Character Name Purge with Folks not Playing Anymore

[TaylaEwa]

It still boggles my mind why they would have made Legacy names not unique, but made character names unique.. Each person is only allowed to have 1 legacy per server, thus keeping the "naming pool" rather wide. As opposed to where everyone can tie up 12 or more names.. frankly, you're going to run out of names faster that way.

 

I personally hate putting special characters into names.. they aren't easily available via my keyboard. I have to memorize random alt+ codes that I never use elsewhere. Why? I have to take roundabout ways of inviting people who put special characters in their names.. especially if the right click option isn't working for some reason.

[Khevar]

Unfortunately, yes they are, in my opinion. That is the name they chose and were permitted to keep. If that character was not deleted and still exists, even if not played, then the name belongs to that character. It stinks for those that want that name, though, I agree.

 

I have characters that I would like to rename back to their original names, but cannot because the name is unavailable, as well. That does not give me the right to ask that another player be forced to change the names of any of their characters, even if that character is only a banker or mule, or has not been played in 9 months.

Interesting.

 

In a multiplayer game with a unique commodity (e.g. a name) I think that the player that throws the name in the garbage should allow it to be recycled. And remember, I'm not complaining about a personal name change -- I still have all my toon's original names through two server merges.

 

If a name can only ever be used once, and I'm not going to use it anymore, it would seem fair for that name to be available to another.

 

When the first Guild Wars came out ages ago, I bought it and tried it for about half a day before I got bored and never played it again. If I logged back into GW and found that name taken, it wouldn't bother me. It's been EIGHT YEARS since I made that toon and abandoned it. I think it's silly to expect that name to stay reserved after all that time.

[DarthTHC]

Until you delete the character. It's not up to Bioware to decide when you've "not played enough" to meet their standards. If someone took the name you want then either you should have picked it earlier or you can damn well make up a new one.

 

I can't be troubled to go back and delete those characters. I simply don't care enough to download the games, install them, figure out what my old authentication information was for them, and then delete the toons.

 

But it sure would be nice if Turbine freed up those names in case anyone wants them.

[AshlaBoga]

The character with the name I want is level 10 and hasn't done squat since I friended them last summer.

 

But I don't think it's unreasonable to release name from accounts that have been inactive since last year or longer.

 

I'd go further than that. If someone is preferred they get 6 months to log on a toon and F2P get 3 months. That way if someone is gone for 4 months and has spent less than $5 on SWTOR, then the name they took is available for those of us who have been playing for over a year and a half and lost a name.

[AshlaBoga]

Until you delete the character. It's not up to Bioware to decide when you've "not played enough" to meet their standards. If someone took the name you want then either you should have picked it earlier or you can damn well make up a new one.

 

Example:

Player buys Character Slot unlocks. Makes 20 toons per every server. Leaves and never comes back.

 

So those 240 names should never be used by any other player, ever?

 

Seems a bit unfair if that guy never comes back.

 

Again, we're not suggesting that if someone unsubbs for a month their names becomes useable. We're suggesting that if someone is unsubbed for 6-12 months we can take their name. If someone is gone for a year they're probably not coming back.

[schmel]

Like from Watership Down!

I also thought of watership down. getting a name that no one else has thought of can actually be pretty hard if it doesn't include special characters.

[Kubernetic]

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.

 

As someone who's about to disappear from the rolls of subscribers in 6 days, I'd be okay with this with the following stipulations:

 

1) There needs to be at least a 12 month period where your account can lay inactive (no logins at all) before this even becomes possible.

2) Even a single login to the game, for however long, on even one toon, should reset this 12 month timer.

3) When the 12 months has expired with no logins, you should receive an email from the game that warns you that your account has been inactive for a certain amount of time, and that you need to log in in order to keep your account "fresh".

4) You should then be given anywhere from 3-6 months after this first warning email before the actual change of name occurs.

5) You should receive a second warning email 30 days before the change occurs.

6) You should be sent one final email 7 days before the change occurs.

 

Otherwise, I agree with many of the other posters. I have had to change maybe one name through all of the mergers. Some people should perhaps choose more unique names. There can only be one "Dave" per server.

[AshlaBoga]

As someone who's about to disappear from the rolls of subscribers in 6 days, I'd be okay with this with the following stipulations:

 

1) There needs to be at least a 12 month period where your account can lay inactive (no logins at all) before this even becomes possible.

2) Even a single login to the game, for however long, on even one toon, should reset this 12 month timer.

3) When the 12 months has expired with no logins, you should receive an email from the game that warns you that your account has been inactive for a certain amount of time, and that you need to log in in order to keep your account "fresh".

4) You should then be given anywhere from 3-6 months after this first warning email before the actual change of name occurs.

5) You should receive a second warning email 30 days before the change occurs.

