City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Inactive names...

Aurealis

By Aurealis,
Posted on: 2010-08-26 16:16 in Suggestions and Ideas

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marsha_Mallow View Post
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, Spiderman…etc…etc Just to name a few of course.
Actually let me check that.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison View Post
Don't presume to know everything about everyone.
I don't. No matter what you're going to have some people who object. But you can arrive at a compromise which adversely affects a minimal amount of people while providing the most benefit. I lost a couple names in the first purge due to an inactive account. But hey, I got an email warning me and chose not to act on it. So it goes.

Names like "Batman" have a different rejection notice when you try to check them in the character screen. Something like "This name is not available" rather than "This name is in use".

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bull Throttle View Post
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 actually left for up to a year for personal reasons and had every intention of coming back. I would have been more than a little hacked off if i'd lost all my names just because i had to leave the game for a bit. Not everyone can stay subbed to the game for one reason or another and just taking away names so people who already probably have a ton of alt characters can have a few more is just silly imo.

I agree if they've been gone since 2005 they'd be unlikely to come back and if they did i doubt they'd mind starting again seeing as they've been gone so long it'd be like playing a whole new game, but anything after that is just wrong. Just use a little imagination and i'm sure people can come up with good names that haven't already been taken.

The above is only my opinion, please don't hate me for it
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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
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.

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.
They were, in fact, most recently reset on August 16th, 2010, the same day Going Rogue went live.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Reiska View Post
They were, in fact, most recently reset on August 16th, 2010, the same day Going Rogue went live.
Mine wasn't. We got tokens to change our Globals if we wanted but there was no mass reset of the names.

 

Posted

A few weeks ago someone sent me an in-game email with the subject 'money' and the message 'yup' along with something like 50k influence. Their global was the same as mine, but with a 1 at the end.

Very mysterious. Eventually, I replied with 'eh?' and sent them a recipe for a temp power.

Haven't received a response.

BTW, my global name was unavailable when I first started back in 2005, but became available shortly thereafter.

 

Posted

Just to restate: I'm not hung up on the global name thing. Just using a "last date paid" marker for the account would work just as well if the global thing isn't workable.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurealis View Post
Just use a little imagination and i'm sure people can come up with good names that haven't already been taken.
I do that but it'd still be pleasant for everyone to see some names released in the wild. Would help with my eyes sometimes

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurealis View Post
taking away names so people who already probably have a ton of alt characters can have a few more is just silly imo.
Stopping new players from using names that are locked on accounts that no-one has paid upkeep on for over a year is far sillier imo.

Of course unlocking names will inconvenience some players, but I'm playing Vigilante here, I'm willing to sacrifice a few individuals for the greater good.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bull Throttle View Post
Of course unlocking names will inconvenience some players, but I'm playing Vigilante here, I'm willing to sacrifice a few individuals for the greater good.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bull Throttle View Post
Stopping new players from using names that are locked on accounts that no-one has paid upkeep on for over a year is far sillier imo.

Of course unlocking names will inconvenience some players, but I'm playing Vigilante here, I'm willing to sacrifice a few individuals for the greater good.
Well, we're all working under the assumption that there IS a large number of names that will be freed by this. The devs noted that previous name purges had little effect on name availability. That's why they were stopped.

Heck, for all we know cross-server name parking could be a much larger obstruction.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurealis View Post
I actually left for up to a year for personal reasons and had every intention of coming back. I would have been more than a little hacked off if i'd lost all my names just because i had to leave the game for a bit. Not everyone can stay subbed to the game for one reason or another and just taking away names so people who already probably have a ton of alt characters can have a few more is just silly imo.

I agree if they've been gone since 2005 they'd be unlikely to come back and if they did i doubt they'd mind starting again seeing as they've been gone so long it'd be like playing a whole new game, but anything after that is just wrong. Just use a little imagination and i'm sure people can come up with good names that haven't already been taken.
With all due respect I hope you understand that NCSoft's main concern has to be with the people that have active accounts. Reserving names for people indefinitely that aren't paying customers and may never come back is insanity. As a courtesy they have set a reasonable deadline for people that have to let their accounts go inactive.

That deadline is 3 months and characters at level 6 and under because that's where the bulk of the character names are at.

Now when they run that program you don't automatically lose your names. If you come back and no one has requested the name you still have it.


I do agree with you that it isn't hard to come up with cool names. I play mostly on one of the most populated servers and rarely resort to having to think of a second choice for a name. Furthermore during the latest free server transfer week I made over 50 transfers getting my characters in order in new SG's on all the servers and only got 2 character rename tokens. Both on characters I moved to Freedom.

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Party_Clown View Post
I do that but it'd still be pleasant for everyone to see some names released in the wild. Would help with my eyes sometimes

One problem. You aren't going to see anything if the devs run the program. They don't post a list of names that became available. All that would accomplish is that you'd see angry posts by people nerdraging/ragequitting and making excuses when they saw a name they wanted was freed and find it was taken again by someone else.

