Something Needs to be done about names!

So the op just dropped this loaf on us and left?

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Sometimes though it is better to use the check name feature before you create your character, it tends to save a lot of heartache.


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I ALWAYS do this. I always come up with the name first, and everything flows from there. But that's just me.

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I go both ways. Sometimes I have a concept (powers + costume + general 'feel'), and from there I get the name (how it happened for Essence Bleed, Kitsune Operative, Kinetic Theorum). Other times, I have the name, and then everything extends off of that (Regalia Knight is a prime example of that, DB/WP Scrapper I just made today).

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

I know it's against the law to talk about CO ideas that are actually good and apply them to CoH, but CO allows any player to take any name, with only global names being unique. That means there can be 500 "superdudes" running around, but of course they all have different global names.

That's really not a bad idea. There would be a lot less people running around with unnecessary periods, hyphens, l337, and substituting similar looking letters and numbers to get the names they want.

I'd wager it would cause A LOT less confusion than someone will undoubtedly come in here and claim.

And yes, I have read the numerous posts explaining the many different tools for coming up with a name, but... who cares? If Jim wants to be "Gothic Knight" then screw it! We're all tied to unique global accounts anyway.

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I go both ways.

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JUST HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO WALK AWAY FROM THIS WITHOUT A JOKE!?!

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I go both ways.

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JUST HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO WALK AWAY FROM THIS WITHOUT A JOKE!?!

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We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

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I know it's against the law to talk about CO ideas that are actually good and apply them to CoH, but CO allows any player to take any name, with only global names being unique. That means there can be 500 "superdudes" running around, but of course they all have different global names.

That's really not a bad idea. There would be a lot less people running around with unnecessary periods, hyphens, l337, and substituting similar looking letters and numbers to get the names they want.

I'd wager it would cause A LOT less confusion than someone will undoubtedly come in here and claim.

And yes, I have read the numerous posts explaining the many different tools for coming up with a name, but... who cares? If Jim wants to be "Gothic Knight" then screw it! We're all tied to unique global accounts anyway.

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I played a game that allowed that, (gods I can't remember which one). You are correct there isn't a lot of confusion, but as with all systems it did have it's fair share of deliberate greifing and a lot of multiboxers would run around in masses of the same name, little armies of identical clones, was a bit disconcerting.

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I just tried to make a new character to team up with a new character of my fiances and in short I couldn't find an available name. Literally.

We just spent more then an hour looking for names and logged off out of shear annoyance.

At some point something is going to need to be done to free up some names and doubly so if we want new people to be able to come to the game because the situation as it stands is absurd.

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I'm not sure why you were annoyed at cutting implements because you couldn't get a name... but an hour? Really?

I don't think I've ever spent that much time (across 170-some alts and at least half again that many deletions) trying to come up with a name.

As for "They should do something," well, they have. Several things, in fact.

1. They set names on characters 35 and below to "available" if the account had been inactive for 90 days. (Manually run script.)

2. The second time they ran that, they set it to below level 6... because that's where most of the names were freed.

3. They increased the number of characters you could have in a name, which frees up many more possibilities.

So - ask yourself these questions:

1. Is the name a powerset name? (Something healer, something nurse, Dr. something, Radiation Man, pretty much Dark-anything, Ebon-anything, Anything-of-darkness, Fire-something, Ice-something) - good chance that in *five years* it's been taken.

2. Is the name *blazingly* obvious or blindingly superhero-y? Again - good chance it's been taken.

3. Myths everyone knows? I'd be surprised if you could get Bast, Isis, etc - even if they're not related to trademarked comics. See point 2 about "blindingly obvious."

4. Is it trademarked? Sorry, you can't be Dr. Doom, Doctor Doom, or Wolverine. Even if you manage to be, expect *not* to be as soon as someone recognizes it.

So what can you do?

- As mentioned, thesaurus, dictionary, foreign dictionary, spaces, numbers, titles. The titles can be made up, for that matter - one of my first scrappers goes only by his designation, Seeker 209. Comes from a culture where "authority" is part cop, part soldier, part bounty hunter. Can't be Dr. Radman? See if you can be Dr. Radman PhD. VEATs gave us plenty of seers, arbiters, etc. running around.

- Give your character a hint of a backstory. For instance, in Left4Dead, it seems that everyone knows "Chicago Ted," though he's nothing but a scrawl on the wall. (For another example... well, my forum handle and the name of a few of my tanks and brutes.) Be the Lost Aviator. (As in "went missing," not "can't find his way from the front of the plane to the back." Or... the other way around.)

- Alter the obvious words. Give them a gender-based ending, cut them off where they sound good, give them honorifics.

- Have a sense of humor. Latest blaster to 50 was a cop from another dimension... and part cat. Name, Hot Purrsuit. (Or my first villain 50, Feliney Assault.)

- Just give them a *name.* Or a name -and- something. You do know Ash from Housewares, right?

See my Guides and Tutorials

(psst: hers. <-- chicka.)

I used steve's generator to make a character for someone on a dragon 'adoption' site. His name wound up being Prince Corset.

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I just tried to make a new character to team up with a new character of my fiances and in short I couldn't find an available name. Literally.

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www.m-w.com
www.dictionary.com

Expand your vocabulary.

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We just spent more then an hour looking for names and logged off out of shear annoyance.

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Shear annoyance? Scissors, scythes or knives pestering you?

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At some point something is going to need to be done to free up some names and doubly so if we want new people to be able to come to the game because the situation as it stands is absurd.

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The situation, as it stands, does not exist. There is no problem, at all, with name availability. I started a new character last week, tested four different names on two different servers and came up with eight "This name is not taken" messages. I had more trouble deciding which one I wanted to use, and which server to play on, than in actually finding an unused name.

Use an online dictionary, use an online thesaurus, use your brain. All powerful tools for generating unique names.

If all else fails take the name you originally wanted and rearrange the letters. While it isnt the most creative thing you can do I have managed to come up with a number of fairly good names.

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(psst: hers. <-- chicka.)

[/ QUOTE ]I stand by my statement.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

I posted mah bewbies and you still don't believe me.

I'm a CUPPA INCARNATE. Dammit, you MUST believe me nao!

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I've been making loads of characters over the last couple weeks... by the time I thought of a name I liked and tried it... it was always available!

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With one of my most recent characters, it took me seemingly forever to find a good name for him. However, it wasn't due to names I was considering being taken, it was because all of the ones I mentally taste tested just didn't fit him.

This character has two incarnations: Earth/Thermal Controller on Champion, and a Stone/Stone Tanker on Virtue. When I initially came up with his concepts, I was going to call him Pwnhenge (and was surprised that the name was available...though probably won't be now). Then I determined that such a punkish name did not fit him, what with him being a nerdy college student.

Did a couple hours of researching on volcanoes and also meteors to find some terminology that would work for a heroic name, after determining that his powers primarily came from a meteorite that nearly hit him.

After a long time researching, I decided on Impact Event. Got it on Champion, but was surprised to find it already taken on Virtue (and rather disappointed too, considering how much time I put into deciding on the name).

Fortunately, the obvious alternative was available. So on Virtue, he is known as Impact-Event.

And when in doubt, go for the puns.

I have seen some hilarious characters that way... some of my favorites being "The Poohgilist" (Winnie the Pooh as a Tank), "Mah Dam Butterfly" (itty bitty butterfly fairy character who was a dual blades scrapper), and while not a pun, the normal-looking character with wildly clashing clothes named "My Wife Dresses Me".

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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Sofa King

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wut?

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I'm giggling like a madman right now...

Would Bow Chicka Bow Wow work as a name, or is it too long?

I find a lot of good names.

Something needs to be done about names, though, because a lot of people don't have the time, patience, or desire to search through thousands of words to find one that isn't taken.

I suggest a scaling name purge system whereby the longer a person has their account deactivated, the higher level the toons are that have their names made available.

For instance:

Account inactivity for three months results in level 5 and under characters having their names made available.
Six months, level 10.
Nine months, level 15.
Twelve months, level 20.
Fifteen months, level 25.
Eighteen months, level 30.
Twenty-one months, level 35.
Twenty-four months, level 40.
Twenty-seven months, level 45.
Thirty months, level 50.

Maybe something a bit less drastic, even - it could go something like:

1 year, level 10.
2 years, level 20.
3 years, level 30.
4 years, level 40.
5 years, level 50.

... and that would still free up thousands of excellent names on all servers.

So all these people who are coming back after spending 4 years gone, will find their characters wiped... no thanks. The way they do it now is fine. People need to remember that there are near-infinite ways to get your ideas onto the screen. Just use em.

Just in the last few months or so I got the following names:

Fractured Shadow
Reverend Justice
South Slope
Nuee Ardente
Deuce and a Half
Ngwenyama

And that's not counting the names I've gotten with tricks like I = l...

If you can't find a good name, you aren't trying hard enough.

@SpaceNut - My 50s, AE arcs and current projects at ParagonWiki

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So all these people who are coming back after spending 4 years gone, will find their characters wiped... no thanks. The way they do it now is fine. People need to remember that there are near-infinite ways to get your ideas onto the screen. Just use em.

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No, the characters wouldn't be wiped. A name purge is when the character's name is no longer exclusive to the character. If your name was "aseorihaweproiaipwore", you could come back and have your name just as it was. But if your name was, say, "Zephyr," someone could take it, and then you'd get a free name change if you did return - if nobody took it, you'd still have it. And even at four years, it would only be up to level 40 - the only people who would have their 50s' names made available would be people who had quit right after joining the game. Do we really need to cater to them? Hell, just wiping names that had been gone for five years would be a huge change in and of itself.

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I just tried to make a new character to team up with a new character of my fiances and in short I couldn't find an available name. Literally.

We just spent more then an hour looking for names and logged off out of shear annoyance.

At some point something is going to need to be done to free up some names and doubly so if we want new people to be able to come to the game because the situation as it stands is absurd.

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No offence, but you and your wife need to be more creative and original. Yes all the popular names are taken, but they always are on every game.

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So all these people who are coming back after spending 4 years gone, will find their characters wiped... no thanks. The way they do it now is fine. People need to remember that there are near-infinite ways to get your ideas onto the screen. Just use em.

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No, the characters wouldn't be wiped. A name purge is when the character's name is no longer exclusive to the character. If your name was "aseorihaweproiaipwore", you could come back and have your name just as it was. But if your name was, say, "Zephyr," someone could take it, and then you'd get a free name change if you did return - if nobody took it, you'd still have it. And even at four years, it would only be up to level 40 - the only people who would have their 50s' names made available would be people who had quit right after joining the game. Do we really need to cater to them? Hell, just wiping names that had been gone for five years would be a huge change in and of itself.

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I'm pretty sure they already did/are doing some variation of this.

Blessed Jape
Jokeo
Luck Laugh
Lucky Laugh
Master Giggle

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I'm pretty sure they already did/are doing some variation of this.

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http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Character_Name_Policy

@SpaceNut - My 50s, AE arcs and current projects at ParagonWiki

I know how it works. I'm saying, people would simply not like it.