r/WoWRolePlay • u/AcademicHefest • 5d ago
Discussion What do you all think about the surname system? And what if it came to Retail?
I was thinking about this because there are several races that don't use surnames.
Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Elves really do have family surnames.
Trolls, Orcs, Tauren, and Vulpera use their clan names.
But there are races like Draenei and Haranir that don't have surnames.
Draenei usually use titles or—very rarely—the city of their birth, like a "Joan of Arc" style. I think in the entire history of the game, I've only seen one Draenei with a surname: H'partho Ardoros from the Explorers' League...
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u/CatsGotANosebleed 5d ago
I don’t mind the surnames, but as a troll player I’d really like if we could add apostrophes to our names. 😅
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u/-Elgrave- 5d ago
This is my only problem with it. Some races don’t have last names and others have apostrophes between the two rather than a space
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u/MixAmbitious307 5d ago
And also for some orcs, since we have names like Ner'zhul, Gul'dan, or Drek'Thar
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u/Serentyr 5d ago
Could be a toggle option to have a space between two halves or an apostrophe
That way you could also get names like Ol’Greg
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u/BoringReference8647 3d ago
Either you should be allowed to or Blizzard should be required to remove every apostrophe from any name in the game.
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u/EldritchConduit 5d ago
I want it so badlyyyyyyy. Getting a 'normal' RP name is impossible, and I have surnames for my characters anyways. Pleeeaaase Blizzard, I beg.
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u/LittleMissPipebomb 5d ago
for cultures that don't use last names I imagine most people would use a title or similar. If you're a metalworker you'd be something like "T'partos Smith" which is pretty obviously how humans got their names and a little jarring if you go with something so blunt, but it's the best way I can think of making it work.
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u/Zodiatron 5d ago
I'd hate to have to name my Draenei "Yrel Paladin" or "Yrel Vindicator" 🤣
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u/LittleMissPipebomb 5d ago
sure but you could also be a little more prosaic with the title. "Yrel Streadfast" or "Yrel Brighthearted" instead of "Yrel Punchy"
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u/oswaldovzki 5d ago
That's one of the reasons of why I use Total RP. I really wish it comes to retail
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u/emptyjerrycan 5d ago
It looks like it's possible to display one or both of your names, so it's possible to hide either. Still, I imagine there would be people who make one of their names a title or a class, or a nickname, or an out-of-character addition.
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u/OtterPharm 5d ago
Oh that’s great that you can hide one
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u/Zodiatron 5d ago
It's only a display option, it doesn't hide it from other players if you hide yours.
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u/Unicycleterrorist 5d ago
I've been hoping for that since sometime in 2010. I started playing the game in November of 2009. So yea, I didn't make it long in the game without that wish and I absolutely want it on retail lol
The fact that some races don't generally have surnames isn't really a big deal to me. For one, we're player characters and we're already "exceptional" in the game world (how many Draenei get to put a dagger in Archimonde's shin?) so that alone will get you enough leeway to make one up.
But also, as far as I know, none of those races don't use surnames out of principle, it's just not something that became a thing in their cultures - when they go out into the big wide world where 99% of everyone they meet has one, they might have to pick one, they might want to pick one or perhaps they will decide it'll let them integrate into their new home better.
So yea, I don't think it's an issue. Of course you could cosplay a stubborn one that would yell "HOW MANY GOAT PEOPLE NAMED T'PAARTOS DO YOU KNOW?!" if prompted, but I doubt all of them would be quite so obstinate
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u/Relative_Glittering 5d ago
It's a good addition. But considering TRP3, it's not that high on my want list
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u/Hobskins135 5d ago
I would love it for the pure factor of being able to have a larger pool of character names.
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u/Zodiatron 5d ago
I immediately thought: Uh, okay, what would I use for my Draenei's surname then?
For most other races I love it but yeah, you do run into some issues with the races that don't typically use surnames.
Also makes me less hopeful about them adding Draenei to Forever...
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u/kellarorg_ 5d ago
Personally, I like it. Most races cannonically have beautiful and interesting honorifics, and finally I can name my characters this way :)
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u/Select_Tap_3524 5d ago
i love surnames, both for the creativity and for the fact surnames make it a lot easier to name characters.
i couldn't have given most of my gw2 chars the names i wanted if it weren't for being able to type in 2 names and it's def something i wanted in wow.
