Character Name Policy -- Thirty Day Notice!
By
0zymandous,
Posted on: 2007-07-31 15:59 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
Awesome! I'm looking forward to the "re-acquired" names getting their own uncommon Recipe pool!
LEWWWWWWTE!
Repeat Offenders
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What if the level limit goes higher the more time the account has been inactive?
3 months: level 5 and under
6 months: level 20 and under
9 months: level 30 and under
12 months: level 40 and under
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/signed!!
I also think right now they are going for primarily the trail accounts of people that never committed to the game. I'm pretty sure that they have a definitive number of names that will be freed up, PLUS- I dunno if they ever included the trail accounts the first time they did this, they might have just done the "inactive" accounts and now they'll do both.
Sounds like there is no downside here.
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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?
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The first day of my trial I made a Scrapper and was almost level 10 before trying a different character. I doubt this will free up as many as they think.
Maybe if it was below level 10, since that's technically still a "new" character in that they can't get debt, etc, woul dhave been a better choice.
QR
And I think I'll go with the folks (the devs) that have ACTUAL DATA about how many trail accounts and names aren't used.
Pretty sure this will free up more than you think.
Besides Ex said if it doesn't work they can always adjust it later.
Leave it be for now folks.
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The level six limit makes this all but useless. If an account is inactive it is inactive. If you're going to set a limit, at least put it to something that can't be reached in an hour....
I'll just throw level 30+ out here.
Classic Dungeon Crawl Arc ID: 2232-"A satirical look at your average dungeon"
Down the Rabbit Hole Arc IDs: 24346 24397-"Rescue a little girl from an insidious dream invader."
id say level 15.
when i started playing, i got to lvl 14 on my 14 day trial.
i was inactive for a good while, but at least i didn't loose my name 
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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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I also agree with 20. I think that's around when the emotional attachment starts to kick in.
So does this mean I get to sign LadyK's butt?
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First - I'm one of those crazy people who starts to get attached just about the moment I leave Outbreak. (I'm considering doing a server transfer to move and level 13 character off of virtue.) But, having left for over a year and come back, I was delighted to see my characters all still in their original form. (highest level - 34!) I would not have been miffed if the pre-cape kids needed a new moniker.
And as for my butt... well, a lady never tells.
Altoholism isn't a problem, its a calling.
60+ characters, 5 years, 3 50's.
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And I think I'll go with the folks (the devs) that have ACTUAL DATA about how many trail accounts and names aren't used.
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QFT
Also, Ex already mentioned that Trial accounts are a different animal and they can free up those names at will, because they were actually paying accounts.
The Devs did datamining to come up with the lvl cutoff. I bet a bunch of names are freed up the first time around.
Agua Man lvl 48 Water/Electric Blaster
"To die hating NCSoft for shutting down City of Heroes, that was Freedom."
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The level six limit makes this all but useless. If an account is inactive it is inactive. If you're going to set a limit, at least put it to something that can't be reached in an hour....
I'll just throw level 30+ out here.
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Ex has already countered that "uselessness" claim. Don't you think that the people that are considering reinstating an inflammatory policy might... just maybe... have done more RESEARCH than you have?
They DID data-check... they found that the biggest chunk of names that would be affected fell under the 5-level mark. Since that would also be rather unintrusive and this CAN BE a controversial issue, you go with the solution that has the best net results with the least bit of intrusion.
Can't fathom why there are so many names?
Yes, you can get past level 5 rather fast... but in any 30-day situation, dabblers are likely to play maybe one character very far, but experiment on a half-dozen more. Others "reserve" quite a few names for possible future use... and even others create alts on various servers to see what the communities are likel. Most of these will be low-level "placeholders.
That's what this targets- the characters that were-even when on active accounts- NOT in the game enough to have established an identity.
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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?
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The first day of my trial I made a Scrapper and was almost level 10 before trying a different character. I doubt this will free up as many as they think.
Maybe if it was below level 10, since that's technically still a "new" character in that they can't get debt, etc, would have been a better choice.
