Character Name Policy -- Thirty Day Notice!
By
0zymandous,
Posted on: 2007-07-31 15:59 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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The people who've left the game *are already the destructive force*. They are worthless in this equasion. Entirely. They who have no intention of coming back - those who freeload, are equally of zero value in this equation.
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Fair enough. How do you narrowly target a name purge only of the customers you describe without harming anyone else? That's the tricky part, isn't it?
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But a LOT of times, those names ARE NOT taken by active accounts...
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How do you know this?
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It's entirely based on the circumstance of how long they've been unpaid, unplayed, and what the likelyhood is of their return. Anyone who understands trends in things can see patterns.
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On which demographic data do you draw this conclusion? You're certain that the names people want are, without exclusion, all contained in idle accounts? How do you know this? Why would you assume this? Why would you blindly propose systems based on wild-[censored] guesses?
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People who are paying, who are good for coming back on-again-off-again (every 2 or 3 months they cancel, or lapse, but return again due to finances, etc) they're not in question here. They're not the ones who simply *never come back*.
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Then, once again, how do you design a name purge system that narrowly targets the never-come-backs without getting the may-eventually-return-agains?
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But a LOT of times, those names ARE NOT taken by active accounts...
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How do you know this?
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1) Send e-mails to the character.
2) Friend the character, see if they come online.
3) Ask around, find the character's global, try to friend the global, send global tells, etc.
Tried this with most of the good names I've come across. Not one has been active (although, I did previously know active players with good names, so I did not try with those, obviously). But from what I can see, the vast majority were taken by players that are no longer playing.
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Then, once again, how do you design a name purge system that narrowly targets the never-come-backs without getting the may-eventually-return-agains?
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Allow me, good sir, to redirect you to my earlier post.
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1 Year Inactive: Level 12
2 Years Inactive: Level 24
3 Years Inactive: Level 36
4 Years Inactive: Level 48 (or 50)
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42,391,158,275,216,203,514,294,433,220 possible character names. Nobody with 132 names taken is preventing you with getting a good name.
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Now that is just absurd. Subtract from that number any name that would be a copyright violation, and any name that violates the TOS, and also combinations of letters that are just unreadable. Yes, there are lots of possible combinations, that is not the same as 42,391,158,275,216,203,514,294,433,220 good names.
Inc
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Ok, I may be dense but I REALLY dont get this policy.
2.) why does Cryptic and/or NCSoft feel they need to remain loyal to people who are no longer loyal to them? Seriously. The game has been going for 3 YEARS! If someone hasnt played since the first year its doubtful they will ever come back. Yet you feel as if you need to protect the manes of players who might not have played for over 2 years. This make NO sense at all. Especially based on a game where everyone MUST have unique names. Its already frustrating to name a toon now, imagine how it will be in another years time as there is less and less to chose from.
ose are the ones that need to be freed up for people.
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Incorrect. 4 of us left after about a year of playing and moved on to other games (Warcraft, Vanguard) but all 4 of us came back and have been here for a couple months now, exploring all the new things.
So don't say it's doubtful we'll never come back. Sometimes we do.
Perhaps it would help to know just what all his fuss is about.
Could you list, oh, say 10 "good names [you've] come across" that you think, thanks to your dedicated yet totally disinterested sleuthing methods, are being kept out of circulation by inactive players?
--CH
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But a LOT of times, those names ARE NOT taken by active accounts...
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How do you know this?
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1) Send e-mails to the character.
2) Friend the character, see if they come online.
3) Ask around, find the character's global, try to friend the global, send global tells, etc.
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1) May be ignoring you because you annoy him.
2)may no be on when you are. may not play that toon but plays others on a daily basis.
3) may have globally ignored you due to your stalking attempts.
You have no idea if he plays, how long it is since he played that toon, or anything else of importance. You just know you want his name and are looking for the devs to take it away from him. I have toons on a couple of servers that I havent logged in on in over a year. The attitude expressed by this idea has no problem snitching the names from them. New players dont know how to search out someones global, once they have enough experience to know they arent new any longer. They will either continue to play on their toons with the names they picked or they will leave. If they leave, they were lousy customers anyway.
Lots of 50's yada yada. still finding fun things to do.
Cthulhu loves you, better start running
I�! I�! Gg�gorsch�a�bha egurtsa�ar�ug d� Dalhor! Cthluhu fthagn! Cthluhu fthagn!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages
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Perhaps it would help to know just what all his fuss is about.