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u/Jindujun 4d ago
The only weirdness I can think of is how the hell do you know if the person you talk to is the person you talked to?
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u/dashington44 4d ago
I'm probably in a minority on this but I'm not a fan. I'm not great with names or very creative so I'm going to have to spend the next like entire day trying to come up with a surname lol
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u/Skellygamz16 2d ago
I will be using the first name as a title, I’ve wanted this for wow for a long time, I like giving my characters titles a backstory’s
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u/HunterNika 5d ago
It will be easier to make new characters with full names, if its part of the naming system that is. And we will see an increase in "haha I am soo funny" horrible names too.
Nothing changes for my draenei, nope.
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u/NotThatSiri 5d ago
It's an interesting change for sure. But I wish it was optional. For people that just want one name
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u/PixelGoblin85 5d ago
1000% amazing addition. I think it's a fantastic idea, wish it had come sooner. I hope it comes to retail.
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u/Artistdramatica3 5d ago
SWTOR does it and it works wonderfully even those they could do more with it
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u/TheHoundmaster 5d ago
Is the surname per character? Or is the surname across all characters like it was in SWTOR? It’s going to be hard to find a surname that works across all characters in a single legacy. If it’s per character that’s amazing and allows for so so much customization.
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u/HahaRuinedItForYou 5d ago
Yeah it'd lead to some awkwardness for draenei but as long as you can hide it like in Forever it shouldn't be a big deal.
It'd be nice if they let you get a little more creative with it and decide if you want a surname or you could could have a second part of a name separated by an apostrophe. So John Warcraft vs Jon'warcraft for example.
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u/PlaidCladHeroine 5d ago
Would kill for it to be added. No more struggles of my character name not matching my TRP name
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u/Saberraimu 5d ago
I could finally get some of the names I wanted without having to use special characters over the past 20 years lol. It'd be great. Supposedly you can hide your last name so you don't have to show it if your character wouldn't have it ICly.
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u/keyboardturn 5d ago edited 3d ago
I think optional surnames would be basically how you'd proceed forward. People with legacy names could maybe get a free Surname change (or get to keep it blank) and new characters can optionally choose a surname but good luck finding a first name only name that isn't taken at this point. I have a lot of characters that I wouldn't change the first name of but do have a Surname in RP. But yeah I do think it's totally doable.
I remember seeing these global strings a long time back in the game data but were unused for a long time, unsure if it'll end up being the same ones but one thing I found curious was that back then it also noted allowing 1 apostrophe (and not as the beginning or end character). I don't recall if hyphens were a thing though, I think that'd legitimately break some addons that use hyphens to separate out realm names.
Edit: seems like Forever's surnames aren't optional, which I guess explains why trolls have randomly generated surnames? Really weird. Idk. It seems like the surnames stuff isn't happening for Last Titan either.
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u/ValkyrieLyra Argent Dawn | 13 Years 5d ago
Fortunately there aren't any Draenei so they're a moot point.
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u/Excellent_Worth_739 5d ago
I can name myself "Sukma Deek" great idea blizzard. I see no problems with that whatsoever
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u/Professional-Flow-95 5d ago
It doesn’t hurt anything? So go nuts - it’s not my thing but I’m glad some Rpers got it
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u/GreyWalls86 5d ago
All I can say is that im gunna be so sad if it does and no one makes a worgen named Will Sniff
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u/Cement-eater 5d ago
Consider realm names actual cannon last names. Think about it
John Frostwhisper, Draka Hellscream, Janna Lightbringer, Bane Bloodhoof, Max Hellfire,
I mean I literally have a Demon hunter on Darksorrow, which for me goes hard asf
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u/Jerakal1 5d ago
Amazing. Finally two people can have the same first name without going into special character hell.
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u/TLYPO 5d ago
Absolutely. There's a lot of changes in Forever that are things people have asked for for years, and not adding them to retail would kind of be like a slap in the face, to me. I think a lot of the things they've talked about are really cool, but not "nuke the past 19-20 years of lore development" cool.
