NCSoft's Name Reservation Policy

The name purge thing? I can see both sides of the argument. I don't see any reason to NOT purge all trial accounts though. They could do it automatically a week after they expire, and they could tell people this is going to happen when they sign up for a trial, and if they want to keep the name, they can go ahead and subscribe before that week is up.

As far as paid accounts? I think if someone played for a year and has been gone for four or five, it's a safe bet they're probably not coming back. And if they do, they can start from scratch. I took a year of Computer Programming at the local community college back in the 80's. I'm thinking about going back. I'm not expecting any of my credits to still be good. Seems fair enough to me.))

((If you read comic books, you might notice that the creators of superhero comics are having the same problems finding good names as we do. Seriously, there are some oddly-named characters out there (Plutonian from the excellent Irredeemable for instance). So while I'm in favor of a limited purge, we're still going to have to use LOT of ingenuity and creativity to find names for our characters. It's not so much getting the name you *want* as it is getting a name that's *good*.))

I will agree that there are other things that need to be taken care of as well. I'd hate for a solution to this issue to take away substantially from new content or whatnot. Fortunately name releases are done with just running a script, so its relatively quick and easy.

P.S. Arcana's idea is slowly growing on me, but I'm afraid it would involve work they can't afford the time for right now. :/

Realizing that this invokes the usual "I know the Devs job better than the Devs" thing, there's already a script in place for name purges. I find it hard to believe that it would take a significant effort to change a few variables (max level & time unsubscribed) and run it. At least, not so much time that "The Devs should be working on [X] instead" needs to be a serious consideration.

I don't know if many of you have noticed but there is names that were locked because they belong to a comic/anime or video game, which means ''copyright'' some were just common guy/gal names, still there are some good names available now. I play on Freedom but Virtue is a great place and a lot better to play in character

I think they have not announced this, because they want the players discovered this for themselves. I know a lot of people fear to create those names because someone because of Envy can petition them. I think that's very silly since names from even well known animes, their creators will not care if a player use their creation just for fun! it's not for commercial use. Unique characters names from well known comic companies are better to be locked, since the powers available in our game are very closed to them.

I will personally suggest any of you who are looking for good names to check them. If is a comic name, do not create the character identically to the true one or don't choose the exact powers, i know it's not fun but leaves you out of risk of losing it.

I know how it's feels to not find a name that you get identified with and the devs have been checking this for good

I wouldn't use the name of any well-known copyrighted (or trademarked) character from comics to anime to cereal boxes (like a certain Frosted Flakes spokescat).

Any use of a copyrighted/trademarked character's name, especially if combined with their likeness, makes Paragon Studios and NCSoft vulnerable to litigation. You say it's not commercial use, but the player is paying NCSoft for the ability to use that name, so in a way, NCSoft is making money off of it.

As for other players petitioning the name, certainly it's sometimes out of envy, or spite or another negative reaction, but many times it's a player trying to protect NCSoft by getting the offending name (be it for copyright/trademark reasons or vulgarity) removed before some litigious entity spots it.