Oops! Bungie accidentally changed the names of a 'high number' of Destiny 2 players, says a fix 'will take some time' to figure out
Bungie has good news and bad news for Destiny 2 players: The good news is that the studio has figured out what caused a «high number» of player names to be randomly changed by its automated moderation tool, but the bad news is that it's going to take a while to fix.
The problem first came to light when players began reporting that their names had been changed for no apparent reason. Bungie will do that to player names that violate its naming policies: Names are run through a «character filtration and offensive term moderation system,» and any that are found to break the rules «will be changed to 'Guardian[Random Number]'.»
Some players whose names were changed said on Reddit that they were initially told by moderators that their handles must have violated the policies somehow, but the sheer scale and randomness of the problem seemed to make that unlikely. Then yesterday, Bungie acknowledged that something, somewhere, had gone terribly wrong.
«We are tracking an issue where a high number of account names have been changed by our Bungie name moderation tool,» the Destiny 2 Team wrote. «We are actively investigating and expect to have more information tomorrow, including details on an additional name change token for all players.»
Bungie didn't say how many players, but admitting it was a «high number» indicates that it was probably quite a lot: PC Gamer brand director and inveterate Destiny 2 junkie Tim Clark was one of the victims of the glitch, discovering to his dismay that instead of Clarkinator#0576, he is now Guardian3592#1280.
Changing your name back isn't as simple as, well, changing your name back, for a couple reasons. One, Destiny 2 doesn't allow players to change their names at will: You need a token to do so, and they're very rare. The release of the Into the Light expansion earlier this year gave players an additional opportunity to change their names—the «name change token» Bungie referenced in the message above—but if you've already used it, or if you
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