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Unless it's something that's "naughty" (wink) or clearly copyrighted (frown) already and your being denied cause it's banned... then it's likely been snagged by some player. It might not even be by someone that still plays/pays. |
Originally Posted by mousedroid
OK, so I searched for a name on Guardian and it came up as "Already in use."
Then I popped over to Virtue and searched for the same name, and it came up, as "Unavailable." Does that mean that at some point in the past the name was added to the Unavailable names list, but someone on Guardian was already using it at the time? And does it also mean that even if I convinced the user of the name on Guardian to free it up for me, that as soon as they let go of it, it would change to Unavailable status? |
They really need to up the character level that names get tossed back or just have no max level on generic-izing names of characters on accounts that haven't seen the light of day for years. It might hurt the odd old-timer but it would help with all these new folks they seem to want to join up. I think it's a foolishly low level for that just now. 12-14 tops, and considering you can get to 14 in a single day (or even farther) these days that's just too bloody low to set the name time limit/holdie thing at.
Personal opinion.
Mind you, I wouldn't let such a policy effect accounts in good standing or even ones that come back every 3-6 months or whatever. An account that's been dead for more then a year? 2 years?!? 3 or more?!!? Yah... you took your chances. I say go for it! Generisize em' baby! ;p Let em keep their 50s' names if your feeling nice, but that would be it.
I'm mean aren't I?
As for the name you want mouse.. try all the servers and failing that, alter the name slightly...
Unavailable isn't just the naughty names - they can also be names such as "Citadel" - in use by an NPC
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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I don't think the names of NPC's are off limits, but if it were a copyright/trademark violation, then whoever got it on Guardian had it before it was placed on the "Unavailable" list. They just haven't shown up on that character enough for someone to notice and report it.|
Originally Posted by Rajani Isa
Unavailable isn't just the naughty names - they can also be names such as "Citadel" - in use by an NPC
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The GM's don't hunt and destroy, they will look into player /petitions, but they don't hang around in-game just to happen across a character that violates the rules.
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They could do that.....|
Originally Posted by RogueDemonhunter
Unless it's something that's "naughty" (wink) or clearly copyrighted (frown) already and your being denied cause it's banned... then it's likely been snagged by some player. It might not even be by someone that still plays/pays.
They really need to up the character level that names get tossed back or just have no max level on generic-izing names of characters on accounts that haven't seen the light of day for years. It might hurt the odd old-timer but it would help with all these new folks they seem to want to join up. I think it's a foolishly low level for that just now. 12-14 tops, and considering you can get to 14 in a single day (or even farther) these days that's just too bloody low to set the name time limit/holdie thing at. Personal opinion. Mind you, I wouldn't let such a policy effect accounts in good standing or even ones that come back every 3-6 months or whatever. An account that's been dead for more then a year? 2 years?!? 3 or more?!!? Yah... you took your chances. I say go for it! Generisize em' baby! ;p Let em keep their 50s' names if your feeling nice, but that would be it. I'm mean aren't I? |
or people could just get more creative with names. This game is almost 7 years old and people haven't scratched the surface on all the good names.
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
I kinda wish they would switch to a naming convention like one of the other superhero MMOs used, where the name just has to be unique to the account. Real names would be superguy@accountname behind the scenes and for emails and such, but would just be superguy in-game. Getting it like that now might not be possible depending on how its setup in game though. Would still be nice to not have to worry about not getting a name you really wanted for a concept without extra spaces or extra punctuation in the name.
I figured out what the problem was. Will share more info later.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
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I frankly thought that CO's naming method wasn't it's best feature by any means. There were a couple of times I saw multiple characters with the same name... how exactly would you send a tell to that person? How would you invite them to a team?|
Originally Posted by AquaJAWS
I kinda wish they would switch to a naming convention like one of the other superhero MMOs used, where the name just has to be unique to the account. Real names would be superguy@accountname behind the scenes and for emails and such, but would just be superguy in-game. Getting it like that now might not be possible depending on how its setup in game though. Would still be nice to not have to worry about not getting a name you really wanted for a concept without extra spaces or extra punctuation in the name.
