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Blizzard's arbitrary name restrictions

Blogs > rd
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rd
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States2586 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-08-06 21:13:31
August 06 2013 21:09 GMT
#1
As you can see, my name is two characters long. There has been a precedent set on the internet where valid usernames are at least three-four characters long, or that various characters are restricted (no numbers, etc). Theres no real rationale behind it other than very few people such as myself actually have a nickname that falls within the affected user group, and even fewer probably care to get it changed for each and every community they register for. Even within the SC2 community, we comfortably address players like MC, sC, jd, or even to an extent Day[9] (Bear in mind I have no intentions of representing their opinions), who are indefinitely committed to wearing a tag or altering a name they use differently everywhere else. It's not the case for Blizzard's role-playing MMO World of Warcraft where a name is arguably more important than a hack-n-slash dungeon crawler like Diablo III, or an RTS like Starcraft II. Blizzard has advanced player comfortability by leaps with the battle tag system, allowing players to pick their name they want regardless of whether or not someone else uses it, yet they still have these arbitrary restrictions. 'rd' isn't an appropriate name, but a name like lIllIlIlIIlIIl is, a name with which you can't even begin to address someone by (though I won't judge them for it).

Of course, I try and lobby for this with each game or community I enter, but people approach this (miniscule) problem so irrationally. It doesn't affect them or anyone else that use the internet, but they're compelled to intervene and make it an issue that can't be approached. It SHOULD be the most minor first-world inconvenience, but for someone like me who invests a lot into how I'm known; how friends acknowledge me, it only becomes increasingly worse. With every new gaming endeavor, more and more of my friends know me by entirely different names, based on how a game or community casually overlooks naming conventions.

Theres a funny story where a group of friends I knew used Teamspeak. Being a veteran of other popular voice communication software such as Ventrilo, Skype, or Mumble, my two letter username was (thankfully) perfectly fine to use in those programs. Of course I stumbled into Teamspeak to find that a minimum character restriction was enforced. The developers (or at least some guys with the developer title) are surprisingly vocal and engaging with the community regarding suggestions on their forum. So I requested that they remove the minimum character restriction. Their response: "In our opinion it's just too short for a nickname," and henceforth TeamSpeak will never get anything from me. I'll give TS the benefit of the doubt though, and I'll try reviving the topic and seeing if they're able to accommodate my name yet, or if they still believe the opinion of one man should dictate how mutual friends address one another.

I'm at a loss. I have no idea what more I can do. Since Beta I have waited for the day Blizzard removes random naming restrictions from battle tags such as the three character minimum limit, or the restriction of alphabetical-only characters. With every new free name change, I've ended up sending a support ticket to request my name change be reverted after the disappointment of finding out that nothings different. Then I start a new thread on the battle-net forums to try and lobby for removing the restrictions but it has been entirely futile.

What is there left to do? :/

**
Railgan
Profile Joined August 2010
Switzerland1510 Posts
August 06 2013 21:15 GMT
#2
pick a new name
Grandmaster Zerg from Switzerland!!! www.twitch.tv/railgan // www.twitter.com/railgansc // www.youtube.com/c/railgansc
rd
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States2586 Posts
August 06 2013 21:18 GMT
#3
On August 07 2013 06:15 Enema wrote:
pick a new name


no
dcemuser
Profile Joined August 2010
United States3248 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-08-06 21:25:20
August 06 2013 21:19 GMT
#4
rd_SC

You can slightly alter on your name on places that require it, and you will always have same name. I put accents in my name if it is already taken, and my friends still call me by the same name (rather than attempt to repronounce it using the accent in a strange way). Unless your friends are mentally handicapped in a way that only allows them to speak words exactly as they are written (some extreme OCD or something), but otherwise this should be fine.
HolyExlxF
Profile Joined March 2011
United States256 Posts
August 06 2013 21:22 GMT
#5
-rd

.rd

)rd

You know, get creative.
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
jrkirby
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States1510 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-08-06 21:25:08
August 06 2013 21:24 GMT
#6
Yah, I hate these things too. I kinda understand removing special characters (obviously there are some technical difficulties if you let people use the entire unicode character set) but 2 character names should be allowed. Honestly, they should allow anything you can easily type with your keyboard that fits on the screen. I kinda feel your pain. Whenever I can't get jrkirby as my account name, it irks me.

But you could try to phoneticize your name, like ardee or something.
Bippzy
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States1466 Posts
August 06 2013 21:25 GMT
#7
Are dee (rd)
LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK LEENOCK
rd
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States2586 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-08-06 21:27:03
August 06 2013 21:25 GMT
#8
On August 07 2013 06:19 dcemuser wrote:
rd_SC

You can slightly alter on your name on places that require it, and you will always have same name. I put accents in my name if it is already taken, and my friends still call me by the same name (rather than attempt to repronounce it using the accent in a strange way). Maybe your friends are mentally handicapped in a way that only allows them to speak words exactly as they are written, but otherwise this should be fine.


