Get Rid of Name Exclusivity

[aegagrusScholarship]

5 minutes ago, bonvoyage said:

I've been casually following this thread, and while I do totally understand the arguments against it and that it can be a pain, I still personally prefer name exclusivity. I don't believe that's me being elitist or lacking empathy for others who might want to use the same names as me. I can guarantee that 99.9% of the names on my scroll no one is ever going to care about taking, most of them are inside jokes, stuff I've misheard, silly stuff I've seen online etc. The simple fact is the majority of the fun of the game for me is coming up with names no one has taken, using them in funny ways in lineages, and seeing what names other people come up with on their own scrolls. I have most of the dragons I want, so simply grabbing new breeds every month doesn't keep me invested. Instead I treasure my names, which represent 7 years of me naming dragons with whatever random stuff was going on in my brain at the time. I know for a fact that if name exclusivity was removed my names would get less creative, and naming would simply be less fun for me (personally; I'm not saying this applies to everyone by any means). Furthermore, suddenly every scroll would be able to take some of the most obvious names, which isn't necessarily a problem, but I do worry it would have a big homogenising effect on the site, and that it might actually cause people to become bored more quickly and leave. I know plenty of people disagree with me and that's totally fine, but that's just my opinion. I can live with name exclusivity being removed, I just personally prefer it and think it is something that makes the site unique.

Well, there was a suggestion where it could still display “has this name been taken yet” on the naming screen but let you use the name anyways if it was already taken. That could help in your case, although, yeah, someone did raise the concern “but what if someone takes it after”. 
 

As for the homogenising effect, I don’t think it’ll affect people much because as far as I’ve seen, most people don’t check others’ scrolls for name purposes? People don’t usually check others’ scrolls that often, or when they do, names don’t seem a big priority for people to check. I’m not sure; it’s just what I’ve seen in my experience so please correct me if I’m wrong. But my point is, I don’t think anyone will notice that much.
 

Honestly, I think name exclusivity is cool. There’s a... unique culture around it, I guess? Not to mention searching via the /n/ function is fun, I definitely agree. But I’m on the side of abolishing it for the sheer fact that the cons outweigh any uniqueness or positive things that come out of exclusivity, if that makes sense.

[aegagrusScholarship]

5 minutes ago, dragongrrl said:

I love seeing the names from families of my bred dragons, and seeing what the offspring of my dragons are named can be a great delight. Why are you telling me what I can or cannot enjoy?

Sorry for the double post! It shunted my post to a new page and I can’t edit it to add this quote, so I’m really sorry I’m using a new post for this.

 

However— okay, what about the other side? Why are you telling people who have been locked out of using the names they want what they can and cannot enjoy? Why can’t they enjoy having their ‘boring’ or ‘obvious’ names too?

[dragongrrl]

12 minutes ago, Tinibree said:

 

 

This is one of the big problems, and what makes it elitist. You had 7 years to get those names before someone else who'd never even heard of the site. Name exclusivity is weighted towards people who've been here forever, and harms newer players. Newer players who might be excited to have figured out the perfect name only to be denied because someone else took it first, and killing their enthusiasm for the site.

So, how about the exclusivity of the 179 dragons I've easily named in the last six weeks? How are they preventing anyone, new or old players, from naming their dragons? This thread is older than those dragons.

 

And I do always look at the parents of my bred dragons to see if there is a theme to use in naming.

Edited December 20, 2020 by dragongrrl
response to an additional post

[aegagrusScholarship]

21 minutes ago, dragongrrl said:

So, how about the exclusivity of the 179 dragons I've easily named in the last six weeks? How are they preventing anyone, new or old players, from naming their dragons? This thread is older than those dragons.

 

And I do always look at the parents of my bred dragons to see if there is a theme to use in naming.

Issue here isn’t that people can’t name their dragons. Issue here is people can’t name dragons the names they’d like to name. I can fill my scroll with thousands of named dragons easily, I can’t fill my scroll with the names I’d genuinely love.

