By contacting a GM, can you have them free-up a character name?

[AlienEyeTX]

Simple fact is though. This is normal for an MMO. Character name has always been a problem. Some games have used the solution where the only unique game had to be your "last name" or similar and than you could make any first name you want.

 

Since they made the change to Legacy names, this game just works the opposite of this^.

 

In hindsight, it would have been nice for them to grant the legacy name from start, make that one the unique one, and let people use whatever first name they want.

 

Oh well.

[ninjonxb]

Since they made the change to Legacy names, this game just works the opposite of this^.

 

In hindsight, it would have been nice for them to grant the legacy name from start, make that one the unique one, and let people use whatever first name they want.

 

Oh well.

 

Making the legacy system work like this (ignoring the fact that they are no longer unique) would have required a fairly significant change to how you message someone and how you identify someone.

 

I never fully understood why they made the decision to not just give you the legacy name from the beginning. But I have heard some people say since launch that they have moved it much earlier in the game for when you unlock your legacy name.

[Aries_cz]

You can add the name to friend list, it will show up if it exists.

 

Still, I am not complaining I lost the name (just annoyed by it a bit, as coming up with a new internet handle (sue me, I want my main to use my internet name) after all that time is hard), I solved it by adding apostrophe to it, and it works fine (adding accent would work as well).

Still, when it is obvious that the player is not playing, and nobody ever heard of him, Iit just gets annoying even more so.

So, adding some policy, which would, assuming some condition be fulfilled, like "char not logged in in last 3 month", sent email to the owner of the account, informing him that his name will be forfeit unless he logs in, would not be as stupid as some people say here.

I guess it could only work for subs, F2Ps would get "invalidated" without email notice

[Icebergy]

The fact that they forced us to use our Display Name instead of emails hopefully means they are working on @handles, or some other form to allow players to have duplicate names on the server..

 

WHY IS THIS SOMETHING YOU WANT? You want other people to have the same name as you? You want people to be able to ruin your rep by having the same name and acting foolish?

 

Terrible idea. The system is fine as is. Be more creative with your names.

 

EDIT: I would be in favor of the idea that, if a character has not been logged in for three months or whatever, you could petition to Bioware to have it changed. As long as the person who owns the name is given a chance to respond first.

Edited June 27, 2013 by Icebergy

[Skodan]

Gasp!

 

They're most likely not playing anymore! Remember that like over 70% of the players left around a month or two after the game's launch!

 

But really, they would most likely not miss the name because there's a 99% chance they quit the game.

 

Gasp!!! maybe they dont have the expansion so they are stuck at 50

[Andryah]

Still, when it is obvious that the player is not playing, and nobody ever heard of him, Iit just gets annoying even more so.

 

The problem is... there is no way to tell this from a player level view.

 

I have characters on my account I have not played in months. But I play the game every day. I still want and value those characters.. it's just that I like rolling alts and I can only work one alt at a time. These characters I have not played in a while are in various stages of development and I reserve the right to play whichever one I want, whenever I want.

 

That said.... none of them are named Fred or Jan. With just a couple of exceptions, my names have survived multiple server merges, probably because I learned years ago to develop names that I like and enjoy but are not common and unlikely to be taken, or in my case be held such that someone else covets the name(s). These are names I have successfully reused as I move from MMO to MMO, and even when I join an MMO late, I rarely find a name collision...and when I do.. I don't demand the name be freed up.. I adapt and adjust because I respect that someone else used the name before I wanted it.

Edited June 27, 2013 by Andryah

[Aries_cz]

The problem is... there is no way to tell this from a player level view.

 

I have characters on my account I have not played in months. But I play the game every day. I still want and value those characters.. it's just that I like rolling alts and I can only work one alt at a time. These characters I have not played in a while are in various stages of development and I reserve the right to play whichever one I want, whenever I want.

