Release Names or Tie to Global
Would it be possible for NCSoft to release some no longer used character names? Say characters under level 25 on accounts that have been expired for a year or more?
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Or, better yet, find a way to tie character names to the global name, so everyone can be Captain Bob? |
I became inspired to create a new Radiation Blast / Energy Manipulation Blaster tonight. It took me about 45 minutes or so to get the costume right, mostly black with a splash of bright red. When it came time to choose a name, I tried "Celestial Striker," figuring it would be taken. It was. Darn. Okay. How about.... "Atomic Striker?" Taken. Hrm. Okay, let's try... "Celestial Fusion." Taken. Grr. "Atomic Fusion." Taken. "Scarlet Fusion." Taken. Tried a few others. All taken. |
A month before that, I decided to make a TA/Sonic defender and wanted to "be prepared" with a list of names, so I thought of three, Ultrasonia, Ultrasonja and Ultrasonya. Turned out all three were available. All three on two different servers, so there were actually six available. I took the Ultrasonias and left the rest for other players.
Frostglow, Infinity Effect, Dazzle Girl, Jewel of the Empire, Lady Nemesis, Eisensoldat (German for Iron Soldier), all names I've picked up within the last year.
Really, it's gotten pretty difficult to come up with a character name that doesn't use leetspeak like C3lesti@l, or throw random letters and / or numbers in like Celestial A 3, |
or use a foreign language like Latin. |
Would it be possible for NCSoft to release some no longer used character names? Say characters under level 25 on accounts that have been expired for a year or more? Or, better yet, find a way to tie character names to the global name, so everyone can be Captain Bob?
I became inspired to create a new Radiation Blast / Energy Manipulation Blaster tonight. It took me about 45 minutes or so to get the costume right, mostly black with a splash of bright red. When it came time to choose a name, I tried "Celestial Striker," figuring it would be taken. It was. Darn. Okay. How about.... "Atomic Striker?" Taken. Hrm. Okay, let's try... "Celestial Fusion." Taken. Grr. "Atomic Fusion." Taken. "Scarlet Fusion." Taken. Tried a few others. All taken. So, that character I spent 45 minutes putting together a costume for was never created, as I spent a good hour trying to come up with a good available name, only to come up empty handed. Really, it's gotten pretty difficult to come up with a character name that doesn't use leetspeak like C3lesti@l, or throw random letters and / or numbers in like Celestial A 3, or use a foreign language like Latin. Perhaps I'm uncreative. |
There may be a good chance of this happening again at some point. The question came up during Hero Con in the 'Wouldn't It Be Great If..." panel discussion and the question was posed to the audience with a thundering "YES, we would like to see this happen". They also asked us how we felt about tying names to Globals, so that anyone could have any name (multiple toons with the same character name running around on the same server) and that idea received a resounding NO by just about everyone. So, hopefully, they got the message that we would like to see names freed up but at the same time keep names unique on a server.
I agree. Most of the good names are taken at this point. You have to think really hard to come up with something that's not already taken and fits your character's concept. When I want to create a character now, I get the name first and then create/design the character.
Legion of Valor / Fallen Legion (Victory server)
http://legionofvalor.guildportal.com / http://fallenlegion.guildportal.com
Pagan Priest - L50 Dark/Dark Defender
I sort of agree, and disagree. I know it's annoying to try and come up with a name that's not taken. I tried to get the name Black Jackal once. I had to go through every synonym for "black" I could find. Black, Dark, Ebon, Night, Shadow, Midnight, Twilight, Cloudy, Gloom, Inky, Murky, Gray. Yeah.
On the other hand, when that happens I tell myself that I'm just not being creative enough. True a lot of our classic heroes have some pretty boring names. Spiderman... Batman... Superman...! But if I have to name myself Bl4ck Jackal, that means there's already a Black Jackal out there. And I should really be thinking more outside the box.
Most of my characters have real names. Dispari Scuro, Riley Tiranis, Sudona Forte, Roxy Phydeaux, Itsumi Charr, Victoria Noir. I never go wrong with names like that.
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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There may be a good chance of this happening again at some point. The question came up during Hero Con in the 'Wouldn't It Be Great If..." panel discussion and the question was posed to the audience with a thundering "YES, we would like to see this happen". They also asked us how we felt about tying names to Globals, so that anyone could have any name (multiple toons with the same character name running around on the same server) and that idea received a resounding NO by just about everyone. So, hopefully, they got the message that we would like to see names freed up but at the same time keep names unique on a server.
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I would love to see character names connected to global chat names. I think it works well in that other game. Lord knows there are certainly a lot of heroes in comics named "Captain Marvel". I can tell you this, of all the names I'd like to have, I have never seen another player in-game with any of them.
