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How would a forced name change due to Crossplay affect you?

SilverBride
SilverBride
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With the talk of Crossplay, which brings the issue of how to deal with duplicate names, how would it affect you to have to change your account or characters' names?
Edited by SilverBride on August 28, 2025 1:40AM
PCNA

How would a forced name change due to Crossplay affect you? 230 votes

It would not bother me at all.
19% 44 votes
I wouldn't like it but it would be a minor issue for me.
23% 55 votes
I would be upset enough to stop supporting the game by dropping plus or no longer buy crowns.
6% 14 votes
I would be pretty upset and would strongly consider whether to keep playing.
25% 59 votes
It would be a deal breaker for me and I would move on.
16% 39 votes
Other - Because it's impossible to list every possibility
8% 19 votes
  • YandereGirlfriend
    YandereGirlfriend
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    It's not a huge deal.

    Others in related threads have already mentioned that most other games solve it with a platform icon after their name, which automatically solves the issue of duplicate names.

    I don't really care if I have a PC icon or whatever after my name nor if I ever met the XBox version of my name.
  • FabresFour
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    Honestly? Having the ability to expand my circle of friends is much more important to me than the names of my characters. Look: I love them, and the names i gave to them, but having more people to meet? Phew. Amazing! :D
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  • ESO_player123
    ESO_player123
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    If an icon is placed next to my character name that is fine. However, I do not want to completely change my character's name because there is a duplication.
  • fizzybeef
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    I dont understand how you seriously want to start that discussion.

    Other games with crossplay have a little pc / xbox / ps icon next to the name.
    None of your names will be affected.
    Just trying to find issues where there are no issues.
  • tomofhyrule
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    I put months into planning my characters, including their names. If ESO forced me to change all of my characters’ names, that would basically be a dealbreaker for me.

    The best solution would be for them to first divorce character names from any of the internal code to allow multiple players to use the same names, and then nobody would have a problem. Any whispers or mails could go through account name instead, and then who cares if we have 15 “Geralt of Winterhold”s running around if each has a different account behind it.
  • MISTFORMBZZZ
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    Wouldnt bother me but also wouldnt happen because of icons.
    Im convinced thats the least issue to consider by zos side about the crossplay topic.

    PS EU
  • amiiegee
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    The poll with 3 „negative“ options, one neutral and only two positive ones is not really neutral.

    Im sure people will agree your concerns but i would recommend to have some trust into Zos, they will be aware of the Name thematic and sort that propperly.
    I doubt any names will be harmed
  • ESO_player123
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    amiiegee wrote: »
    The poll with 3 „negative“ options, one neutral and only two positive ones is not really neutral.

    Im sure people will agree your concerns but i would recommend to have some trust into Zos, they will be aware of the Name thematic and sort that propperly.
    I doubt any names will be harmed

    @amiiegee Just out of curiosity, which options would you include in such poll?
    Edited by ESO_player123 on August 27, 2025 8:32PM
  • amiiegee
    amiiegee
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    amiiegee wrote: »
    The poll with 3 „negative“ options, one neutral and only two positive ones is not really neutral.

    Im sure people will agree your concerns but i would recommend to have some trust into Zos, they will be aware of the Name thematic and sort that propperly.
    I doubt any names will be harmed

    @amiiegee Just out of curiosity, which options would you include in such poll?

    Just do two forward it, two against it and one neutral.

    Instead of adding as many as possible options with a certain tone, to find people agreeing on the own position.

  • SilverBride
    SilverBride
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    This is why I included Other - Because it's impossible to list every possibility.

    I am not sure what other positive I could have added. Either players wouild not be bothered or it would only be a mnior issue.

    And I purposely made this annonymous and did not make any statements about my own view in the description so as to not influence others' responses. I wanted players true feelings.
    Edited by SilverBride on August 28, 2025 1:43AM
    PCNA
  • amiiegee
    amiiegee
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    The whole tone of this poll is negative, terms like being forced and then having so many negative options implies something bad could happen and people are gonna vote that they dont like that.

    Its fine, its your poll.

    I just dont find it neutral and as said in the other thread i think its way to early to worry about anything like that, because we know nothing.
  • SilverBride
    SilverBride
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    I made it as neutral as I knew how. And any name change would be forced, not by choice.

    But I appreciate players indicating how they feel about it.
    Edited by SilverBride on August 27, 2025 9:01PM
    PCNA
  • colossalvoids
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    Crossplay would bother me for the whole other reason as pceu player. Having name#123 isn't an issue really if not a character but an account name, as most games do it.
  • amiiegee
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    Just a suggestion to not add only one true positive and three dramaticly ones negative and maybe formulate out that nobody said anywone would force someone to anything for the next time.

    I participated it anway and then now we will see what happens
  • ESO_player123
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    amiiegee wrote: »
    Just a suggestion to not add only one true positive and three dramaticly ones negative and maybe formulate out that nobody said anywone would force someone to anything for the next time.

    I participated it anway and then now we will see what happens

    I'd just wanted to point out that the only issue with names would be if ZoS forced name changes. Hence the poll for that particular theoretical situation. If we were guaranteed that name changes would not happen, then there would be no need to speculate. Since we do not have any information, it's understandable that people might get concerned. After all, we see all sorts of speculations and concerns about crossplay (duplicate names is just one of them).
  • SilverBride
    SilverBride
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    I posted the poll as I saw the issue, and I find using "forced" to be appropriate for what could happen in this situation.
    PCNA
  • Danikat
    Danikat
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    It's nice that people trust ESO would copy newer games and just put a symbol next to the character's name, but a lot of things in the game are modelled on older MMOs from the days when a server merge meant they set some rule for who got to keep the name (like the oldest character or most played) and any others were greeted with a forced name change when they next logged in.

    Until ZOS tell us how it's going to work I wouldn't assume any solution is obvious or guarenteed.

    Even if another solution is possible all it needs is for the person making the decision to be the kind of person who thinks character names don't matter and surely no one would care so they don't allow any time to develop a solution.
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  • Elvenheart
    Elvenheart
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    I found the poll accurate as to what could possibly happen based on the way things have been handled in the past, such as account wide achievements, and really balanced pretty well, especially thanks to the last option.

    Of course, everyone hopes it’s a non-issue and will be handled differently, but theoretically in the event that I might have to change one or more of my characters’ names, I would be very upset and I would consider not playing because character names are an intricate part of my characters’ identities, much more so than what skills they currently have in case I decide to take advantage of Subclassing and switch something around. That would be my same character just learning new skills, but if I had to change their name that would do away with something that is at the core of who the character is to me.

    In the real world, we sometimes switch professions and have to learn new skills, and then we might get rusty in our older skills unless we relearn them, but we don’t usually have to change our names, so I apply that to my gaming characters as well.

    This is all just my opinion, of course, and I know a lot of people feel differently.
    Edited by Elvenheart on August 27, 2025 9:48PM
  • ApoAlaia
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    I have a few characters with SFW 'pun' names that amuse me and it would be a bummer to have to change them but it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.
  • Tandor
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    It rather depends on what the crossplay mechanics are. If those who want to play with others from a different platform do so on a new server or instance then it wouldn't be of any relevance to me as I wouldn't be participating. However, if players want to come to an existing server from a different platform then if there's a name clash they're the ones that need to change their character or account names as they're the ones making the move that results in the clash.

    We should never under-estimate the importance of character names to some players, they may have had those names in this game for over 10 years and in many other games throughout their gaming years with carefully written and evolved biographies.
    Edited by Tandor on August 27, 2025 9:46PM
  • LunaFlora
    LunaFlora
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    Other as i doubt we would be forced to change our character names.

    it is likelier that we would just get a platform tag.

    edited to add:
    hypothetically if forced name change did happen, i would be upset.

    But i would not leave the game or stop supporting it as i want Crossplay.
    Honestly would be more surprised than upset if people even have characters with the same names as mine.
    Edited by LunaFlora on August 27, 2025 10:17PM
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  • Soarora
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    I doubt I'd be forced to change anything in this situation, but if I did then I'd just add special characters like I had to do for one of my characters cause the name was taken, give characters who lack a last name a last name, etc.
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  • licenturion
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    Don't care.

    Account names can be _PC / _XBOX and _PS, icons or they can add a number like other games do Name#1253

    The poll choices are a bit biased though. Most are negative, more negative or extreme negative.
    Edited by licenturion on August 27, 2025 10:15PM
  • SilverBride
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    No, the choices aren't biased. They are a progressive "It would not bother me at all" to "It would be a deal breaker for me and I would move on" with an "Other" option for those that felt none of the choices were appropriate for how they felt about it.

    There are multiple degrees of how much something may bother a player, from minor to extreme. But if a player is not bothered by something there are no degrees of how not bothered they are.
    Edited by SilverBride on August 28, 2025 2:22AM
    PCNA
  • AcadianPaladin
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    Duplicate player names would have to be addressed - adding a platform symbol would be fine.

    Duplicate character names should be 'who cares?' If my character has the same name as some other character, who cares - as long as the player name is different. Think of the character name as a first name and the player name as a last name.
    PC NA(no Steam), PvE, mostly solo
  • JemadarofCaerSalis
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    For me, two of the names I use for my characters are really personal to me, and if mine were changed, it would be upsetting to me, especially since, in all the years I have been using them online (like 20), I have only come across one place where they were already in use, and that was a pet site, and each pet had to have unique names. It was also without the 'Of Caer Salis' part of the name.

    Now, if there are other people with the name? I don't care. I just wouldn't want MY instance of the name changed because someone else was using it.
  • coop500
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    Most of my characters have very unique names that doesn't really exist so I will likely just fill it back in and be good.
    Hoping for more playable races
  • Unholy_Holywarrior
    i dont see why a characters name must be unique, what is unique to your account is your @accountname, so a chars name in a lines of code should read charactername@accountname already. i think it was stupid to have such restrictions artificially in the first place. other mmorpgs, like star trek online, have no such restrictions...
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  • BretonMage
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    It would really bother me to have to see a "PC" at the end of my name, as it would be a constant visual reminder that our characters are just a bunch of code in a computer.

    If we do go the route of tags, I would need an option to turn it off in the UI.

    However I honestly don't see the issue of duplicate character names. IRL there are thousands to millions of people who share our names, why do we have to have a unique name in-game?
    Edited by BretonMage on August 27, 2025 10:54PM
  • NoSoup
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    I doubt crossplay will ever become a thing in the first place, so the debate is probably moot. But if it ever does eventuate, then it probably needs to be done on an opt in basis. So if PS or Xbox want to opt in on the PC servers they have to make a physical choice, once opt'd in you are on crossplay forever. If the person opting in has duplicate names, they're the ones that have to change their names to complete the merge.
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