Name Registry - Tremulous Social Problem & Provided Solu

[garoth]

Hello, all.

I've been batting this idea around for a while, and I think it would solve a major problem in Tremulous... no, not Aliens always kicking the Humans asses, or Humans crying about it...

Names.

Problem: Anyone can change their entire identity at any point just by changing their names. This means that they can be a dick all they want. Here is a prime example of how this is bad:

http://tremulous.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1345

Now, imagine if that guy (those guys) just changed their names to YK-Noob or something and kept doing it. We have no way to track them down or keep them from ruining the fun for real players.

Solution: name registry. This means that a small name regestry server is run from tremulous.net itself. All other servers comply with the protocol (or at least the servers that matter: DB's, Beer Garden, etc.) What happens is a player can register their name with the base server, and then no one else can use it.  Also, a clan can register their prefix and then give out names as users join.

(By the way, clan building is positive to the game because it creates active and proactive communities as well as making sure that there are good games of together working players around. It also is a good way to keep track of your friends/enemies. It adds to the overall gaming experiance, and should be encouraged)

Security: Simple enough, don't let any one IP register more than 3 names (unless they are a clan); use a binary key, downloaded to the user's directory or somewhere to make sure that they stay unique; use secure access to the server... no big deal for someone who can program an entire friggin' FPSRTS game.

I really think that a lot of people would be with me on this idea. Please write your comments here saying yay/nay/giving facts/evidence why. I hope that if enough people agree that this is a good idea, a developer will implement it.

Thanks a lot for your time,

[Glunnator]

Please write your comments here saying yay/nay/giving facts/evidence why

I choose... Giving facts.
I don't really like the idea. It's a good idea, but i don't like it.
Sorry, its still a good idea, but... Darnit! let's get to the point.
A lot of people end up with a completely different name than they started with. And i'm not talking about clan issues. People like changing the colour of their names, some even have  different names they use for each server.
And sometimes, you just DON'T like your current name anymore and just HAVE to change it. and giving multiple name possibilities won't help. See like this:

Griefer creates name: Griefy. connects to server. plays game. sees person: Quacky. disconnects, uses second name-slot: Quacky. AND THE GRIEFING CONTINUES :-?

 Nice idea, a pity it can't work, really.

[PIE]

I have always like this idea..
PIE.. is a very easy name to come up with IMHO... I don't want somone stubling onto it, or someone being malicious with it...
Making sure noone else gets that name would be nice.

The thing is.. you register PIE.. not ^1PI^3E with the colors in it. You can add colors in anywhere after you register the name..
Clan tags aren't registered by users either, they are reigstered by clans.. so later on }MG{ cant be used by some clan called Mutant Gnats as well..

A lot of games do this.. its a little annoying when your name is taken.. but you have to deal with that online.. with e-mail and everything else.. but it would stop Player1 from coming in and seeing Quacky and changing his name to Quacky to screw with someone.

[garoth]

First of all,

I don't have all details laid out, just the base idea. I did say that people could register 3 names or something. Also, I suppose it would be cool if colours are ignored.

Second,

Fine, add something where people can change their registered names? Is that so hard?

Third,

You could register 3 names and be able to choose between them in a drop down or something.

Finally,

I'm sure small problems exist in my original idea, but these things are easily fixable to make everyone happy, except pricks who bugger people over by using their names or their clan prefixes.


Imagine what life would be like if people could use your e-mail account name: instant confusion, fraud, impresonation, etc. This is a lot like that in many ways.

[Undeference]

Having a central registry is a very bad idea (but I'm opposed to the centralized DNS registries, so what do I know?). If anything, it should be up to the individual servers. The component parts to this are already available in variations of the server and from what I've seen the server software is being very actively developed (and, at least to some degree, working on this problem).