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Say I'm building a team and one of the teammates says he has a buddy looking for a slot and his buddy's character is Fantastic Man. In CoH all I do is /i Fantastic Man and everyone's happy. But... if we went to "hidden" global designations attached to the name I have to know that the character I need to invite is actually Fantastic Man@Amazing Super Hero. If there's more than one Fantastic Man online and I send the invite which one gets it? The first one on the list? The one in the same zone? Am I going to need to actually click on the character and invite that way?
I just see a lot of potential problems in this approach and not much of an upside. Oh, I just thought of another... you're teaming with Fantastic Man and he's an utter idiot. Then, you get on a different team with a different Fantastic Man. Well, you know that you just teamed with this idiot and he was a waste of time... so even though the second Fantastic Man is a great player he's still dealing with people thinking they're dealing with the other guy. I'd certainly hate for an incompetent player to end up with the same name as my character... you're dealing with a bad reputation that you didn't earn.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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I'm pretty sure at least some of them are. There was a story a while back how someone with the name Frostfire got generic'ed. He appealed the decision and got his name back due to the fact that he had the name FIRST (before the NPC was introduced to the game).
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Originally Posted by Red Valkyrja
I don't think the names of NPC's are off limits,
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Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
A lot of names have been added to the blocked list since the game began. In some cases, people who had those names before they were added were able to keep them (as long as they don't reroll).
They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!
@Starflier
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Originally Posted by Red Valkyrja
I don't think the names of NPC's are off limits, but if it were a copyright/trademark violation, then whoever got it on Guardian had it before it was placed on the "Unavailable" list. They just haven't shown up on that character enough for someone to notice and report it.
The GM's don't hunt and destroy, they will look into player /petitions, but they don't hang around in-game just to happen across a character that violates the rules. |
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Originally Posted by Ironblade
I'm pretty sure at least some of them are. There was a story a while back how someone with the name Frostfire got generic'ed. He appealed the decision and got his name back due to the fact that he had the name FIRST (before the NPC was introduced to the game).
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All prominent and most minor "big" npcs (Statesman as an example of the former, 1K Kelvin as an example of the later) are on the "banned" list to prevent impersonation, etc.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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We had a Nemesis Automaton SG for a while, where all of the characters were an existing NPC, with Nemesis Automaton bios and a question mark at the end of the name.|
Originally Posted by Rajani Isa
All prominent and most minor "big" npcs (Statesman as an example of the former, 1K Kelvin as an example of the later) are on the "banned" list to prevent impersonation, etc.
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"War Witch?" did get genericed, but as far as I know "Woodsman?" never got touched, nor "Aurora Borealis?", "Back Alley Brawler?", "DJ Zero?", "Fusionette?", "Manticore?", "Mynx?", "Sister Psyche?", "Spark Blade?", "Valkyrie?" and more. I've still got "Luminary?" in my character roster. Hey, our version of Statesman had to add a space before his question mark, because "Statesman?" was already taken.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
And I still have Spinerrette?
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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This. Plenty of names out there. People just need to be more creative.
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Originally Posted by White Hot Flash
They could do that.....
or people could just get more creative with names. This game is almost 7 years old and people haven't scratched the surface on all the good names. |
OK, without going into too much detail, the name was reserved for an employee who is no longer with the company. I asked if it would ever be freed up since the name was not used for an in-game NPC, and the employee had left the company. I was told that it would not.
Ah well, never hurts to ask. 
ETA: I don't have my list any more, but I believe I found yesterday that the name was in use by players on three servers and Not Available on the others. With the exception of Freedom, which I was unable to check since I have no characters on that server.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
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You don't have to have a character on a server to check if a name is available. You can just click on the Check Name button on the character select screen and it will tell you if a name is available before you begin creating a character on a given server.