Being an old-timer, I got to reserve a lot of names before the game was released (during the head start). I think I have some great names, but I wouldn't mind a bit if those names stopped being unique. People who know me in-game call me by my global handle anyway.
Very Very interesting. I find it's a bummer the room was all NOOO!!! to tying names to globals. It would be nice if there was an option in the game to display names in chat and team search as playername@playerglobal. Stars are great, but I can't see them in chats and using a popup window to pull globals off a team search is rather lame.
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As for name purges, I'm not against running another one, but it won't give you any new names. They ran a purge of characters under 36 on accounts 90 days inactive, and the purge freed up almost nothing. I always say the same thing when people ask for this - the names you want ARE NOT taken by throwaway characters on the accounts of people who left years ago. They're taken up by the kind of characters who won't be de-named anyway. The first purge proved that to evidence, and so the subsequent purges have been level 6-and below. That's where all the freed names were, anyway.
And I've never felt names were sparse. OBVIOUS names are, like Something Man (both literally and as an example), but the solution to that is to have a name that is no some combination of your power source, colour, archetype or gender (honourable mention goes to Miss Blaster). It's never really guaranteed, but it's far from impossible.
For instance, a couple of days ago I got a name that a friend of mine described as generic. I snatched "Pandala" on Victory, which was taken on Pinnacle, and doing research on it, I see it's not very creative at all. Lots of people have used it in their fiction, and there's even an area that looks like a large plane in Zambia called that. It was also taken on other servers, so it obviously isn't so unique. But you know what? Any name I can get through character creation is unique just by default. It doesn't matter if it's unique because no-one thought of it, or because EVERYONE thought of it but everyone thought it would be taken so no-one bothered to try. As long as it goes through, it's unique enough.
In conclusion, I don't mind the occasional name purge as long as it follows the same parameters in the past, and I don't mind non-unique ways, as long as they're implemented in a way that's not ugly and yet makes it clear who the character belongs to (ain't that a catch 22). At the same time, however, I don't see making new names as problematic. It may require some lateral thinking, but good names are far from running out. They gave you a name check at character selection and they gave you the ability to start with the name and work backwards, exactly so you wouldn't end up with a costume and no name to put to it. So if you worry about your name, then start with it.
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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Snowstrike, Magmaflow, Realityburn, Waking Life, Amplified, Panzer Steel, Cult of Personality, Magnetic North.
ALL available within the last month. There are good names left, you just have to stop thinking so hard about it. I come up with names better when I'm not trying to at all. The majority of those I came up with while mopping a floor at work.
If you want to be Inferno Man, yeah, you're probably gonna be out of luck there, because it's not very original to begin with, and was probably the name of one of the first fire blasters created in the game.
I don't want to end up being Snowstrike@Claws and Effect because someone decided they have as much right as I do to a name I thought of first. If a name I think of is taken, I'm obviously not being original enough.
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
Disagree : new names are not hard to come by.
The only name I've ever run into that was already taken was NekoStar.
The other salient points have pretty much already been covered. From looking at the various release names nao threads going on, they mostly seem to be generated by Freedom / Virtue players with no imagination, or no concept of originality. Try being, I dunno, original with a name than using the first thing that comes to mind.
One thing I find helps a lot is to add a title or adjective to the name you want. For example; Stormwraith, Blackstorm, Contamination, and Fulgarite were taken; Lethal Contamination, Mistress Blackstorm, Lady Stormwraith and Fiendish Fulgarite were not.
Arc #40529 : The Furies of the Earth
My favorite name of late? Ophidius Rex
I have to agree that it is frustrating to not get the first name you think of... but it is fun try and come up with a new name, AND know that no one else has, or will have, that name. |
A while ago I was making a character - a purple, hoofed woman - and I was originally shooting for the name Tyrannis, or Tyrannius. Both were taken, and I had no substitute in mind. So after a 15 minute walk-and-lie around the house, I came up with an alternative. Uncreatively, I decided to rip off the name of General Morden from Metal Slug, but, predictably, "Morden" was taken. On a whim, I tried "Morten," which has a similar sound and a correct spelling, and that wasn't taken. And so, I have a character called Morten running around.
Granted, it's a name, rather than a descriptor like "Purple Lass" would have been (which I'm fairly sure would have been taken anyway), but it fits the character quite well. I'm actually pretty happy I didn't get Tyrannis. I like Morten better.