 

That said.... none of them are named Fred or Jan. With just a couple of exceptions, my names have survived multiple server merges, probably because I learned years ago to develop names that I like and enjoy but are not common and unlikely to be taken, or in my case be held such that someone else covets the name(s). These are names I have successfully reused as I move from MMO to MMO, and even when I join an MMO late, I rarely find a name collision...and when I do.. I don't demand the name be freed up.. I adapt and adjust because I respect that someone else used the name before I wanted it.

 

I am not demanding it free, I accepted the morphed name I used after merge. I often use other unique names for my characters, but I do like my main to have "my" internet name.

All I am saying is that a system that would purge names that are not used would help a lot. It could be based on a number of things. Basing on level would not make any sense, but on "last played" would. So, three months not played = email alerting you that the character will be renamed unless you log in.

 

In my case, I tried to contact the other player, many times, simply exploring the possibility if he would be willing to relinquish the name, but got no reply (not even a simple No). I even tried asking here, in server forums, if someone knew some other characters of this player, so that I might contact him, but nobody knew anything...

[ptwonline]

WHY IS THIS SOMETHING YOU WANT? You want other people to have the same name as you? You want people to be able to ruin your rep by having the same name and acting foolish?

 

Terrible idea. The system is fine as is. Be more creative with your names.

 

EDIT: I would be in favor of the idea that, if a character has not been logged in for three months or whatever, you could petition to Bioware to have it changed. As long as the person who owns the name is given a chance to respond first.

 

You could identify people by a handle instead of individual character names. Or perhaps make the name field longer so that you could realistically give yourself a last name or an extra description. Yes it can be abused, but people do seem to like it because they can almost always get the name they want with slight additions or variations.

 

Name issues and complaints come up every week on these forums. Know how many name issues and complaints there are in, say, GW2? Very few. In that game you have 19 characters to use for your name, can use spaces, and can even for a reasonable fee (in gems) re-name your character. it's only really an issue for players who refuse to use last names. Overall it's a much better system.

 

Or the Star Trek Online @name system. Some people don't like seeing that @name, but it does mean everyone gets the name they want, and are much happier than eventually having to resort practically to random combinations of vowels and consonants just to get something unused.

 

The last character I made took me about 20 minutes to find an unused name, and after the first few minutes none of the names I was trying was anything that I knew from literature, mythology, everyday use, or other languages, or common words, or variations of any of those. Really, it's getting ridiculous, and I have zero attachment to the names my neewer characters have now because they are basically so random out of necessity.

[Overmannus]

I made a new alt yesterday. it accepted my chosen name on 1st try.

 

Stop using movies/books/common personal names/etc as guidline for names and you should be ok...

[Andryah]

All I am saying is that a system that would purge names that are not used would help a lot. It could be based on a number of things. Basing on level would not make any sense, but on "last played" would. So, three months not played = email alerting you that the character will be renamed unless you log in.

 

There is no fair approach to this, because there are many reasons why a character might "appear" dormant, which has nothing to do with the actual activity of the player account. I get that you have a preferred approach, but it's not your game and there are a million other active players in the game right now. Any scheme applied, would be deemed unfair by some players.

 

I'm not being harsh or dismissive.... but move on. The desire to have a GM take a name away by force is inappropriate in any scenario IMO, as is any "automated" scheme to do it by bot.

 

Character names inside MMOs are not entitlements, and they are not possessions. They are personal desires.

Edited June 27, 2013 by Andryah

[Aries_cz]

There is no fair approach to this, because there are many reasons why a character might "appear" dormant, which has nothing to do with the actual activity of the player account. I get that you have a preferred approach, but it's not your game and there are a million other active players in the game right now. Any scheme applied, would be deemed unfair by some players.

 

I'm not being harsh or dismissive.... but move on. The desire to have a GM take a name away by force is inappropriate in any scenario IMO, as is any "automated" scheme to do it by bot.

 

Character names inside MMOs are not entitlements, and they are not possessions. They are personal desires.

