Popular Request for Last Names in SL Finally Under Review

There's been a user campaign on Linden Lab's JIRA bug tracking software to bring last name options back to SL, and after running since July and garnering 1855 votes (making it one of the top requests), Linden Lab has finally responded to the request. Ambivalently: "It's clear there is a lot of interest in SVC-7125," writes ProductTeam Linden. "The intent [with the new system] was for users to specify their last name using the Display Names feature found in users' profiles, which most Viewers now support." However, they added, "Know that we hear you and value your passion and that we are currently reviewing some of the decisions that were made with the username /Display Names implementation."

So that's a definite maybe. My prediction: Linden Lab will keep the existing username system but add the last name option as a, well, optional feature. (Which only the existing hardcore userbase will use.)

Hat tip: Rocky Constantine.

Comments

[Hitomi Tiponi]

I hope that they consider the residents who have one name but would like two in whatever they do decide to do.

[Scarp Godenot]

A hard unchangeable user name becomes a 'brand' to some degree. The changeable display name lacks the staying power. It isn't unreasonble for people to want their 'hard' name to be similar to a real name in that it has two names.

The number of people who have already established 'brands' for their products, art or just reputation is huge.

Forcing new people to choose a strung together one liner name as their only option, limits new people when forming their 'brand identity'. It is much more of a 'realistic' roleplay to allow First and Last names.

Is this difficult to do? Does this make programming things harder?

I'm confused as to LL's reasoning.

[Rockridge Constantine]

It took some time for this to appear on LL's radar, but I am sure that some of the residents will be pleased with any response. All we can do is hope for a positive resolution. I have several friends who have the "Resident" last name and are disappointed they never had a choice.

[Nexii Malthus]

+1 Scarp
Well put.

The staying power and use for branding of hard names is a very powerful element of one of the underlying pillars in virtual worlds, Identity.

[Adeon Writer]

I think you're perfectly right in the aspect that only oldbies creating alts will use this feature...

[catnapkitty]

I serious doubt that "Only the existing Hardcore User Base" would use last names if given them.

I can't believe more than a handful of Johnny123's and SallyXYZ's actually like their names...

And on meeting them, the desire to get off that name is a common concern.

Display Names is the feature I expect only the Hardcore users will use - those people who are willing to customize their experience and to figure out -how- to so customize it.

[Nalates Urriah]

I have no doubt long time residents will be users of the second name feature. But, I also think new players that are staying around SL will use it too.

Eventually 'Anybody Resident' names will indicate a transient player.

A hobo?

[Ananda Sandgrain]

My prediction: they'll probably go and ask how hard it is to build a 2-field filter that would allow people to make their own unique first- and last- name combinations, decide it is too hard, and not change anything.

[Shug Maitland]

Like just about every other SL blogger I made some suggestions about this some weeks ago, http://ramblinginavirtualworldwithshug.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/whats-in-a-name/
It is important to recognize that last names coincide with rez dates. Every ".Resident" should have a one time opportunity to adapt a last name assigned to the time frame when they created their account.
As for coming up with an endless supply of last names --- enlist our help --- what fun that could be!

[Dartagan Shepherd]

If only there were enough common sense to allow spaces in names and call it done.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I've seen a lot of interest among newer residents in acquiring a last name. They get the status element in having a time-limited designation, even if the timeframe isn't explicit. It's one of the few things in this crazy virtual world that actually is limited-edition.

But of course I'd say that... I'm a Codesmith :P

[Saffia Widdershins]

@Hamlet and Adeon
If you read the comments on the JIRA - and I'll forgive you if you don't; there are a tremendous number of them - you would see that there are many people who currently bear the surname Resident and who are unhappy with it.

So I have to disagree that only the hard core user base are going to welcome this.

And some excellent points being made in this discussion.

[Oriella Charik]

I have never understood why when adding 'Display Names' the Lindens also scrapped the old User Name system. Judging by the widespread dislike of 'Resident' they did no market research on this.
Some will point out that Linden Lab give every indication of rarely if ever doing inworld market research before making changes!

[shockwave yareach]

It's about time! Just how hard IS it to allow people to put a name in TWO fields, and check that the combination is not already taken?

Display names were nice, though I have no use for them. But simultaneously making everyone get truenames Galactus2155 Resident that goes on everything they build or script, turned SL from a 3D virtual world into a Yahoo chatroom.

Give us our own first, last, and display names. It's so simple, even a CavemanUGHUGH Resident could do it!

[Cio Koba]

hamlet said: (Which only the existing hardcore userbase will use.)

I find that sentence kind of trollish..

[Nexii Malthus]

@ Oriella,

I have been trying to find out this myself.

The issue seems to stem from lack of basic internet communication skills as well as inability to put ego aside to objectively understand critique.

A bit like how IT departments in companies often fail to see the human element in a business. (Great example being password security for example, IT insists on obnoxious rules but that results in post-it notes plastered on computer equipment.)

[Dartagan Shepherd]

The reasoning for getting rid of them in the first place was because a quite considerable amount of signups were being lost at the point of a new user choosing a last name.

I forget the actual percentage, but it was enough to make that call.

Also don't remember which Linden I heard those stats from, thinking either M or Amanda Linden who are no longer with the company. Thinking that the people who did this original research are no longer with LL.

Hopefully they'll be looking at that previous data closely before bouncing back to re-fix what they saw needed fixing in the first place.

Not that they can't fix it now by providing both, slightly lengthen usernames, allow spaces and provide an "optional" way to choose a Linden generated last name. Best of both.

[Dirk Grantly]

I'd like to see a return of the second name. There's something cool about happening onto a "cousin" - someone with the same last name.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I just thought about the topic of surnames in reference to game worlds. Some worlds (Lord of the Rings Online, for example), don't allow you to take a surname until level 5 or 10 and charge a nominal fee to consult a registrar.

Name roulette CAN be a frustrating process, especially if you're trying to be clever and discover that there are a great many residents who are just as clever as you and somewhat faster.

Perhaps we could retain "Resident" as a temporary designator for freshly-minted avatars, and then provide surnames as an option after they've logged a certain number of hours in-world.

[shockwave yareach]

A very simple solution is to have open text boxes for both first and last names, and also a pulldown which you can select from a list of predefined last names that fill in the text box for you. The customer then has the choice of any last name or a game-centered last name.

I suspect the reason this hasn't been done is that the lab frets about people creating the name "Linden" to impersonate game gods. All that has to be done is a check at submission that the last name does not match any of the set of names that could be considered a lookalike for "Linden". How any company can create such a vast virtual world and yet not be able to handle something so minor puzzles me.

[Henri Beauchamp]

How amusing... And I could *again* say to LL "I told you !"

See my old message in the opensource-dev list:

https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/opensource-dev/2010-August/002574.html

[catnapkitty]

"My prediction: they'll probably go and ask how hard it is to build a 2-field filter that would allow people to make their own unique first- and last- name combinations, decide it is too hard, and not change anything."

Yeah its not like this is possible in Open Sims and inWorldz... oh wait... it is. :)

But I still agree LLs will find it too hard to do even though their clones do it.

"Judging by the widespread dislike of 'Resident' they did no market research on this."
- They did plenty. But at LL's Market research means telling the market what it will like, or else. ;)

But the be fair... the users on the forums were -demanding- they do exactly what they did, until they actually got it, and saw what they'd asked for. Go back and read old forum posts and anybody warning that 'this might not be the best idea folks' got loudly shouted down. Often by people now critical of the system we got, which really just shows people do change their minds.