[Fuzzbucket]

7 hours ago, KrazyKarp said:

 

Chase's post isn't wrong, though it isn't exactly how I would word it. The practical reasons, e.g. /view/n page, for supporting exclusivity have solutions for if exclusivity is eliminated. So it really has boiled down to people feeling good about having a unique name that no one else has, which would fall into the following

 

 

i.e. feeling good about having a unique name comes at the cost of causing frustrating and annoyances for others. It's what I had emphasized in my previous post, too; I really think of it as a selfish point of view. Myself and others aren't going so far as to say those who support exclusivity are "committing a crime" or are "nasty people", that's an exaggeration.

 

OK so you are calling me selfish instead of someone who wants to feel better than others. No real difference there.

 

6 hours ago, aegagrusScholarship said:

As a very new player, I barely have anything worth trading. And the names I have that might/do have some value are ones I want to keep on top of that.

 

Name trading only benefits old players who have been able to snag a lot of ‘valuable’ names to the point that they’re willing to give some up in the first place. Also, it’s only available to players who have a forum account and found the thread as well. No matter how you slice it, name trading locks out newer players. 

 

Actually a huge number of fandom names are completely new as the fandom didn't exist a year or so ago. New games. New movies. All sorts.

 

4 hours ago, Tinibree said:

Er, as I recall it they saved it FOR the original person but they didn't want it. But whatever, not the point.

 

Yes they did.

 

4 hours ago, Tinibree said:

This is one of the big problems, and what makes it elitist. You had 7 years to get those names before someone else who'd never even heard of the site. Name exclusivity is weighted towards people who've been here forever, and harms newer players. Newer players who might be excited to have figured out the perfect name only to be denied because someone else took it first, and killing their enthusiasm for the site.

 

And new people can grab new Marvel names the second they come out. Ad new songs and new all sorts. Not only things from LoTR and the like are being discussed here.

[MissK.]

6 hours ago, dragongrrl said:

The only time I've added spaces is for the Doctor Who lineage where a dozen people might end up with the last part off the quote:

 

https://dragcave.net/lineage/1DRfp, https://dragcave.net/progeny/f8TSZ or https://dragcave.net/progeny/Z28Am, for examples.

 

I've never resorted to numbers. It just doesn't suit my naming styles.

 

Great names are still available to anyone playing today, as I just finished naming dragons from the past month earlier today, and I'm completely pleased with the names I was able to get. I've added at least 179 names since November 10th of this year.

 

I really don't want to see a thousand Smaugs on the site.

 

And yet when I was doing a Doctor Who lineage 8 years ago, several of the names were already taken. 

 

Nobody is arguing that it's impossible to get any names now, but undoubtedly it is far more difficult with so many names taken for years and years, an increasingly large userbase, and no wiping to balance things out. You can easily get names you want, that is a fact. It is also a fact though that dozens of people in this thread have said the exact opposite about themselves, which won't change because you think naming is easy. Your experience is perfectly valid, and all sides should be heard to get an idea of who is the majority, because at the end of the day in any game like this what matters is what will benefit the largest amount of people and for the longest time. Someone will always be upset, just like some people didn't want old holidays coming back. I guess my point is, nobody has to be completely wrong here, it's just about how many people feel a certain way and ultimately what TJ thinks would be the best decision in terms of gameplay.

[Murkydepths]

I feel like this thread is just going in circles.

 

People in favour of name exclusivity are basically saying 'it makes the game for fun for me', and people opposing it are saying 'the game would be more fun without it for me'

 

 

[BrazenChase]

10 hours ago, Sextonator said:

Are you really going to see less value in your dragon’s names if another dragon has the same name? Is it really going to hurt you if there are half a million smaugs? You’re not going to see them. What someone names their dragons does not affect you, and is NONE of your business, or anyone else’s, and your stance comes off as selfish and gatekeepy.

*chef's kiss*

 

Well said.

 

It's been a couple years or so but I still got that "sharing is good and kind" message in my head from kindergarten.

Edited December 20, 2020 by BrazenChase

[Alwerien]

8 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

 

Actually a huge number of fandom names are completely new as the fandom didn't exist a year or so ago. New games. New movies. All sorts.

 

And new people can grab new Marvel names the second they come out. Ad new songs and new all sorts. Not only things from LoTR and the like are being discussed here.