 

That is why I suggested sending an automated email, telling you what will happen, not outright "invalidation". If you did not play in last three months, I think it can be safely assumed that character is not played (most people at least log in to craft). However, if you log in after the email, all is well, no character names get removed, life goes on...

 

I never claimed any entitlement to my old name or anything like that (as I said, I got used to the morphed name, and I acknowledged that it was not particularly imaginative), just throwing around idea(s) how the system could (not saying should) work.

[Jrea]

They really need to free up some names from Defunct accounts, the higher server populations and multiple character slots have made naming new characters very difficult.

 

I can only imagine how many names are still tied up from that 1 month free trial at the game launch.

 

I would be nice to add in a couple of new servers too.

Edited June 27, 2013 by Jrea

[branmakmuffin]

@handles and this whole name problem becomes a non-issue. Shouldn't launch a MMO without them in my opinion. Love being able to ignore entire accounts as well, priceless.

Where's the "@handle" come from? The account name? I don't want players in the game knowing my account name.

 

This whole "running out of names" is a total non-issue. As others have stated, if people would exercise a little creativity and not say "I have to name all my MMO mains the same thing," they wouldn't have any problems.

Edited June 27, 2013 by branmakmuffin

[Aries_cz]

They really need to free up some names from Defunct accounts, the higher server populations and multiple character slots have made naming new characters very difficult.

 

I can only imagine how many names are still tied up from that 1 month free trial at the game launch.

 

I would be nice to add in a couple of new servers too.

 

Adding servers is not a good idea. they tried it at launch, it lead to ghost town servers, which lead to people leaving

[MSchuyler]

All MMO's?

Is there a reverse process or check process? What's the point of a my free name change. If the name I want is already taken.

 

Because it's not all about you. It's about giving one free name change to everyone who can use it if they can. I was very happy to be able to get it. My first toon was named by BW and was inherently unpronounceable. I had tried several names that were already taken and finally gave up. Now that I'm a little more organized I used the free name change to convert this one character to my "new" naming schema. So it worked for me very nicely.

 

Sorry it didn't work for you.

[Revenaught]

Gasp!

 

They're most likely not playing anymore! Remember that like over 70% of the players left around a month or two after the game's launch!

 

But really, they would most likely not miss the name because there's a 99% chance they quit the game.

 

Dude! At least have the courtesy of wiping those stats off after pulling them out before using them.

[SithEmpress]

I for one would be very unhappy if my name was taken; I’m still an active player but some of my character are still on the starter world. I plan to play them but I haven’t gotten to them yet. Why should I lose my name just because I’m taking my time?

 

There are many reason people might not play a character for a long time, they could be out town like soliders on deployment. Either way, they have right to the name just like you. I might be able to support if an account drop to F2P and hasn’t been logged into in six month, then letting player take the names but if they pay a sub they shouldn’t have to worry about losing a name.

 

I know it sad, I lost a handful of names in both transfer but it wouldn’t be fair to the other player to take it just because I want it. It would have been nice if they done first and last name, I even suggested they added that back in beta, but it didn’t happen. Last saying no good names are left isn’t true I just made two new Cather on Ebon Hawk and Harbinger a few weeks ago, didn’t have a problem naming either. Like other said, be creative us baby name generators, some even give you variation of the same name spelling.

Edited June 27, 2013 by SithEmpress

[MrJurgens]

Why do you think they most likely not playing anymore? My Agent was level 50 before Makeb and is still level 50. I guess that signifies I don't play anymore?

 

I never understood all the crying about "I can't get my name, I'm gonna quit". I lost my main's name and a couple other names during server transfers. Was I upset? Yes. Did I quit? No. I picked different names and continued on. Get over it. Taking names from people (even if they no longer play) is not fair. Has any other MMO ever done that before?

That doesn't signify you don't play anymore, but it just might signify you don't play that specific character anymore. An easy way to make sure your name isn't taken from you is that you get an email from SWTOR Support saying that if you don't log into that character in X amount of days, your name will be free for anyone else to take.