6) You should be sent one final email 7 days before the change occurs.

 

Otherwise, I agree with many of the other posters. I have had to change maybe one name through all of the mergers. Some people should perhaps choose more unique names. There can only be one "Dave" per server.

 

You're suggesting that a person would get +14 months of not logging into SWTOR before their name was no longer saved. That seems to ignore the Sub v. F2P issue.

 

For someone who stays subbed I think letting them keep the name as long as they keep paying seems equitable. For a F2P I'd suggest that they only get 3 months with an email 1 week prior. And for Preferred players 6 months seems fair.

 

Treating the Subbed players the same a F2P player doesn't seem fair.

[FeelFlow]

I think that bioware need to implement a middle name or some other option so that you can have note than one unique first name per server.

[Kubernetic]

You're suggesting that a person would get +14 months of not logging into SWTOR before their name was no longer saved. That seems to ignore the Sub v. F2P issue.

 

For someone who stays subbed I think letting them keep the name as long as they keep paying seems equitable. For a F2P I'd suggest that they only get 3 months with an email 1 week prior. And for Preferred players 6 months seems fair.

 

Treating the Subbed players the same a F2P player doesn't seem fair.

 

You convinced me.

 

No names removed from anyone. Once it's yours, it's yours until you change it.

[AshlaBoga]

You convinced me.

 

No names removed from anyone. Once it's yours, it's yours until you change it.

 

I disagree with your idea. There are several hundred thousand people who aren't coming back to this game. Their names shouldn't be unavailable just because they decided to quit.

[Merwanor]

You can not purge names of people that is not playing, they may return later and if someone just took their name, that would make people very angry. I often take breaks for a few months from games like these, but I always return. Had someone just taken my name without asking me like that, I would not be pleased at all. You did not get the name you wanted, you just have to deal with that.

 

What they should do instead is make the legacy name unique, and let us use whatever first name we want. I still think it is weird that we still have online games where there cant exist more than one person with the same name.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Merwanor

[Stryges]

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.

 

You really are an unpleasant individual. You go on and on about how those who complain shouldn't presume on the motives of the company or assume how others enjoy or play the game. Yet here you are presuming that everyone had a common name like DarthPwner and lost it.

 

What people are asking for is not unusual or out of line. This is done in other MMO's. I do not think there should be a purge, but prudent examination by the support staff of requests could result in a higher level satisfaction for subscribers. My name was lost due to server mergers. A name I picked during head start. It reduced my interest in the game. I took a break for a while and came back (as a subscriber) but I found that not having the name reduced my attachment to the character and hence reduced my desire to play the game. In the end, for subscribers, attachment to particular characters and their (imaginary) placement in the Star Wars mythos is one of the few things this game really has going for it right now.

[Stryges]

I don't believe you. There isn't a game out there that will take your character name off you if you aren't playing for an extended period of time. SWTOR is the only one that made "Forced" changes like this because of their server merge. honestly, be thankful they didn't charge you for a paid character transfer like every other game would have.

 

 

You are wrong. On WoW, a name on an account inactive for an extended period of time will be opened up if you submit a ticket and ask. This happened for me, ironically for the name I has for my SWTOR character before the mergers.

 

So, you are wrong.

 

In addition, as many of the apologists on these forums like to remind people, as players, we don't actually own anything. Not the name, not the character, not anything. Bioware can (and has in the past) change its policy regarding anything at any time with little or no warning. The irony here is that those who are mocking the complainers for being angry about things like changing the wording on customization so Bioware could charge subscribers are many of the people in this thread saying that name release shouldn't happen because of player rights and precedents.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Stryges

[Beltane]

All they need to do is to have it be like WoW's system.

 

You can petition to have names cleared in WoW via a low-priority ticket. When CSRs have time they look into it and clear the name ONLY if it meets certain criteria to be deleted.

 

For example, a level 50 character should not be renamed even if the person has been gone for a year.

But a level 5 that sat there for a year should be, if the person hasn't logged in at all for that year.

A level 5 on an active player's account should be protected.

 

I had a "popular" name cleared so I could use it in WoW last year, but since I'm not playing anymore, I fully understand I no longer have claim to that name if someone else submits a ticket and I meet the criteria for renaming.

 

I'm still pissed about losing the name that I created within 10 minutes of servers going live on the first day of early access due to forced server transfers. I preordered just to get that name, and the person who has it doesn't play. How do they have more right to it than me when I've had an active account since launch? My sin is just not having the foresight to make it on the server that wound up being merged into.

 

They could fix this by making it like GW2's system: Let us have spaces in our names, with capitals. Then we could make first and last names.

