Linden CEO: Last Names for SL Avatars Returning January 2012 With Extra Features

Daniel Voyager has a good scoop: Last names for Second Life avatars are returning to SL, CEO Rod Humble says via his web profile, with a rollout planned for January 2012, and "extra features". Since the company abandoned first/last naming conventions for a frankly confusing single word username system, SLers have been actively campaigning for last names to return. Now, says Humble, "We are trying to figure out how to do it in a way which would be excellent rather than just OK. We want it intuitive with extra features... Identity is very important so as we touch it we need to make sure we are adding something great." Not only is identity important, it's a feature that will probably make Second Life appealing to new users accustomed to other MMOs and virtual worlds where fanciful names are still common.

Comments

[Sasy Scarborough]

Hope that Residents will be given the opportunity to change theirs to a new one without having to make new av's if they wish to.

[Uccello]

Ditto to Sasy's "Hope that Residents will be given the opportunity to change theirs to a new one without having to make new av's if they wish to." Also, I hope everyone would be given the opportunity to change their name ONCE as a courtesy.

[Nathan Adored]

I'm wondering what the dadgum "extra features" are, and are they something we're going to even WANT. oO We all know how LL have a tendency to come up with dumb "features" nobody wants, while ignoring feature requests or bug fixes that quite a number of users have asked for.

[Tali]

Basically, we just need spaces and capital letters in the username, so we can get rid of the artificially created necessity for two names.

[Melponeme_k]

Darn, and I felt so exclusive with my legacy last name.

XD

[Jessie Miharu]

I sure hope we "Residents" get grandfathered into this new/returning naming scheme. If we don't, then we'll be even more the second class residents.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Display names were a good concept, but they need refinements, like uniqueness and reserving display names based on avatar names to those avatars.

Meanwhile, the last name system of SL is a quirk of this world that created some interesting dynamics of kinship and status. I hope the enhancements don't disrupt the dynamics that made the system unique.

[Rin Tae]

My first reaction when I have seen this being mentioned on the SL forums was:

'HahhahhaaaaHaaaHaahaaaa'

Afterwards I thought that while this is funny, it might show that LL is coming to their senses. Not so much as to revert to the old system but to finally recognize that a lot of the critisism directed at them during the implementation of it was valid and the problems described real. It might also be that the goal of making the sign up process easier this way has failed and now they finally try to do things right and give more thought to the things they introduce into the platform.

After all this has always been a big problem with LL: their ideas have been mostly good and fun, but the implementation and communication of those features and changes always lacked and often was made in ways that can only be described as horrible.

[GreenLantern Excelsior]

Rod updated his profile:

"cool. Just to be clear Jan is when we will be giving a timeline/ plans on what we will be doing :) Expect Q1 2012 for it actually to be done."

So what kind of extra sweet revisions could they make that they didn't have before? The mind begins to boggle...

[Dale Innis]

Nooo, my precious elitenesssssss!

[Adeon Writer]

In the event someone at Linden Lab is reading this, please include this message on signup if the appropriate conditions are met:

"The first name you've entered contains numbers. Most residents use names that you'd give a person. Are you sure you want to use this name?"

Thanks! :)

[grune Resident]

Good point, Adeon. I would include a similar warning about a lowercase letter starting a username.

[Derick]

So when is this met to take place? And I think this is just awesome being from the old sl when i came back I had to register with resident and kinda was like -_- whats this .. But yay for accounts back ... Hi5 to LL when it actually is in place...

And Residents (not old avatar with last names) should be able to choose! Because when I made my first account took me like a hour to find the perfect last name just kept clicking and clicking through

[erandra]

well its march 4-2012,
And i think i missed the changes that are made in januari?
Up till now no changes are made in the option of having a second name, they only improve the way the "display names are shown"
to bad i can't use my display name to buy things, rent a house, buy land or set up a store and sell things, it still says my "loggin name / resident"
I think the only way to be respected and accepted be the sl community is to buy a avatar with last name that is respected on sl.. and lose all i build, and buyed :(

wish you all a nice sl day

[lavendersea]

How about this, if you can't or won't bring back last names, then PLEASE give us the ability to not have the "username" show above our heads. Only the display name over our heads, with spacing allowed. Keep the username showing on our profile but give us the option to not have both names float over our heads is the least you can do. Yes people can opt to see only display names. That is not the same as US having the option to not show it there.

[Miyushu Babii]

It's August 28, 2013 and when will the return of "last names" take place? It's pretty simple to fix! Let everyone who created an account with the "Resident" last name, create a new first & last name. You don't have to get rid of Display names. I personally do not use this feature, it becomes way too confusing. But, I know people like it. And it is a functional feature for at least two reasons: Partnering, Role Playing and just making one's name fancy with ASCII characters. I signed the Jira petition to bring back "Last Names". I am optimistic. It would be nice to see an update on this and why the long delay in rolling this out. Thanks!