Let's FORGET talking about @ and codes.
What about an inactive name policy?
I've been an advocate for a name purge for some time, especially names still not tied to a global (i.e. haven't been touched in years). But a lot of people returned for Going Rogue so I can accept that a purge prior to that could have turned off a fair amount of returning players. I could see waiting a month or so and then justifying a purge of non-global tied names since if they haven't come back by now, I don't see where they're likely to come back at all and should be tying up names.
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-Having a summer job|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
if they haven't come back by now, I don't see where they're likely to come back at all
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-Being too busy with school
-NOT having a summer job
Etc, etc.
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Honestly, you can come up with an excuse for any time. If you couldn't hack it in late summer and you can't hack it in early fall, it's unlikely that you're ever going to hack it. I'm sure there's some scattered exceptions but those who fall into the overlap of "Really wanted to return" and "Couldn't do so in summer" and "Couldn't do so in fall" and "But really will someday... honest!" on the Venn diagram is probably a pretty small number.
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Originally Posted by Clebstein
-Having a summer job
-Being too busy with school -NOT having a summer job |
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I left the game in January of 2008 to try out some other games and came back in January of 2009. I've been back since. I'm considering leaving for a little while when some other games I want to try come out, but absolutely plan to be back. I always intend to come back to this game, even when I leave for a while. |
Originally Posted by Jophiel
Honestly, you can come up with an excuse for any time. If you couldn't hack it in late summer and you can't hack it in early fall, it's unlikely that you're ever going to hack it. I'm sure there's some scattered exceptions but those who fall into the overlap of "Really wanted to return" and "Couldn't do so in summer" and "Couldn't do so in fall" and "But really will someday... honest!" on the Venn diagram is probably a pretty small number.
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How does that fit into your Venn diagram?
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Originally Posted by eltonio
This is over the top mental slavery.
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Dead horse is dead.
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Your names are tied to a global so your situation doesn't apply to my proposed name wipe.|
Originally Posted by Smurch
How does that fit into your Venn diagram
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Problem solved!
I agree with Jophiel on this one. Someone who hasn't played in over 5 years, since before Jan 4, 2005, isn't likely coming back. You could get a university degree or two in that kind of time. It's not a case of 'I'm taking a break', they're just gone. These names predate Global Chat, APP's, Kheldians, and the Council. Time to free them up.
They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!
@Starflier
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If the people haven't played since 2005 then the names on their accounts have already been freed up when the devs ran the program the first time and claimed by players with active accounts.|
Originally Posted by Starflier
I agree with Jophiel on this one. Someone who hasn't played in over 5 years, since before Jan 4, 2005, isn't likely coming back. You could get a university degree or two in that kind of time. It's not a case of 'I'm taking a break', they're just gone. These names predate Global Chat, APP's, Kheldians, and the Council. Time to free them up.
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The reason the devs lowered the level from 30 something to 6 was because their datamining showed that very few names were freed up over level 6. When they ran the program the second time all the accounts that went inactive had their names freed up, and again people with active accounts claimed them.
We don't know how often the devs run that program since then. They really have no obligation to tell us. It could easily be something they run every so often as a part of a scheduled maintenance.
Odds are if you can't get a name you want it's because
1. Someone with an active account already has it.
2. You (generic you) insist on playing on one of the heavily populated servers. The higher the population the more likely the names been taken.
I've tried to find globals for five names in my time (to see if the owner was interested in parting with them). Out of those five, three were unattached to a global. Not that my sample size really indicates that 60% of "used" names are from accounts closed before 2005 but likewise I doubt the number of names unattached to globals is insignificant.
Anyway, it's just my opinion on what would be the best compromise between freeing up names and "protecting" the names of potential resubscribers.
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Same thing I thought the last few times this came up:|
Originally Posted by Party_Clown
What do you think of a policy for inactive name being reinstated for Going Rogue (or just in general)?
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The good names aren't inactive. The inactive names aren't good. A name purge isn't going to free up "Dark Steel" and "Silver Bullet", it's going to free up "xXx Bob xXx" and ".P U N 1 S H E R".
Incidentally, there are still plenty of good names out there. I picked up "Dr. Frankenstorm" on Virtue the day after Going Rogue came out.
How name conflicts should be resolved
I agree with LiquidX.
I'm thinking they may have run the program recently because of these names I got in the week after GR was released. All of these are on Freedom:
Lightax (yeah I know, but it looks cooler without the E)
Marshal Electron
Furious Judgement (hmmm coulda sworn that's how you spell judgement, not judgment, guess it must be American)
Professor Unusual
Admiral Gold Helmet
Grand Master Chin
Whispering Viper
Crystal Orchid
Gravity Mantis
Master of Focus
Logical Conclusion
My 50s:
Prime Minister MA/SR Scrap - Protector
Captain Hit-Guy DM/Reg Scrap - Freedom
Prime-Minister ILL/TA Troller - Freedom
Ultimate Minister Inv/SS Tanker - Freedom
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They aren't protecting the character names for people who may return. They've run the program that frees names at least twice that we know of. Those names are available to the first person that wants to use it. If a player returns and his character name hasn't been claimed by someone else he gets to keep it, otherwise he gets told he has to rename his character and he's given a free rename token.
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Originally Posted by Jophiel
Anyway, it's just my opinion on what would be the best compromise between freeing up names and "protecting" the names of potential resubscribers.
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Excellent. So free up all the names not attached to globals I know they haven't because I just checked on a couple names I knew from past experience to be taken and not have a global name attached. They're still listed as taken and still have no globals attached to them. Again, I might just be a special snowflake to have found some of the pool of names over level six (and thus unpurged) that supposedly just weren't worth it but I suspect that the number isn't insignificant.
