Character Name Purge with Folks not Playing Anymore

[AshlaBoga]

I took the day off at launch. Rolled two characters and named them. Then server merges caused me to loose the

names of 5 of my 6 level 50's. I was well above "ANGRY." I later found that someone took the name of one of my

toons to roll a mule (to forever remain at level 2.)

 

Exactly! Mules, and name placeholders (when someone creates a toon with a specific name on different servers in case of server transfers) are annoying as heck. I think we need to make mules and name placeholder toons up for grabs.

 

P.S: If someone is banned then their toons are deleted and we can use their name right? I'm just asking because it wouldn't surprise me if banned accounts still make certain names unavailable to the rest of us and it would be nice to get confirmation that this is not the case.

[CosmicKat]

I'd support this.

 

Any account that has been inactive for 6 months should have the names purged. If people actually cared that much about keeping their names, then stay subscribed.

[ScarletBlaze]

I disagree. I know of someone who can't play because of responsibilites right now and been gone since around jan but still continues to pay for his account. So no this should not happen. Edited May 13, 2013 by ScarletBlaze

[Aelther]

I think it's great that we're finally seeing free character name changes in the upcoming patch, however, many names are sitting in limbo or "squatted" by people no longer playing for months now.

 

Bioware, i would really hope you'd begin some sort of process to whittle out names from people not playing the game anymore. I know you want them back, and might be afraid they'll say, "forget this, i'm done since they took my name", but you guys could easily deal with satisfying both concerns like other games in the past have done.

 

Simply send out an email reminding people who haven't been playing for like 60 days or more how awesome the game is, and that if they don't log into their account to confirm they want it still, they'll lose their current character names and have to reset them if they ever return. DONE, SIMPLE.

 

Not only does it clear out names for those who actually DO want to keep playing the game, but it's a firm nudge to people sitting out playing that maybe they should come back.

 

If you agree with this approach, your post would be appreciated to give attention to this concern.

 

Fully support the idea. I have LOST my original name, because of server merges. The only reason I pre-ordered the game was so I could reserve my name during early access. After server merges I lost my name and I have added the guy who got my name to my friend list. I have literally NEVER seen him online. NOT ONCE. And I play very often.

[goldhtown]

I disagree. I know of someone who can't play because of responsibilities right now and been gone since around jan but still continues to pay for his account. So no this should not happen.

 

Paying for an account is still active, which would not apply in what i'm suggesting.

 

Basically, if a unsubscribed account hasn't been logged in for X many months, then the character names should be cleared and made available to the server, and require a re-name if that player ever re-subbed or logged back in again via free-to-play. It's that simple. Subbed players wouldn't worry, and free-to-play people could just log in to their characters if they care about not losing a name after several months of inactivity. I don't think this is very extreme as some have implied, and it's fairly standard for other MMO's.

[Anzel]

I do not agree. People can be gone from the game for a lot of reasons (like military duty as one relevant example). People can be out of touch with the email address their account is tied to. Wiping character names so you can perhaps maybe possibly get your favorite name is inappropriate and selfish.

 

There is plenty of flexibility in naming in this game, so there are still plenty of names. It would be nice if it was as flexible as GW2, but it's not.. so we have what we have. Work with it IMO.

 

What a surprise. You don't agree. You have the opposite/contrary opinion. Gee you are so intelligent and superior. Whatever.

 

If you don't pay. You don't play. You should forfeit your name. There has to be some kind of reasonable limit for this. I'm not saying that if you don't log in for two weeks then you should lose your name(s). But 12 months? 24 months?

 

IMEANREALLY

[CosmicKat]

I disagree. I know of someone who can't play because of responsibilites right now and been gone since around jan but still continues to pay for his account. So no this should not happen.

 

By "inactive" I meant... "no longer subbed" in the case of subs, or "hasn't logged on in 6 months" in the case of F2P.

 

On this point I actually side with the pay for features crowd. I think it's perfectly reasonable for a company to expect some payment for reserving names because it affects other players and other potential customers.

[AshlaBoga]

Paying for an account is still active, which would not apply in what i'm suggesting.

 

Basically, if a unsubscribed account hasn't been logged in for X many months, then the character names should be cleared and made available to the server, and require a re-name if that player ever re-subbed or logged back in again via free-to-play. It's that simple. Subbed players wouldn't worry, and free-to-play people could just log in to their characters if they care about not losing a name after several months of inactivity. I don't think this is very extreme as some have implied, and it's fairly standard for other MMO's.