 

No, I'm not going to get over it. I'm not an RP'er, but my names are something I really care about. This isn't my first MMO, but I didn't plan accordingly with names. Some I took that I really like, and there are others I'd rather swap out (but I don't hate them). There's only one I really, really want to swap out.

 

As for other MMOs that have done this, League of Legends is one game that does it. Many MMOs have done it. It's fair, and it can be easily implemented.

 

Gasp!!! maybe they dont have the expansion so they are stuck at 50

Highly unlikely. Added this name I wanted, and he/she is still on Corellia.

 

Go figure.

 

Dude! At least have the courtesy of wiping those stats off after pulling them out before using them.

What?

[Darev]

There's no reason for Bioware to implement any sort of "forced name change" policy and every reason for them to keep things as they currently are.

 

If a player was a subscription player and stops playing/paying the account goes f2p automatically...technically still an 'active' account even if it isn't used. If the player chose his/her name because it meant something to him/her (regardless of where the name came from...imagination/tv/movies/etc) then likely they'll want to keep it on the off chance they decide to play again.

 

While I understand this and accept it, I'm on the losing side of that equation.

 

I pre-ordered this game SPECIFICALLY to get early access as soon as possible because I knew the names I wanted would be in "High Demand" (Scully/Mulder/Elora.....names for toons I had in SWG for years). Unluckily for me, the servers I DID manage to get those names on were ones that were closed down during the forced server transfers and I was unable to get any of them...they had been long claimed on the servers that my toons were transferred from. The only Scully toon I had was leveled up to 50 when the transfer hit that server.

 

(Having an 'Agent Scully' & an 'Agent Mulder' on the same server was a goal of mine I never got to see through)

 

It sucks, but the reality of it is that it is first come first serve.

 

I keep checking to see if someone deleted any of those names on a few servers...so far that's been in vain.

[Kurokage]

Dude! At least have the courtesy of wiping those stats off after pulling them out before using them.

Oh I'm going to have to remember that one. Much funnier than just saying it outright.

 

It's not that hard to pick a name you like that is unique. It's the people who pick common names (and by common names I mean everything from historical figures to gods of any living or dead religion to canon Star Wars characters and so on...) that often end up not getting the name they want.

 

Personally, I always pick names from some of my favorite (if somewhat obscure) fantasy novels. I almost always get my first choice by doing that.

[partylikeaturtle]

An easy way to make sure your name isn't taken from you is that you get an email from SWTOR Support saying that if you don't log into that character in X amount of days, your name will be free for anyone else to take.

 

This is a bad idea. I never check the email address associated with my SWTOR account. Why should I need to or be forced to when I log into the game itself every day?

You can see in my sig that I have two Imperials still at level 50. I haven't used those two characters since before 2.0 was released, and I still won't for awhile longer. Since those characters have been sitting still for so long, surely I don't care about them and wouldn't mind if someone else took the names away from me, right? Wrong. I am trying to play through all of the class stories before I go back and start using those characters again, but I do certainly intend to go back and play those characters up to 55 and use them in endgame content. But going through all the Republic class stories takes time. Enough time for your proposed system to automatically take my names away from me, even though I am an active player with every intention to keep and use those names. Just stop.

[AshlaBoga]

Gasp!

 

They're most likely not playing anymore! Remember that like over 70% of the players left around a month or two after the game's launch!

 

But really, they would most likely not miss the name because there's a 99% chance they quit the game.

 

That's what I've been saying!

 

We had 1.7 million players subbed at the end of December 2011.

We have less than 500k subbed now. That's over 1.2 million players who unsubbed.

 

If someone hasn't played the game since October 2012 shouldn't the passage of a year (October 2013) be sufficient time to log onto their account? I'm not talking about them resubbing, just logging on their account on ANY toon.

[Tronc]

WHY IS THIS SOMETHING YOU WANT? You want other people to have the same name as you? You want people to be able to ruin your rep by having the same name and acting foolish?

