HULK Impersonator! ;-) [bug in name/alias selection]

I’ve been playing in the very enjoyable Duel Tournament that LDG has been doing a great job running - here’s the IHG Forum Thread for the semi-final matches.

So I got paired up against Rosslessness (battle scarred veteran player) … but was initially very confused when I went to join the game we were assigned to because “Hulk” was already playing - why the heck am I already in the game?!?

Turns out that Rosslessness signed up using the alias “Hulk” (with same avatar I do) whereas my real name (which I pretty much always play under) is “HULK” - notice the difference???

Took me a while to figure it out … but once I did, it was a big LOL - totally hilarious Ross!!! :wink:

In hindsight, I should have used the alias ROSSLESSNESS which would have really confused everyone … but I just signed up as HULK … check out the screenshot below.

I’m filing as a Bug Report because I’d recommend that @JayKyburz add a simple check of case sensitivity of the name/alias and disallow duplicates as happened here - could be very confusing to other players …plus the Triton Codex FAQ says:
"Selecting a name at the start of the game designed to make it difficult to distinguish you from another player is bad form and can also result in account closure."

Just to be clear, I’m sure Ross was just messing with me rather than trying to further enhance my reputation as an Ugly Brutish Green Monster who SMASHES when he gets angry :wink:

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I’d +1 that suggestion.

On a similar topic, I wondered what people thought about disclosing to the other players when people are using an alias to their “real” name during the game instead of just at the end. Just a little symbol to say that this player is using an alter-ego. I like the option of using aliases but I like to know who is using their real name too.

And since you joined the game second, not first, you would be impersonating the puny human who is using the puny lower case letters. HA HA !

The reason I didn’t bother with this is because there are a lot of ways to bypass it. He could have used HÚLK instead.

ps: Thats why I made it against the rules and I suspend players that do it. If it had just been a public game Ross would be gone.

As I said, it was no big deal to me personally and generated a good laugh.

How difficult would it be to add a check when you join the game using an alias to simply run a case-insensitive check against existing REAL name and reject the proposed name if a match? Sure, one can play tricks and do stuff like Hulk versus HuIk (lower case “l” versus upper case “I”) or ZERO vs. ZER0 - there’s an endless number of those situations that I’m not advocating you try to deal with - just the simple case of a complete case-insensitive match.

BTW, I kinda like the suggestion from @PandaBear - maybe add an “*” to the displayed name if they are playing under an alias … even in extra anon.

If you ever run into the smashings from The Infraggable Krunk, he does not impersonate HULK. Just to let you know ahead of time. :wink:

Krunk will make you less angry, make you smile. You calm down Bruce. :sunny:

LOL - I had never heard of the “The Infraggable Krunk” but sounds like a nice Purple Monster that the Hulk would like to ally with.