NCSoft's Name Reservation Policy

EDIT: It's been mentioned that I may not have been as clear as I could have as to the goal of this thread. Hopefully this will rectify that. We are seeing more of an issue in getting names. No, its not impossible, but with every name that's taken, it cannot be denied that the pool of names shrinks. The reason for the thread is to gather thoughts on possible alternate ideas from the current naming policy, for the purpose of increasing player investment and satisfaction in the game. (In other words, the more a player likes a character, the longer they are likely to play it. On the other hand, while not liking a name may not in and of itself cause a player to become bored or unsatisfied, with the game, it is a contributing factor. 'I'm just not feeling my character right now.' Is a common phrase that's heard before people disappear. Costumes, names, and power sets are usually the things listed if they're asked. Anything that increases the enjoyment of playing the character is an incentive to keeping that player here and not elsewhere. These things become more important since there are now two other superhero MMO's, and if someone gets bored, they can simply switch to another similar game (even though we all know CoX is better :P ).

So any changes would need to have two goals.

1) Widen the pool of names available for current players.
2) Ensure that players who wish to return are impacted as little as possible.

What follows is a re-summation of the suggestions so far, so that those who don't like reading a lot can get an idea of what's been talked about without wading through a lot of text. Its a sort of combination from several people, and at this point, mostly not mine (I'd list names but I'm afraid I'd miss someone, although if someone else wants to list the names and send it to me I'll list them).

1) Players get contacted in conjunction with a free reactivation weekend shortly before (perhaps two weeks) the second year anniversary of quitting the game, or immediately if the player is already over two years.
2) Two weeks after that, if the player hasn't indicated an interest in preserving the characters, by logging into the game, the names become open.

This keeps the opportunity for previously held names to become available, but also makes names become naturally recycled into the game. If returning or inactive players wish to keep their names, they can do so easily. If they don't, any names not re-reserved could be released for current players to use.

In addition, associating this with the free reactivation weekends would also give players an opportunity to go check if the name they've been waiting on is free or not without needing to check so often.

The negative risk to this appears to be close to minimum since all players, regardless of how long they've been gone, would be able to simply log in and reserve those names again, thereby safeguarding them longer. It also provides a positive for current players, since if the names aren't re-reserved, they would become available to current players.
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ORIGINAL POST:

Its getting harder and harder to get names that don't require odd punctuation or deliberate misspellings and the like. I know in one channel I'm in I've heard no less than twenty people complaining about it this week alone. The game has been around for 6 years now. Thing is, the vast majority of the good names were taken within the first two. Now, of course, first come, first serve is fair, but I think its about time to release some of the older names that aren't played anymore.

Right now the policy is: "Names for characters below level 6 on game retail accounts that were inactive* for over 90 days were changed to unreserved status. This means that those names became available for new character names if picked by an active (subscribed) player."

We've had two rounds of temporary availability (if I recall correctly) and the last one was just shortly after I started playing, about 3 years ago. EDIT: Apparently the forums have informed me that I joined in October of 2006, so it was about a year after I joined. I hate time.

So I'm just interested in what others think on this subject. Personally, I'd like to see all names inactive for 2 years or more, regardless of the level, become available for current subscribers. Two years is more than enough time, I think for someone to decide to come back, and if they haven't, I think that's a good indication that NCSoft should be catering to current subscribers rather than past ones.

While I don't feel it's all that hard to find good names (try the Virtue Name Watch thread stickied at the top of the forum), I would like to see another, announced, name purge.

I am not sure what exactly constitutes hard when it comes to this issue.

I have some toons I play regularly. Whenever I come across a good name, I create a toon for that name. I have more toons than I play at the moment.

I didn't think up all the names at once. Sometimes there were months in between them. However, I am not sure if that actually means that it was 'hard' for me to come up with them.

So they come to me slowly, but faster than I use them.

I have a .txt file on my desktops for any I think up. It has the ones I don't have slots for atm.

Oh, I do. ^__^ And thanks Brand for being intelligent, as usual. When I see people say stuff like that, I don't normally wonder. Trolls are fairly obvious when they don't try that hard. And I actually lucked out on a name just today, Tantalus. However, a lot of very good, one might say iconic names are sitting in purgatory because the people who chose them originally haven't logged on in years. I do think a name purge would be a good thing since its been so long, and even people who think they have all the good names they need now might find a few to work with.

Honestly I don't care. Why is it so necessary for a name purge? I was gone for two years because my computer crapped out on me, wouldn't be fare after spending money to make the accounts in the first place; I come back and suddenly there're all Generic'd or something. It should only apply to trial accounts in my opinion.

I'd like periodic name purges on inactive accounts, but I've never had trouble getting 'good' names for my characters.

I've never found it to be as impossible as some folk claim.