The "They aren't good anyway" argument doesn't make much sense. The only reason to preserve these names is for the off chance someone returns after five plus years and then ragequits when their name is gone. If the names are all terrible then no one will claim them anyway. If the names are great then they'll see usage again with today's active players. As I said, it seems like the best compromise. Personally, I'd add in trial accounts over 2-3 years old as well whether attached to a global or not. If you played once for a week back in 2008, you're not likely to be returning.
Well, I'll let it go with that unless someone has a direct question for me. This is well enough traveled ground that I doubt it'll be an issue 
What do you guys mean when you say, free up names which are not attached to globals?
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Global chat handles were created in early 2005. Those are names that look like @Rooftop_Raider in game when you're in global chat channels or on your global friends list or use for sending in game e-mails.|
Originally Posted by Rooftop_Raider
What do you guys mean when you say, free up names which are not attached to globals?
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In game, if you type /getglobalname "name", you'll get the global name for that character on the server you're on, even if they are offline. So if you go on Virtue right now and type /getglobalname "lounge crooner", it will tell you that @Jophiel is offline. If it comes back with nothing (if the name just doesn't exist, you'll get a message), it's because the name exists but it's not tied to a global name because the owner hasn't logged in since global names were put into the game. Those are the names I'm talking about.
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"Judgement" is correct; "Judgment" is American |
Originally Posted by CaptHitGuy
Furious Judgement (hmmm coulda sworn that's how you spell judgement, not judgment, guess it must be American)
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http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/judgement.html
I'd like to see an automatic name purge - if you pick up a trial and don't sub, then after a month or 3 all the names should be available; if you have an inactive sub, then names become freed up gradully depending on how long you've been inactive and the level of the character, e.g.:
Unsubbed for 6 months, all character names up to level 10 are released;
Unsubbed for a year, all characters up to 20;
etc.
(I'd lose a fair few of my EU names under this scheme, but if I was that concerned, I'd pay a month occasionally to protect them)
I don't see why anyone who hasn't played the game since 2005 should expect their names to remain locked to them.
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Actually, I think that may not necessarily be the case. An account gets "tagged" with a global name the first time it logs in, that much is true, but this also happens after changes cause global names to be reset. My global is, and has always been, @Samuel Tow, but a few times I'll log in, say something in a global channel and it'll come out as, say, @Emillia Heart, because that's who I'd been playing at the time, only to later be told that globals were reset and global rename tokens issued.|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
Global chat handles were created in early 2005. Those are names that look like @Rooftop_Raider in game when you're in global chat channels or on your global friends list or use for sending in game e-mails.
In game, if you type /getglobalname "name", you'll get the global name for that character on the server you're on, even if they are offline. So if you go on Virtue right now and type /getglobalname "lounge crooner", it will tell you that @Jophiel is offline. If it comes back with nothing (if the name just doesn't exist, you'll get a message), it's because the name exists but it's not tied to a global name because the owner hasn't logged in since global names were put into the game. Those are the names I'm talking about. |
I don't know what causes globals to be reset like this, but they have been reset no less than three times that I can distinctly remember, and probably more times that I've forgotten about. As I understand the process, accounts simply lose their globals altogether and then have to be re-issued a brand new one the first time they log in, which by default is the name of the character they logged in as. Chances are, if a name is not tied to a global, that this player HAS logged in since 2005, but has not logged in since the last global name shenanigans, which was fairly recent if I remember correctly.
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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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Ah, I did not know that feature.|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
Global chat handles were created in early 2005. Those are names that look like @Rooftop_Raider in game when you're in global chat channels or on your global friends list or use for sending in game e-mails.
In game, if you type /getglobalname "name", you'll get the global name for that character on the server you're on, even if they are offline. So if you go on Virtue right now and type /getglobalname "lounge crooner", it will tell you that @Jophiel is offline. If it comes back with nothing (if the name just doesn't exist, you'll get a message), it's because the name exists but it's not tied to a global name because the owner hasn't logged in since global names were put into the game. Those are the names I'm talking about. |
Now, are we certain that these are 100% guaranteed to be global-free names?
Back when globals were introduced, there were assurances of privacy- that the @global would be only available to those that you shared it with. I remember vaguely that there was a change to that over the past year or so... was kinda too busy to follow through on it... but is there ANY way that users may have to not share their global when you do it that way?
Just trying to be 100% sure that what we see IS what we assume it is.
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If this is the case, I'd be just as happy to tie it to a "account last logged in" date. But I'll cheerfully admit to a bias towards existing players over defunct accounts.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Actually, I think that may not necessarily be the case.
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Don't presume to know everything about everyone. I went to college and took a four year break. Since graduation, I haven't had an account lapse. I'm one example of a sure thing that happens to a large majority of the player base.|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
Honestly, you can come up with an excuse for any time. If you couldn't hack it in late summer and you can't hack it in early fall, it's unlikely that you're ever going to hack it. I'm sure there's some scattered exceptions but those who fall into the overlap of "Really wanted to return" and "Couldn't do so in summer" and "Couldn't do so in fall" and "But really will someday... honest!" on the Venn diagram is probably a pretty small number.
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A ton of people are having a tough economic time right now. So they need to cut back a few months, let them. Don't be so close minded.
Where to now?
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Could it also be that some of those names are reserved by the system to prevent people from using them? For example, Batman, Robin, Superman, SpidermanÂ…etcÂ…etc Just to name a few of course.
What do you think of a policy for inactive name being reinstated for Going Rogue (or just in general)?
I'm not sure there's one right now but for a while it was any character inactive for 90 days and under level 6.