Controversial - Remove names from inactive accounts

[KaiserImperium]

I’ve been playing SWTOR for about 5 years I think and I’m a huge weirdo that exclusively plays on one character with one given name that I gave him and am content with, so perhaps it may be an odd request but it is something I’ve seen many people post over the years and seen nothing done.

If I were to suddenly quit for 3 years and my one character that I played ranked with, tackled most NiM ops, obtained galaxy conqueror and elite warlord with, then came back and found my name to be reset. Honestly, fair enough. I wasn’t playing, I bowed out on the game and the community. Why should character names be hoarded?

The solution may be simple using alt codes or adding a last name to the character but this proves to be an eye sore especially when that last name is lowercase in text chat. Meanwhile there are deactivated characters lurking hoarding a name an active player could be using.

Hear me out, if I started 5 years ago and had a character named, “John” and I quit for two years, then came back..instead of having that name hoarded or completely deleted, why not have a little alt code unique to returning players like a star or credit symbol that already exists while an active player could have enjoyed the usage of that name.

This is something that’s already been done for guilds. If a guild is dead and inactive, it will have a forced name change which is why I was able to secure guild names like, “Sith Empire” and “Empire” on Star Forge. One can argue just as they make an argument for forced name changes, “Oh, well my guild is special and I wanted to revive it with my original name.” It was inactive, you stopped playing. Fundamentally, people who continuously quit the game for enormous stretches of time (years) should not be rewarded or catered to.

I don’t care if someone has 20 alts and all of them have unique desired names. As long as they’re being used, I really see no issue. My gripe comes from things dead in the water being hoarded.

In conclusion,

The compromise as stated would be to add inactive accounts names with a unique cool alt code at the end so everyone is special and happy while not stopping other people from naming their characters the way they want. 
Or, make the additional name that comes after the space capitalized in text chat to make it look more appealing

[casirabit]

That depends on what you consider inactive.   There are some that still pay a sub but haven't played for awhile, due to work and various other personal issues.  I would not consider those inactive, as they are still playing a sub, but some would disagree.

[AFadedMemory]

I'm pretty sure they did a name purge like a year or so ago. Therefore it's feedable that it will happen again. The only stipulation I have is that they send out and email 30 days before and the week of stating what a player has to do in order to keep their names.

[KaiserImperium]

15 minutes ago, AFadedMemory said:

I'm pretty sure they did a name purge like a year or so ago. Therefore it's feedable that it will happen again. The only stipulation I have is that they send out and email 30 days before and the week of stating what a player has to do in order to keep their names.

I think that’s perfectly reasonable 

[Spikanor]

this problem has been around all for a long time all so there is a good chance there going to do notting with this idea at all.

[KaiserImperium]

I’m completely aware. Which is why I made a post about an issue I don’t personally face since I just play on one character for years with a nice short unique name.

I wrote this as an issue I keep seeing brought up in fleet chat.

One can say, “they may never.” However, one could’ve argued five years ago that they may have never gone back and retextured old planets or released ranked PVP armor sets for all players to obtain through regular PvP.

[KaiserImperium]

17 hours ago, AFadedMemory said:

I'm pretty sure they did a name purge like a year or so ago. Therefore it's feedable that it will happen again. The only stipulation I have is that they send out and email 30 days before and the week of stating what a player has to do in order to keep their names.

If they did that’s good to hear, let’s see if they do it again. A heads up sounds like a perfectly reasonable way to go about it!

[KaiserImperium]

23 hours ago, casirabit said:

That depends on what you consider inactive.   There are some that still pay a sub but haven't played for awhile, due to work and various other personal issues.  I would not consider those inactive, as they are still playing a sub, but some would disagree.

As I stated in my post, one to two years would be so much time for someone to at least log in once and if they are continuously subscribed without playing, then they would be supporting a game they truly love so I think that would allow some exemption as well.

