others targeted them. Like CP, title, guild etc... BUT NOOOOOO. That's not what name-plates are at all

That is what was possible in games 10+ years ago and ZOS can't even get this right....

Nameplates with no options is stupid. I agree with you that it should be a choice and we should have options, iv played games that had this that are 10 years old...

ZOS and ESO is getting pretty pathetic.

Troneon · May 2016

Dred76 wrote: »

The OP is correct.

I have never played an MMO that used a system like this. Not only is it half my login info which is a security issue. It's confusing as there's no way to know the character name of the people in chat untill they are friended.

Why not just use character names in chat? There is no change in how the chat, economy or forums work and an increase in both account security and ease of player to player identification/interaction.

I see no justifiable reason for other players to know my login user name. It serves no in game purpose in that isnt covered better by use of character names. Even if a character used in some scandalous fashion is deleted, there is still a log of the character/account action.

Exactly...but that would be too much common sense for ZOS...

bareheiny · May 2016

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

I feel sorry for the console player's with really stupid player name's.

Mate, we've been dealing with it since ESO launched on consoles.

Nowdays I don't even look twice when I see "XxxCOD_BeastSnip3r87xxX" running around Tamriel.

Tandor · June 2016

Has anyone managed to find a reason given by ZOS for making this change? I simply don't understand why they've done it.

MornaBaine · June 2016

This is one of those things that helps keep people accountable. If you're acting like a jerk to someone on one character, you can't just switch to another and have that person now not know who you are. Hopefully it makes people think about their behavior.

cazlonb16_ESO · June 2016

KriHavok wrote: »

This is correct. Your @name was also shown in Guild Rosters and in Guild Stores, so if you were a high rank in a guild or had a very expensive list of items available on a guild store, you may make an account infiltrator curious. Yet people didn't complain about that before, and they shouldn't really complain about it now either...

We actually DID complain about this since beta. ZOS completely ignored all the threads though, so it died down eventually.

Still waiting for a convincing reason why the user id should be visible to other players at all. ( edit: referring to PC, on consoles it's a different story )

KriHavok · June 2016

cazlonb16_ESO wrote: »

KriHavok wrote: »

This is correct. Your @name was also shown in Guild Rosters and in Guild Stores, so if you were a high rank in a guild or had a very expensive list of items available on a guild store, you may make an account infiltrator curious. Yet people didn't complain about that before, and they shouldn't really complain about it now either...

We actually DID complain about this since beta. ZOS completely ignored all the threads though, so it died down eventually.

Still waiting for a convincing reason why the user id should be visible to other players at all. ( edit: referring to PC, on consoles it's a different story )

Well I actually agree with the point @MornaBaine made, it can act as a behaviour control. Plus, if ZOS ever gets sent video evidence of misconduct (i.e. Cheating), they can act quicker without having to investigate whose character it is.

Furthermore, I don't understand why there's mistrust with ZOS over account protection, because I'm sure they were aware of the decision they made to implement this and they wouldn't do it blind of account infiltration.

Enodoc · June 2016

For anybody complaining about a security issue, that's your problem, not ZOS's. It clearly says on account creation that it is a public name:

Choose a UserID for your account. Your UserID is a nickname that will be displayed to others on the The Elder Scrolls® Online: Tamriel Unlimited™ forums and in-game.

InvitationNotFound · June 2016

Enodoc wrote: »

For anybody complaining about a security issue, that's your problem, not ZOS's. It clearly says on account creation that it is a public name:

Choose a UserID for your account. Your UserID is a nickname that will be displayed to others on the The Elder Scrolls® Online: Tamriel Unlimited™ forums and in-game.

thanks for your comment.

you might mix up different things here. a stupid account name has nothing to do with security.

showing account names isn't considered good practice anywhere at all and shouldn't be done.

furthermore, if accounts get locked / hacked / whatever because of a stupid naming policy it is ZOS problem as they will have additional work to sort this all out.

