Time for another name purge

[SelinaH]

I'm all for a yearly name purge of un-paying accounts that don't log in.

Have we determined whether or not logging in should apply per character, or for the entire account? It's possible to have a case where a subscriber drops to Preferred and no longer has access to all his/her characters, but would still like to keep them intact.

 

Were I in this situation, I personally wouldn't find it too onerous or inconvenient simply to renew my sub for a single month out of every year in order to keep every character name safe. Is it reasonable to expect this of others?

[ScarletBlaze]

Have we determined whether or not logging in should apply per character, or for the entire account? It's possible to have a case where a subscriber drops to Preferred and no longer has access to all his/her characters, but would still like to keep them intact.

 

Were I in this situation, I personally wouldn't find it too onerous or inconvenient simply to renew my sub for a single month out of every year in order to keep every character name safe. Is it reasonable to expect this of others?

 

I would say for the entire account. I know I am a sub and there are times that I only log into specific toons for a while.

[branmakmuffin]

You don't need to write "you are a liar" or "you are lying" to imply that. Continuously doubting what someone is explaining or basing all your posts saying I did something I didn't is calling me a liar.

I indeed do not think you are lying. I just doubt your memory. Seems we actually agree on the basic premise (i.e., reclaim names of character belonging to non-subscribers that have not been logged in a year). Only wrinkle is what if someone is a subscriber for 11 months, does not log in (seems silly, but it's possible), then their sub lapses. Do their names get reclaimed 1 month later (12 months after last log in) or 12 months later (12 months after sub expires)?

Edited June 11, 2015 by branmakmuffin

[Lundorff]

In my language, anything starting with "kindly" sounds horribly condescending and rude, even if it's not meant this way. Funny, but I'm reading the same connotations here.

 

It was not intended as such here.

 

Have we determined whether or not logging in should apply per character, or for the entire account?

 

From my perspective it should be the entire account. Even if you are only active on one character you might still want to play the others at some later point in time. This would also be the easiest setup for the developers to implement

[Ratajack]

I agree! And this time don't restrict to only people below level 30... I was forced to name change when the big server merges occurred and I almost stopped playing if a friend did not convinced me to play. And I also now that the "guy" who has my name still is a level 31 since that time and I've never seen him online since he is on my friends list, I even sent him a in-game mail offering to give him what he wants to delete his character making that name available for me and I got no response. All this probably means he doesn't play anymore or at the very least that he doesn't play that character. So if you do this please take away the names of all the characters that aren't logged in not just those that are below level 30. If a person is in fact a subscriber they can log in once a month in a character to prevent them from loosing the name.

 

This sounds a lot like "BW, I know my coveted name will not be freed if you use the same, very fair criteria that you used for the last name purge, so you need to change the criteria so that I can have the name I want."

 

I will support another name purge as it have been a while since the last name purge. I believe that they should use the same criteria that they used in the previous name purge, though. I see no compelling reason to change the criteria and changing the criteria will only lead to more demands for subsequent name purges with even looser criteria because Johnny didn't get his precious name.

[AdrianDmitruk]

Hey, look, it's yet another Name Purge QQ thread! There was another one of these floating around just the day before, seriously. Perhaps it is time for Bioware to implement a more permanent, elegant solution. Allow a space and a second capital letter immediately thereafter when naming a character. Voila, surnames and exponentially more permutations of a name you want, without having to resort to ugly-*** special characters that make it harder to be social in an MMO (i.e. other people not being able to whisper/mail/otherwise contact you easily and such).

 

So simple. EVE Online does this. I've never had a problem naming characters there. It doesn't have any the privacy burdens of @account handle crap.

 

Do this, suddenly there's no reason for a name purge. If you can't come up with a unique first/last name combination, you really are lazy. I can kind of understand the frustration of having to try 20 times to be able to name your character, and ending up with something not close to what you want, but character naming need not be that frustrating.

 

Bioware, eliminate the source of the QQ and whining once and for all. No, I don't mean actioning the whiners. I mean improving your game to eliminate the source of the whining.

 

This sounds a lot like "BW, I know my coveted name will not be freed if you use the same, very fair criteria that you used for the last name purge, so you need to change the criteria so that I can have the name I want."

 

I will support another name purge as it have been a while since the last name purge. I believe that they should use the same criteria that they used in the previous name purge, though. I see no compelling reason to change the criteria and changing the criteria will only lead to more demands for subsequent name purges with even looser criteria because Johnny didn't get his precious name.

 

This. So much this. I oppose character name purges, because they won't solve the root of the problem. Only an improvement of the naming system can do that.

 

P.S. I've experienced both sides of the issue. I have some no doubt coveted names from launch (or close to it), i.e. Adrian, Andreus, some names I've had to slightly misspell later on, i.e. Darrien, and some names I just had to completely make the fook up after about 20 tries (ended up getting one of those baby name books for this, and usually I'll end up around the 7th permutation of the 4th or 5th name I'm trying if I'm stuck). I do find the primitive naming system a minor irritant/deterrent to creating more alts so I would like to see it improved.

Edited June 11, 2015 by AdrianDmitruk

[Savej]

I'm all for a purge of sorts. But only change someone's name to a rename-now gibberish code if someone else claims the unused name. If not the original holder should still see his name if/when he decides to play again.

 

Obviously the best option is to change the naming system, but until that's close to ready, let's free up my character names on servers I had to transfer to since the servers I got merged to and had decent names on are currently mostly dead.

[branmakmuffin]

Obviously the best option is to change the naming system, but until that's close to ready, let's free up my character names on servers I had to transfer to since the servers I got merged to and had decent names on are currently mostly dead.

So this is all about you getting the names you want. And if the servers are "mostly dead" that means they are still going and any name change requirements are your own doing since you appear to have chosen to move a character or characters to another server.

[Savej]

So this is all about you getting the names you want. And if the servers are "mostly dead" that means they are still going and any name change requirements are your own doing since you appear to have chosen to move a character or characters to another server.

 

Holy crap... I'm going to assume you're trolling me, BM. If not you need to get off that high horse.

 

Basically:

Of course I want names purged so -I- can play on the server -I- want to play with the name I want to play on - on that score I doubt I'm alone but I don't pretend to speak for others. (Btw, I've got over 20 55+ characters on TEH and Harb - but the names I started the game with and had on not-fun-for-me-anymore servers are neither being used nor are they available)

 

Why the outrage?

Edited June 11, 2015 by Savej

[branmakmuffin]

Of course I want names purged so -I- can play on the server -I- want to play with the name I want to play on - on that score I doubt I'm alone but I don't pretend to speak for others.

If you voluntarily transfer to another server and your name of choice is taken, that's no one's fault but your own. If and when they do another name purge and the name you want is freed up, great. But they don't owe you any special treatment (which seems to be what you are implying you want).

 

Why the outrage?

You're the outraged one. You tell me.

Edited June 11, 2015 by branmakmuffin

[Lundorff]

Bump.

[Lundorff]

Any word on this yet? I just tried to create a new character on TOFN and the best name I could find was "all'names'taken"

 

But seriously...

[Icestar]

Any word on this yet?

 

No word about this. If they do a name purge it will probably be close to the expansion, it seems like a good time to do it with lots of new players heading in to try the game.