I can find other people in the game with the same username. If you are only looking at the name and not the profile chats can be manipulated to look like someone said it who might not have been in chat at all.
If you could enforce every username to be 1 character different it would put an end to imposters making up chats that are screenshot and reported.
Reporting chat messages does not work through screenshots (that, as you point out, can be manipulated, and would not be any safer from it with your solution), but through the user profile.
Also it should be pointed out, that this game has several million registered accounts (even if only under fifty thousand are active). At this point, your choice of unique usernames gets very disappointing.
And, just to mention this too, PC users do not even have a choice about their initial username, which will always be identical with the profile name of their Steam account.
Your suggestion will not make the game better.
Ok. It was just an idea. I have been targeted for bullying in the last 2-3 weeks. I was chat banned after the screenshots and reports of several people. I was dishonored. To protest what they caused to happen I joined their guild and put all of the gold I got from every action into the guild. I figured if I was chat banned so were some of them. I cannot even use the guild chat if I wanted to because I made the mistake of disconnecting all chat and you must go through the menu for global to open guild chat.
Chat ban means you don’t get to communicate at all. This not only includes guild chat, it also extends to indirect communication, like changing a guild announcement.
I still need to communicate with guild members and we did not exchange personal info for safety. Please talk to the team about only being able to use guild chat. Thank you.
That’s why we use discord (amongst other things).
This idea will never work as long as users can change their username, which they’re allowed to do now. If you allow them to change their name, an easy avenue to abuse is to claim someone’s name if they were to temporarily change it.
This part still confuses me. I’m lacking personal experience on the subject and assumed, that reports run through the report button on the profile.
If support goes by submitted screenshots without confirming them through internal chatlogs (and knowing them, it sounds concerningly possible), this opens up several cans of worms. If there is malicious will, texts and names can be edited within the graphic file just as easy or even easier than by posting under a false identity.
Like I said though, your approach would not really solve the problem.
P.S.: I’m playing since 2015 and still have not found any option to change the username. I just dug through the settings once more to be sure… is it hidden that deeply, or do you folks know a trick that I missed?
It’s in the character customization screen where you change your looks, under “style”.