Coming up with fancy definitions in ToS (or similar documents - yes, you forgot the reference to the quoted text) and "pass responsibility" to you doesn't mean it isn't a problem because it is your problem now.

Of course, this was already an issue before displaying the @name above your head. An issue which could have easily solved in advantage by including something like a last name, which of course isn't the same as the account name. people would only see your last name (e.g. only if opted-in or vice versa) and not your account name. and this consequently throughout the whole game: chat, friend list and so forth.

And btw. if you consider the security of your customer irrelevant just because you made some fancy statements you did something wrong. justifying such things is almost worse, especially as a customer... *sighs*

Elsonso · June 2016

SteveCampsOut wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

SteveCampsOut wrote: »

Wollust wrote: »

What does it matter?
No one can do something with your @name. Your account is as secure as before the change.

I'll tell you why it matters! I'm sure I'm not the only one who has accidentally cut and pasted their password to zone chat before and I'm sure I won't be the last. With @Names now so easily seen it would only take someone a second to snag my account if it happens again.

I would be pretty surprised if this was a widespread thing. Why would you be pasting your account password? I don't care whether your @name is visible or not. If you paste your password to zone chat, you drop everything and change it. Now.

Also, they would still need access to your email.

I have dropped everything and changed my password when I've done it and no they don't need an email password when you change your password it just changes and send you a notification that it has been changed. As for why I paste my password, it's simply faster to paste it than type it in manually because it's long, complicated and I have arthritis! Doesn't really matter why in any case does it?

Actually, it does matter. What is the point of having a long and complicated password if you are going to accidentally tell everyone by pasting? That is a zillion times more alarming to me than seeing @names. If you use your paste buffer to hold your password, you should be using a password manager that clears the paste buffer after a few seconds, and you should verify that it does that. Nowhere on this planet is your username even close to being more secret than your password. Don't depend on secret usernames to keep you safe. Your account security starts with assuming everyone knows your username.

Tandor wrote: »

Has anyone managed to find a reason given by ZOS for making this change? I simply don't understand why they've done it.

On the console, players are known and reported by PSN and Gamer tags. There are no character names displayed there. This change blends the console and PC world into a single behavior by showing both. I am sure the console will do the same when released there.

As for seeing both, I run a PC addon that uses the preference setting to display one or the other when viewing the world. The target frame does not display @name unless a guild member and the interact menu shows the preference. Not a perfect addon, but I don't want to see account names, either. More Target Information, and others, can do this. Look around.

Duiwel · June 2016

ITT OP is afraid of Big Brother Abnur Tharn knowing his @ name...

If you have people whisper you, mail you, inv you to guilds they have seen it before what's the big deal mate?

It's not your email address...

I have nothing to hide, hell mine has been in my sig since I signed up for the forums ppl can't use it for anything

InvitationNotFound · June 2016

Duiwel wrote: »

II have nothing to hide, hell mine has been in my sig since I signed up for the forums ppl can't use it for anything

*sighs* one of those. i actually don't want to discuss this "i have nothing to hide" **** but it is generally used by people without the slightest knowledge about what they are talking about (or have their own agenda).

just because you do something and can't see a problem with it doesn't mean there isn't one. it simply means you don't care or don't know any better (mostly a combination of both in this case).

and yes, these names where visible before if you wanted to see them. and that's the main problem. there would have been other solutions.

Enodoc · June 2016

InvitationNotFound wrote: »

Enodoc wrote: »

For anybody complaining about a security issue, that's your problem, not ZOS's. It clearly says on account creation that it is a public name:

Choose a UserID for your account. Your UserID is a nickname that will be displayed to others on the The Elder Scrolls® Online: Tamriel Unlimited™ forums and in-game.

thanks for your comment.

you might mix up different things here. a stupid account name has nothing to do with security.

showing account names isn't considered good practice anywhere at all and shouldn't be done.

furthermore, if accounts get locked / hacked / whatever because of a stupid naming policy it is ZOS problem as they will have additional work to sort this all out.