The question isn't my name, the question is why the fuck do those places require it to be different in the first place. Also SC2 doesn't allow underscores nor accents. Everyone can have any name they want UNLESS it's two characters long. Then fuck those players we aren't accommodating them.
TylerThaCreator
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States906 Posts
August 06 2013 21:31 GMT
#9
there are more important things to worry about in life.

use the id arrdee
aka SethN
Chairman Ray
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
United States11903 Posts
August 06 2013 21:39 GMT
#10
Spend the next few months training up so you can go pro, and then your handle can be EGRDRC
rd
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States2586 Posts
August 06 2013 21:40 GMT
#11
On August 07 2013 06:31 TylerThaCreator wrote:
there are more important things to worry about in life.

use the id arrdee


And this is precisely the problem. Because there are more important things to worry about in life, I don't get to have my desired nickname for no reason at all. No reason. At all.
TylerThaCreator
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States906 Posts
August 06 2013 21:46 GMT
#12
On August 07 2013 06:40 rd wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 07 2013 06:31 TylerThaCreator wrote:
there are more important things to worry about in life.

use the id arrdee


And this is precisely the problem. Because there are more important things to worry about in life, I don't get to have my desired nickname for no reason at all. No reason. At all.


the fact that you throw temper tantrums about not getting your two letter ID is pretty pathetic.
aka SethN
rd
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States2586 Posts
August 06 2013 21:52 GMT
#13
On August 07 2013 06:46 TylerThaCreator wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 07 2013 06:40 rd wrote:
On August 07 2013 06:31 TylerThaCreator wrote:
there are more important things to worry about in life.

use the id arrdee


And this is precisely the problem. Because there are more important things to worry about in life, I don't get to have my desired nickname for no reason at all. No reason. At all.


the fact that you throw temper tantrums about not getting your two letter ID is pretty pathetic.


I wasn't aware temper tantrums could be transmitted through text. Is there anything else irrelevant you'd like to add, or has it become clear to you this is something you're unable to empathize with?
Epishade
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
United States2267 Posts
August 06 2013 21:53 GMT
#14
I think something that affects more of us is the dis-allowance of short passwords and passwords that "require at least 2 of the following: capital letters, numbers, symbols". Those really piss me off. Case sensitivity in passwords is fucking retarded.

I also hate it when you can't put your password as the answer to your recovery questions. ARRRGH! (lol, yes, I've tried that).
Pinhead Larry in the streets, Dirty Dan in the sheets.
ComaDose
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Canada10357 Posts
August 06 2013 22:02 GMT
#15
my friend (last name yi) is invalid according to skype
BW pros training sc2 is like kiss making a dub step album.
Erik.TheRed
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1655 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-08-06 22:14:31
August 06 2013 22:13 GMT
#16
if you think you're in the minority of people who are affected, then you're just wrong. Most people can't pick the usernames they want because they've already been taken. Use the opportunity to get creative and come up with something better if you want, or just add a number to the end and be done with it.
"See you space cowboy"
itsjustatank
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Hong Kong9180 Posts
August 06 2013 22:17 GMT
#17
make sure to pick something better than 'itsjustatank'
Photographer"nosotros estamos backamos" - setsuko
marttorn
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
Norway5211 Posts
August 06 2013 22:20 GMT
#18
On August 07 2013 06:52 rd wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 07 2013 06:46 TylerThaCreator wrote:
On August 07 2013 06:40 rd wrote:
On August 07 2013 06:31 TylerThaCreator wrote:
there are more important things to worry about in life.

use the id arrdee


And this is precisely the problem. Because there are more important things to worry about in life, I don't get to have my desired nickname for no reason at all. No reason. At all.


the fact that you throw temper tantrums about not getting your two letter ID is pretty pathetic.


I wasn't aware temper tantrums could be transmitted through text. Is there anything else irrelevant you'd like to add, or has it become clear to you this is something you're unable to empathize with?


i mean he's just saying that theres more important things to get snarky about, even online. I mean i think most dudes would just type their name different or something.
memes are a dish best served dank
rd
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States2586 Posts
August 06 2013 22:20 GMT
#19
On August 07 2013 07:13 Erik.TheRed wrote:
if you think you're in the minority of people who are affected, then you're just wrong. Most people can't pick the usernames they want because they've already been taken. Use the opportunity to get creative and come up with something better if you want, or just add a number to the end and be done with it.


You don't have to be creative in SC2. If more devs followed the blizzard model of just letting you have any name you want with an invisible number attached then most people wouldn't have a problem picking names. But that isn't my problem.
solidbebe
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Netherlands4921 Posts
August 06 2013 22:54 GMT
#20
I dont see why people dont agree with OP. A minimum requirement is stupid. imo rd is a totally valid nickname, and I understand OPs frustration.

In the end none of us can do anything about it though, you wont get anything done with this blog.
That's the 2nd time in a week I've seen someone sig a quote from this GD and I have never witnessed a sig quote happen in my TL history ever before. -Najda
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