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- If you were a trial account that never subscribed into becoming a paying account, the announced policy doesn't apply to you. NCSoft can free up unsubscribed names at will, and will probably do so. Even if a trial account managed to get 5 characters up to level 20, if they never subscribed, they are looking at losing those names.
- If you got a character up to level 10 as a subscribed (paying) customer and then had to take a break from the game (tour of duty in Iraq, e.g.), when you came back, wouldn't it be nice to know that name of the the level 10 character is safe? All your level 6+ characters are safe. But if you made a bunch of level 1-5 characters and lost interest in them (or were name-squatting <raised eyebrow>, then those names are being freed up (if and only if you've been unsubscribed for 90 days and if and only if someone choses one of those names while you're unsubscribed).
- How many names will this free up? Well, we're down over 50K subscribers from the peak. Add into that those who've unsubscribed over time and were replaced by new members. I'm guessing they're looking at one hundred thousand accounts that fall into the 90-day inactive status. Even if those accounts have plenty of characters that are level 6+ waiting for them when they return, they probably contain on average 1-3 characters that never made it to level 6. So, we're probably looking at at least 200k names being freed from inactive counts. Maybe another 100k from trial accounts.
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I still want to know how they are going to identify those people who have had to be inactive due to hardship beyond their control. I know that the very first thing on MY mind if I were called to active military duty would NOT be notifying NCSoft that my account will be inactive. And if I were in a disaster area - earthquake, hurricane, tornado, etc., I think that NCSoft would be very low on my list of people to contact.
Or am I in a vast minority in thinking that yanking the names of characters on accounts that are inactive due to military or disaster is kinda ... well ... yucky?
Storm
Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm ...
There shouldn't be any level restriction. You want the name, you obviously care about the toon, therefore you should keep paying. Anything else should be fair game for active accounts.
Thankfully we haven't had any major disasters in the last 90days, however I'm nearly certain if there were one, the company would at least consider doing something similar to what SWG did, which was shut off ingame maintenance decay after Katrina. In this case they could suspend the policy long enough for people affected by a disaster to get back on their feet.
People getting deployed are specifically told to make sure everything is in order before they leave. Since I thought a military exemption was part of the policy last time, and since we haven't been told that has changed, I'd guess it's still there.
Other than that, I'd have to say it falls under caveat emptor. It may be yucky, but this gets us back into the realm of just how much service should a company be expected to provide to people who are no longer paying for a service?
Also, as a final clarification, the term "yanking the names" paints an inaccurate picture. The names are unreserved. That means first come, first served, and if the person who had the name comes back before anyone claims it, it's still their's. It's not like the company will be posting a list of names that have been made unreserved.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
I am glad the cap is low because I have a tendency to play a game for a few months, get bored, play something else, then come back when I miss the old game. If it was 35+ I would always lose my names because I am a chronic altaholic
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And I think I'll go with the folks (the devs) that have ACTUAL DATA about how many trail accounts and names aren't used.
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QFT
Also, Ex already mentioned that Trial accounts are a different animal and they can free up those names at will, because they were actually paying accounts.
The Devs did datamining to come up with the lvl cutoff. I bet a bunch of names are freed up the first time around.
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I'm with Mental Giant and Darqaura. I was guessing (apparently wrongly) about the trial accounts. Thanks for clearing that up Ex. Also, thanks for clarifying that NC didn't just pull the number 6 out of a hat or something but did data gathering stuff.
Sounds good. And the whole being able to change it later if needed sounds great too.
To me, 15 or below sounds fair. I know lots of people who push to level 14 to get a travel power and then they might take a break from that toon for a bit.
If the devs say 5 and below will help, I guess that's ok. But if they decide to raise it to 15ish I don't think they're really going to be taking things too far at all. I probably wouldn't go much higher than 22-25. Once people start buying SOs they might be a little serious about the toon, and I'd hate to see them lose that work on a name they liked if they come back.
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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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I also agree with 20. I think that's around when the emotional attachment starts to kick in.
So does this mean I get to sign LadyK's butt?