Coming up with fancy definitions in ToS (or similar documents - yes, you forgot the reference to the quoted text) and "pass responsibility" to you doesn't mean it isn't a problem because it is your problem now.

Of course, this was already an issue before displaying the @name above your head. An issue which could have easily solved in advantage by including something like a last name, which of course isn't the same as the account name. people would only see your last name (e.g. only if opted-in or vice versa) and not your account name. and this consequently throughout the whole game: chat, friend list and so forth.

And btw. if you consider the security of your customer irrelevant just because you made some fancy statements you did something wrong. justifying such things is almost worse, especially as a customer... *sighs*

Sure, a stupid account name has nothing to do with security, but some people are claiming that ZOS has just given out half of their private login details - and this isn't true. The UserID is not private, and I provided a quote which specifically states that it isn't. (The source, as mentioned, is the account creation screen.) I'm not disagreeing that maybe they shouldn't be giving out half of your login details, I'm simply saying that this half of the login is stated to be public.

Many places, including these forums and many other community sites, have a two-piece login - one is your Account name, which is displayed publicly next to your activity on whatever that site may be, and the other is your password, which is private. Maybe that is a bad system, and maybe your entire login should be private. But when they directly state that part of it isn't, you can't complain when that part is displayed.

ThisOnePosts · June 2016

I don't care that it's able to be seen.. however I'd like to not see everyone else's. It's cluttered now. BTW, people could easily get your @ name previously. I am not going to go into detail as there's no point, but it's as simple as blocking someone.. literally.

HOWEVER, it's annoying to look at as I stated above. I'm not sure WHY that was even added, the names looked better how they were previously and a lot more neat.

Rev Rielle · June 2016

Tandor wrote: »

Has anyone managed to find a reason given by ZOS for making this change? I simply don't understand why they've done it.

No idea. It add nothing to the game, except clogging up our screen more. Ironically that is something ZoS say they're against. Their PR has become so farcical it's beyond a bad joke.

idk · June 2016

Unless OP is on zero guilds and has no one on their friends list this is a POINTLESS thread. Our @ names are already know. By as many as 2.6k players as its used for our guild membership and friends list.

Zos has zero reason to head this. At best Zos should only consider letting players change their login ID for the game.

InvitationNotFound · June 2016

Enodoc wrote: »

Sure, a stupid account name has nothing to do with security, but some people are claiming that ZOS has just given out half of their private login details - and this isn't true. The UserID is not private, and I provided a quote which specifically states that it isn't. (The source, as mentioned, is the account creation screen.) I'm not disagreeing that maybe they shouldn't be giving out half of your login details, I'm simply saying that this half of the login is stated to be public.

Many places, including these forums and many other community sites, have a two-piece login - one is your Account name, which is displayed publicly next to your activity on whatever that site may be, and the other is your password, which is private. Maybe that is a bad system, and maybe your entire login should be private. But when they directly state that part of it isn't, you can't complain when that part is displayed.

thanks for the link.

user names are sensitive as they are used to log in, giving this data away is stupid. just by saying "hey, it is public" doesn't mean it is okay or not an issue at all just because you said it is public.

I agree on the second paragraph. many forums work like that. besides i see a forum less critical than other applications, i feel the same way there, it's a bad design choice from a security standpoint. if we're looking at web applications right now: user enumeration is considered as a vulnerability ( https://owasp.org/index.php/Testing_for_User_Enumeration_and_Guessable_User_Account_(OWASP-AT-002) ) so providing such details can't be considered a good idea. same applies to your game account (guess what... same credentials work on the eso web site as well, just to stick with web apps).

Declaring something as public which shouldn't be only shows how bad at security you are (@ZOS).

edit: link got messed up

InvitationNotFound · June 2016

ViciousWayz wrote: »

I am not going to go into detail as there's no point, but it's as simple as blocking someone.. literally.

*applaud* good one.