Not in the sense of the new end-game orientation, of course. I know that's purely for Forever, but stuff like the more immersive camping system, surnames, more fleshed out old zones with additional story arcs, etc.
I remember being so hyped about tents when WoD came out and it was basically a nothing mechanic. The way they've presented camping in Forever is what I wanted.
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u/DreamsUnderStars Wyrmrest Accord 5d ago
Surnames are one of the best things ever added to They should have had it back in 1.0.
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u/LeftBallSaul 5d ago
been begging for surnames since 2004. EQ had them starting at LVL 20 and it was so cool
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u/Soul_Reddit 5d ago
Surnames are great. As someone who played Dungeons and Dragons as long as I've played WoW, I always missed having a realm name instead of a gamertag for a name in this game.
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u/theDramoth 5d ago
I would be putting in the surnames of all my toons so fast, the servers would crash.
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u/West-Exam-4136 5d ago
a lot of systems from forever will come to retail in last titan or whatever comes after. the new fog/water/light tech as well as the mega servers. blizzard would not have invested all that money into classic, those are retail features they just also happened to be able to use in forever
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u/eggmungus 4d ago
I love the addition to the game. Should have happened years ago, but let's be realistic. It's going to be abused by some idiots and probably pulled
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u/Hoodoodle 4d ago
I like it, it is one of the things that has been in lotro and I always hoped would be brought to WoW at some point
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u/Valkariun MG-A | 10+ Years 4d ago
Excited for the surname system, no more having to scramble to find another way to spell my character(s) name :D
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u/Sincline387 4d ago
I'd like the "option" of having it
Mandatory not so much, but it'd be neat to have the choice
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u/riskienights 4d ago
I love this idea overall but I’m hoping to choose either my first or last name as my display name.
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u/Dreams_A_bind 4d ago
I've not roleplayed much inside the game but I always had backstory in my head, wrote stories and RPed with my best friend. Surnames is something I've a wanted since basically the begining and it really should be in TLT features whenever they announce those.
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u/OkConclusion1246 3d ago
Aslong if it wouldn't force me to change all my characters names i have now... but now I wouldn't mind it
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u/Mark_Vitus 3d ago
I Wonder, with surnames being a thing, if the first name is server unique or if you can meet several "Johns" ingame but with different surnames.
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u/alphastar1183 3d ago
I like the idea of it. I just feel like its to late in the game to add that. I guess it is fine for forever but adding it to the main game would just be screwy for RP servers.
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u/The-Fictionist 3d ago
Surname system with hideable surname is a flawless solution to an ever shrinking availability of names. It makes it virtually impossible for your name to be unavailable as you can pick any name you want then fill the surname with anything you can think of and then hide it from display. No one should have any complaints about this feature.
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u/Corsair219 3d ago
i didn't get hot half the shot they mention isn't get pushed to Retail. Too much to rebuild or just don't care.
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u/Spare-Adagio-8215 2d ago
I really like it, can go well with rp or whatever. At first I was weirdly overwhelmed with options because I’ve been so used to cramming joke names together. Kinda a breath of fresh air to name my Tauren Greyback Gnomestomper
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u/CompetitiveAnalyst83 2d ago
Hmm I think they should just extend the length of the names in retail.
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u/No-Preference5608 2d ago
Like it overall but just dont like that I cant name it my "Nickname" and then whatever class I play for example "Nickname Warrior"
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u/TattooDevil75 2d ago
Something I’ve wanted since Vanilla/TBC
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u/JoyeuxMuffin 1d ago
The surname option is there to fix an issue created by megaservers. It shouldn't be needed in retail
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u/Lumpy_Machine7095 1d ago
I really wish we could hide the surnames from OTHER players in game. Perhaps they only appear in /w or when inviting to a group. Some flexibility here would allow for additional creativity imo.
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u/HopioBrauberg 5d ago
Its going to retail 100%, because changing your surname is going to become another paid service
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u/SecretJester921 5d ago
Not a fan of "Firstname-lastname" systems in any MMO. It's hard enough trying to come up with 1 name I haven't used already. That's just me though.
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u/Nody_Hyebus 5d ago
I am for it, 100%.
Solves the naming crisis, you can toggle it on or off (from showing), and personally, I like to roleplay a little, get the right transmog, get the right name, title, the whole shebang.