Release Names or Tie to Global
By
Ad Astra,
Posted on: 2009-11-11 12:02 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Don'y you mean a GM who won't let you use the same character name as one of the other people in the group? The naming system doesn't randomly just say no after all.
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Originally Posted by Johnny_Velocity
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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Didn't they set the level cutoff really low, though? I thought it was something like if you're under level 5...if you just ran through a Sewer team at level 1 instead of only creating it to namesit you would've been over that bar.| They did something similar twice in the past, found that fewer names than they expected were freed up. |
The Champions setup of charname@accountname was ugly, though, even though it let you be Superbob@Bob and Superbob@Bobby. Don't know if they ever put in an option to mask that stuff after launch.
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I believe the first time it was for character names below 36. Most of the names that actually got released from inactive accounts were well below that, hence the change to 1-5.
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Originally Posted by Iannis
Didn't they set the level cutoff really low, though? I thought it was something like if you're under level 5...if you just ran through a Sewer team at level 1 instead of only creating it to namesit you would've been over that bar.
The Champions setup of charname@accountname was ugly, though, even though it let you be Superbob@Bob and Superbob@Bobby. Don't know if they ever put in an option to mask that stuff after launch. |
*looks at the thread*
*looks at the server merge thread*
....
*laughs*
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Yup.| Perhaps I'm uncreative. |
EDIT: Also remember that you can also check available names BEFORE you make a character too.
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Probably the ideal levell would be 14 to strip all of the trial accounts that did not subscribe. Just sayin'.
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Originally Posted by lionheart_fr
I believe the first time it was for character names below 36. Most of the names that actually got released from inactive accounts were well below that, hence the change to 1-5.
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@Texarkana
@Thexder
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yeah, but most of those trial accounts are like:|
Originally Posted by Texarkana
Probably the ideal levell would be 14 to strip all of the trial accounts that did not subscribe. Just sayin'.
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xXxGohanxXx
Wolverin3
Cycl0p5
or the ludicrous names the in-game email spammers come up with.
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Originally Posted by je_saist
or the ludicrous names the in-game email spammers come up with.
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Oh come on... it's OBVIOUS those spammers are role-playing a race of aliens! Who WOULDN'T want a name like txkowk3!
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... what bothers me is that I suspect you logged into an avatar you hadn't turned off email on and pulled that name directly from a spam email...
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Originally Posted by Westley
Oh come on... it's OBVIOUS those spammers are role-playing a race of aliens! Who WOULDN'T want a name like txkowk3!
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I believe the first time the script was run (with the "35 and under, inactive for 90+ days") was around COV's release. The second one, set for under level 6, roughly a year later - with that level set because that's where most of the names taken *were.* |
Originally Posted by Mr_Zek
Just curious, when did they do the under level 36 name purge?
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FWIW:
- I *despise* the idea of being Memphis Bill@global. And I'd find seeing my global behind the character it came from to look just horrid. (IOW, "global@global.")
- I'm reasonably sure the spammer accounts are flat-out nuked, given all the "Empty" in them. Only time outside of spammers I've seen that is when I had email from someone who deleted the character it came from. And while most of those names are gibberish, there are a few - potentially hijacked accounts, but still - that have "character" names.
- There are two ways I'd be fine with nuking names. One, trials that haven't converted to full accounts after, say, 90 days. This should, of course, be fully disclosed when making the trial account. The other would be for inactive accounts - have an option on the account page to "Release name lock" or something similar, and make reference to it in the reactivation weekend emails. (There should also be an option to just "Delete account and all characters" on the same page.) Put that option to go farther in the hands of the customer (or former customer.)
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Did that get fixed? It's been broken since - oh, I think issue release.
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Originally Posted by Westley
EDIT: Also remember that you can also check available names BEFORE you make a character too.
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You can still check names from the server screen before you begin creating a character. The checker on the ID screen is indeed broken.
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Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Did that get fixed? It's been broken since - oh, I think issue release.
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Not quite. What we were told was that they freed up a lot of names. Thousands. BUT THEN NO ONE TOOK THEM. They had a way to keep track of the names freed and then re-picked.|
Originally Posted by Luminara
They did something similar twice in the past, found that fewer names than they expected were freed up.