 

Terrible idea. The system is fine as is. Be more creative with your names.

 

EDIT: I would be in favor of the idea that, if a character has not been logged in for three months or whatever, you could petition to Bioware to have it changed. As long as the person who owns the name is given a chance to respond first.

 

They won't have the same name as me. But I will have the name I want. As done in GW2, NWO, CO, STO and others. Your @handle is hidden by default. Meaning that I could have the name Legolas@Tronc and you could have Legolas@Icebergy. In general chat yes it would look like there are two Legolas (Legolasi?) but in effect our names are our Character name and our Display name. This has the added benefit that no matter what toon I'm on my friends can always find me and chat. It also has the added benefit of people no longer hiding behind alts (on the same account) for the purposes of trolling. So I can see why some people might be against this.

 

I think ripping a name off someone is a terrible idea. Even though they rip guild leader ownership if the leader is inactive for 4 weeks. Meaning if you go away for extended periods you have to trust that whoever you give leadership to, or it falls on, has the decency to give it back. So I guess it's not totally against there line of thought as stupid as that is.

 

Because it's not all about you. It's about giving one free name change to everyone who can use it if they can. I was very happy to be able to get it. My first toon was named by BW and was inherently unpronounceable. I had tried several names that were already taken and finally gave up. Now that I'm a little more organized I used the free name change to convert this one character to my "new" naming schema. So it worked for me very nicely.

 

Sorry it didn't work for you.

 

I haven't used my free name change. Nor do I need too. I am simply asking questions for clarification on this poor naming convention that this game uses. The point is if I/you/we/it use the name change feature and the name(s) I/you/we/it want are taken. Then does it just roll back to the previous name or does it use the token/CC?

 

 

Where's the "@handle" come from? The account name? I don't want players in the game knowing my account name.

 

This whole "running out of names" is a total non-issue. As others have stated, if people would exercise a little creativity and not say "I have to name all my MMO mains the same thing," they wouldn't have any problems.

 

Umm we already do Branmakmuffin. By using your handle as part of the unique identifier (which it already is on the forums) you could have the name Legolas@Branmakmuffin and I to could have the name Legolas@Tronc. The only reason I see for people to want to stay anonymous is for enmity.

[DarkDisturbed]

That's what I've been saying!

 

We had 1.7 million players subbed at the end of December 2011.

We have less than 500k subbed now. That's over 1.2 million players who unsubbed.

 

If someone hasn't played the game since October 2012 shouldn't the passage of a year (October 2013) be sufficient time to log onto their account? I'm not talking about them resubbing, just logging on their account on ANY toon.

 

You're exactly right, plenty of games do this and SWTOR should follow suit.

[Daynna]

I am not demanding it free, I accepted the morphed name I used after merge. I often use other unique names for my characters, but I do like my main to have "my" internet name.

All I am saying is that a system that would purge names that are not used would help a lot. It could be based on a number of things. Basing on level would not make any sense, but on "last played" would. So, three months not played = email alerting you that the character will be renamed unless you log in.

 

In my case, I tried to contact the other player, many times, simply exploring the possibility if he would be willing to relinquish the name, but got no reply (not even a simple No). I even tried asking here, in server forums, if someone knew some other characters of this player, so that I might contact him, but nobody knew anything...

 

I'm going to have to disagree with you here. For one thing a lot of people lost names they were attached to or had been using for years. When Canderous Ordo was moved to Jedi Covenant, I lost 2 names that I had been using in SWG for several years. You know what I did, I moved on. It sucks but that's how they set the naming system up in this game.

 

As for sending out an email saying you will lose your name after 3 months, that's probably not going to fly very well either. Why you may ask? Members of the military on deployment are gone for 6 months to a year or longer. Or how about people whose homes have been destroyed and lives turned upside down due to acts of nature, like the tornadoes that hit the Oklahoma City area. Something tells me it would take longer than 3 months to be able to deal with something like a name in a video game.