Instead of having separate servers or shards, everyone will play on the same server in Champions.  Every player can choose whatever name they like for their characters, as they'll always have an @NAME attached to the end of them in chat (but not above their heads).

The @NAME factor changes things up a bit from other MMOs.  The first thing is that you will have to watch your reputation a bit more - there's no getting away from your fixed surname, so if you're a jerk on Wildbeast@Syp, people will still know it's you when you're Flutterfire@Syp.

The other thing to consider is that the @NAME thing makes it a ton easier to keep track of friends - everyone plays on the same server, with a constant surname, so there's no sweating which server (and perhaps, which friends) to be with. (Monk's note: I love this. I love all of my alts automatically
being updated with everyone else's alts. Add a person once and you're done. You can even add people from the main website AND see if they are online. So far, we have JustJonnE, MadQuacker, Aardvarkmikey and oldwisemonk.)