Is naming characters similarly really the best idea?

[TheBigBB]

It might be great to have the same names in arena, but it seems like in any other situation, naming the toons completely different names would actually help prevent people from tagging you AFK in a BG or if you're running multiple classes, people might not figure out you're even multiboxing them all. I've had more than one person ask me if the druid was also mine, even though she's clearly always following the same as the others. And people who look at a BG chart have no clue who my guys are.

[Havelcek]

I have my current group named differently and find it much easier to keep them straight.

[Vyndree]

Example of "similar name backfire":

Big bad wolf encounter in Karazhan:

[Raid Warning] VELA*** is LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD!
Me: Oh SH*T WHICH ONE?!!!!

However, it's a decent advantage in PvP -- particularly if your characters all sound the same. If you're facing low-bracket teams that don't do assist macros and use vent to call out which person to kill, they're going to have a hard time coordinating a spike.

If you don't PvP, there's no reason to make your names complicated.


I think the best "middle of the road" strategy is to use <Prefix> + <letter>

For example,
VelaA
VelaB
VelaC
VelaD
VelaE

That way you have a logical way to tell which one is which (i.e. "VelaA is little red riding hood!!" -- A is my "main PC" therefore I know exactly whom to move) while still using a prefix to prevent /target a from working -- they either have to tab through to find you, use Proximo or some other pvp targeting mod, or use /assist. It's a minor PvP downgrade but a major PvE upgrade for managable naming conventions.

[ElectronDF]

I was just scared they would say "Kill BoxingMainChar" and I would have to worry about switching my main. I want them to have to be a tiny bit confused which is my main and which char name is the one they should kill. It won't stop them, I just want to slow them down. Also same with armor. I don't want them to say, "Kill the guy with the red hat on".

[mlwhitt]

Added benefit of having different names (and looks) is that the number of WTF HAXXOR tells is way way down since I decided to redo my naming convention and started rolling different looking characters. Of course guild name can still give you away.

[Malekyth]

My names are similar enough that people know I'm boxing: Osaar, Isaar, Esaar, Usaar and, um, Harmsworth, but I find keeping the first letters different at least helps me tell myself from myself. I also stop just short of the clone army look and give each toon the same face and coloring, but a different hairstyle. I remember that Isaar has the prim up-do, Osaar has the sporty ponytail, etc. I don't PvP, but I don't think anyone would have trouble figuring out my main if I did ... in PvE, people just watch for the toon in front, leading the others, and send all their "WTF? LOLOLOL" messages to her.

[Steph]

My first team was a-,b-,d-,elaire and captn. The second is all Æteam with accents on the e. I have not noticed any increase on people calling out clones or hacks by mistake.

What I have noticed though is that I have trouble telling my characters apart myself, in particular if the window is resized.
Also, with two irregular chars in the name, I am usually not mailing anything to these chars and trade instead. =]

[moji]

The only problem I have is forgetting which toon I'm currently playing. PIP moves the windows and I'm using focusless, leaderless macros, so if I move #4 to big screen, it's switches places with #1, so with the exception of a few addons that I only run on #1 and one letter in the name, I'd never know myself.

Example of "similar name backfire":

Big bad wolf encounter in Karazhan:

[img]../forum/icon/quoteS.png[/img] Quoted

[Raid Warning] VELA*** is LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD!
Me: Oh SH*T WHICH ONE?!!!

Oh god, I'd never want to do that with more than 2 or 3.With 5, make sure reincarnation is up I guess.

[Zub]

I have 2 teams of 3, one with similar names (apart from accents) and one with different names. In PVE i find it much harder with the similar names as you can't easily tell which one took agro from the target of target of your main screen

[KSboxers]

Also, with two irregular chars in the name, I am usually not mailing anything to these chars and trade instead. =]

I only mail stuff between my primary account toons. To aid in this i have the names of all my toons on that account on each others friends list. CT mail mod has an autocomplete for mailing that autocompletes your mail with the name of toons on your friends list. Helps out with the high ascii names. But i do plan to redo my naming so i don't really have to worry about this anymore. My locks i'll keep the same since they will be for PvP.