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Actually, no. But I did after years of having 'Sequoia' on the friends list of all my heroes on Virtue, finally see the character in-game.
I sent a politely-worded tell along the lines of "Aha! The name 'Sequoia' is alive. I tried for that name so often. I'm glad to see its actually used. :P" We had a brief chat, and he confirmed he was very attached to the name. I left it at that.
Amusingly, a day or so later, I received almost the same tell when I logged in as my tanker, Redwood -- "Hey, how long have you had that name? I've wanted it forever."
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If you are actually going to sit around waiting for someone to log in under a given character name and then actually have the gual to send them a tell asking them to give up
their character name to make
you happy... don't you think that's just a
little shallow and self-centered? No matter how 'nicely' you've asked?
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Speaking of being shallow and self-centered, no matter how nicely you put it. Hardly anything beats unjustified self-righteousness in that regard. But on to the fun part.
I've seen several situations where someone wasn't overly attached to a particular name, but just made a character because they could get that name. I've seen situations where someone else happened to have a concept that fit the name the other person was sitting on to a T. More often than not, the former individual has gladly given the name to the latter because they realized the other person had a better use for it.
There's never any harm or implied insult in
asking. Quite the contrary. Asking surely beats whinging about how people can't get the right name or coming up with 'creative' misspellings. Belittling people who just ask (badgering is of course a wholly different business) just makes you a snot-nosed brat in my book.
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To both of these, I state simply that there is a difference between showing the player respect through several conversations and finding that the original player isn't attached to the name and then inquiring as to whether they'd free it up for you and sending them a tell that states how fond you are of the name, that you're glad it isn't sitting on a character that doesn't use it and then, in the same tell, asking if they'd be willing to give it up.
My response was to the statement that if you're active on that character and someone asks politely that you can make them happy by giving it up. Not that that if you're active on that character and someone shows a great interest in that name, which you aren't particularly attached to, and seems to have a great concept for it you can't offer the name to them if they drop a few hints.
And as for me being shallow, self-centered, or self-righteous in that regard... I find myself neither shallow nor self-righteous. As I stated, a lot of time and
work goes into each and everyone of my characters. Each of them is created with a concept and a history, even if I don't have it posted online. So do I feel I have shallow for having an attachment to their names? No. I will not give one of my characters a name that I do not believe fits them perfectly. It may not be the original idea I had for them, but it always ends up fitting perfectly.
Take my recent blaster, Asteria Spell. I wanted to name her Witching Hour. Which was taken. So I thought about her history. I knew she was from the future, deployed to the past, and went with a name that heralded that (a spell can be used to refer to a time period and Asteria was a goddess of prophetic dreams) while still functioning by itself.
Do I believe myself to be self-righteous? Hell no. If I had a name that I didn't really like at all, I would be more than willing to give it to someone I felt was more deserving or would appreciate it more. The problem is that I am very attached to all my names. Again, because of the work I put into them. As for me being self-centered, so be it. If not being willing to hand over something you spent hours (sometimes longer) trying to perfect to someone else is self-centered, then I am one self-centered little brat. I wouldn't let someone else have a poem, short story, or novel I wrote and I'm not going to just give a name of my character away either.
I'm not saying that no one can, I'm just saying that if you go around waving the flag that just because a person is active on the character doesn't mean they might actually be attached to a name or that if they're attached to it they should be okay with other people sending them tells just because they want the name, then I am inclined to disagree. There is many a name I would have loved to have for this character or that but I would never have thought to add that name to my friends list, wait for the player to sign on, and then turn around and ask if they'd be inclined to give it to me. No matter how polite I was to them.
Why? Because they got to it first. Chances are they wouldn't have created that character with that name if they hadn't liked it at some point and with the ability to rename characters now they probably would have already changed it if they really didn't like it that much.
On top of which, what in the world makes it right for you to ask that kind of a question any way? There are only two ways for a player to change their name and I wouldn't dream of ever asking anyone else to do either so why should someone ask me (or anybody else) to? I can understand if you've been friends for a while, but no one should be asked to either a) delete their character or b) pay $9.99 (or however much it is) just to give a stranger, who may or may not truly appreciate the gesture, their characters name.
I know that was a bit long-winded, but hopefully someone out there sees my point. You want to sit around hoping for a name to free up or wait around for that character to sign on and then talk to the person, hoping they'll give you the name.. Fine. If they find themselves willing to give it to you. More power to them. Do I believe myself to be shallow or self-righteous because I would not give my my character names to a random stranger? No more than I believe myeslf to be shallow or self-righteous for being unwilling let someone take credit for a novel I'm writing. I may be a casual player in that I don't have a level 50 and I'm not on the game more then a couple hours a few times a week. But I am hardcore in the creation process. Each character I create for CoX is real to me in the same way that each novel concept I create is real to me. (No I don't think there are strange portals and shadow figures and little green men from the future.) They are inspiration. They are living, breathing ideas. And they are mine. I put in the mental time to think of them. It was my brain that was occasionally overwhelmed by the difficult of putting the combinations together and I have every right to tell someone: "No. I'd rather keep the name. Thank you." Am I self-centered because of this? Probably. But what self-respecting creative genius isn't?
(And for the record, the last sentence was partially sarcastic. I do not believe myself to be a creative genius. But I do believe that creative geniuses have every right to be self-centered. Horde your little gems from we mere lesser mortals. And then let us occasionally partake of glimpses of them. ^^)
Retcon for the WIN! :P