Could you list, oh, say 10 "good names [you've] come across" that you think, thanks to your dedicated yet totally disinterested sleuthing methods, are being kept out of circulation by inactive players?
--CH
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Oh, I agree with this fully. I've never really had a problem naming one of my characters anyway. I just don't think the developers should be protecting the rights of inactive players over active players. Give them a reasonable time frame to come back, and if they don't, put them names back into circulation.
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42,391,158,275,216,203,514,294,433,220 possible character names. Nobody with 132 names taken is preventing you with getting a good name.
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Now that is just absurd. Subtract from that number any name that would be a copyright violation, and any name that violates the TOS, and also combinations of letters that are just unreadable. Yes, there are lots of possible combinations, that is not the same as 42,391,158,275,216,203,514,294,433,220 good names.
[/ QUOTE ]Even if 1/10th of the possible names were not allowed due to TOS or copyright reasons, that would be somewhere around 4,239,115,827,521,620,345,429,443,322 names you're not allowed to use over and above the number of people on Earth. (edit: 706 quadrillion names per person on Earth)
40 nonillion possible names with only 140 thousand subscribers, even if each subscriber takes 396 names after the character slot addition gets added, means there are still plenty of names to go around.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
Again, that is just combinations of letters. I am not calling my character asdfdsepk.
You've got 706 quadrillion choices. You can find something that works for you.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
As I see it, by holding these names for non playing - non paying former customers, current players are being penalized on some level. WEhy would we hold the name of a level 50, just for hitting 50? My main alt is on Freedom. Though I'm well known in certain groups I'm not so self absorbed to believe if I left, a year down the road if someone took up the mantle they would be harassed for taking the name. It's just a new hero under an old name. In comics character names are regularly recycled, in DC alone consider: Wildcat(4), Sandman (6), the question(2), Mr. Terrific(2),Batgirl(4), Black Condor(3), Air Wave(3), Batman(4), Robin (5), Black Canary(2), Dove (3)and Wonder Woman(6) just to name a few - see link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ret_identities
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As I see it, by holding these names for non playing - non paying former customers, current players are being penalized on some level. WEhy would we hold the name of a level 50, just for hitting 50? My main alt is on Freedom. Though I'm well known in certain groups I'm not so self absorbed to believe if I left, a year down the road if someone took up the mantle they would be harassed for taking the name. It's just a new hero under an old name. In comics character names are regularly recycled, in DC alone consider: Wildcat(4), Sandman (6), the question(2), Mr. Terrific(2),Batgirl(4), Black Condor(3), Air Wave(3), Batman(4), Robin (5), Black Canary(2), Dove (3)and Wonder Woman(6) just to name a few - see link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ret_identities
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Exactly.
And those who keep making this "so many possible letter combinations" arguement, those returning vets also have a wide variety of letter combinations to choose from. I'm a consistent paying customer, they've been gone 6 months, why should they be able to sit on their names?
Hell, I'd be in favor of if someone is gone 12 months, their characters should stop taking up server space.
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You've got 706 quadrillion choices. You can find something that works for you.
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Out of this entire thread, this is without a doubt the most ridiculous claim, and that's saying something. Oh, yes. 'hoiwephralskdfhpoiwe' is the name I've always been looking for.
Nobody's arguing that there aren't open names - but what many would consider the 'best' or the 'classic' names are, 99% of the time, taken. At least 85-95% of the time, it's by a player that is completely unreachable, and is therefore presumably no longer playing. That likelihood is compounded by the fact that the classic names (and let's face it, simple is usually better when it comes to superheroes and villains) were instantly snatched up when the game first started. Hell, I've heard stories about people who tried names on the first day the game opened that couldn't get them because of the head start of the beta players. Names are a competitive business in this game.
Some people may not feel the drive to have an awesome name. Hell, I see enough 'darkpheonixx9' to know that much. Even not going that far, I see people who settle for things like 'Poison Thug Lord' or 'Fire Healer' that just describe their powersets. Granted - names aren't important to every player, and many simply don't care at all.
But then there are the silver age concept players - the people who are going for that comic book feel - who want their characters to look good enough in name, backstory, powersets, and costume to have come straight out of a comic book. People who will spend days and weeks looking for a good name for a concept, and most of the time won't even make a new character without a great name for it to run around with.