 

From what I've seen, 6 months appears to be standard for not logging into a toon. Would that number be for both Preferred players and F2P players or would the Preferred players get longer?

[Alphasgimaone]

Something definitely needs to be done about character names, but I don't know that a purge is the right answer.

 

I think the simplest, most practical solution is to convert to player [Legacy] handles. More and more MMOs are using them. They do have their own share of issues, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. And with a few interface tweaks, keeping track of people wouldn't be difficult.

 

In turn, first names and surnames would be completely cosmetic.

 

People usually refer to others in their social circles--friends/guilds/etc--by a single name, anyway. So that really wouldn't change.

 

We now know server transfers are coming, so any reasons for keeping Legacies server-specific become moot. We also know they're going to give us a chance to change Legacy name. With these two changes on the way, it is the perfect time to convert to a system like this.

 

Have a UI option to display others' Legacy, character name, or both. And show all the information either in their character sheets or portrait mouse-over for easy access.

 

For mailing, implement full auto-completion like it does for guildies to include friends and party members. Add a account bank to eliminate the need to mail to self. And maybe add some kind of "save mail information" to the chatbox pull-down for crafters. Of course, if the handle becomes the main identifier for all things, this really isn't necessary as long as if you were to send something to someone else using his handle, he could open the mail on all characters.

 

To keep it fair, though, several weeks would have to be allotted to sign up for new Legacy names. I suppose priority would go Subs/Activation date, premiums/activation date, F2P/activation date.

 

So tl;dr:

 

Everyone gets a new Legacy that is essentially a second account name. All legacy XP and unlocks get merged into one. Character names become cosmetic. And now people can freely jump between servers (with cost) and not risk losing character names, their stuff, or their main identifiers.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Alphasgimaone

[Galandro]

Fully support the idea. I have LOST my original name, because of server merges. The only reason I pre-ordered the game was so I could reserve my name during early access. After server merges I lost my name and I have added the guy who got my name to my friend list. I have literally NEVER seen him online. NOT ONCE. And I play very often.

 

I feel your pain. I had to rename one my characters during the merges as well. The character with the name I want is level 10 and hasn't done squat since I friended them last summer. I also made the foolish decision to use a special character in my name. It's made some recent cross faction mailing a bit of a pain, but that was my mistake.

 

I agree that if someone is paying a sub, they can squat on all the names they want. It's annoying to the poor slob who also want to use the name, but it's their $15 a month. But I don't think it's unreasonable to release name from accounts that have been inactive since last year or longer.

[Terin]

I *COMPLETELY* support this topic!!!

 

As someone who pre-ordered the CE for Early-Access to reserve my name, I find it absolutely horrendous that I was forced out of my name. In all the time I've been online, I've not seen the person who took the name "Terin" online... EVER!!! Someone snatched the name, quit playing, and has never returned.

 

If the person was still playing, that would obviously be a completely different matter. However, it's simply not right for someone to be forced out of their name by someone who doesn't even play the game!

[Ansalem]

definitely want this. server xfers screwed me on every single character name I had. Many of the players havent even logged in! there is a lvl 43 character with my name that has never logged on for me to beg for the name.....please BW I want my names back!

[annabethchase]

I do not agree. People can be gone from the game for a lot of reasons (like military duty as one relevant example). People can be out of touch with the email address their account is tied to. Wiping character names so you can perhaps maybe possibly get your favorite name is inappropriate and selfish.

 

There is plenty of flexibility in naming in this game, so there are still plenty of names. It would be nice if it was as flexible as GW2, but it's not.. so we have what we have. Work with it IMO.

 

No, what was not appropriate was having no system to reward the loyal players with our own names in server merges. Based on personal experience I lost 80% of my names when that happened and many in my guild had the same situation. The fact that they don't wipe inactive names ever is laughably bad.

[annabethchase]

definitely want this. server xfers screwed me on every single character name I had. Many of the players havent even logged in! there is a lvl 43 character with my name that has never logged on for me to beg for the name.....please BW I want my names back!

 

That person likely hasn't played since Christmas vacation 2011. Help us out here Bioware, you're our only hope.

[dipstik]

i just want my names back

[JimG]

Naming policies need to be changed. Character names should not be unique. Legacy names should.

