Issue: Characters with the exact same name

This should be fixed even if few people abuse it. Being able to turn it on manually would make it a lot more sure-fire solution than trying to catch the offenders automatically. That should be done too, but it's impossible to fight human ingenuity at being an ass with algorithms as anyone with experience with offensive language filters knows.

 

That's not nearly enough, I'm sorry to say. It's very easy to game the system is this is the only detection method.

 

Simplest fix. Let the player toggle between "use player provided names" and "use numeric identifier". No need for fancy detectors, which will be circumvented as fast as you can build them.

 

I've tried very hard to care about this subject, and failed.
Thanks for taking up my slack.

 

I saw this today again. I thought this was solved a while back by the community, just people didn't do it out of respect for others and the community. But... I was wrong. You point out this post to them, but they knowingly do it because they "what every advantage they can get". Their plan is to keep up the low brow until "enough people complain it will be changed"

It's just, poor form and shame on ya.

 

While I don't do this, complaining about this is like complaining about an opponent who uses the exact same art for all of their basic land cards in Mt:G. The advantage is so slight, and the "unfairness" is only brought on by the user who is calling it unfair, because of they lack the ability to keep track of the events that have happened.

This "problem" isn't even low brow or poor form. People who play MP are most likely trying to win if they do this. And by trying to win, getting any legal advantage is the best route for them to take.

If you play MP and you don't care about rating, you should not care about any advantage your opponent has because you are playing a different game than they are.

That being said though, the battle log could use an overhaul. Could use a graveyard, and provide the item names of cards played (because at high animation speeds this information is easy to miss)

 

Using the same art for lands doesn't give you an advantage, it just prevents you from giving yourself a handicap. Using the same names for characters adds things for your opponent to keep track of. Legal or not, putting one person at a disadvantage before the game starts with something out of his or her control is not acceptable.

 

It would be nice if there was a way to add 1,2,3 in front of the names for cases where somebody chooses very similar names. If the log is supposed to be useable it should be useable.

Definitely agree with this, and it is a bigger issue than names. Since there is only one chance to see an item name, there is an advantage to playing on the lowest animation speed possible. On high speeds you'll never catch the name. You should either never get to see the name, or always get to see it when looking through the log, so people don't feel pressured to choose between faster gameplay and competitive advantage.

 

A tip: if you turn on "Pause Enemy Cards," then you'll see all the item names.

 

Thanks! Never knew about this.

 

If you play on low animation speed you have the disadvantage of consuming more time to see each opponent's action, and your actions are slower as well. You should bring that into the equation too.

 

Well, how often to you lose because of timeout?

 

It's not only the times when you lose by timeout, but also the times where you have to hurry because you're running out of time. I usually play in MP with 7 or 8 animation speed because I like to see my opponent's items without having to pause enemy cards, and in some leagues it's frequent for me to end with not much time on the clock.

 

Hey, was anything ever done with this? Because it's still annoying.
Thanks. Merci. Domo Arigato.

 

A possible solution might be to always preface character names in the battle log with "1-", "2-", or "3-", regardless of name or settings.

1) No effort needs to be spent writing code to check names, as it just always happens.
2) No benefit will be gained from name obfuscation.

 

I dont get it. You are also free to name your chars with three time the same name as you are free to use the same art for every card in Magic the Gathering (not only lands).

 

In Magic you are obligated to clarify any board state confusion for your opponent should they ask about it. The people who name their characters the same name have a you figure it out mentality. Oh, and by the way your clock is ticking. No pressure. You sometimes run into this issue on Magic Online but it's pretty rare since there's no positioning or different characters attacking at different times involved.

 

Board state confusion should not happen. Or do I oversee something. If for example I have a char Obernoob which let another char Obernoob draw a card, you can not see in the log which char let which other char draw. But you still will see the result, wont you? Attachments and visible card are there as well.

But I think I get what you mean. Do you need to say in Magic after announcing you scried a card to the bottom some time afterwards what you did with that card?

To be honest, there are not visible boardstate in Magic. Sure your opponent has to clearify, if you ask, but only then. For example regeneration counter, damage, Mana in the pool, ...

 

The important point is that you are on shared time in Magic while you figure stuff out. There are separate timers in Magic Online but there are also a ton of visual cues and arrows anytime anything happens making most situations easier to decipher. I'm not saying we need more stuff to junk up the screen but I'd like to not have to recount every character's cards every time to see which Obernoob made another Obernoob draw a card.

 

You are right. In magic online you have the stack, where you can see directly with arrows, when you hover over the effect, from where to where it is. Here the stack just has the names.