I'm one of these players. I have a level 50 that I'm about to delete because I don't like his name. I wish I could rename him, but there's simply nothing relevant and simple that's open. I wouldn't be making Villain Epic Archetypes if I didn't have the names 'Orbweaver,' 'Spiderweb,' and 'Longfang'. I wouldn't have made a Necro/Dark if I didn't have the name 'Anubis'. I would still have my 41 Stalker if he hadn't been named 'War Serpent'. I am extremely picky about names.
I know I'm an extreme case, but I know other players like this. Many of them very experienced, many of them vets, almost all of them constantly paying for the game with no breaks. All of them lament the names sitting in dusty accounts that quit six months or a year after the game started, holding onto names that are absolutely incredible, never to come back again - the people riding the MMO wave who moved on after the novelty wore off and took our best name assets with them.
So yes, there are names open. We could all settle for names that aren't exactly what we wanted. We'll probably have to for a long time. Hell, even if names were purged it would likely be difficult to find exactly what you wanted all of the time - the names would very quickly move into the hands of the current players due to the incredible demand that would surge in.
But when you have the chance to reinvigorate the flow of true comic book concepts, classic characters that are simple and awe-inspiring, of increasing the momentum and inspiration available to new players and current players, at the marginal cost of maybe making a few players gone for a period of years from the game - and this game has only been around for four years - I think that the choice is simple.
You keep confusing inactive subscriptions with inactive characters. No one is arguing for the sniping of names from active subscriptions, period.
edit- Active subscription = account still being paid for, regardless of actual log-ins.
Furio--Lvl 50+3 Fire/Fire/Fire Blaster, Virtue
Megadeth--Lvl 50+3 Necro/DM/Soul MM, Virtue
Veriandros--Lvl 50+3 Crab Soldier, Virtue
"So come and get me! I'll be waiting for ye, with a whiff of the old brimstone. I'm a grim bloody fable, with an unhappy bloody end!" Demoman, TF2
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You keep confusing inactive subscriptions with inactive characters. No one is arguing for the sniping of names from active subscriptions, period.
edit- Active subscription = account still being paid for, regardless of actual log-ins.
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Exactly. These are paying customers. If they want to sit on X amount of unused characters just to keep those names for when they do want to use them, they are paying for the spots and I have no problem with that at all.
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You keep confusing inactive subscriptions with inactive characters. No one is arguing for the sniping of names from active subscriptions, period.
edit- Active subscription = account still being paid for, regardless of actual log-ins.
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Exactly. These are paying customers. If they want to sit on X amount of unused characters just to keep those names for when they do want to use them, they are paying for the spots and I have no problem with that at all.
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*nods* Nor do I. Never once have I said, "let em have the currently paid up account names!" EVER.
I've suggested: if someone were to email me - one of those times that I have a character sitting around and there's a newcomer who wants to use a name, tries those perfectly valid methods of "email, PM, asking around" and actually FINDS me, I'd probably give them the name. i've got plenty of characters. I have plenty of very original names. I have one or two that MIGHT overlap into "classic superhero" names. Silverfish. Dreamweaver. (looks down the list of my names and cant' actually find any others lol) (those are actually ones I own real world versions of, and wouldn't actually want to part with). But still, if you're not paying, you don't get the benefits of the database. *shrug* Why is that hard?
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed
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But a LOT of times, those names ARE NOT taken by active accounts...
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How do you know this?
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1) Send e-mails to the character.
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"Who the hell is this?" *delete*
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2) Friend the character, see if they come online.
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You're going to be on 24/7/365, with the character friended on ALL your characters on one server? Watchign JUST for them to be online? And hoping they aren't hidden?
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3) Ask around, find the character's global, try to friend the global, send global tells, etc.
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And if they don't accept the global friend *from someone they don't know?* I know I've had GFriend requests pop up from out of nowhere. No way in hell am I accepting that. And just because your little circle you ask around in doesn't know the character doesn't mean squat. Apparently _Rose_ is active on Freedom. I took a character to 50 (and have several others there) and have never met, nor did I ever hear her name. I've never seen (nor do I care to) JMan. What does that prove? That they don't play? ... wait, they do.
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Tried this with most of the good names I've come across. Not one has been active (although, I did previously know active players with good names, so I did not try with those, obviously). But from what I can see, the vast majority were taken by players that are no longer playing.