 

Existence of new fandoms you can grab names from is hardly an argument. There is a lot of people who don't go to newer fandoms and enjoy the classics that they actually have connection with and that mean something to them. The fact someone just tries to hoard whatever other people could possibly want cos it's new and famous hardly speaks of others' playstyles. I don't want a name because it's suddenly popular, I want the name because it means something for me.

 

I have loved Tolkien since I was 11, I have watched the original black and white Doctor Who, I care about those fandoms. I love some old anime. For a lot of those I even used to own names, yknow, back when names were still wiped. This is number 1 reason why I will never be okay with the fact me and other old users lost their names, can't get them back, but somehow you/they can keep them forever and noone else can have it and that's supposed to be perfectly fine? No.

 

Also I would really like if you at least acknowledged that your way of "enjoying the game" can be negatively impacting the enjoynment of the game for others that also have right to enjoy game you tout for yourself. Or that you would consider and maybe OFFER UP SOME COMPROMISES. Me and other people supporting this suggestion have been trying our hardest to offer compromises and try to work out how this could possibly work to make the most people happy. What do we get back? Certaily not the same level of caring and consideration. 

 

Edit: And this is not at all aimed at others who support name exclusivity because I have seen some of those offer ideas that could lead to compromise or offer opinion on someone else's suggestion that wasn't just straight out rejection but actually offered feedback that can be worked with. I really do appreciate the people that do that even if we might not agree. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Alwerien

[aegagrusScholarship]

10 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

Actually a huge number of fandom names are completely new as the fandom didn't exist a year or so ago. New games. New movies. All sorts.

I have over 20 names from a ‘new fandom’ like this. My issue is that me having them locks people out of having them too? It’s not all just because of oh, I myself can’t get the names— I’m sorry if my previous posts seemed to take that direction, but I was trying to use the example of me being new and not being able to get older names that have been taken for years on end. But that’s off my point.

 

My point is that:

a) even if I get those ‘new’ names, other people now can’t use them and I really don’t want to inadvertently rain on someone’s day even if names are only a small thing.

b) newer players are just at a disadvantage. No matter how you slice it, newer players have less dragons to hold names on and fewer names in general to pick from even if they do manage to snag some ‘new’ names.

[Fuzzbucket]

7 hours ago, Murkydepths said:

I feel like this thread is just going in circles.

 

People in favour of name exclusivity are basically saying 'it makes the game for fun for me', and people opposing it are saying 'the game would be more fun without it for me'

 

 

 

That's the problem. There isn't actually space for a compromise, because as soon as you take away the exclusivity, it is completely gone for those of us who value it. All the work-arounds to make it "acceptable" will never take away from the names no longer being exclusive. And while that clearly sounds selfish to some people - it matters to me, and to many others.

[HeatherMarie]

45 minutes ago, Fuzzbucket said:

 

That's the problem. There isn't actually space for a compromise, because as soon as you take away the exclusivity, it is completely gone for those of us who value it. All the work-arounds to make it "acceptable" will never take away from the names no longer being exclusive. And while that clearly sounds selfish to some people - it matters to me, and to many others.

 

I can think of a few 'compromise' options, although they are all things I don't actually think would be supported by the majority (or be easy to implement). What about allowing users to 'lock' a name they've already used, for the people who value exclusivity so much? As in, each user could get a certain number of 'locks' (or maybe a certain number with a cooldown like freezing), and use them to 'lock in' the names they have that are truly important/special to them, and no one can use those exact names even when/if name exclusivity goes away. In theory that could work, since ending exclusivity would still free up a *ton* of names for using in general, but users who care so much about specific names they already have can keep that 'exclusivity'. Of course there are a lot of things that *doesn't* address, like the general idea of 'I wouldn't like seeing tons of dragons named the same thing', but.... Or, theoretically, it might be possible to mark some of your dragons as 'I don't want to see other dragons with this name' or something, so *you* (general 'you'!) could have an 'exclusive' name and not have to be disappointed by randomly seeing another dragon with that name, but other users could also use the name. 

 

Just tossing out thoughts as a way to say 'there could possibly be compromises, but I doubt they'd actually happen'. *shrugs*

[Keileon]

12 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

OK so you are calling me selfish instead of someone who wants to feel better than others. No real difference there.

