Urk answers lots of post-beta questions on IGN (Destiny)

by kapowaz, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, 13:26 (3768 days ago) @ JDQuackers

Why can't we name our Guardians? Will that option be available in the full game or are we stuck with our Gamertags/IDs?
The team thought a lot about how best to have players identify themselves in the world. Ultimately, we’ve landed on PSN ID and Xbox LIVE Gamertag, so other people don’t have to manage a third list of identities (real name, platform tag, Destiny character name).

This grinds my gears. This is a solved problem. How are real names a factor in all this anyway? My understanding is you need to be platform tag friends to see another player's real name in the first place, so there's no ‘managing’ involved.

How I always envisaged it would work:

• Each player has a platform-specific tag (e.g. kapowaz)
  
• That player has a real name, which is only visible to other friends
  
• Each player can create up to three guardians, with a name, which belong to that platform-specific tag

So; the routes to adding somebody as a friend are:

1. You see me playing and want to add me to your friends list; you add me by character name
2. You already know my platform tag (or I'm a friend of a friend) and so you add me by platform tag

I don't see why this was considered too complicated for people to get their head around (but the interface for adding people to a fireteam for voice chat is just fine?)