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Your experiments mean jack, for the reasons given.
In fact, here's a real world example with a name someone might want.
I have a dark/psi on my second account named Theorum. Lowbie, I think he's level 8. Logging into him is almost a *guarantee* that someone on Victory or Liberty (villainside) on one of my SGs is going to start a team. I don't think I've gotten more than half an hour at any point with him at a stretch, and haven't logged into him in months, mostly from working on villains.
Now, say you do what you say:
*email Theorum*
*delete email with the rest of the RMT spams since I dont' recognize the name.*
/friend Theorum
Well, I'm on hide, thanks to the RMT folks. Even if I'm not, what are the chances you'll be on THAT server, on a character you have that name friended on, at the exact same time I, with 130 or so characters, am running around on him?
/gignore theorum, snatch the global, /gfriend.
The /gfriend is getting refused if I'm on, since I don't know who you are (and it would show up on *any* character I'm on.) If I'm not on, I don't believe it goes through at all.
Ask around. "Who's Theorum? Who's @secondaccountname?" (no, I'm not giving out my globals.) Guess what... since that character's not played much, nobody knows, and very few people know my globals.
Am I inactive? According to what YOU think it means, obviously I'm inactive and "using up a good name." Do I intend to play that character? Yes. I like his look and backstory and think the power combo could be interesting. Do I *get* to much? Nope. But I'm obviously active (with two accounts.)
Your "checklist" and your assumption you draw from it are flawed.
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Then, once again, how do you design a name purge system that narrowly targets the never-come-backs without getting the may-eventually-return-agains?
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Allow me, good sir, to redirect you to my earlier post.
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1 Year Inactive: Level 12
2 Years Inactive: Level 24
3 Years Inactive: Level 36
4 Years Inactive: Level 48 (or 50)
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Never touch the higher level names. If the *initial* experiment came up with "Nothing really freed up" so they used the lower limit now... maybe it's not worth jacking up the level.
NO.
Bill, I think you're missing the larger point (and there's no need to get angry, either).
I'm just pointing out ways in which I watch to see if names are in use. Of course they're not 100% accurate. Still, you didn't explain why they wouldn't respond to polite global tells, and consider that yes, I have afk'd for days at a time and watched to see if any of these names (a full friends list of them) came online, to no avail.
But the larger picture is, it's pretty obvious that these names are on old accounts, and many, many old accounts are inactive. The 'good' names were mostly taken by the beginning players. How many of these players, do you think, decided to delete their characters when they moved on from the game? They probably didn't even think to do so.
So the issue isn't whether or not these names are taken by inactive accounts - a majority of them almost certainly are. All the rest - trying to get in touch with them, etc. - is just a personal way of tracking these names.
I would still love to hear a valid explanation for why someone who has been inactive for the entire duration of the game's life to this point deserves to maintain the names - not even the characters themselves, just the names - of any character.
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I would still love to hear a valid explanation for why someone who has been inactive for the entire duration of the game's life to this point deserves to maintain the names - not even the characters themselves, just the names - of any character.
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As would I. But you know what their response is, "IF I EVAR CAME BACK 2 THE GAME AND ***MY*** NAMES WERE TAKEN. I'D GET SO MAD I'D LEAVE AGAIN!!1!1!!!1111"
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Bill, I think you're missing the larger point (and there's no need to get angry, either).
I'm just pointing out ways in which I watch to see if names are in use. Of course they're not 100% accurate. Still, you didn't explain why they wouldn't respond to polite global tells, and consider that yes, I have afk'd for days at a time and watched to see if any of these names (a full friends list of them) came online, to no avail.
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So they could, oh, possibly, not be logging on for those few days?
I've got a friend with an active account. He's moving, getting married, etc. I haven't seen him in game for a month.
Going to AFK for a month?
Also, *again,* thanks to the RMT jerks, /hide is very popular, so you won't tell if they're on. It's also a good reason people are going to be wary of global tells - aside from just flat out not seeing them.
Not 100% accurate? I wouldn't even give it 10%.
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But the larger picture is, it's pretty obvious that these names are on old accounts, and many, many old accounts are inactive.
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you assume.
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The 'good' names were mostly taken by the beginning players.
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Again... you assume. I bet quite a few *crappy* names were taken, too. Maybe we should be thanking them for forcing people who would take those crappy names to rethink them and get a better one.
