Issues adding friends

[Phasma Felis]

Has anyone else had trouble adding friends by account name? I'm trying to get some friends on a forum together, but it always says "user does not exist" when I type in an account name, even if I know it's right. Entering the email seems to work, but most people don't want to give out their email on a public forum...

[Karl]

what is it that you're calling "account name"?

Account ID's look like:
703eca69-65a8-43ef-ba22-3349713b5f58

adding friends by account id's seems to work fine.

[Phasma Felis]

Ah, sorry--we all assumed it worked by nickname, since you have to enter a nick when you create an account, and (IIRC) you never even see your account ID unless you go into your account info, which there's usually no reason to do.

Thanks for the help! It might be good to mention that somewhere, it's a bit confusing.

[nesnl]

I think it's confusing because people think that they are going to be able to type a player's user name into the Account ID box and send them a friend request. I think that this would be a cool feature but obviously would require you guys to implement unique user names.

[Karl]

we had unique Usernames/AccountNames once and the general consensus is they suck

1. you never remember your account name
2. if your email changes you will never update it
3. now when you create your account you have to enter an AccountName, and email
4. people like to change their name (nickname) for clan tags etc.

[nesnl]

Originally Posted by Karl

we had unique Usernames/AccountNames once and the general consensus is they suck

1. you never remember your account name
2. if your email changes you will never update it
3. now when you create your account you have to enter an AccountName, and email
4. people like to change their name (nickname) for clan tags etc.

I understand the issues around making unique account names but I think there are other solutions that have been brought up before. If you left the current system in place but then when a user choose a username to play the game then it could check a database to see if anyone else was playing with that name. The current system of allowing people to change their names would still be there and if they did it would just free up the name they are changing and again check the availability of the new name they are requesting.

Not only will this make it easier to add friends because then people could type in the persons username as it would be unique and tied to their account, but in my experience playing online multiplayer games people like the idea that they can have a name that is unique to them. I think people like having a unique identity that they know can't be copied/duplicated/impersonated. Right now it's not a huge issue due to a smaller player base, but assuming you get a large number of players when you release I think people will want the ability to create an identity for themselves. With the current system anyone could join a game with the name Maimer and pretend to be me. Outside of the obvious skill discrepancy, there is really no way that people would be able to know it wasn't me.

But regarding the whole "people forget their account names," I have never seen a problem in games where you have unique usernames tied to accounts. In Starcraft your username was your accountname/login and I never heard any complaints out of the probably millions of players. In World of Warcraft you would create a username and password and then create characters with unique usernames once you were in game that weren't needed to login. Never heard any complaints about this system either.

I just think there are many possible solutions that will, in the end, provide the players with a better and more desirable system.

[Phasma Felis]

Originally Posted by Karl

we had unique Usernames/AccountNames once and the general consensus is they suck

1. you never remember your account name
2. if your email changes you will never update it
3. now when you create your account you have to enter an AccountName, and email
4. people like to change their name (nickname) for clan tags etc.

That's fine. I'm just saying that a lot of people assume that the "account name" system is standard, and won't even realize they have a hexadecimal account ID somewhere, so a reminder on the "Add Friend" screen or something would be helpful.

[Phasma Felis]

Something else occurs to me: if I'm chatting with some dude at the coffee shop, I'm more likely to say to say "Oh, you play Altitude? You should friend me, I'm Phasma Felis" than "Oh, you play Altitude? I'm seven four five eff two gee four ay dash one nine four seven dash bee cee four six dash nine three eee five."

Also, consistent account names make it easier to avoid playing with people you know are crappy teammates, or seek out guys who you haven't friended but you know play a good game. You could add an editable tag for clans and such, too.

And we already have to enter an email and nickname when creating an account, so that's no different.

Just some thoughts.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by Phasma Felis

Something else occurs to me: if I'm chatting with some dude at the coffee shop, I'm more likely to say to say "Oh, you play Altitude? You should friend me, I'm Phasma Felis" than "Oh, you play Altitude? I'm seven four five eff two gee four ay dash one nine four seven dash bee cee four six dash nine three eee five."

you could always tell them your email...

Originally Posted by Phasma Felis

Also, consistent account names make it easier to avoid playing with people you know are crappy teammates, or seek out guys who you haven't friended but you know play a good game. You could add an editable tag for clans and such, too.

yes we could. but for everyone that wants a permanent name there are 10 people who want to change there name and a 1000 people who want to use that same nickname.

Originally Posted by Phasma Felis

And we already have to enter an email and nickname when creating an account, so that's no different.
Just some thoughts.

yes but nicknames aren't unique. I have a friend w/ a hotmail account. it's jls<insert number here>@hotmail.com yes i honestly dont know what his email is i remember jls cause that's his name, i dont remember that random number he had to tack on because someone already took jsl@hotmail.com. Yes I realize that trying to tell someone a 128-bit number is impossible but it's easy to copy/paste. Where as having to continually click "create account" button over and over just to have it tell you that that account name is taken is retarded and will turn off a lot of people. Emails are already unique and everyone has one. There's no clicking create account button more than once.

[Triped]

Why can't you just have a "friend player" option along with muting, et cetera? Hit Tab to open the scores, right-click on your future friend, friend and be done.

[Karl]

anyways I think this thread has been fleshed out. There are pros and cons to both sides but I still firmly believe our current system is the best.

However, I made it way more obvious when adding friends. Look for it in the coming patch:

[Karl]

Originally Posted by Triped

Why can't you just have a "friend player" option along with muting, et cetera? Hit Tab to open the scores, right-click on your future friend, friend and be done.

yep, said feature already exists. It's left click though not right click.

[Triped]

Originally Posted by Karl

yep, said feature already exists. It's left click though not right click.

Didn't know that, thanks.

[lamsbro]

Why not dynamically create the account ID that players deal with at the time of nickname selection, using the nickname plus a counter. For example, when I change my nickname to Lamster you check the account ID database, if there is no one else with that nickname then my account ID is also Lamster. If there is someone else with that nickname then my account ID is Lamster1. If there are 2 people with that nickname then my account ID is Lamster2, etc.

It is much easier to tell a guy at the coffee shop, hey friend me, Im Lamster3, then to say, hey friend me, I'm 3fasd023kfa-f322-f3-251-fsafasdf.

[Vi*]

Originally Posted by lamsbro

Why not dynamically create the account ID that players deal with at the time of nickname selection, using the nickname plus a counter. For example, when I change my nickname to Lamster you check the account ID database, if there is no one else with that nickname then my account ID is also Lamster. If there is someone else with that nickname then my account ID is Lamster1. If there are 2 people with that nickname then my account ID is Lamster2, etc.

And also have the counter go up even if another Lamster used to exist but no longer does, so that every ID is unique to the player (though the player may go through multiple IDs through name changes). This way, friending Lamster8 after he's changed his name to Alms29 will still get you to the right person, and you can't steal someone's past identity.

I was in favor of nickname plus unique full name, but this easier and passive on the part of the player. An easy way to verify who someone actually is, beyond creating your own lookup table of 32-digit ID numbers of the players you come into contact with, is essential to me. There's no reason not to do this.

[lamsbro]

I don't remember Altitude ever trying unique names. The more I think about it the more I like it. One of the best things about unique names is that it lets people build up reputations. I remember how cool it was to see top players like Pillars and Zileas in BNET back in the old days.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by Triped

Didn't know that, thanks.

there's a tip about it but everyone's too 1337 and turns tips off.

[Phasma Felis]

Originally Posted by Karl

However, I made it way more obvious when adding friends. Look for it in the coming patch:

Cool, that's definitely an improvement.