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See there are two fundamental facts at work here that make simply "freeing up names" something that doesn't work as well as the nominatively challenged hope it would:
1) they'll never take names away from high level characters, even on accounts that haven't been active a long time
2) There really isn't a magical pool of really awesome names stuck on unplayed lowbies across all servers.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
I'm a little surprised at how many folks don't like the idea of tying character names to globals, seems like a fair and equitable solution. Whether it'll happen or not, guess it depends on how Paragon looks at CoH from a big-picture standpoint.
If their focus is upon retention of the existing playerbase they'll probably leave unique names in, might irk too many players when someone who has been using the oh-so-unique "Hyperman" for years suddenly finds other Hypermen running around. If they shift focus to gaining a new audience (which we might see with a big GR push) then something will probably need to be done to make the simpler names available to newcomers.
Umber's Hall of Heroes & Villains
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Thank you for condescendingly and summarily dismissing the every single good point the opponents of this idea have made, not just in this thread but in every single thread regarding this topic that's come up on a regular basis. |
Originally Posted by Umber
I'm a little surprised at how many folks don't like the idea of tying character names to globals, seems like a fair and equitable solution. Whether it'll happen or not, guess it depends on how Paragon looks at CoH from a big-picture standpoint.
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Also, thank you for implying that the devs would have to be short-sighted or stupid not to implement this; after all, when has being polite ever gotten anyone anywhere?
My characters - all on Virtue.
Gabe's Internet [censored] Theory
RMT spammers WILL steal your credit card.
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Fair and Equitable is not always Best, or even Good. King Solomon deciding to cut the baby in half was fair. That doesn't mean it was the right thing to do.|
Originally Posted by Umber
I'm a little surprised at how many folks don't like the idea of tying character names to globals, seems like a fair and equitable solution. Whether it'll happen or not, guess it depends on how Paragon looks at CoH from a big-picture standpoint.
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Tying names to globals is aesthetically ugly.
Tying names to globals creates another barrier to being sure you've found the person you wanted. Added time, added hassle.
Tying names to globals opens up a big can of worms wrt players potentially griefing other players.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
It never ceases to amuse me how "Primal" is taken on every server I've checked. The one on Triumph is mine, the rest someone (or several) with equally-exquisite taste, no doubt. 
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Originally Posted by Celestial_Lord
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.
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Originally Posted by Luminara
Practically all of the English language is based on, or stolen from, other languages. We have very few words which are unique to our tongue. Why not use Latin, or Egyptian, or German, or Greek, or Mayan, or any other language, considering that most of the words you're going to use have their roots in those other languages anyway?
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And then there's, you know, a name like Volt Spike. Which I snagged for a Spines/Elec Scrapper when the last Issue came out. Metallic spines, obviously. Looks really cool, gotta hand it to the BABster.
I was shocked when I made a dual blades/sr scrapper and found out that Argentum was not taken. Look it up, it's Latin.
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I have one better: would it be possible to use the Suggestion and Ideas board for this thread?|
Originally Posted by Celestial_Lord
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?
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To be completely sincere, I know I've ragged on thread placement before, but this thread does truly belong there, IMHO.
Nah, this doesn't seem to be a suggestion or an idea, it sounds like a demand to me. 
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Case in point: Champs Online |
Originally Posted by Lemur Lad
Tying names to globals is aesthetically ugly.
Tying names to globals creates another barrier to being sure you've found the person you wanted. Added time, added hassle. |
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Ah, I see your point, and what you did there |
Originally Posted by Westley
Nah, this doesn't seem to be a suggestion or an idea, it sounds like a demand to me.
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We needed a demand thread!
I DMEAND CAKES AND PIE!
ASLO I DEMNADS NEMESIS PONIES!
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Don't we still have the whole "below level something/gone for 90 days means your name is up for grabs" system? Or was that also canceled at some point?
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Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
I believe the first time the script was run (with the "35 and under, inactive for 90+ days") was around COV's release. The second one, set for under level 6, roughly a year later - with that level set because that's where most of the names taken *were.*
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"DEMNADS"?| ASLO I DEMNADS NEMESIS PONIES! |
Are we talking about Bill Clinton's genitals again?
And again, we can already do this without adding global handles, just by adding prefixes or suffixes, or with a slight spelling variation that retains the "feel" of superhero naming conventions, so that possibility already exists.