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Every now and then I run into people with names that extend off the screen in Modern Warfare 2. How can I get a name like that? Steam seems to limit the number of characters I can have when I try.

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Are you sure that it's Steam doing the limiting? I see long names pretty frequently in L4D2 and TF2. (also extend off the screen from where? The centre? The right?) – Macha Aug 25 '10 at 10:29
@Macha Maybe the 'hack' (I'm using the word VERY liberally here) is with steam itself? – Mechko Aug 25 '10 at 10:52
Can you give an example of a long name? – Elpezmuerto Aug 27 '10 at 14:09
Just to clarify, it is a possibility that Steam user names are what is actually very long? – Robb Aug 27 '10 at 15:04
@Robb There is a limitation in Steam for how long you can make your name. – Mechko Aug 29 '10 at 20:01
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2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

I don't think there's any secret to it at all. The font is proportional and so it's important to use wide characters. To produce this screenshot I simply entered as many G in Steam settings as was possible. There are probably wider characters.

alt text

Indeed, the letter W extends off-screen without having to mouseover the name.

alt text

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That would explain why the people who have it have only one character in their name... :-p – Mechko Sep 3 '10 at 1:52
up vote 0 down vote

I believe that to achieve what you want, you would need some 3rd party enabler which would be against the game's ToS, I'm sure. I had a suspicion that the Developer's Console would provide some name change abilities(which it may) but unless some things have changed, it seems even enabling the Developer's Console is even considered a 'hack'.

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it used to be you could simply type in 'name <new unnecessarily long name for the current game you are playing>' to change your name, not sure if this is the case with MW2 or not – espais Sep 2 '10 at 13:06
in the dev console or just the chat area? – Robb Sep 2 '10 at 13:25
Mechko could try this out. I'll glady take down my answer if that works. – Robb Sep 2 '10 at 14:28
Modern Warfare 2 doesn't have an accessible console as far as I know... – Mechko Sep 2 '10 at 18:14
Yea, my answer was more from the Counter-Strike side of things...not MW2. I somewhat assumed that Robb knew what he was talking about when he mentioned an available developer's console :p – espais Sep 3 '10 at 12:09

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