Yogurt

I actually had to check my calendar for that, well played sir.

So it means we're getting a Name Purge???

I think that the Devs not being able to or not wanting to run a script that they've already run TWICE is a sign of "DOOM." They really must not expect much more life out of this game if they won't bother running this script again.

And yes, I am being completely serious.

Umm not exactly, you're subscribing to the game. Unless you are one of the people who hasn't logged on in years, I don't want *your* names.

This makes me very very scared I would much rather deal with no names, then too many of certain names.

So, there WILL be another Name Purge sometime after the the duration of time called "the near future" ends?

Instead of it being Soon™ it is going to be Later™ I suppose? You can't deny that with more time lapsing between the first Name Purge and CoH's Initial Release than the last Name Purge and now, the need for one has increased.

Thanks for following the thread!

That would be perfect.

Because the first Name Purge did. Personally, three months might be a bit on the harsher side, but that "three month" figure is because that is what was used for the first two name purges. I would be happy with 1-year.

There is nothing arbitrary about not playing in two or more years.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...119198&page=28

Well here are several first-hand accounts of the wondrous results from the last Name Purge, these results are from Virtue, one of the most populated servers in City of Heroes. Look at pages 28 and keep going to around 35ish if I recall correctly, they're are tons of names being grabbed that people have been wanting, and other people compiling large lists of names now free. All because of the glorious Name Purge. Why can't this happen again?

Oh and this post in particular, http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...&postcount=574, as well as this post, http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...&postcount=584, just names a couple people were able to find free after the Name Purge.

I have heard personal anecdotes from people who played during the timeline of the second name purge, and they did get a lot of names that they were looking for, they got the results they wanted. I can't imagine why we wouldn't get similar or better(considering it has been an even longer gap) results from a name purge done like the previous two, clearing the names of characters under level 35 or 6 or whatever the level was. If the results aren't what we wanted, we won't be able to blame anyone, because the devs did do what we were clamoring for them to do, run a name purge script.

Yeah there might be a larger number of "bad names" released in the purge, but that doesn't deter the fact that some "good names" will be released along with those "bad names."

No, it isn't a big deal, that's why we've been asking for it to happen for so long.

One thing that needs to be included is characters of ALL levels who have been inactive for five+ years. These characters are NEVER going to be played again. Someone is more likely to start a new account then dig up their old information for a game they played when it first came out seven years ago, played a character to max level, got bored, and quit, never to even come back for Issue 2, 3, 4, City of Villains, or Going Rogue. They aren't coming back. Let's be real.

Everyone who makes a new character after the Name Purge happens will benefit, which is all current subscribers. When you go to roll a new Blaster on your home server, searching for names will take much less time than it would have with four years of inactive character names built up. Maybe someone whose subscription lapsed will come back after reading the email they are sent before the purge. No one will lose anything from this, it's a Win/Win for NCsoft and the current subscribers.

But they'll be gaining the good will of all the current players who are subscribing to City of Heroes. And that, is more valuable to them at this point then losing the good will of people who stopped caring about the game four years ago.

^This. If you are really going to be gone for *that* long due to outstanding circumstances, whether or not your character names are going to be taken shouldn't be something to worry too much about.

And The Glamburgler would still be there when you get back anyways, I mean the game has been around for seven years, and someone JUST RECENTLY snagged it on Virtue.

I'll believe the whole "Circumstances Out of Their Control" thing for up to six months, maybe a year, but when they've been gone for four, five, six, and seven years, I really can't see how that statement works. If you actually liked playing CoH, you would've found a way to play again in the first year.

Hey it worked with the Merit prices on the Ascension Armor and related rewards, and that was only in Beta for two days before something was done about it. People have bringing up this topic for the past three years, every few months, and no redname ever comments on the topic.

And yes I am aware of what Zwillinger said in the Ustream today, because I asked the question. Hopefully by not in the near future he means not tomorrow, but in a few months, I am going to remain hopeful.

How could the second name purge be done because of a game that came out before City of Villains, if City of Villains was the reason for the first one occurring? That does not make any sense.

