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

by kapowaz, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, 14:16 (3557 days ago) @ Kermit

Do what TTL Demag0gue has done and give them a name anyway. Write stories about them. I see what they're getting at. Real names weren't an issue until the next gen console, but I'm finding myself somewhat overwhelmed. There are a number of people I'm learning their real name, their PSN gamertag, and their Xbox gamertag. Adding three or maybe even six names to that stack is too much for me.

But these are players who you already knew in some capacity, right? I suspect the more prevalent use case is players who make new friends through the game, and what the user experience is for them. There's far less complexity involved there, since real names aren't even necessarily on the table; you're only asking a character's parent player tag to accept a friend request.

It will definitely be something that varies from person to person, though. In my experience the name you first know somebody by is the one that sticks; I've got WoW friends whose nickname is derived from their first character (I'm Eleth to some, which I've still never gotten my head around). For others it'll be their name on here, or their XBL gamertag, or PSN ID, or even their real name. None of these is more valid than the other, which is part of why it feels like a shame that character names are completely off the table.