I don't mean to nitpick but this comes across as finding offense where there is none. Calling a viewpoint selfish does not equate to calling the person who holds it selfish. I feel like this thread is teetering on the edge of being uncivil and taking things personally when a personal slight wasn't intended is going to help get this thread locked faster.

 

On the note of compromises, I feel like beyond the (imo very reasonable) suggestions of minor display changes ("name taken" indicators, a new view/n page, even a star on the name of the dragon who had a name first), any true compromise is going to be too convoluted to really be worth it. Ultimately I do feel like aegagrusScholarship and Tinibree have a point in that name exclusivity favors the older players who've been here for years and limits the opportunities of new players. It doesn't matter that there are infinite unique names to use for your dragons if none of them are the ones you want to use.

 

I just don't feel as if exclusivity adds anything to the game aside from people being able to brag and flex that they got whatever popular fandom name and maybe trade that name for a CB Gold (which, again, is not sanctioned and there is no guarantee that the trade will go through. Remember all the headaches of AP trading before we got Teleport? Anyone can snipe a traded name by pure luck.)

Edited December 20, 2020 by Keileon

[Tini]

19 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

And new people can grab new Marvel names the second they come out. Ad new songs and new all sorts. Not only things from LoTR and the like are being discussed here.

I wasn't even thinking of fandom names when I said new people can't get names they want. Maybe they want to name a rift dragon Infinity for having the looping. Maybe they wanna use a pun or common phrase like 'cats out of the bag' because it has a cat code (or cat x bag code parents). Maybe they have a friend named Brooke that a dragon's description/design makes them think of. Maybe they were sitting around thinking of their favorite breed and a name like 'Jewel the elegant' popped into their head. 

 

I picked up a whole cast of names from something that hadn't been released yet a couple weeks back, and I feel bad about it! I feel bad that nobody else can use those names. But I want to use them too. Why does my love for something trump someone else's love for it?

[Fuzzbucket]

3 hours ago, Tinibree said:

Why does my love for something trump someone else's love for it?

 

It doesn't. Nor does my love of exclusivity trump your wish to share names. We are both "only" asking for what we want - wants which don't fit well together. And now that we have asked, we both have to wait and see what happens. ☮️

[Nagapie]

I'm in full support of the name exclusivity being completely removed. Having unique names has always felt like a very outdated feature to me and I'd imagine it certainly does not help make the site more appealing for new players. Wiping or stealing names from inactive accounts both sound like features that should not exist in a game as casual as this in my opinion. I would much prefer that we modernize how the site handles names in general instead of trying to work around it with some name wiping feature. I don't think name wiping/stealing from inactive accounts would even fix the issue either - the players that have popular names many people could want would probably guard their scroll like crazy anyway and you'd never see many of the popular names freed to other players. Considering the whole negative effect this kind of a thing could have on returning players also, I just don't think working around it by punishing inactive accounts would be worth it. Much better if everyone simply gets to name their dragons whatever they want like in most games these days.

I can kind of understand the appeal of unique names, but in the end in a game as old as this it just feels super restrictive and takes fun away from the game in a major way. There are so few things you can do with your dragons in this game to begin with. I think you should at least be allowed to name them freely at this point.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Nagapie

[Terces]

On 12/20/2020 at 5:14 PM, Alwerien said:

Also I would really like if you at least acknowledged that your way of "enjoying the game" can be negatively impacting the enjoynment of the game for others that also have right to enjoy game you tout for yourself. Or that you would consider and maybe OFFER UP SOME COMPROMISES. Me and other people supporting this suggestion have been trying our hardest to offer compromises and try to work out how this could possibly work to make the most people happy. What do we get back? Certaily not the same level of caring and consideration.

 

This is a kinda weird post. Nobody has to acknowledge any 'harmful' play-style that is allowed by the game - there are plenty of ways other players negatively impact my enjoyment of DC but I'd be kinda nuts to expect them to post something like for example 'when I breed my messy-lineaged dragons to the AP that harms the enjoyment for players who want to find non-messies in the AP'. It's a valid way for them to play the game plus the game supports it and I shouldn't expect these folks to like, feel bad about the way they enjoy their game or demand that they justify the way they feel to me just because I might not like it. Nor should I expect them to try and compromise with me on breeding in general, they aren't doing anything wrong. They don't need to compromise. They certainly don't need to show me any level of caring or consideration if I made a suggestion that would alter that aspect of the game for them in order to benefit myself. Name exclusivity is the intended way to play DC (in regards to how naming works), it's weird to shame people for enjoying that style of play as it is both valid and supported by TJ for the past 14 years. Expecting people to justify their enjoyment of playing the game the way it's designed to be played is very weird - as is getting angry at them for enjoying it.

