Character Name Policy -- Thirty Day Notice!
By
0zymandous,
Posted on: 2007-07-31 15:59 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
OK, I'm kinda dense today, but please bear with me. Say you have an active account, you play at least once a week, but you've got characters spread out over all the servers. Now say one of your characters has not been played for more than 90 days. Since your overall account is active, you don't need to worry about that unplayed character losing it's name? Or do you?
"The cure for cowardice is not more whimpering and cringing, but to bare your teeth." Fr. Pontefescue
"The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses." ~ Utah Phillips
Remember Greg McKendry
No, you don't need to log in to the character every 90 days as long as the whole account is active.
Only if your entire account is inactive for 90 days will characters below level 6 be switched to unreserved. The character's name will not actually change unless someone else takes the name.
All I can say is, it's about time they re-instituted this. Names are getting really scarce.
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."
- Thomas Jefferson
Below level 6? How many names is that expected to free up? 
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Below level 6? How many names is that expected to free up?
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All the ones on 14 day trials that never subbed?
I have never created a character that the name was taken.
But, I do feel that if an account is not active for more than 90 days.... characters names should not be reserved at all befor lvl 40.
I think paying customers should win out on the naming policy.
so does this mean the earliest we can hope for server transfers to go live is August 30th? 
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I have never created a character that the name was taken.
But, I do feel that if an account is not active for more than 90 days.... characters names should not be reserved at all befor lvl 40.
I think paying customers should win out on the naming policy.
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/agreed. They should at least make it the same as it was last time (had to be 35+ to reserve the name).
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I have never created a character that the name was taken.
But, I do feel that if an account is not active for more than 90 days.... characters names should not be reserved at all befor lvl 40.
I think paying customers should win out on the naming policy.
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/agreed. They should at least make it the same as it was last time (had to be 35+ to reserve the name).
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You never agree with me. Take it back!
I'm hoping that they did some data mining and found that this was the way to free up the most names with the least disruption of people who came back later.
Admittedly, if I was picking a number out of my butt, I would have gone with level 20. High enough to encompass some real mass of characters, low enough to be a reasonably easy hurdle to get to.
Altoholism isn't a problem, its a calling.
60+ characters, 5 years, 3 50's.
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I'm hoping that they did some data mining and found that this was the way to free up the most names with the least disruption of people who came back later.
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This is what I'm thinking. They know how many accounts were inactive trials, they can look at the levels of the characters on there and set the limit so that it achieves the desired effect.
Good, now I can get 2 of my friggin names back!
I too am having a love/hate relationship with this announcement. Just having a Naming Policy is worthwhile, but I think the current, paying customer should benefit more than those not paying. Up to lvl 6? yeah, I can roll a toon and get that in an hour or 2. Not a big deal. They should have AT LEAST left it at the level 35 cap. I mean, you are giving a 30 day notice. If any of those people wanted to come back and keep their names they would. Don't make us suffer for those 14 day free trail nuts who played for hours and hours and got to level...7
Happy they reinstituted this 
Mad for neutering the original policy >
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Heh. OK, level 6 I can live with. For all the sewer trials
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I win!
I think people would've at least gotten to level 6 on a 14-day trial... I woulda made it level 16 and below, but the point still stands that we need this.
My horribly flame-fest devolved thread is now justified.
Lvl 6?
I can live with this.
Lvl 35 was idiotic before. The non-powerlevelers may not get that, but 6 I can live with.
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Admittedly, if I was picking a number out of my butt, I would have gone with level 20. High enough to encompass some real mass of characters, low enough to be a reasonably easy hurdle to get to.
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Personally, that's what I would have gone for too.
Level 6?!?
C'mon...if you don't even have a travel power what's the use?
Make it MINIMUM lvl 14, I'd say 20+ is even more reasonable.
Level 6? Hah!
Craft your inventions in AE!!
Play "Crafter's Cafe" - Arc #487283. A 1 mission, NON-COMBAT AE arc with workable invention tables!
It's probably level 6 because there's an insane number of level 1-5 characters on all of the inactive accounts they have. Sure, there's even more character if you go up to 20, but I suspect 1-5 have, what they consider, more than enough existing characters that they believe this is okay.
Dungeoncleaners! (ID#125715): Slay the Adventurers! Rescue the Monsters! Return the Treasure!
Peppermint Cat-- Lv50 Mewtant Ice/Eng Bls
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OK, I'm kinda dense today, but please bear with me. Say you have an active account, you play at least once a week, but you've got characters spread out over all the servers. Now say one of your characters has not been played for more than 90 days. Since your overall account is active, you don't need to worry about that unplayed character losing it's name? Or do you?
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No, you don't need to log in to the character every 90 days as long as the whole account is active.
Only if your entire account is inactive for 90 days will characters below level 6 be switched to unreserved. The character's name will not actually change unless someone else takes the name.
All I can say is, it's about time they re-instituted this. Names are getting really scarce.
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Can we get red name confirmation on this? My accounts are always active but not all of my characters are, yes even below level 6 on various servers.
Thanks.
My Corner of DeviantART
The Queen's Menagerie
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This means that those names will become available for new character names if picked by an active (subscribed) player.
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I think it is already in there.
Thank You for this
"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho
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so does this mean the earliest we can hope for server transfers to go live is August 30th?
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No this only means we had announced previously that we would give 30 days notice if we were ever to re-enact the policy.
The character transfers and character renames are not tied to this policy, and it will go live when it is ready whether before or after August 29th.
Ex
Does this mean that if someone played two weeks of the game just after launch, made it ot level 7, then stopped playing the game and never returned, their name cannot be used?
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OK, I'm kinda dense today, but please bear with me. Say you have an active account, you play at least once a week, but you've got characters spread out over all the servers. Now say one of your characters has not been played for more than 90 days. Since your overall account is active, you don't need to worry about that unplayed character losing it's name? Or do you?
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No, you don't need to log in to the character every 90 days as long as the whole account is active.
Only if your entire account is inactive for 90 days will characters below level 6 be switched to unreserved. The character's name will not actually change unless someone else takes the name.
All I can say is, it's about time they re-instituted this. Names are getting really scarce.
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Can we get red name confirmation on this? My accounts are always active but not all of my characters are, yes even below level 6 on various servers.
Thanks.
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This policy only applies to accounts that have currently been inactive for 90 days. You don't need to worry about your low level characters if you account stays in billing activity, or if you cancel and resubscribe within a ninety day period.
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Lvl 6?
I can live with this.
Lvl 35 was idiotic before. The non-powerlevelers may not get that, but 6 I can live with.
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Could you please explain your reasoning here?
Starting 8/29/2007 the City of Heroes and City of Villains Character Name Policy will be re-enacted with some changes. As previously announced last year, we are hereby giving players 30 days notice that this policy will be turned back on effective Wednesday, August 29, 2007.
Names for characters below level 6 on game retail accounts that have been *inactive for over 90 days will be changed to unreserved status. This means that those names will become available for new character names if picked by an active (subscribed) player. This policy is being enacted in order to free up character names based on player feedback and for our Character Transfer and Rename features.
If your game account is inactive for over 90 days and you reactivate your account you will need to log back in to any characters affected by this policy to move them out of unreserved name status. If your old character name has been taken by an active player, the game will prompt you to rename your character. You will be given only one opportunity to rename your character. It is possible that your character name may still be the same if an active player has not chosen to use that character name. Your global handle will not be affected.
If you have any characters with unreserved name status, you can identify them in the character select screen as those characters with no avatar (character model) displayed.
If you do not log in to the game with a character in unreserved name status, the characters name will remain available to any active player until you log that character in to the game. Logging into the game with the affected character will change the characters name status back to reserved.
Any questions about this policy can be directed to support@cityofheroes.com
*Inactive means that you have stopped billing and your subscription time has run out OR your account has been suspended.
Please feel free to discuss this topic and ask questions.
Ex