avatar name selection

Has anyone tried to select a name for a new avatar recently?

The process goes like this. You first must select a first name. You can't select a last name until you've selected a first name. This may seem natural if you've never done this before and you don't know you'll be selecting a last name from a list, but if you know the drill you'll be frustrated because you know the first name kinda depends on what last names are available.

But you can't get around this so you just pick something and hit the last name button, and... there are all of 10-20 choices! You wanted a particular nationality? Ha!

So you've resolved that you're not going to get what you want and you pick a last name for which you can come up with a first name that both matches pretty well and isn't totally dumb, and then you go make the change to the first name, and...the last name disappears!

See, the selection of last names changes with what you enter as a first name. You *must* pick a first name and stick with it. Or, you can do as I did and play whack-a-mole with the name generator. Pick a first name, see what it'll let you pick as a last name. Don't like it? Try again. And again. Until you realize there are only a few lists available. The selection of last names *stinks*.

Find a cute last name from which you want to make a funny full name? Can't do that. Found a last name in a nationality you hadn't considered and want to pick an appropriate first name? Can't do that. Want a Japanese name? A Russian name? Play the name lottery. Good luck with that.

Does anyone think this will help retention? Does anyone keep statistics for how many people give up at the point of entry?

<--<< I think it was arranged to avoid atrocities like this. =^-^=

It doesn't seem nearly as nice as the old way. I suspect Immy is right.

You can pick a first name, see the list of last names, and change the first name, which then makes you pick a different last name. I suspect the list of last names might be different then, although I didn't test that out.

It is.

Want a Japanese name? Enter a Japanese first name and spin the last name wheel, and likely you won't get to choose a Japanese last name. But hey, there's a neat Russian name. Pick that, go back and pick a Russian first name, and...the Russian last name disappears. Kinda maddening.

Once you've discovered there's a Japanese last name available, though, you can keep picking Japanese first names until that last name comes up again. You won't get the full name you want, but it *is* possible to end up with a Japanese name. With some persistence.

I have bots named Eighthours Nitely and Backupsdone Nitely. You can't do that anymore.

So, the moral is, I suppose, if you want to have a clever name, or a stunningly stupid name, or a vulgar name, you should make the entire clever, stupid, or vulgar part fit in the first name, presumably in camel case, and just not worry too much about the last name.

So, no one can ever pick a cute name like Peggy Paperdoll ever again? That sucks slimy pond water.

Sometimes doesn't it seem like they're trying to provide the service in a crappy way to influence third party development? I assume the signup process is still like before on all the third party sites that use the Reg API

They probably did it to avoid those problems that happen when people insist on using their real life first name for their avatar and find that most of the last names are already taken for their first name, which leads them to pick names like Jennifer34890 or something else AOL-like.

This assumes that when one picks their first name under the new system, it only shows the last names that are available for that first name.

If that were the case you'd think picking a first name of "aoisfwioefowi" would give you a large choice of last names, but it doesn't.

I believe they have between 12 and 18 servers that you rotate between, and the name lists are different on each one. A while back they made what is, I think, a very stupid decision to show an individual only a small random subset of the available surnames. People complained, and LL, in typical fashion, plowed blindly ahead and didn't listen to the complaints. It sounds like they have now taken this even further, scrambling the available surnames after you pick a given name...

OK... I went and looked at this mess.

If you refresh the page, the assortment of starting looks changes, and you have to start the whole process over again.

If you've selected a starting look and a first name, and you don't like the available names, there IS a way to keep a first name and see a different subset of the surname choices. Click the button that says "Change first name", but don't change it. Then click on the "see available last names" button, and you'll usually get a new random assortment to select from. repeat this process to see all the actual choices.

So if you're trying for a certain nationality, try a first name for that nationality, and then keep refreshing the surname list as explained above, to find one that fits. If you need to change the first name to go with a surname, you may need to refresh the list several more times to cycle back to the surname list that has the surname you wanted.

What an annoying pain in the butt.

Clearly the LL attitude on avatar names is that they are just a random tag for the character, with no personal meaning. They don't take into consideration the idea of several friends trying to start with the same surname, to form a "family", or of anyone trying to create a believable roleplaying character of a particular nationality. Instead, they are dumbing down the system to deal with people whose attention span / IQ is so small that a list of more than 20 choices is too much to cope with.

I'm also annoyed that you no longer have a "Furry" option among the random starting appearances. At least, I didn't see one after several refresh attempts. They were all human, and they randomly varied in gender. Didn't even have all the boys on one row and all the girls on another. I had to expand the thumbnails to tell what gender some of them were... Sheesh.