The onus to push for change is on the party that wants change to happen - it's not Fuzzbucket's job to help you (general 'you' usage here) find ways to make this happen, if you want this to happen it's your job to find ways. To put it bluntly, it's not Fuzzbucket's problem to solve, why would they help solve something they don't even see as a problem in the first place? Are more compromises even helpful at this point? What more is there to really say? It's folks talking in circles as nobody in the thread has access to DC's database code, we don't know how feasible the idea is to implement or if TJ would even want it for the site. After 14 years, I tend to believe that when some of the basic aspects of DC have gone unchanged it may be intentional or necessary in some way... but I'm as in the dark as everyone else is.

[Sextonator]

The for arguments still aren't convincing to me, and after thinking about them and reading this thread, I still feel like some of the for arguments are selfish/harmful to new players. Not only because the older older players have had a decade plus to grab the simpler, more common names, but the fact that they're shown off and given value. And now that there's concern about it, these users are just "Oh, you just have to be creative" as if everyone has the ability to come up with a workaround that someone hasn't already come up with. And the "This name is special to me so I don't want anyone else to have it" is just straight up selfish... as if a name can't be special to anyone else, or they're more important than anyone else...

 

And honestly, how unique is a name if there's Sephiroth, S e p i r o t h, xSephirothx, xXSepirothXx, and other versions. It's the same name. The only uniqueness is the fact that one is plain. And how creative is it to be the first to name a dragon something? It doesn't mean anything if other people use work arounds to get the same name. And it is the same name. Just because one has decorations doesn't mean anything. Lake, Layke, Laike, and Laek are essentially the same name, the only thing that sets them apart is how they're spelled, but in the end they're Lake. You're still using a common name.

 

I just do not see a point in limiting names, and in the end, limiting creativity, because someone else got to a name, a theme, a project, first. It's no one else's business what someone names their dragons, it's not going to affect their gameplay, and it's not going to hurt anyone if there's only one "Plart Blart Mart Kart" or half a million of them.

[MissK.]

4 hours ago, Terces said:

 

After 14 years, I tend to believe that when some of the basic aspects of DC have gone unchanged it may be intentional or necessary in some way... but I'm as in the dark as everyone else is.

 

Technically everything is intentional, as TJ has to decide to change something for it to happen. But let's keep in mind how many features have ended up changing after a very long time - the Holiday biome was implemented some 10 years after the birth of DC I believe, and the Trading Hub and Market around 12 years. The game keeps changing, so I don't think "it's been that way for all this time" should be an argument against a suggestion.

 

Speaking of, it would be very helpful if we had some input from TJ since the thread does tend to go in circles a bit by now...I don't think suggestions for some potential compromises are pointless though. It might not necessarily mean meeting in the middle, exclusivity is kind of an all or nothing situation, but perhaps at least some ways to keep as many people happy as possible in the event that there is a change. People have mentioned ways to show if a name is unique at the time, unique on your own scroll, who got a name "first", workarounds for the /view/n/ link etc; ideas like that may at least make some people a bit happier, so it may be worth discussing even for the people not in favour the suggestion.

[Moriaty]

I don't understand what's wrong with feeling good about having a unique name, how that's making me a selfish gate keeper, or how that's making me elitist for god's sake. I'm saying this as someone who don't have any cool names snagged, I don't understand where this jealousy is coming from. I don't know if the people who are attacking are jealous or not but that's the feel I'm getting.

 

I like the current system. I know many of the good names are taken and it gives me a nice little surprise when one isn't or when a variation I came up with isn't, and it's those surprises (combined with other surprises like code hunt, etc) that keep me interested, especially as someone who doesn't like building lineages. I feel like it's already part of the game play - it's not the "this has always been the way the game is" thing, it's like a unique way the game shines. I personally sometimes love just chilling out checking out cool phrases and names and see their dragon page, progeny page, see what children they have and if the names connect, etc. I'm not completely against changes, but it needs to be very good if it happens, because seeing half a million Smaugs when I search the name up (using whatever progeny-like page that was discussed when I glanced) will kill some of my interest - just as some of you claim that not being able to take a name kills some people's interest.