 

I will say this... I'm a RPer and I tend to go for pretty unique names, but lately when I want to make a character I have to try 10 variations with increasingly weird spellings before I find anything at all that's free. It's really annoying.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Beltane

[Kubernetic]

I disagree with your idea. There are several hundred thousand people who aren't coming back to this game. Their names shouldn't be unavailable just because they decided to quit.

 

Oh well. Find a new one! Plenty of names left in the book, Grtzlbpper!

[JPryde]

Give each name a 2 week grace period PER LEVEL !

 

A lvl 1 char would then need to login at least every two weeks to keep its name... A lvl 10 char already would have 20 weeks, which is almost half a year.

A lvl 50 char would have 100 weeks, which is longer than the game is in existance so far.

 

Logging in just once would reset the timer and even if the timer has run out, the name is not automatically removed but only "on parole".

 

If you delete a char, the name stays locked to your account for another day, so you can safely recreate with the same name that you already had.

 

(Anarchy Online was doing name sweeps in the past with several warnings ahead.. automated mails would do just fine.)

[Beltane]

(Anarchy Online was doing name sweeps in the past with several warnings ahead.. automated mails would do just fine.)

 

This is a great idea. If they gave a month or two of advanced notice, that's plenty of time for people to log in to their account if they care at all about their names considering the game is free.

 

And for the people who couldn't log in for a few months due to military service or something like that, well, I'd hope they would have been able to log in once in the past year if they were still interested, and I would hope TOR would only clear names that were a year+ inactive.

[mavsynchroid]

People who have the names should get to keep them, regardless of playtime/inactivity. You playing mor/more recently doesn give you a right to what they made before you. Its pointless to ask for this. I'd bet anything bioware will not do this.

 

Seriously guys, think up some new original names.

[Stryges]

People who have the names should get to keep them, regardless of playtime/inactivity. You playing mor/more recently doesn give you a right to what they made before you. Its pointless to ask for this. I'd bet anything bioware will not do this.

 

Seriously guys, think up some new original names.

 

This is frankly a baseless argument. We have no rights to anything. Just what Bioware decides.

 

Also, why would Bioware refuse to do something that other MMO's do?

[Kubernetic]

Look, we all know how this plays out. Want to keep your name forever?

 

That'll be 980 Cartel Coins... Thank you, please come again.

[Cernow]

Players take breaks from games for all kinds of reasons - work, family, health, financial. If there is a likelihood that their names will be gone when they came back, for reasons other than server mergers, then do you think they're going to be pleased and want to re-subscribe?

 

If you've made it to maximum level your name should be secure forever, regardless of activity. Period.

 

There's perhaps an argument for purging low level characters (under level 10) if they haven't been logged in for a year.

 

Ideally Bioware should adopt a different system where players can have whatever display name they want, but a hidden 'personal' identifier which can be used when unique identification is required. Perhaps they don't do this because they know the servers will fill up with iconic SW names and their butchered derivatives.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Cernow

[Ratajack]

I can't be troubled to go back and delete those characters. I simply don't care enough to download the games, install them, figure out what my old authentication information was for them, and then delete the toons.

 

But it sure would be nice if Turbine freed up those names in case anyone wants them.

 

If a person truly wanted their names to be available for another player to use, then they would take the time to do what is necessary to make those names available, and not just hope that someone else does.

[Ratajack]

Interesting.

 

In a multiplayer game with a unique commodity (e.g. a name) I think that the player that throws the name in the garbage should allow it to be recycled. And remember, I'm not complaining about a personal name change -- I still have all my toon's original names through two server merges.

 

If a name can only ever be used once, and I'm not going to use it anymore, it would seem fair for that name to be available to another.

 

When the first Guild Wars came out ages ago, I bought it and tried it for about half a day before I got bored and never played it again. If I logged back into GW and found that name taken, it wouldn't bother me. It's been EIGHT YEARS since I made that toon and abandoned it. I think it's silly to expect that name to stay reserved after all that time.

 

Some people leave a game and never go back, true. Some people prefer to leave their options open, though. Just because one person would not care if their name had been taken after a year or two years or even 8 years, that does not mean that everyone would be okay if they came back after an extended time and found their names taken.

 

Let's say you have a vacation home on a lake in a very popular area. You spend every summer there for 8 years, but then for whatever reason, you don't get up there for a few years. Wouldn't you be extremely upset if you went back to that vacation home after 4 years away and found that someone was now living in it using the excuse "obviously you no longer wanted since you hadn't been there in years."

 

It is only a virtual name and technically is not owned by the nameholder, I know, but it is still something that "belongs" to a person. The principle is the same.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Ratajack

[ivanhedgehog]

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.

 

time for the monthly "waaaa some one took the name Luke Skywalker and I wants it!!!!!!!!" gimmie nao!!!!!!

 

That is someone elses toy Timmie...find your own