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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There may be a good chance of this happening again at some point. The question came up during Hero Con in the 'Wouldn't It Be Great If..." panel discussion and the question was posed to the audience with a thundering "YES, we would like to see this happen". They also asked us how we felt about tying names to Globals, so that anyone could have any name (multiple toons with the same character name running around on the same server) and that idea received a resounding NO by just about everyone. So, hopefully, they got the message that we would like to see names freed up but at the same time keep names unique on a server.
I agree. Most of the good names are taken at this point. You have to think really hard to come up with something that's not already taken and fits your character's concept. When I want to create a character now, I get the name first and then create/design the character. |
For me, nothing breaks immersion more than not being able to name your character what you desire. Imagine playing an RPG with a DM who will only let you keep your name if you rolled a 20 on a d20 roll. How long would you stay with that GM? Sticking with an archaic software limitation seems just as arbitrary, even if the limitation served a purpose at one point.
IMO, global naming and UI advances have matured this game past the need for unique naming, as has the simple passage of time. I think the UI could be advanced a little more to accommodate this feature and also be aesthetically pleasing.
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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I actually impose a constraint with my naming which both helps and at the same time pushes my creativity. All but a handful of my heroes/villains have two Fs in their names. Some of mine:
Freedom Fury
Fury Flechette
Fallen Faith
Fell Fiend
Field Factor
Fell Fender
Faberge Fae
Fiona Firedrake
Fortuna Famosa
Flame Fencer
Fumi Fuse
Obviously, some of the names above wouldn't be desired by a lot of players, but at the same time, I enjoy their uniqueness. I play mostly on Virtue and so I have a lot of competition for names. I still manage to get mostly what I want and find that my naming pattern helps out a lot.
I only mention this because this was the way I solved the naming issue. It may or may not be of help to you.
For me, nothing breaks immersion more than not being able to name your character what you desire. Imagine playing an RPG with a DM who will only let you keep your name if you rolled a 20 on a d20 roll. How long would you stay with that GM? Sticking with an archaic software limitation seems just as arbitrary, even if the limitation served a purpose at one point. |
I wholeheartedly agree with the OP's request for non-unique naming. I, too, am disappointed with the crowd's reaction. However, I hope the devs realize that the people who go to Hero-Con are not exactly a cross-section of the player population.
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In the same way, the people who actually visit Hero-Con, are not the average player.
However, there is a difference. One of the reasons why Hero-Con is so important is that the type of player who visits Hero-Con is the type of player who keeps paying to play. It's called Customer Loyalty. The type of person who visits Hero-Con is more likely to be more accepting in changes to the base-gameplay, and are more likely to have better ideas about how the gameplay should evolve.
The forums aren't really a good place for such discussions for one single reason. It's very easy for a single person with no actual time played to advance their cause or make brain-dead requests based on 2 minutes of thinking rather than weighing the pros and cons of the request against the design of the game and the intent of the game.
Hero-Con makes players put their money where their mouth is. The Forums. Don't.
Now, there is the valid argument that Hero-Con's West Coast only approach does unfairly cut-off players from the mid-west, mid-east, and eastern coastline sections of the US, and offers a uniformly high barrier to players in the UK, Europe, Korea, Australia, and New Zeland (New Zeland does have gamers? right?). One of the things I'd like to see as a promotional for Going Rogue is a quick World Tour with somebody like SuperChick (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqW8uD6WuLI - Hero), Pillar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgvXRgszvI4 - Original Superman), or Thousand Foot Krutch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueOCAqCWgtw - Break the Silence). Something like Nintendo's Fusion tour, giving a couple of devs some face time with actual players, but also having something else for those who don't "care" about the game to come and see.
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For me, nothing breaks immersion more than not being able to name your character what you desire. Imagine playing an RPG with a DM who will only let you keep your name if you rolled a 20 on a d20 roll. How long would you stay with that GM? Sticking with an archaic software limitation seems just as arbitrary, even if the limitation served a purpose at one point. |
It can be difficult to come up with an original name that you like that's not taken. On the other hand, I am often stunned at what I find available. And thirdly, the joy of getting a good name that I know is unique (on that server) is quite real -- I get distinct pleasure out of a securing good name...pleasure that would be gone if it was easy and everyone else could copy it. It's sort of a mini-game within the game itself, in a way.
Sometimes I get a good name on a server that I don't normally play on, and it makes me want to spread out and play on the new server, which I think is probably healthy for the game.
Here are some names I have been able to get after the game was years old and thousands of threads saying "no good names are available" had already been posted:
Constitution
Kursk
Damned Yankee
Thermocouple
Transuranic
Janissary
Chilipepper
Petroglyph
Skyrocket
Dai-sho
Dreamtime
King of Spades
What these names have in common is they are well-known public concepts, simple, not silly, mostly one-word names. None of them are "color-names" like Red Chilipepper or Golden Janissary. Also, they're not my best ones -- those I'm not even posting.