And the last name purge was in 2007, what competition came out near the end of Summer 2007 to warrant that name purge?

CO was a viable competitor, they even ran the Loyalty Program at that time because of it, yeah it ended up not being so great, but at the time, the fear was real. A Name Purge would have been great at that time.

Well, considering how many threads pop up about the servers being dead, it's pretty safe to assume there are quite a few inactive accounts. At this point there are probably more inactive accounts than active accounts, and I would doubt that these inactive accounts don't have names on them. Any name taken on an inactive account is a name that is being wasted. And wasting things is selfish. Think about all the children in Paragon City starving for character names, why can't we ship all the unused names over there to help them out?

No, your anecdotal evidence did not beat my anecdotal evidence because those names were free on Virtue for a reason. Really, Glamburgler? I would hardly call that a "snag" and if I did snag that, I wouldn't tell anyone. It's a punny name, but really, I wouldn't be surprised to find it available. The others are decent, but I am sure they weren't your first choices. You actually tried Wave for Tide Shifter, and Eagle for Albanian Eagle, and Thunder for Miss Thunderstrike. But all of those were taken, so you had to settle. If there had been a name purge, you might have gotten a couple names on your first try.

I hated when threads like these get to the point where people try to say "No way! Good names are still out here! I just found "_____" on a highly populated server!" Well "_____" was available for a reason, and just because you got lucky with a few names, doesn't mean the other thousand people on your server are getting lucky with names. And every name that you think is good that you snag, is one less name that is "good" available to everyone else, still making a name purge on names from accounts that have been inactive for years necessary.

But they have done Name Purge(s) in the past, so it is something they do again, so they KNOW their naming policy requires a purge every, at least, couple years, they just haven't been doing it.

And also, yes, I know people that have left the game over frustration from not being able to find decent names for their characters. Naming your character is the last stage of character creation, and one of the most important parts. There is no reason to hold down names for people that are NOT coming back, and forcing people that are currently subscribing, and new players, to have to go through hundreds (not exaggerating) of names before finding a somewhat decent (not good) name for their character.

Really, no one is going to come back to a game after six or seven years of not playing it. If City of Villains didn't bring them back, and City of Heroes Going Rogue didn't bring them back (it's been almost a year) they are NOT coming back. So using this as your argument really doesn't work. I know some people come back after years of inactivity, but it is really infrequent. Are the five people who come back after years of inactivity (if they just came back to check out the game, they may not like what they see and leave, a lot has changed in the past few years) each year really worth not running a script to make new players and current subscribers want to stay longer? I don't think so. I don't think anyone thinks so.

Actually a lot of them are! There is a nifty little feature in the game called /getglobalname, and it has a few functions.

1) It gives you the global name of the character with a name you are looking for, if you use often for a name, you can sort of see if that player actually plays, I have been doing this for dozens of names, everyday, at different times of the day, for a couple of years. These names never appear online, so yeah they should be eligible to get released.

2) It can show up "blank" meaning the particular name you are searching for belongs to a person that's hasn't played since BEFORE we were all given global names, which was like what, six years ago?! I don't care what level these characters are, if they haven't been used in six years, they really aren't going to be used on that account ever, no, they're not coming back after six years, and anyone that says there is a chance of them coming back is really just being silly.

If someone hasn't played in six or seven years, all of their names should be released, regardless of what level they are, because really, they're not coming back. Really, any account that has become inactive for over two years should get all their names released, regardless of their level, not just level six characters, their level fifty characters too.

It's the type of game this is, it is a Superhero game, super heroes don't need to be name xXFyre GirIXx(the "l" is a capitol "i" because xXFyre GirlXx with a real "l" in Girl was taken) if Fire Girl stopped going on active hero duty five years and doesn't plan on picking up the cape again. It's not fair.

They've run a name purge before, so we know they can do it. I really don't see any possible argument against running it again. It worked the first time, and made tons of people happy to find that name they've been looking for, why not just do it again?