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I think it should be lvl 20, but with a 180 day inactivity period.
And I should get to sign LadyK's butt too.
We don' need no stinkin' signatures!
Now that I think a little more about both sides of the argument I could see it being like level 15. I know i've deleted countless sub 15s in my three years here and it actually starts taking some effort to gain a level around then. But level six, regardless of data is just useless. That would mean some guy, three years ago that has a name I want to use got to level 7 in about 5 hours and now I'm hopelessly screwed.
IMHO the CoH staff just sits on the fence to much and won't pick a side. They are doing it with loot right now. They are trying to be a lootless/grindless game then turn around and go for loot and grind and just put a different spin on it. I mean just look at all the different economic items they have put in the game lately. I mean MERITS what is that? Why couldn't they just use the stupid invention drop system they put in eight weeks before??? /BOGGLE
Classic Dungeon Crawl Arc ID: 2232-"A satirical look at your average dungeon"
Down the Rabbit Hole Arc IDs: 24346 24397-"Rescue a little girl from an insidious dream invader."
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IMHO the CoH staff just sits on the fence to much and won't pick a side. They are doing it with loot right now. They are trying to be a lootless/grindless game then turn around and go for loot and grind and just put a different spin on it. I mean just look at all the different economic items they have put in the game lately. I mean MERITS what is that? Why couldn't they just use the stupid invention drop system they put in eight weeks before??? /BOGGLE
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You say potato, I say rutabega. This has about as much to do with the topic as what my boxers look like.
I'm gonna take a stab at addressing the rant anyway.
They made the game largely lootless at the start because they felt that it wasn't essential to the core of the game. They focused on what they could do well, and got it working right. Then they spend their time adding and refining a system that learned from most of the mistakes of other systems, and avoided them. There aren't different economic systems being added, just more fully realizing the system that's been here all along. Changing influence from something superfluous into an actual medium of exchange. It's an added layer of complexity in a game a lot of people complained lacked depth. It's nice but not esential.
Merits have nothing to do with economy, because there is no exchange. They're a personal yardstick of accomplishment. They're specific to the new content so that people participate in the new content, and don't just bring in their rewards from before. Mor than all that, they're a tool for personal choice. I can do any of the related activities, and get Merit. I can do my favorites. And then I have the CHOICE of what I want to be rewarded with. No earning Badge X to unlock costume part Y this time, I can do what I like and get what I want, and I'm not forced to grind for a lot of extraneous time hoping for the exact random drop I want, which is a problem with the regular Invention system.
Merit is similar but piggybacked on top of the existing system so that I don't have to sacrifice one for the other. I can work and earn toward my IO builds, and still get my new shinies from the RWZ. It is in itself a true reward system, the best one they've made so far. It's yet another layer of complexity, that's there for the people that want it.
That's all I have to say about that. Offtopic discussion over on my end. Sorry for the derail... but he started it.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
Sounds awesome.
I've never had naming issues, but I know people do.
I think it should have been around lvl 20 also, but some is better than none.
under lvl 6 is kinda lame how about:
Inactive account 90 days toons under 10
Inactive account 1 year toons under 30
Inactive account 2+ years nothing is safe
also any account inactive for a year that wasn't active for more than 3 months sould also not have safe names.
[img]http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/289/part1v.jpg[/img]
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But level six, regardless of data is just useless.
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How can you even say this? 99.9% of the names people want could be locked up in these toons. You don't know because you don't have the data.
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That would mean some guy, three years ago that has a name I want to use got to level 7 in about 5 hours and now I'm hopelessly screwed.
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A slanted hypothetical doesn't prove your point.
They can always raise the cap later, but the fact remains that with this many people in the game, everyone is not going to get their first name choice for every toon they roll on every server.
Agua Man lvl 48 Water/Electric Blaster
"To die hating NCSoft for shutting down City of Heroes, that was Freedom."
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You say potato, I say rutabega. This has about as much to do with the topic as what my boxers look like.