 

Another thing is that, I feel like in some way the name are like codes - just that we have the opportunity to grab it instead of having to wait forever for a unique code to show up. If it's not fair to new players that they can't name a dragon one way, is it unfair that a new player can't get a code that has shown up and was already taken? Or is it "fairer" simply because codes are harder to come by / have a randomized air? As far as I know codes worth far more than names, and is truly fixed once it's there.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Moriaty

[Nagapie]

I personally don't get what the deal even is with this whole "half a million Smaugs" argument that keeps popping up. I myself am generally put off by ultra popular fandom names to begin with since they really are nothing original at all. At the same time it feels like some people are arguing against removing name exclusivity by saying "Oh but then my dragon with this super generic name taken straight from an ultra popular franchise would no longer be special". Frankly speaking, it was never unique or anything special to begin with. You literally just were the first one to snatch a name from a popular story, anyone could have done that. How are people so hard stuck on defending something that standard and uncreative, when they're practically just forcibly making it rare? The name has zero value outside the artificial value that is forced upon it by keeping the name exclusivity system in play. Just let people have their half a million Smaugs or whatever. A name like that is so unoriginal that your dragon deserves to be one of hundreds of thousands that have it if you go for it. That shouldn't keep you from using it anyway if you really like the franchise a lot like those half a million other people do. Having only one dragon with that name basically glorifies what is essentially a very boring name. One could even consider this as one of the arguments against the name restrictions "promoting creative names" - it doesn't really put creative names on a pedestal, but the truly unimaginative ones.

For those that delight in coming up with really original names, it's not like a new system without name exclusivity would fundamentally fight against you either. You could always check the page of the name even in the future to see whether it has been used already or not. I'm all for even implementing an informational message to the naming page that says something like "The game currently has an x amount of dragons with this name" just to make that easier. You could gauge how original your name is easily that way, yet those people who don't care about their name being unique could also have things their way and just make their dragon the 1000th or so dragon with that same name if they so wish. Being the first one to snatch a great name could still be a thing you can do - other people being able to pick the same name later doesn't particularly change that. You would know your dragon was still the first one and the original in your mind anyway if you picked the name back when there were 0 dragons with that name. In a way, removing the name exlusivity would just plain support more playstyles than the current system and I would view that as a positive thing.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Nagapie

[Arcy]

13 hours ago, Terces said:

 there are plenty of ways other players negatively impact my enjoyment of DC but I'd be kinda nuts to expect them to post something like for example 'when I breed my messy-lineaged dragons to the AP that harms the enjoyment for players who want to find non-messies in the AP'.

Just wanna say this really isn't comparable, breeding messies to the AP doesn't directly affect what other players are allowed to do with their scroll or dragons while naming does (and correct me if I'm wrong - is the only action like that). Also, "it's always been this way" is perhaps the worst justification for something. there's always room for change and improvement.

 

I wish we could +1 posts because Nagapie's sums up my thoughts pretty well. Obviously there's no solution that will leave everyone satisfied but the uniqueness-checker is a good compromise for those who just like the challenge of coming up with a cool and unique name

Edited December 22, 2020 by Arcy

[MissK.]

10 hours ago, Moriaty said:

Another thing is that, I feel like in some way the name are like codes - just that we have the opportunity to grab it instead of having to wait forever for a unique code to show up. If it's not fair to new players that they can't name a dragon one way, is it unfair that a new player can't get a code that has shown up and was already taken? Or is it "fairer" simply because codes are harder to come by / have a randomized air? As far as I know codes worth far more than names, and is truly fixed once it's there.

 

Codes are completely random, users have 0 impact on them. So of course those that just so happen to be all numbers or spell a word are quite rare and some people are into that, but can still do nothing to affect their appearance. It's pure luck. The names we choose ourselves though, which is a quite different situation...if anything it seems a bit pointless to have two completely unique identifiers per dragon since codes already fulfill that need.