So if I made a character, named him Billy, then logged off for a year without a sub, then the name Billy should either be taken away or updated with an alt code like, Billy★

If another person does it, after a year and Billy★exists, then the next person to MIA with that name would become Billy★★

So, for the people who really want their names despite not showing any interest in the game, they would at least have a unique little alt code symbol in their name that no one else can use unless they went MIA and lost their name.

[SteveTheCynic]

19 hours ago, AFadedMemory said:

I'm pretty sure they did a name purge like a year or so ago.

Nope.  The last name unlock (there was also a name purge, but only of level 1-10 characters on non-sub accounts) was in 2017, shortly before the last server merge.

[AFadedMemory]

Like I said, there was a name purge like a year or so ago...  So it isn't unrealistic or against swtor's policy to preform such an operation.

[Jdast]

17 minutes ago, AFadedMemory said:

Like I said, there was a name purge like a year or so ago...  So it isn't unrealistic or against swtor's policy to preform such an operation.

You have an interesting way of defining "like a year or so ago." /snicker 

As to the main point of thread...

I wouldn't have a problem with a name purge, particularly for characters under level 10. If they are above level 30 or so, I would have more of an issue depending on how long the actual account has been inactive. 

Also agree there should be plenty of advance notice so players can reactivate characters they have allowed to wallow in dormancy.

As for how many years inactive? I would say at least 4-5.

Dasty

Edited December 9, 2023 by Jdast

[SteveTheCynic]

1 hour ago, AFadedMemory said:

Like I said, there was a name purge like a year or so ago...  So it isn't unrealistic or against swtor's policy to preform such an operation.

"a year or so ago" isn't remotely equivalent to "it's now 2023, and the last (er, only) name purge was in 2017".

[AFadedMemory]

47 minutes ago, SteveTheCynic said:

"a year or so ago" isn't remotely equivalent to "it's now 2023, and the last (er, only) name purge was in 2017".

In Memphis TN there's an understanding that when someone says a minute it could mean an actual minute or 80 years/whatever amount of time they want it to express.  (similar to how someone might say; "in a sec," when truly they mean more then that.) Words can have more then one meaning, sometime when we like it or not. What's important is context and intent.  When I made the original comment my intent was to express that it happened more recently then not. Emphasizing that it happened once so there is a good chance it could happen again. My later comment was suppose to be humorous, hence the suspension points. I apologize if I came off as rude. that was not my intent.

Edited December 9, 2023 by AFadedMemory

[SteveTheCynic]

OK, but it's worth noting a couple of things:

• I'm not in Memphis, nor anywhere else in TN, nor even in the US.(1)
• Even though ... er ... no ... I shouldn't do this ... bah ... I'll do it anyway ... she wants to be sure(2) ... sometimes words have two meanings(2), context is everything, and "It was a year ago" "no, it was in 2017" "it was a year ago" isn't conducive to a good understanding of what anyone means.

(1) I *have* lived in the US(3), but in the northeast, upstate NY and eastern MA.

(2) Ref: a certain song sung originally by Robert Plant.

(3) In 1981, I entered the US on a 90-day tourist visa.  I stayed for nine years.  Legally.

[denavin]

NO....

Names are a personal thing.

You may NOT have my characters name just because you lack the imagination to come up with one of your own.

And NO it is NOT impossible to find a unique name.

There are a few Billion letter combinations that a name can be made from. There are not even a Million players in this game nor are there that many names.

Use you imagination .... If You Have ONE!

[KaiserImperium]

7 hours ago, denavin said:

NO....

Names are a personal thing.

You may NOT have my characters name just because you lack the imagination to come up with one of your own.

And NO it is NOT impossible to find a unique name.

There are a few Billion letter combinations that a name can be made from. There are not even a Million players in this game nor are there that many names.

Use you imagination .... If You Have ONE!

I did mention that this wasn’t a issue that I personally face, but your poor reading comprehension certainly explains a lot.

i have a unique character that I am extremely attached to that I tackled every NiM ops with, collected every ranked PvP armor set, exclusively mastered his class. So yes, I have an imagination. However, I don’t exclusively think inwards, I’ve seen an issue raised for years on Star Forge’s fleet chat, then decided to make a clear and comprehensive solution and open a discussion.

