Something Needs to be done about names!

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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

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... but it only covers characters level 5 and under, right? As I understand it, a player that got to level 6 on the first day of CoH and then quit will still prevent that name from ever being used again. AND it's not a regular process - the last time it was done was at least a year ago, I think.

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

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Why not? I'm sure those hordes of people coming back after four years will be mortified that they may have lost one or two names on characters that weren't level 50. Hell, even take 50s out of the equation.

Who would care? One person? What about posters like the OP and countless other ACTIVE PLAYERS that can't find simple names because inactive accounts are sitting on them for years?

Oddly enough, I never have trouble getting names. Maybe because my characters actually have names and not actiony phrases or superhero titles. Such as:

Dispari Scuro
Victoria Noir
Tanya Atta
Roxy Phydeaux
Sudona Forte
Itsumi Charr
Riley Tiranis

Of course, I also occasionally use mixes of words or words in other languages, like:

Vicious Mitsu
Xanthos Theta
Ardent Black
Hurricane Lotus
Lithium Fog
Tomatre
Courgette

As long as you avoid cliche and boring names, like naming your Fire/Dark "Burning Shadow," it's easy to get names.

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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

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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.

[/ QUOTE ] I usually do just the opposite. I'll go into the character creator screen and pick whatever AT I feel like, decide my powersets, make a costume(or often I'll just keep hitting random button and change the colors), then I'll pick the name. It's how I came up with the name Careful, my Warshade. It actually worked out pretty well, because I ended up playing that character stupid aggressive.

If I'm feeling especially not creative I'll just stick 'Munki' in front of a word. Like MunkiBone or MunkiDan. But none of those characters has ever made it past level 5.

Another good way is to have one person pick a random adjective and stick it in front of a random noun that somebody else picked. Kilted Sirloin was created using that method.

Or you can pick two random words out of the dictionary. Helpless Purple got her name using that method.

Or you could pick something really obvious in English, and stick it in an online translator. I picked Red Death for my Fire/WP Scrapper and stuck it in a French translator and it spit out Mort Rouge. I thought it sounded better Rouge Mort so I went with that instead.

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As long as you avoid cliche and boring names, like naming your Fire/Dark "Burning Shadow," it's easy to get names.

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One man's "cliche and boring" is another man's "classic and simple."

I'm just going to pull up the wiki for superhero names... hm... let's see here... Animal Man, Angel, Ant Man, Apollo, Aquaman, Atom, Blaze, Balder, Banshee, Batman, Beast, Bishop, Black Knight, Black Panther, Blade, Bushido, Cable, Cannonball, Changeling, Chamber, Cloak, Corsair, Colossus... I could go on and on and on.

Those names aren't cliche or boring for superheroes and villains - they're iconic. Those are the names that people would like - the iconic names. To say that it's not difficult to get a name under the current system (or lack thereof) is a statement that completely disregards one of the mainstays of comic book name trends: simplicity.

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Sofa King

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wut?

[/ QUOTE ]I'm sure Sofa King Stupid is taken...

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How about Sofa King Useful?

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Sofa Kingdom

Unfortunately "classic and simple" is also "ridiculously common".

We have way more characters in this game than there are in published comics. WAY more. Hundreds of thousands more. In order to accomodate that, people DO need to be more inventive.

I mean, if this were real life, how many people COULD use one name? Given they might be in different cities, but - in San Diego alone, there are around 2 million people. If even a small percentage of us suddenly had powers, we'd still all have to come up with something *different* than what's already been done. (and I would imagine, also including published/trademarked names.)

It's one thing to try and get a name that "looks and feels" like a classic - but it's another to then say "but you can't have it too" - because others will also think of it as a classic, desirable name.

Be inventive. It's really not that hard.

Post deleted by Wavicle

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As long as you avoid cliche and boring names, like naming your Fire/Dark "Burning Shadow," it's easy to get names.

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One man's "cliche and boring" is another man's "classic and simple."

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I figured someone would bring that up. After all, some of our most well-known heroes are named things like... Spiderman. My point is, those names are already all taken.

