Overview:
As a player of Sea of Thieves, I wish to mask player name tags with thematically appropriate substitutions (pirate names), to eliminate the ability to identify the Xbox Account ID (gamer tag) of other players on a server, while still retaining immersion and ability to effectively strategize.
Motivation:
Streamers who broadcast their gameplay to an audience are at risk of their strategies being spoiled due to the Xbox Live integration. An audience member who sees an enemy gamer tag can easily use the Xbox Live app to send a message to that gamer tag, potentially warning them of the streamer's presence or spoiling details of their strategy. Preventing an audience from seeing actual gamer tags is a work-around to mitigate this issue.
Requirements:
- toggle-able at any time through a menu option
- pirate-like names to stay thematic
- seed the randomizer based on the group's session id
- names would appear the same for any player in that group
- easy to identify your own substitution name
Example:
Player enables Pirate Names in options and enters a game.
Once joined to the server, the player's group is assigned a random unique session id.
This unique id is used to seed a name generator, which replaces any on-screen visible gamer tag with a Pirate Name created from a pre-set list of possibilities.
Substitutions would be constructed from a list of pirate-like first and last names to stay on-theme, e.g. given "Thomas", "Peter" and "Blackbeard", "Parrotson" you could generate:
- Thomas Blackbeard
- Peter Parrotson
- Peter Blackbeard
- etc.
By seeding the generator with a session-based id, then Pirate Names will be the same for any player in that group.
Thus if two players in the same group see an enemy board their ship, both players will see the same name for the enemy player, as well as their teammates.
If a player in that group were to leave the group and the game and then re-join the same server, thus with a different "group session id", then Pirate Names of the same players they saw previously would appear differently than before.
When group chatting, it would be straightforward to refer to your fellow players by their Pirate Name. If playing with Xbox Friends, it would be expected upon joining a game that you may need to tell your team mates, "Hey guys, my pirate name this game is (pirate name)", since they might not be able to match your gamer tag to your pirate name while in game.
In addition, enemy players who overhear you using or referring to your pirate name cannot identify you based on your pirate name. If your team mate's pirate name is "Johnny Seawolf" then an enemy player with pirate names enabled would see them as something completely different, ("Yorick Yellowfin", for example) or as their gamer tag (if pirate names is disabled).
FAQ:
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Q: I can already change my gamer tag to something pirate-like, why would I need this?
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A: This feature is to solve other viewers of the player's screen (e.g. a streamer's audience) from seeing gamer tags. Changing the actual gamer tag to something pirate-like does not address this issue.
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Q: Won't this allow rampant cheating or abuse with no recourse? How will I report players?
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A: Other players can still see your gamer tag unless they turn on the feature. Anyone can turn it off at any time to see all player gamer tags.
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Q: Why use random names? Can't I pick my own Pirate Name instead?
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A: Random names are required as it allows the feature to be implemented entirely client-side. Developing a feature that allows you to set your custom name and cause other players to also see that custom name would be significantly more difficult to develop than simply having each client randomize them based on a seeded id, as it would require server side storage of custom names.
Enhancements:
An enhancement to the above feature would allow a player to become "anonymous" to all players, causing other players' clients to behave as if the "Pirate Names" setting was enabled but just for that player.
(Note: This enhancement would likely require an in-game ability to report players, otherwise players could use this feature to prevent discovering their actual gamer tag and reporting them)
e.g. if a player enables Pirate Names, then it masks Xbox Account IDs visible on that player's screen, but other group members or enemy players can still see that player's Xbox Account ID on their screens.
With an 'anonymous mode', all players would see an 'anonymous pirate' as their 'pirate name' rather than their Xbox Account ID, in all cases, whether the client has Pirate Names enabled or not
This would be ideal for streamers or popular players who wish to mask their identity on the server (to other players) in addition to masking the identity of other players on their screen.
