What's in a name?

Loading a multi player game for the first time will usually require you to choose a handle, nickname, username, gamer tag, a unique way to identify yourself to the other people playing your game. As someone who has consistently used the same username for every game and forum I have ever registered for, and wear it like a badge of honour it confuses me to see user "123456789" has joined the game.

In today's world of instant fame and accolades is it important to carefully craft a username that reflects your personality, what you want to achieve but most importantly that can be easily recognised and reproduced? Nobody is going to want to cheer "upsidedowntoilerbrush" to victory nor are the likely to subscribe to "cabbagesniffers" YouTube channel, lets be honest, these usernames aren't even clever. 

Due to the vast amount of things that we register for I think the username has become a throwaway item, people put little to no thought into it. Users will just add random numbers on the end of things just to try and get registered as quickly as possible, I am looking at you "brad177784." Worse still some people decide to use their username as an opportunity to be derogatory, sexist, racist, homophobic or just generally offensive. In a world of online bullying and harassment should users be forced to use their real names or at the very least be forced to have there real names accessible to everyone to prevent hiding behind the keyboard.

 For me personally being immersed in a game is a key factor, playing a game like Lord of The Rings Online and seeing a dwarf ride past on his horse called Luke Skywalker takes that immersion away.I am keen to see more developers take a hard stance on usernames in games where immersion and lore are key factors in a games enjoyment. ArenaNet makers of Guildwars 2 took it upon themselves to ban or change those user's who had offensive or inappropriate names, should more developers be following in their footsteps or are efforts better spent in other areas? As a statistic Arenanet said that the bans affected .001% of their user base.

Maybe I am getting grumpy as I get older, but as online interactions become such a common occurrence for people of all age groups , backgrounds and interests I think the next time you register for something have a good think about how you want to be know and perceived online, and display your username with pride.