 

6 hours ago, Nagapie said:

I personally don't get what the deal even is with this whole "half a million Smaugs" argument that keeps popping up. I myself am generally put off by ultra popular fandom names to begin with since they really are nothing original at all. At the same time it feels like some people are arguing against removing name exclusivity by saying "Oh but then my dragon with this super generic name taken straight from an ultra popular franchise would no longer be special". Frankly speaking, it was never unique or anything special to begin with. You literally just were the first one to snatch a name from a popular story, anyone could have done that. How are people so hard stuck on defending something that standard and uncreative, when they're practically just forcibly making it rare? The name has zero value outside the artificial value that is forced upon it by keeping the name exclusivity system in play. Just let people have their half a million Smaugs or whatever. A name like that is so unoriginal that your dragon deserves to be one of hundreds of thousands that have it if you go for it. That shouldn't keep you from using it anyway if you really like the franchise a lot like those half a million other people do. Having only one dragon with that name basically glorifies what is essentially a very boring name. One could even consider this as one of the arguments against the name restrictions "promoting creative names" - it doesn't really put creative names on a pedestal, but the truly unimaginative ones.

 

That's an interesting perspective actually...is a name really original if thousands of people have thought of it as well, and just can't use it because of a technicality? Removing exclusivity won't really affect how many people want to use the same name, they have probably already tried it. I would honestly be more interested in seeing how many other people have some of my weirder names if this ever gets implemented.

[Pickalope]

I feel like an important addition, just in terms of functionality, is that players are not limited to the number of dragons they can have (It's commonplace and encouraged to have thousands of dragons, for example), this website has been around for quite some time, and the naming process is just going to keep getting more and more strained as time goes on because of this. It's obviously incredibly unlikely that it will become impossible to come up with new, satisfying names, but it is going to become significantly more difficult and it's going to make the experience for newer players way less accessible. We already have current players, myself included, that are stating they have some difficulty coming up with new unique names for dragons and it's why a good amount of their dragons are unnamed. No, it's not impossible to come up with unique names, but a simple, key feature of the site that was never designed to be a chore should not become more and more of one as time passes. 

[Moriaty]

9 hours ago, Nagapie said:

I personally don't get what the deal even is with this whole "half a million Smaugs" argument that keeps popping up. 

 

I just snagged the word "smaug" because I saw it come up a lot of times. A million "cat in the bag" will also cause me to lose interest in that little activity I described. You can certainly say it's only a small thing that we can lose, in which case I can also say that not being able to use a popular fandom name is a small thing we can lose in my opinion, since I rarely use them anyways, no big deal.

 

You know, you guys are the ones proposing a change (as opposed to some suggestions that are additions, this is different - it's a complete turnaround) and not everyone like changes. As I mentioned I'm not opposed to the idea, I do see a lot of your points being valid especially concerning new players as DC's age grow, but I would like to ask for a solution that is good and compensating enough to the people who have found their enjoyment in the current system - I read the last few pages (pardon me for not having time to go through the entire nineteen pages...at some point I will) and no one is really giving any constructive idea as to what compromise to make, how things can actually be implemented to satisfy or at least partially console both end, etc. Thus far I only see people arguing against each other and honestly the only reason I posted was because I saw people saying those that like name exclusivity are selfish, elitist, and want to feel better than others. Awesome, I feel offended, even if I'm even not a firm opposer of change

 

2 hours ago, MissK. said:

 

Codes are completely random, users have 0 impact on them. So of course those that just so happen to be all numbers or spell a word are quite rare and some people are into that, but can still do nothing to affect their appearance. It's pure luck. The names we choose ourselves though, which is a quite different situation...if anything it seems a bit pointless to have two completely unique identifiers per dragon since codes already fulfill that need.

 

I see your point here.

 

Also from a technicality perspective, how will the /n/name links be implemented? I did see a few suggestion regarding the view link, but what about the action/n/name link? the lineage/n/name link? the progeny/n/name link? These are all currently valid links, but I don't know how that's gonna work if we get rid of name exclusivity. Of course we can get rid of the lineage/n/name and action/n/name links completely and resort to only use codes...I do think that's something people who want this change to consider though.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Moriaty