Well, that's not going to happen as originally legacy names were unique but they ended up changing that with the server merges. So I doubt that they will change that back. They really screwed the pooch with that one though. Having non-unique character names and unique legacy names would have been the way to go. Unique first names and non-unique last names makes no sense whatsoever except that they were stuck with duplicate legacy names with the forced server merges and, apparently, they figured that was the path of least resistance. Seems a little silly that there can only be one Luke on a server but hundreds of Skywalker legacies.

[Terin]

I completely agree that the existing structure just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It "works", sure, but not terribly well. By making Legacy-names unique, and allow Character-names to overlap, it would just solve a *LOT* of issues; in fact, practically all of them.

 

In any case, it's definitely messed-up how things turned out. Of course, I definitely tip my hat to BioWare's recent efforts, as we're definitely seeing some nice quality-of-life changes. Hopefully this is something they'll be able to consider working out in the coming months.

[Andryah]

Based on personal experience I lost 80% of my names when that happened and many in my guild had the same situation. The fact that they don't wipe inactive names ever is laughably bad.

 

Oh.. I'm absolutely positive that all lost character names are somehow on inactive characters, just waiting to be wiped so people can get their favorite names back. Yep yep.. definitely.

 

LOLZ

 

/end sarcasm.

 

Next time.. pick more unique names.. names not attempted by 20,000 people per name, names like Fred, and Ricky, and Pwnzer. Instead, pick names that are pretty unique, that you like, that you can use over and over again on different servers and even different MMOs with little chance of said name being taken....EVER.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Andryah

[DarthTHC]

Oh.. I'm absolutely positive that all lost character names are somehow on inactive characters, just waiting to be wiped so people can get their favorite names back. Yep yep.. definitely.

 

LOLZ

 

/end sarcasm.

 

Next time.. pick more unique names.. names not attempted by 20,000 people per name, names like Fred, and Ricky, and Pwnzer. Instead, pick names that are pretty unique, that you like, that you can use over and over again on different servers and even different MMOs with little chance of said name being taken....EVER.

 

I just want the name, Andryah.

[Dacce]

I do not support this.

 

Take for instance in WoW, which I haven't played for 4 years, I can re-sub and log in and I know I will still have my name on all my characters. it's something that should stay in the nether forever, or until they close the game down.

[Andryah]

I just want the name, Andryah.

 

Hehe... taken.

 

By the way... I have used that as a character name for more then 10 years on many MMOs on many servers, through server mergers and transfers, and never been unable to have/keep the name. I have about a dozen other character names that are simple yet unique as well and I've never had competition for the names.

 

Now.. my favorite names for commerce mules (ie: GTN alts) is Jan, and Nan.. and I did lose those through the server mergers.. but I got over it.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Andryah

[Corinthis]

After playing some of Cryptic's F2P mmos I wonder now why other mmos don't follow a similar style of naming rules.

 

Basically, names are set up in a <character name>@<user name> fashion with character names not being single-use restricted. Yes you'll see multiples of more popular, common or coincidental names, but at the same time loosing names to server merges, inactives or someone who just happened to get it first is a non-issue.

 

It would save a lot of headache for players who either get the "name in use" message or lost it due to inactivity, merges or something else. The devs would have less of a headache with server merges because no one's names would conflict with someone else who has it as well.

[Terin]

I do not support this.

 

Take for instance in WoW, which I haven't played for 4 years, I can re-sub and log in and I know I will still have my name on all my characters. it's something that should stay in the nether forever, or until they close the game down.

 

How is that any different than what happened to us Day-1 players, who had our names taken from us?

[Dacce]

How is that any different than what happened to us Day-1 players, who had our names taken from us?

 

So you want the other Day-1 player from a different server to have their name taken from them? The issue with SWTOR is that they created too many servers at the start. Then they had to merge them all together. I haven't lost any of my character names in any of my moves.

[annabethchase]

 

Next time.. pick more unique names.. names not attempted by 20,000 people per name, names like Fred, and Ricky, and Pwnzer. Instead, pick names that are pretty unique, that you like, that you can use over and over again on different servers and even different MMOs with little chance of said name being taken....EVER.

 

Umm, this game has the most names taken per server of any game ever. There are 21 servers supporting 500k subscribers who can have up to 22 names per subscriber. That's 500k names gone per server just that quick. Second you have all the prefered and f2p people taking at least a couple of names each. Then you have every inactive account ever created, which is millions more.

 

You literally couldn't run a phone book through a name filter and get more than a handful of acceptable results.