Oops! Bungie accidentally changed names of a "high number" of Destiny 2 Players, saying a fix will take some time to figure out

Bungie has some good and bad news to share with Destiny 2 players. The good news is the studio has identified the cause of a "high" number of player names being randomly changed by the automated moderation tool. However, the bad news is it will take a long time to fix.

The problem was first brought to light when players reported that their names were changed without apparent reason. Bungie will change names of players who violate its naming policy: Names that violate the rules are subjected to a "character filtering and offensive term moderation" system, and those that are found to be in violation are "changed to 'Guardian[Random number ]'."

Reddit users who had their names changed claimed that moderators initially told them that the handles they used must have violated policies in some way, but that seemed unlikely given the randomness and sheer size of the problem. Bungie finally acknowledged yesterday that something had gone horribly wrong.

The Destiny 2 Team stated: "We are tracking a problem where a large number of account names were changed by Bungie's name moderation tool." "We are actively investigating, and we expect to have more details tomorrow, including information on an additional token for name changes for all players."

Bungie did not say how many players were affected, but the fact that they admitted it was "a high number" suggests that it was quite a few. PC Gamer brand manager and Destiny 2 addict Tim Clark was also a victim of the glitch. He discovered to his dismay, that instead of Clarkinator#0576 he was now Guardian3592#1280.

For a few reasons, changing your name isn't quite as easy as, well... changing your name again. Destiny 2 does not allow players to change names at will. Tokens are required, and these tokens are rare. Bungie's message above mentions that the Into the Light extension released earlier this year allowed players to change their name. However, if you have already used the "name change token", or if Into the Light is not available, you are out of luck. Even if you have a name-change token lying around, you are out of luck. Many redditors claim that they can't change their names with a token because the moderation system will not allow it.

D2Checkpoint - a community site that normally holds boss checkpoints in raids and dungeons to be grabbed by players - posted a semi workaround on Twitter. Close the game rather than selecting the "continue button" at the message warning about the name change. Then wait five minutes, and try again.

Bungie has identified the problem, and is working on a fix. However, players who've already had their names switched will still have to wait.

The Destiny 2 Team posted on Twitter: "We continue to investigate options for addressing player accounts that have been impacted." This will take time, as the path forward depends on fixing the underlying problem.

"As we noted yesterday, as a way to help, we still plan to distribute name-change tokens to all of our players at a future date. We'll let you know as soon as we have any new information.

It's not a big deal: everyone can still play and they will get their real handles back in time. For those who couldn't change their names before the explosion, this is a blessing. It's not good. Bungie's latest Destiny 2 blunder, an attempt to buff exotic item drop rates that ended up nerfing the rates into oblivion, happened just over a fortnight ago. It's also been just two weeks since 220 employees were laid off (but not CEO Pete Parsons).

Bungie's apparent freefall is making fans angry. Clark wrote that if you fire a lot of your QA team, the game will run into quality problems. This sentiment is growing among the Destiny 2 community.

The studio announced this weekend that Xur, the alien travelling salesman in the game, will begin selling the coveted exotic class item. "Exotic Class Items will cost 41 Strange coins and will have random roll. To get them, you must have completed the Dual Destiny missions for each character and unlocked the regular path of acquisition. If the Exotic Cipher is not available, you can purchase one for 79 Strange Coins.

Bungie is Bungie. This is where the monkey's paw curls up again.

"Xur is guaranteed to sell Exotic Class Items the first week that category is available, on August 23. But every week after he will return back to his RNG ways as his will isn't his own." It's baffling why ol' Squid Face can't sell these items every week. I would suggest that now is not the right time to prod community with another RNG.