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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

I dunno, I think they'd make for a hilarious theme supergroup

Androblast
Androcatch
Android Plastique
Androidbot
Blast Trapper
Bomb Bomber
Bomb Trapper
Bombbot
Bomboid
Girl Trapper
Girloid
Glue Bomb
Gluea
Grenade Woman
Net Catcher
Robocatch
Robot Lass
Robot Master
Snarebot
Storm Gal
Chance Gloom
Chance Woman
Dark Killer
Darka
Dusk Lad
Ebony Gloom
Girlcide
Gloomia
Jet Lad
Jeto
Killia
Luckycide
Mistress Chance
Mortishadow
Murder Killer
Necrowoman
Obsidian Kill
Obsidian Killer
Obsidian Lad
Shade Mistress
Charm Racer
Dart Sorceress
Enchantress Master
Fast Pacer
Fasta
Gal Mage
Mage Taint
Magician Conjurer
Master Man
Mistress Gal
Necrotic Racer
Nitroconjurer
Pace Racer
Pace Woman
Quick Mistress
Quick Woman
Rapid Charmer
Rottingia
Rush Woman
Sorceress Racer


Another plug for 30 seconds here

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As long as you avoid cliche and boring names, like naming your Fire/Dark "Burning Shadow," it's easy to get names.

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One man's "cliche and boring" is another man's "classic and simple."

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I figured someone would bring that up. After all, some of our most well-known heroes are named things like... Spiderman. My point is, those names are already all taken.

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Well, first of all, they're not all taken - I got Android after i14 launch. Wasn't taken.

But the problem isn't that they're taken, it's that they're taken by players who don't play the game any more. I think we can all agree that active players should be catered to over players who haven't played for multiple years. The question would be where to draw that line.

I've never had too many problems naming my characters.

I tried to name a night widow Wraith, and a lot of variations of Wraith. That was frustrating until I finally found one that was available.

Otherwise I usually get it on the second try if my first name is taken.

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As long as you avoid cliche and boring names, like naming your Fire/Dark "Burning Shadow," it's easy to get names.

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One man's "cliche and boring" is another man's "classic and simple."

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I figured someone would bring that up. After all, some of our most well-known heroes are named things like... Spiderman. My point is, those names are already all taken.

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Well, first of all, they're not all taken - I got Android after i14 launch. Wasn't taken.

But the problem isn't that they're taken, it's that they're taken by players who don't play the game any more. I think we can all agree that active players should be catered to over players who haven't played for multiple years. The question would be where to draw that line.

[/ QUOTE ] Tough to say. But I'll throw out 3 years. Paragon Studios should give a six month notice that if an account has been inactive for 3 years then every name on the account is available.

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Tough to say. But I'll throw out 3 years. Paragon Studios should give a six month notice that if an account has been inactive for 3 years then every name on the account is available.

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The add copy of almost every MMO trying to get players back is "Your character is still waiting for you to hop right in and play."

CoH isn't that different really. They've already did the level 20 name purge, those 3 year names are open. It's the people who plugged in names after the purge then got to 6 that are "safe" but even then how many are there really.

The issue is this game is alt-friend and people are sitting on names for "Future" characters, or just to keep other people from getting them on other servers. I'm not going to lie, I'm sitting on a few names. Kith on Virtue, for example, never found the perfect character for it, but it's level 10 and just sitting there, and since it's my avatar in half a dozen MUDs, I'm not giving it up any time soon.

There is a threshold, though, after which you can safely expect that a player is not coming back. One year, two years, sure, a player could come back - three? Four? Five?

And then take into consideration, how much will they care about a level 10? A level 20? Maybe one level 30, after three or four years?

It's a bit silly, especially since this would open up a lot of names - not just iconic ones, but just names in general - to active players. It's not like this is WoW, where names basically don't matter - we're talking superheroics and supervillainy here, names are important!

I think you are vastly overestimating the number of names that would be freed up by any sort of name purge. There's a reason the devs made the cut-off level 6 on the second go-round and why they haven't done it again since.

Most of the common names are locked up by active players. A purge would make very little difference.

Just think of another name. It's really not that hard.

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I think you are vastly overestimating the number of names that would be freed up by any sort of name purge. There's a reason the devs made the cut-off level 6 on the second go-round and why they haven't done it again since.

Most of the common names are locked up by active players. A purge would make very little difference.

Just think of another name. It's really not that hard.

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Calling [censored] on that one. The level 6 name purge freed up names like Blackguard, Roman, Earth, Wind, Fire, Anubis, Gilgamesh, Gatekeeper... I can't even begin to list the rest of them, there were dozens that I saw open up instantly and start popping up. That's level 6, done ONCE.

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Oddly enough, I never have trouble getting names. Maybe because my characters actually have names and not actiony phrases or superhero titles. Such as:

Dispari Scuro
Victoria Noir
Tanya Atta
Roxy Phydeaux
Sudona Forte
Itsumi Charr
Riley Tiranis

Of course, I also occasionally use mixes of words or words in other languages, like:

Vicious Mitsu
Xanthos Theta
Ardent Black
Hurricane Lotus
Lithium Fog
Tomatre
Courgette

As long as you avoid cliche and boring names, like naming your Fire/Dark "Burning Shadow," it's easy to get names.