Here are names I've been able to get in the last two months, on my primary two servers of choice, no less:
Financier
Moonspell
Hexecutioner
Commandment
Ten-Dollar Bill
Warhorse
Bow Derek
Stratovolcano
Sometimes the search for a name results in a gem. I wanted to make a Fire/Fire Dominator on a specific server (limiting my name choices, since I couldn't server-shop). I wanted a name that sounded like a Victorian or gaslight-era urban legend -- a villain that people told stories about, like Jack the Ripper or Spring-Heeled Jack. I decided she would be a woman who had burned to death and was angry at the world.
Penny Dreadful was taken, on every server. (Nice catch, people!) I would have to look further.
But Blackened Kate, Black Meg, Burned Meg, and the like were all available on my server of choice. Although they sounded like villainesses in scary campfire stories, I wasn't satisfied, I was still searching.
After more thought, I got to thinking about the powers the character would have. Why is it three Fire Imps, anyway? What if she had...lost three young children in a fire! And..she'd gone in to save them, burned up, and gotten her powers...and a thirst for revenge on all who had done nothing to help, in those days before effective fire codes?
And thus I made my new character -- a very dark one indeed: The Thrice-Damned Mother, a tragic figure, whose very name is whispered around the campfire by children afraid to look away into the lurking darkness, and too horrified to gaze into the flames themselves, imagining those three children, and the terrible things they would become!
So I can't really get behind the drive to free up names, if things like Constitution or Commandment are still available...I mean, come on! And I'm definitely opposed to "server tags" so more people can have the same name.
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
Just curious, when did they do the under level 36 name purge?
I think they might do something like this when, or just before, GR launches.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
You mentioned trying to get "Atomic Striker" which is kind of funny; I got "Atomstryke" just a couple of weeks ago on Infinity. I didn't try "Atomstrike" to see if it was available (the "y" was intended and fits comic book naming conventions).
As Samuel_Tow said, most of the names players are looking for will not be freed up with a name purge. The assumption that the names are held by inactive accounts is faulty; we don't know who holds the names.
It is more challenging sometimes to come up with a new name than it used to be, but it is doable without spending hours at it. Since my daughter (age nine) started playing, my wife, daughter, and I have created a bunch of new characters. None of us have had to bend ourselves out of shape to come up with character names.
To be fair, I am compiling a cheat sheet of synonyms for terms relating to different powers (not finished yet), as well as a list of prefixes/suffixes (e.g., colors, ranks, titles) to aid in coming up with names, so that helps a bit. This isn't just for CoH/V, it's also for our own little homegrown PnP game.
So I see no need for a name purge. I wouldn't be opposed to some form of "non-unique" naming, but don't really view it as a need. We can already share names: Atomstrike, Lord Atomstrike, The Amazing Atomstrike, Scarlet Atomstrike, Atomstrike Prime, and so forth. All of these names look better than Atomstrike@lionheart_fr and don't tie it to your global identity, which maintains a bit of privacy for the players.
Even Lionheart FR falls into this category (it doesn't stand for French; I'm American ). Lionheart is a character name I've used for almost two decades now and wanted it to be my main here. There was already a Lionheart on the server our main SG is on, so I appended FR as a SG identifier.
For me, nothing breaks immersion more than not being able to name your character what you desire. Imagine playing an RPG with a DM who will only let you keep your name if you rolled a 20 on a d20 roll. How long would you stay with that GM? Sticking with an archaic software limitation seems just as arbitrary, even if the limitation served a purpose at one point.
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Would it be possible for NCSoft to release some no longer used character names? Say characters under level 25 on accounts that have been expired for a year or more? Or, better yet, find a way to tie character names to the global name, so everyone can be Captain Bob?
I became inspired to create a new Radiation Blast / Energy Manipulation Blaster tonight. It took me about 45 minutes or so to get the costume right, mostly black with a splash of bright red. When it came time to choose a name, I tried "Celestial Striker," figuring it would be taken. It was. Darn. Okay. How about.... "Atomic Striker?" Taken. Hrm. Okay, let's try... "Celestial Fusion." Taken. Grr. "Atomic Fusion." Taken. "Scarlet Fusion." Taken. Tried a few others. All taken.
So, that character I spent 45 minutes putting together a costume for was never created, as I spent a good hour trying to come up with a good available name, only to come up empty handed.
Really, it's gotten pretty difficult to come up with a character name that doesn't use leetspeak like C3lesti@l, or throw random letters and / or numbers in like Celestial A 3, or use a foreign language like Latin. Perhaps I'm uncreative.
@Celestial Lord and @Celestial Lord Too