Elsonso · June 2016

Enodoc wrote: »

Many places, including these forums and many other community sites, have a two-piece login - one is your Account name, which is displayed publicly next to your activity on whatever that site may be, and the other is your password, which is private. Maybe that is a bad system, and maybe your entire login should be private. But when they directly state that part of it isn't, you can't complain when that part is displayed.

What ZOS could have done on PC/Mac is allowed each account to have a Display Name that was different than the name used to log into the game. They can still do this, as there is a valid and important reason to keep the player name information available. A lot of what we do in the game is at the account level, not the character level.

InvitationNotFound wrote: »

showing account names isn't considered good practice anywhere at all and shouldn't be done.

Actually, it is quite common and is routine, normal, and expected practice all over the place. Many places on the internet don't even bother to hide account names, and when they do it is frequently not for security but for "personalization" or to hide an email address that is used for an account name. It is this personalization that I think ESO PC/Mac needs, but I can certainly understand if they don't do it. It actually matters more to ZOS than it does to the player.

ZOS seems more than secure enough with how they handle security with ESO. The visibility of your ESO account name should be the least of your security concerns.

Lokov · June 2016

AdmiralSam wrote: »

I don't like people knowing it. I see no reason why that should be public. It is half of my log-in info, after all. It's bad enough that guildmates can see it, but now everyone?

Agree. Its most stupid ZOS idea after champion system.

waterfairy · June 2016

I don't understand ZOS, clearly nobody wants this yet they decided to implement it anyway...why?

The majority of people don't want to see our ID or gamertags above our character, only character names and title. Listen to the players instead of force feeding us things that don't serve any purpose other then annoying people.

Dubhliam · June 2016

AdmiralSam wrote: »

I don't like people knowing it. I see no reason why that should be public. It is half of my log-in info, after all. It's bad enough that guildmates can see it, but now everyone?

I don't agree with that.

If you don't cheat, or grief people in any way, you have nothing to be so worried about.

Honest players have no reason to hide their account name.
I don't count the "fear of account hacking" a valid reason, since people that want to hack you, had means to get your account name even before this update (if they really wanted to hack you).
Besides, how many people you know of got hacked?
If hacking was a problem, we would already know of it.

Dubhliam · June 2016

My point being:

Players should not be able to hide THEIR @name, but they should be able to hide OTHER PEOPLE's @name, if they don't want to see it.

Meaning everybody's @name is public.

Betheny · June 2016

Abeille wrote: »

If someone has/knows an addon that hides other people's @names, please speak up.

@Abeille - I found an addon for the target frame that will hide account names - RP Target Frame

Daraugh · June 2016

Betheny wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

If someone has/knows an addon that hides other people's @names, please speak up.

@Abeille - I found an addon for the target frame that will hide account names - RP Target Frame

I just installed that addon, it's awesome!

waterfairy · June 2016

Dubhliam wrote: »

My point being:

Players should not be able to hide THEIR @name, but they should be able to hide OTHER PEOPLE's @name, if they don't want to see it.

Meaning everybody's @name is public.

Why? You can't have the same character name as someone else so if this is to recognize/report people then character names are tied to accounts so no need for a "Hello my name is" sticker above our heads.

KochDerDamonen · June 2016

MornaBaine wrote: »

This is one of those things that helps keep people accountable. If you're acting like a jerk to someone on one character, you can't just switch to another and have that person now not know who you are. Hopefully it makes people think about their behavior.

This in particular makes me laugh. If one really perturbed another to the degree that they would still be upset with the player later whilst they're playing another character, there's already an ignore feature for this. The 'accountability' you're referring to now opens the door for the sort of person that would rather retaliate and harass over being offended rather than peacefully block and move on. Pleasant.

I like being KochDerDamonen to my guildmates and old friends, they call me Koch. I do not wish to be [@KochDerDamonen] Candied-Posterior ✴455 to every person I walk by, nor do I want to see [PoonMaster69] SadCAUSEbad ✴3600 instead of just the name.