 

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Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum View Post
Heck, for all we know cross-server name parking could be a much larger obstruction.
I deleted a lot of dead weight characters when GR went live. I'm down to 70 characters on my main account and even less on my second account.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum View Post
Well, we're all working under the assumption that there IS a large number of names that will be freed by this. The devs noted that previous name purges had little effect on name availability. That's why they were stopped.

Heck, for all we know cross-server name parking could be a much larger obstruction.
/this. (And that any assumption that "the good names" would be freed up is just that, an assumption.)

That said, I'm completely in agreement that, if a trial account hasn't changed to a full sub within 90 days or so, its names get freed. We know flags get put in place that stop getting past level 14, 50,000 inf and the like - whether those flags can be seen and scripted for, though...

I know, for instance, that it's been at least 1000 days since the script was run. I can say this for a fact. Why?

Go to Pinnacle. Try to make a character called That Guy With Bots (or just check the name.) It's a character on a temp/trial account which was made for filler when they were about to give a one time prestige grant for every member in the SG, years ago. (It's an easy name to remember and check, which is why I keep it around. If it ever becomes available, I know the script was run.)

 

Posted

Good to know someone has been checking from time to time. Thanks Bill.

By all means run the program again, just don't get your hopes up that you'll get the names you want.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum View Post
Well, we're all working under the assumption that there IS a large number of names that will be freed by this. The devs noted that previous name purges had little effect on name availability. That's why they were stopped.

Heck, for all we know cross-server name parking could be a much larger obstruction.
Which is why I suggested a sliding scale based on time unsubscribed & character level (and a flat out no-limit on trials that haven't been taken up).

I've never been convinced by the sub-level-six 'purge' rule, since I've deleted many characters that I got to 10 or so because I finally decided I didn't like the name; sure there may be lots more unused characters at that level - but the ones with names that people might actually want to use are going to be higher - based on my own experience, YMMV of course.

Heck, I have 30 or so names on my EU account - some of which are pretty good as I was lucky enough to start playing in week one - which are just going to waste now I've moved across the pond.

Under the current system, those names will never be freed up.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bull Throttle View Post
Which is why I suggested a sliding scale based on time unsubscribed & character level (and a flat out no-limit on trials that haven't been taken up).

I've never been convinced by the sub-level-six 'purge' rule, since I've deleted many characters that I got to 10 or so because I finally decided I didn't like the name; sure there may be lots more unused characters at that level - but the ones with names that people might actually want to use are going to be higher - based on my own experience, YMMV of course.

The first "Purge" was level 35 and under. The current rules were set on the results of that purge - that's where they got the "under level 6."

That said, a few things *have* changed - such as trials being restricted to level 14, where they weren't before. Plus quite a bit has changed since the last purge.

- Run the script twice a year.
- The script remains the same for any accounts under, say, 4 years.
- Any accounts without global names, send an email to the email on the account asking if they want to keep their names. (Names over 35 are already safe, as those under would already have been freed up by the first script run.) Any that do not respond within 90 days, all names are freed up. (Note they don't need to resub, just say "yes." Yes, it's manual labor. Provide a link so they can change their mind and set the names to freed manually at any time. This should be a one-time addition.)
- Expired trial accounts over 3 months old that have not been converted have everything freed.

(Note, I'm not agreeing to this out of any personal difficulty coming up with names. I can generally get the ones I come up with.)

 

Posted

I like the idea of freeing up names of a certain level after 90 days of account inactivity, but I think we need to expand it.

90 days and characters of level 6 or lower? How about the longer an account is inactive, make the minimum level of characters increased...

What about 6 months and characters of level 12 or lower become available? And after 12 months and characters of level 18 or lower? Maybe after 24 months characters of level 24 or lower get freed up? After 36 months and characters of level 30 or lower become available again.

I know some people will get touchy about higher level characters' names being taken away from them, but if someone hasn't played for over 3 years, maybe we should consider going even higher for accounts that have been inactive for 4 years or more.

 

Posted

Personally I would prefer they just make names non-exclusive altogether.

Failing that, I would suggest tying a name purge to veteran reward time. If you have not received and vet reward time, and have been inactive for over 90 days all character names under level 20 are purged. If you have at least one vet badge (3 months subscribe time) and have been inactive over 120 days, all character names under level 10 are purged. If you have a one year vet badge, all of your character names are protected, period.

I understand that if someone has been gone for 4 years its frustrating not to be able to snag their name, but if they gave a year of their time and money to support the game, I'm ok with them keeping their name for potential future use.

Still, making names non-exclusive is the best option to help out the new players that are coming in for the first time.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marsha_Mallow View Post
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, Spiderman…etc…etc Just to name a few of course.
Any name that is a well known trademarked character is blocked.

You can tell by what it tells you when you try to name a character that.

If it says "That name is already in use" it means someone is already using it.

If it says "That name is unavailable" it means that name has been blocked for some reason.

I would also guess that any name which has been generic'd will also have been blocked from future use. That's just because I can't imagine the GMs would want to generic "1ron Man" over and over.

Quote:
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.