Despite the fact that I have a plethora of good names, some of which I've found using the Virtue Name Watch thread, I agree with the original poster. To say it's not getting more difficult to find a good name is just silly; every time a good name is taken, it reduces the number of possible good names by one. There are perhaps over a hundred thousand (and maybe a whole lot more!) characters on Virtue alone. If even a tenth of them have what would generally be considered "good" names (to the majority, the average superhero MMORPGer), then the pool of good names has been reduced by ten thousand or more. Certain types of names - elemental-related names, for instance, or iconic superhero (Superman, Ultra-Man, Power Girl type names) - are difficult to find, at least decent ones.

The longer we go without a name purge, the harder it will become to find names. Period. Anyone who says otherwise is talking out the side of their neck.

I'd propose something like this, for name purges:

• 90 Days - Unreserve names on characters level ten and below on inactive accounts.
• Six Months - Unreserve names on characters level twenty and below on inactive accounts.
• One Year - Unreserve names on characters level thirty and below on inactive accounts.
• 18 Months - Unreserve names on characters level forty and below on inactive accounts.
• Two Years - Unreserve names on characters level fifty and below on inactive accounts.

Huh. I never have issues with finding a good name or ten. But I did look up that name you said was good. Tantalus, right?

http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel//u...antalus_HD.jpg

Yeah. Some of the 'iconic names' are locked for a reason. But hey, I could be wrong on what I read!

Whether it is harder or not is irrelevant to me.
I've long had the opinion that character names on long inactive accounts should become open for the taking. I've come to think 2 years is more than fair.

As to the regular discussions about the ability to name (or not name) your character...
It comes down to happenstance and personal tastes.
Were the names you wanted taken and/or did you find ones you're happy with?
That's it.
My ability to find names that I've been completely happy with is not something I care to wave around as some skill.
I have better skills to wave around.
Like my ability to acquire a terrible sore throat yesterday...

I say if they don't have a global attached to the name, release it regardless of level.

I saw someone with 'Pyre' last night in Nova Praetoria.

Good names != hard to find.

People in my Globals regularly pull out some really good ones that simply weren't taken. Mileage always varies, but I found that both Counterculture and Counter-Culture weren't taken for example. Which I found rather astounding. That said, seeing the occasional straightforward name on a lowbie means one of two things: They're actually stealth-deleting old accounts, likely stealthing it to prevent mass name grabs by people with a lot of empty slots. Or people on active accounts are camping these names until they get a character for them. Neither would be affected by a policy change.

I'd be fine with 2 years really, but the thing that does bug me most is the globalless names. That's like you haven't logged in once...not even during a free reactivation....in like 4 years.

While I'd agree that a name purge for accounts that have been inactive for 1+ years would not be a bad thing (for characters under level 40, perhaps), I don't agree that good names are hard to come by as it is. Of course, what makes a good name is purely subjective.

Or is it objective?

This is making me dejective. ed. Dejected.

Dangit.

I think 2 years may be a bit short, considering; I've been away for over a year at a time and so have some friends of mine, and while I don't think I'd rage out at losing Warp Factor I would be pretty bummed and much less enthused about playing the character. Maybe 3 years would be a better number, and certainly any account without a global attached should lose it's names. Seriously, there were a TON of people I knew back when the game first came out who took great names, then vanished within a year and never came back. It's safe to say they aren't coming back now.

I'd also like to see this apply to SGs; right now SG names don't appear to ever get genericed, and they really should. There's no reason 3 or 4 characters who haven't been logged in in over four years should be able to hold onto some of the great SG names from back in the day.

I'd go for an announced name purge for say

1) ALL characters on accounts that don't have a global name associated.

2) All characters level 40 and under on accounts that have been inactive for 2 or more years.


Other than the circumstances of item 1) above, I don't think anyone who has played a character to 50 should lose that character's name.

And yes, "Good Name" is a subjective term.

Still not having a problem with good names, and still seeing a lot of awful names out there. I think I've discovered the true issue at heart here:

Its getting harder and harder to get names with odd punctuation and deliberate misspellings.

Luckily, for us creative types, the good names remain largely undisturbed.

Of course it is "getting harder". That doesn't mean it's hard, just harder. I have tried to pick names and had them be taken. Oh noes! But I seem to be able to find names.

Names I've used recently:

Captain Chroma (da/dm tank)
Miss Wormwood (plant/thorny dom)
Meri Sioux (mind/psi dom)
Perfect Dork (dp/dev)
Shadie Hawkins (ws)

I'm not having much trouble finding available names.

Seriously though, I think it's a mindset. The last character I rolled up was named Vizier Black. That was the name I thought up, and that was the name that went through. I liked the name Priory, because I wanted a religious name, and that wasn't used either. I rolled up the name b00ts because I might use it on a Resistance character. I thought, hrm, I should have a Highwayman character. That was used, but Night Highwayman wasn't. It's not really that hard.

Again, I think it's the less creative names that are used the most.

Regards,

.xXxSooperAwsomeD00d342xXx