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Originally Posted by mousedroid
ETA: I don't have my list any more, but I believe I found yesterday that the name was in use by players on three servers and Not Available on the others. With the exception of Freedom, which I was unable to check since I have no characters on that server.
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As someone who has unsubbed for various durations and returned a few times, I actually kind of support this.|
Originally Posted by RogueDemonhunter
Mind you, I wouldn't let such a policy effect accounts in good standing or even ones that come back every 3-6 months or whatever. An account that's been dead for more then a year? 2 years?!? 3 or more?!!? Yah... you took your chances. I say go for it! Generisize em' baby! ;p Let em keep their 50s' names if your feeling nice, but that would be it. |
I played at CoH launch, then unsubbed for a while. Came back when CoV dropped, and didn't come back to any of my old toons - I just started a slew of new villains really.
Each time I've returned it's been the same story - starting new toons and not really playing the old ones. I do have two names on one server that seem to be in use on the servers I actually play these days, but whatever. I'm not really all that attached. I would not really have been all that upset to return after a 2+ year absence to find that some of my toons had been un-named. 1 year would probably be a little harsh, but 2 or 3 years, whatever.
Now that I have one that I've gotten to 50, I'd be a little more irritated. Still, I would totally support a renaming policy that had a *long* timer on it for unsubbed accounts and allowed exceptions for level 50 characters.
Of course I suck at coming up with character names, so the chances of someone wanting one of the random strings of letters that I use as a name is fairly unlikely. I mean the first toon I even remotely stuck with was named Xryth. I'd have to hunt to figure out what server that's on. I also have "Consultant" on some random server too. (Comes off as The Consultant in game). Heck, people can have that one - never got into playing him, mostly made him in jest.
Having said all of that, I've only run into in-use names maybe a handful of times over dozens of alts - so it doesn't affect me that much either way. Heh.
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Originally Posted by RogueDemonhunter
I'm mean aren't I?
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Yeah, but you used to have to make a character on each server you wanted to check on, which is why I still have the name "Nametest" reserved on one or two servers. |
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
You don't have to have a character on a server to check if a name is available. You can just click on the Check Name button on the character select screen and it will tell you if a name is available before you begin creating a character on a given server.
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If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
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It appears to still be the case. Just logged in and checked Victory, the only sever I don't have a character on, and found the Check Name button grayed out and unclickable.|
Originally Posted by Sailboat
Yeah, but you used to have to make a character on each server you wanted to check on, which is why I still have the name "Nametest" reserved on one or two servers.
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You're right, it is still the case. A friend and former coworker of mine asked me to make a character to join him on Guardian. I didn't get the Check Name option until I had made one character on that server.
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Originally Posted by Shadow State
It appears to still be the case. Just logged in and checked Victory, the only sever I don't have a character on, and found the Check Name button grayed out and unclickable.
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That really sucks and should be addressed. I don't mean to be harsh on the devs but I can't think of anything dumber than not letting people check a names availability until after they make a character on a given server.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
That really sucks and should be addressed. I don't mean to be harsh on the devs but I can't think of anything dumber than not letting people check a names availability until after they make a character on a given server.
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I agree with you, Forbin.
Well in that case I'm keeping Nametest and you all can't have it! Nyahh!
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
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And thus, "CAPTAIN NAMETEST" was born!!!
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Originally Posted by Sailboat
Well in that case I'm keeping Nametest and you all can't have it! Nyahh!
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Craft your inventions in AE!!
Play "Crafter's Cafe" - Arc #487283. A 1 mission, NON-COMBAT AE arc with workable invention tables!
HIT! Captain Nametest rakes 9999 damage from Nametest 2.0's Assassin Strike
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
OK, so I searched for a name on Guardian and it came up as "Already in use."
Then I popped over to Virtue and searched for the same name, and it came up, as "Unavailable."
Does that mean that at some point in the past the name was added to the Unavailable names list, but someone on Guardian was already using it at the time? And does it also mean that even if I convinced the user of the name on Guardian to free it up for me, that as soon as they let go of it, it would change to Unavailable status?
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon