Discord is making a rather big change for usernames on the platform. Discord is one of the largest gaming platforms out there. The service has largely replaced the need for first-party chatting features like Xbox Live and PlayStation parties. With gaming expanding in major ways within the last few years and allowing players to play with each on various platforms, Discord has become a useful tool in connecting everyone. It has also been useful for people who don’t care about games whatsoever and just want to form a community of some kind with one big group chat for everyone to communicate in.
With that said, Discord has had a pretty simple answer to usernames for the longest time, so much so Xbox even adopted it itself. Your username can be whatever you want (within the guidelines of the TOS, of course), even if it matches someone else’s username. Instead, the way you’re properly identified is through a four digit number at the end of your name. Discord is doing away with this system and adopting a whole new one. Instead, now you’ll have a unique username with an @ sign in front of it, kind of like Twitter. From there, you can have a custom display name (also like any other social media platform). Discord notes that they are doing this to make it easier for friends to be able to find each other without anyone having to remember the four digits associated with their name, but fans are a bit annoyed by this news.
Given other platforms like Xbox have worked to follow in Discord’s footsteps, it does feel like a step backwards. Perhaps if the backlash is loud enough, Discord will reverse this change, but it’s hard to say. These kinds of things don’t happen overnight and require a lot of work, so it may stick to this decision and hope people get over any frustrations they may have with it.
What do you think of the Discord change? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