With that being said..There are not a million active players, you’re right. Thank you for solidifying my point. There has been hundreds of thousands if not in the millions of accounts made that have not been active in years while the game hosts several thousand players. If guild names are not hoarded, neither should character names. Simple as that.

I’m sorry you took this thread so personally, it’s just a game at the end of the day and I ask that you speak more coherently and maturely on a public thread before making a fool of yourself.

[AFadedMemory]

8 hours ago, denavin said:

NO....

Names are a personal thing.

You may NOT have my characters name just because you lack the imagination to come up with one of your own.

And NO it is NOT impossible to find a unique name.

There are a few Billion letter combinations that a name can be made from. There are not even a Million players in this game nor are there that many names.

Use you imagination .... If You Have ONE!

In order to keep a Logo/Trademark the owner must continue to use. If it gets categorized as dead other people can acquire it. Since names in this game function more like trademarks rather then actual name.  (Only one person can "own" it on a server) I don't think it's unfair or unrealistic to have a use/log in requirement to keep using it.

[Anhkriva]

11 hours ago, denavin said:

NO....

Names are a personal thing.

You may NOT have my characters name just because you lack the imagination to come up with one of your own.

If I try to name a character and the name is already taken, it means that it is a very ordinary name or inspired by an existing character from SW, anime or another game. In any case, both players lack imagination equally.

[AFadedMemory]

2 hours ago, Anhkriva said:

If I try to name a character and the name is already taken, it means that it is a very ordinary name or inspired by an existing character from SW, anime or another game. In any case, both players lack imagination equally.

Imagination!🌈

it's better to work smarter not harder... My John Smith is not the same as your John Smith lol

[Jesseriah]

15 hours ago, denavin said:

NO....

Names are a personal thing.

You may NOT have my characters name just because you lack the imagination to come up with one of your own.

And NO it is NOT impossible to find a unique name.

There are a few Billion letter combinations that a name can be made from. There are not even a Million players in this game nor are there that many names.

Use you imagination .... If You Have ONE!

No one cares for your characters named "Révân" or anything like that anyway tbh.

Personally I would love a new name purge, especially, like someone already said before me, characters under lvl 10 or 30. There are dozens of characters just blocking names despite the fact that their owners left the game 5+ years ago. Heck, even purge names from players who are away for more than 5+ years. I know of one peticular name who's owner wasn't online for 8 years straight and I'm pretty sure he will never come back.

 

Or give us the option to use the same names just with a different Player-ID or however.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Jesseriah

[AFadedMemory]

32 minutes ago, Jesseriah said:

Or give us the option to use the same names just with a different Player-ID or however.

I wonder why they blocked the ability to have the same name anyway, I assume to identify troublesome individual more easily. the legacy bans seem to be able to identify players pretty well. If they made the name once per legacy, removed the legacy creation after starter planets restriction, and auto generated a new player or first server character's legacy, 1 free name change given, at character creation, then this should be feasible.

The only thing left to worry about, at least that I can think of, is a community or person with multiple accounts running same name to troll people. I know there is a good chance that I would do something like that.  

Edited December 10, 2023 by AFadedMemory

[SteveTheCynic]

5 hours ago, Jesseriah said:

Or give us the option to use the same names just with a different Player-ID or however

The problem with this is that it requires the player-ID to be visible *everywhere* that the character's name is visible, which leads to the "cool name" thing being moved to the player ID, but also to questions of "why did my character suddenly become Kylath@Argentis (or, more likely(1) but worse(2), Kylath@SteveTheCynic) for no reason?", i.e. for the reason that someone else created a character called Kylath on the same server.

(1) Because legacy names haven't been unique since patch 1.3.7 in September 2012.  See 9/5/2012 | Star Wars: The Old Republic (swtor.com)

(2) Because it reveals account-name information, which may in turn lead to problems with harassment, since the cost of learning if Frobble belongs to the same account as Grobble is the creation of two characters.  Well, that's true even if it's just legacy information.