Frankly, I play with many people, both in SGs and on PUGs, who come up with good names *still.* So no, "The 'good names were mostly taken by the beginning players' is patently *false.* In fact, some otherwise-good names were mangled by the earlier character limits.
You make far too many assumptions about name availability, the names that are "taken" and the status of those accounts... as does seemingly everyone who comes up with this topic, every single time.
Bill, I'm not saying that all names were taken at the start. I'm not saying that all of the names I've tried to track down are on completely cancelled accounts. I'm saying that a lot - a hell of a lot - either are or might as well be.
As you can see, I've come across good names as well, but there's a distinct difference between finding a good name and finding a good name for a concept you had. I build concepts around names because of how rare the truly good names are.
But the point is, it can't really hurt. Ok, I know a good handful of people who've taken breaks for a year for one reason or another. None of them lost names to purges, and none of them had names that would have been tried by players even if they had been purged. None of them would have really minded if they lost the name of a level 12 character. Ok, now let's name some people that have come back after two years. Got a couple? Maybe a few? Ok, name some that have come back after three years. Probably not that many, right?
Then ask yourself if they had any names that would have been highly sought after in the applicable level threshold. I'm guessing they wouldn't.
Addressing another point, you can't tell me that the moment beta hit, people weren't snatching up names like 'Warlord' or whatever. The basic stuff. The stuff you first think of when you think of what a character is like. With that huge influx of players at the beginning, it's not at all accurate that they could have nabbed a majority of the simpler names?
Yes, I will assume that point, because it's the most reasonable assumption. If the names never appear online, do not seem to belong to any person who appears on the forums, or in SGs, or in chats, if it's a simple name, yes, I will assume that it is likely on an old account, which may have been deactivated for some time. I don't think that's unreasonable. Of course all of them aren't, but like I said - it can't really hurt.
The tradeoff, as has been stated, is the furthered enjoyment of the paying playerbase for the possible loss of a name from a non-level 50 character on an account that has been inactive for literally years.
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Again, that is just combinations of letters. I am not calling my character asdfdsepk.
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I know him! he tried to sell me inf the other night. 
Lots of 50's yada yada. still finding fun things to do.
Cthulhu loves you, better start running
I�! I�! Gg�gorsch�a�bha egurtsa�ar�ug d� Dalhor! Cthluhu fthagn! Cthluhu fthagn!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages
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You've got 706 quadrillion choices. You can find something that works for you.
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Out of this entire thread, this is without a doubt the most ridiculous claim, and that's saying something. Oh, yes. 'hoiwephralskdfhpoiwe' is the name I've always been looking for.
[/ QUOTE ]Yes. It is absurd. But if 99% of the possible names were utter garbage, and every person on the planet played this game, you would still have over 1,000 names per person.
Fortunately, we've only got around 140,000 accounts, which would be around 50 billion names per person.
Yes it's absurd. It's also absurd to say that all the good names are taken.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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You've got 706 quadrillion choices. You can find something that works for you.
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Out of this entire thread, this is without a doubt the most ridiculous claim, and that's saying something. Oh, yes. 'hoiwephralskdfhpoiwe' is the name I've always been looking for.
[/ QUOTE ]Yes. It is absurd. But if 99% of the possible names were utter garbage, and every person on the planet played this game, you would still have over 1,000 names per person.
Fortunately, we've only got around 140,000 accounts, which would be around 50 billion names per person.
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Considering only letter combinations. Come on, we're not talking about every name ever here. Chances are, I could make Dark Death Ninja Lord Doom any time I wanted. But we're talking about good names. Classic names.
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Yes it's absurd. It's also absurd to say that all the good names are taken.
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I think if you look back over my subsequent posts, you'll see that I've already said a couple of times that I did not intend to imply that they were. Just the other day, I came across 'Brainchild' and 'Afro'. Took both of them. It's a shame that I was looking for a name for an Electric/Sonic Corruptor.
Once again: yes, anyone could always get a name that's not quite what they wanted. But when they could probably get what they wanted with only the most minimal of impact to only the most inactive in the playerbase, I don't see the huge dilemma. It simply can't hurt more than it helps.
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42,391,158,275,216,203,514,294,433,220 possible character names. Nobody with 132 names taken is preventing you with getting a good name.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt