NCSoft's Name Reservation Policy

Well see, that's a great line, but here's the thing. I have 27 alts. 3 have second choice/altered names because the names I wanted were globalless. 2 have them because their first choice names belong to globals who I got confirmation from people have been gone since ED. So, that's 5 names that a policy of 2 year inactivated would free up, from the experience of 1 player. Some of them I wouldn't pay the $10 to do a name change now, some I would, but even if I didn't grab the name, they are good names that someone could be playing and right now aren't even waiting for the right powers or something, they're just plain collecting dust.

It wasn't explained--it was one of those off-hand posts in response to a thread just like this one. "It's not worth doing, because it's not effective, because it doesn't free up as many names as you think it would." As I said, maybe it was just an excuse to not run the script.

But yeah, eight to forty eight. I would never have dreamed I would have filled all eight back in '04.

Two points. Firstly, the number of players coming back is very low compared to the population. And we have yet to see if they even stay. Secondly, and hopefully this doesn't sound too blunt, but the subject isn't wanting specific names, its wanting some of the more creative names that have sat unused for years to be unlocked. Oddly a lot of people seem to be missing that point. We know the Virtue Name thread is there. Its not relevant to the discussion. Even a lot of the names on the thread aren't available due to players who have left.

The term 'problem' applies to only a few people's opinions in this thread. It seems most of us stand on the following evidence:

1)There are a significant number of abandoned names(note that is just names, no qualifier on what kind of names) on long dormant accounts
2)NCSoft has run purges before and claimed it was simply running a(already written at this point) script
3)At a certain point(which most are feeling is about 2 years) no manner of bonuses, free weekends, or other incentives is going to cause past subscribers to return

Therefore there is no good, clear argument why NOT to do a name purge. Think of it as recycling. There may or may not be a finite supply of new plastic, but that doesn't preclude recycling the old plastic that no one cares about.

Lots of debate here. I'm curious how people feel about one player having 3 accounts with all slots opened up for Virtue, filling it with names they come up with and sitting on most of those names for upcoming concepts they'll make in the future. My feeling is, you pay for it... all power to you.

Once you stop paying for your account, you cease to be a customer receiving "the service". It's nice of the company to allow for a grace period of you returning, but after said grace period I really think they should just wipe your characters (level 50 or not). Two years is quite a long time as a grace period, and very fair IMO. If you want to ENSURE you keep your characters/names, keep a paid account! It's pretty simple. My computer went down for a while, but I kept my paid account to keep my assets... again it's a straightforward model.

My New Rig :

My two cents.

Paying customers have to take priority over non-paying or prospective customers. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This is a basic principle of ANY business.

I'd like to see characters on accounts that have been inactive for lengthy periods have their names unreserved. The precise timeframe involved would need to be determined, but let the paying customers have access. That would mean that as long as the account is paid for, the names will remain reserved. Once it's been inactive for a period of time, the names are unreserved.

I know the argument has been made that there are times when people have no choice but to take lengthy breaks, such as when military service occurs. In this case, the individual would merely have to ensure his account was paid for before departing. Perhaps NCSoft could add a new level of account status: paid, but unplayable (say, $5 a month), which would keep the account active but not cost as much.

Personally, I've found that the names I've used that I'm the most proud of tend to be evocative sounding made-up or foreign-language names. (Ex: Verlustoff, Fryhtu, Yetniy)

I am probably not the best example of creativity, though. I have 114 characters, and a large number of them have silly or nonsense names... (Ex: Explomadoza, Dr. Fejwol, Really Angry Man, Elfis Lives, Atomic Lizard-Donkey)

I've only run into a few situations where I've felt the need to do some odd things to a name I wanted to get it... two times when I deleted a character and later wanted to remake them, but the name was taken... Project 83 became Project-83 and I felt kind of bad, and then Bose Condensate became Bose Condensation. That one was helped by the fact that whenever I mentioned him to friends, they would sing 'A Little Less Condensation'. I'm still a little miffed that someone took that rather obscure physics term, especially since that one happened on Pinnacle. And there has been one time where I thought of a name and decided it was perfect enough that I needed to take it even with a period in the name: Canadian.Shield. I'm a big geology nerd, so sue me.

On the other hand, just the other day on Virtue I decided to make an ex-boxer with friction manipulation powers and got me first name choice, Ropeburn.

In any case, even though I don't think that the pool of good, available names will ever run out, I can definitely see the frustration of not getting the name you want, and I totally support doing a purge of names without globals.

The process of a name purge has been not that the names are taken from all characters is one poof instant, its that they are made free if someone tries to use them, so the impact to non subscribing customers isn't a full scale zero account of no names.

I don't honestly think the numbers of inactive accounts returning after 2 years that would not have come back without their names makes any impact to NCSoft as a whole, where the release of abandoned names would cause a very positive reaction of the paying playerbase, much like the quality of life additions in I19 of combined trams/ferry. Most returning players are very likely to be trying new powersets which require new names.

But, that sort datamining could only be done by NCSoft. I don't believe anyone really expects that NCSoft is reading this forum and going 'wow, now why didn't we think of that?', just hoping that maybe they'll take the time to realize it might be in their interest to look into it.

I'm noticing something here that i find a bit interesting. I haven't seen anyone who has left and come back have any sort of problem with releasing old names. Several in fact have said that they wouldn't have minded if NC had released their names while they were gone. Then on the other hand there's a group of people who seem to be opposed to it with a feeling that it might not be a good idea because if players return they might be upset. So far there's no evidence toward that point, and growing evidence in just this thread alone -against- that argument.

That leaves me wanting to ask the question, 'Why are are there people not affected by it that are concerned with it when the people it would affect are apparently not bothered by it at all?' Especially since the majority of those same people pride themselves on the fact that they choose names that no one else would anyway. Please note, I'm not saying there's not a good reason to be concerned, I'm just interested in the response.

My suggestion would be to do a purge of non-active accounts every two years, but do an email blast (or make a similar notification effort) two weeks beforehand to all accounts possibly effected.

Here's the kicker, though-- you wouldn't have to resub to keep your names, just log in under your inactive account and check off the names you wish to retain and you're covered for the next two years. If you never plan on returning to the game, you don't have to do a thing. However, if you do have an attachment to your characters but, for whatever reason, don't want to rejoin the game right now, you just need to spend a few minutes to note that and everything is fine.

I honestly can't see how anyone could claim that's unfair, but this being the internet, I'm sure someone will come up with a reason why it is.

I am a returning player after taking 3 years off do to life issues. I would had no problem if the names had been wiped. I wasn't paying for the game so why should I believe or expect the names to still be there. I was glad the toons were there but I would have understood if they had wiped the old account out. Two years is more then fair for names and even toons to be held.

Had a brief chat with a friend last night who managed to snatch a rather nice name out of nowhere. I still think they're stealth-purging behind the scenes already.