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Isn't that part of being all superhero-y

Seeing as how I play on Virtue...figure lots of names are taken.

Though just yesterday, I made my FF/Sonic, Space-Runner.

I've used different variance's of BrandX, Brand.X, Brand-X, Brand - X. It's my main, she goes in many different ATs and she's the main one I RP as. Sadly, someone else has Brand X, but I check to see if it's clear pretty regularly.

Spoilsport & Joybuzzer I got after I switched servers to Virtue (was original on Victory), I was suprised.

Dark God, and Dark-God I recently took on Virtue (<.< That's BrandX working hero in the Isles though)

Valkyrie v2.0 I got a few weeks ago.

RaveSpider/Rave-Spider & American-Girl I got after switching to Virtue (I'm mentioning Virtue as it is the 2nd most used server).

I recetly released Card-Trick on Virtue.

Witch-Hunt I got a few weeks back as well.

To the OP: Yes. On Virtue (and Freedom) it's hard to get the names you want, that sound like you'd see in a comic book.

My suggestion. Keep trying. On just the server friend list, I have a list of names on all my toons, just waiting to see if they clear up. Oddly enough, I never do see those names in use, except for once, and havent seen it in use lately.

I sat at the screen for over and hour before I thought of Space-Runner. It takes patience, time and luck. But you'll find the right one soon enough.

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i think i'll see if Crush Maim Frolic...

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*Yoink*

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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'd share my main name source, but I am antisocial and don't want to see stuff from it all over the game. But I can sympathize; recently I went to the extreme of using a period behind the word, to get the name I wanted. *shamed*

Proper names work well, seriously. Think up a nice one and go with that.

tl/dr/lazy

Always a fan of:

Alliteration

Ex: American Anthem, Cosmic Cleopatra, Monday Mourning

Portmanteau

Ex: Starmada (Star & Armada), Japanarchy (Japan & Anarchy), Romanticore (Romance & Manticore)

Adding a feminine suffix

Ex: Soviette (Soviet + ette), Invincibelle (Invincible + elle), Exotica (Exotic + a).

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There are somewhere between 450K and 1 MILLION single words in the English language.
So even just using an already existing ONE WORD name, there are that many possible names.
If you add a second word, that makes it 1-2 MILLION possible names.

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Actually if one-word options are between 450 thousand and a million, then two-word options would be between 202 billion and a trillion combinations. What's even more funny is that with a 20-symbol limit and with limiting yourself to just letters and numbers, you can get 36^20 combinations, which is around 13 367 494 538 843 734 067 838 845 976 576, which spoken is something like 13 million billion billion options, which is two and a half million billion times more than all people on earth, so even if EVERYONE played, they'd still need five million billion accounts each to exhaust all available options.

By comparison, there is a fairly limited amount of Something Man and Fire Something names to go around, and 150 000 people, each with 132 slots, who could potentially use them.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

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But the problem isn't that they're taken, it's that they're taken by players who don't play the game any more. I think we can all agree that active players should be catered to over players who haven't played for multiple years. The question would be where to draw that line.

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You are wrong. A few years ago they ran a script that stripped every character below level 36 on accounts inactive for more than 90 days and left it up for grabs. Almost none of those names were taken above level 6, which is why the script was reworked to target names of characters below level 6 on accounts inactive for more than 90 days. No matter how strongly people want to believe that they are unjustly being denied their names by inactive accounts, the truth is that the names they want belong to ACTIVE accounts who aren't name-purged, and that the names on high-level characters in inactive accounts aren't all that desirable after all.

Just because a CHARACTER of a particular name never logs on doesn't mean the PLAYER who owns this character isn't playing full days every day.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

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Each name can have 3-20 characters. The first must be a number or letter, the remainder can b a number, letter, space, or one of the four special characters: - . ' or ?

That gives just over 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible name combinations. Each account can have up to 36 characters per account. Last we heard, there are 120,000 active accounts. Let's assume that inactive accounts make 200,000 accounts (active and inactive combined), resulting in (at most) 7,200,000 used names. Add an arbitrary amount for disallowed names (Superman, Wolverine, Jean Grey) and genericable names (Soopurmon, Wolfereen, Jeanie Gray), and we'll call it 8 million unavailable names. That leaves 9,999,999,999,999,991,000,000 available names.

Per server.

We haven't run out yet.

Bah! I just saw that Samuel Tow had made a similar point. Oh well...

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Each name can have 3-20 characters. The first must be a number or letter, the remainder can b a number, letter, space, or one of the four special characters: - . ' or ?

That gives just over 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible name combinations.


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i just made a new hero named 2t9j6%$^hif;g5-4]62\

his friends call him Face Roll