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>>> Pointing out that the devs are making faulty decisions based on half-[censored] goals is very much on topic. Lets see, they just put in a system that allows them to make money for your transferring and renaming your characters. In order to facilitate the money making, they also reopen the naming policy. They don't want to appear to be money grubbers and part of them wants to do the right thing so they put the name wipe feature back in but because of their conflicting goals they effectively neuter it. So just like the loot system, what is the point? Is this a loot based game or is it not? Do you want to free up unused names or do you not? Very relative to the topic.
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I'm gonna take a stab at addressing the rant anyway.
They made the game largely lootless at the start because they felt that it wasn't essential to the core of the game. They focused on what they could do well, and got it working right. Then they spend their time adding and refining a system that learned from most of the mistakes of other systems, and avoided them. There aren't different economic systems being added, just more fully realizing the system that's been here all along. Changing influence from something superfluous into an actual medium of exchange. It's an added layer of complexity in a game a lot of people complained lacked depth. It's nice but not esential.
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>>> Good Points, but then why put it in at all? My point is that if you're going to do something do it. Don't send your troops to battle and then tell them to not shoot the enemy. CoH tries very hard to not make loot essential but it is just not something that is possible. If you put any rare item in a game people are going to want to get it and they are going to grind to get it and it doesn't matter how you try to disguise it..it all ends up being the same thing, a grind to get it. I'm perfectly fine with that. I can own up to that, see it and understand that to get the things I want in a game I have to work for it. But in the CoH world they go out of their way to do just enough to say its not "essential". The same thing goes for this name policy change, they say lets see where the largest number of guys are that won't be effected by name change. Very thoughtful but pointless, when the point is to free up UNUSED NAMES. Should the special interests not be more focused on how long the account has been inactive and balanced with some sort of reasonable level obtained that can't be done in a sewer group in 1 hour?
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Merits have nothing to do with economy, because there is no exchange. They're a personal yardstick of accomplishment. They're specific to the new content so that people participate in the new content, and don't just bring in their rewards from before. Mor than all that, they're a tool for personal choice. I can do any of the related activities, and get Merit. I can do my favorites. And then I have the CHOICE of what I want to be rewarded with. No earning Badge X to unlock costume part Y this time, I can do what I like and get what I want, and I'm not forced to grind for a lot of extraneous time hoping for the exact random drop I want, which is a problem with the regular Invention system.
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>>> This is a good point and I hadn't thought of it before, but now that I think about it it just illustrates my point all the better. If the merit system is so good and there is a problem with the Invention system that they put in 8 weeks ago, why not simply change all costume drops to a Merit system? I'll tell you why, The devs are just sitting on the fence of capitalism and socialism and can't pick a side.
Thats just my humble opinion and it is very much on topic.
Classic Dungeon Crawl Arc ID: 2232-"A satirical look at your average dungeon"
Down the Rabbit Hole Arc IDs: 24346 24397-"Rescue a little girl from an insidious dream invader."
Ok, I may be dense but I REALLY dont get this policy.
1.) any moron who plays for an hour can get a character over 6. How many names do you actually think this will free up? Someone said all the 14-day trial accounts. Doubtful as probably most of them are also over 6 (I mean come on who cant get a character over 6 in 14 days). The number will be minimal at best.
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.
I understand that you guys hold on to the sliver of hope that these players may come back someday down the line, but I am just a pessimist about it I guess.
I would suggest a sliding scale of some sort. Something akin to:
Lv 1-6 inactive account 3 months
Lv 7-14 inactive account 6 months
Lv 15-30 inactive account 9 month
Lv 30-40 inactive account 12 months
Lv 40-50 inactive account 15 months
Lets be realistic, a lot of Good names are locked into 50s which have accounts which have been inactive well over a year. Those are the ones that need to be freed up for people.
Nemsis lv50 Inv/SS
Arch-Nemsis lv 50 SS/Inv
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Well the way I figure it is, if you get a really cool name that many other people want wouldnt you at least get it to six?
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It's not like I'm thinking to myself, I'd better get this cool name up to level 10 so it won't get poached after I leave...
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill