Uzumaki Yue

You know that's not the point I'm discussing, so why bother even bringing that up? As I see it, the new name system wasn't needed. Oldbie curmudgeony (wut) defiance of change? There is good change and there is bad change, and some things don't need to change. That new naming system just made SL feel like There, but at least in There everyone have usernames like that so there is no clear division between new and old members. Do you enjoy seeing usernams like xXLongshizzle1991Xx? Even if you hide them, decent 3rd party viewers still show them if you untick "Show usernames", so I'd see "Hans Mcdoodle (xXLongshizzle1991Xx) has entered the region", and things like that. I don't mind any other changes made to SL, because this particular change made SL feel like another game. From my viewpoint it's a pointless and badly executed change, and I see no merit in it whatsoever except maybe making the lives of the LL techs easier (and if they came up with this, they probably don't even spend time on SL). Other than that I see no financial advantage in overhauling the naming system to something that was fashionable in the late 90's, so why not give the people who make SL possible what they want?

Exactly. It's easier to come up with a first name and pick a last name from a predefined list than to think of a new name altogether. Can't be "John"? Fine then I will be "John1", oh it's taken, how about "John894" - that's taken too. With the last names I can be John Smith, and if that's taken I can be John Rosenberg (for example).

Hence this thread, and the JIRA.

Sure seems like it. Even MMORPGs (the decent paid ones) don't use numbers for character names. In Final Fantasy XIV you actually need to pick both a first and a last name, same way as display names work on SL now but without those horrendous usernames. I planned on becoming premium but I don't want to use it on this account, and since I can't make an alt with a last name I guess I just won't become premium at all. Not that LL cares or anything, seeing as they don't even bother to tackle the last names issue.

Your username will always be visible, though. Last names made SL feel more like a virtual world, and it was one of the things that separated SL from its competitors at the time. I wish LL would stop hiding from this issue.

Is it really not possible to give new users BOTH options instead of forcing just one? There are too many alphanumeric drones, and SL doesn't feel like the "constant" world it used to feel like a few years back. I like the new 3rd party viewers, graphics update et cetera but why meddle with the one thing that was fine? Why won't LL listen to us who want to have the option to use last names? Also correct me if I'm wrong, but SL saw an enormous surge of new residents simply because it had the option of being free to play, and nothing to do with "people abandoning the registration page". I'll tell you what, I want to make an alt and I keep abandoning the registration page because they don't even allow me to have a username with a period in it (like john.smith), only terrible, outdated AOL style usernames with letters and numbers. Are we going backward? SL couldn't feel any less personal than it does now. I have no "freedom" by being forced to use a bad looking handle instead of a proper name.

I'm not sure if you could call it "weariness", since I haven't been a regular user for a very long time. Since 2008 I've been only logging every 6 months. I have changed, but so did SL. My friends are no longer around, and the sims I used to frequent don't longer exist save for one, and its empty every time I check it during my rare SL visits. I can still relate to missing the old you, though. :matte-motes-smile:

I joined in 2006 and stopped logging in regularly somewhere around the beginning of 2008. Since then all of my SL friends quit and never came back (checked their profiles and all of them haven't been on since then). A few months ago I thought I'd make a comeback, but I couldn't enjoy SL in the same way and didn't find friends to replace the ones I had. Was just reminded of it when I saw There is in late stages of re-opening. I used to go there a lot before SL became free.