Free the names!

Fixed.

My own point being that, while ignorance of a given game's naming rules doesn't divest someone of the consequences of breaking them, a complete lack of enforcement does. I've seen it in a great many MMOs.

Fixed better?..

Not to derail or anything, but thanks for the inspiration!

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...59-24small.jpg

Behold!! Carrotbeard, my new Ice/Battle Axe tanker lives on Justice!!

See, not all the good names are, errrrr, were, taken....

The mystery revealed!

Looks like the issue of trial accounts locking up names may be moot, and the question of how to attract returning players has just had the goalposts shifted a great distance...

Except for the regular players hogging all the good names on the VIP server.

My plan is to keep hogging the bad names.
Velocicraptor
OB-Gyn Kenobi
Buck Futter
Dimsdale
Boring Person
Dullard Guy
Meat Gone Bad
What the hell?
Ditch Water Man

Those names existed before FTP and they exist in a large way here already.

As a Founder in that other game (been there since friends and family alpha), I disagree with your assessment. There are things about their implementation that bug me, but overall, my gameplay experience has not changed for the negative. It has certainly not "been ruined."

As to the point of the OP: I'm one of those of the opinion that there is no limit to "good" names and consider a name purge unnecessary. Opinions will, of course, vary.

As the disclaimer goes, "Your mileage may vary". For my former guildmate (beta-tester, lifetime sub.), it was. Incidentally, the problem of creating lore-friendly names there was noticeable enough to be the source of jokes.

Since the omnivorous superhero genre can encompass both fantasy and science fiction, we certainly have a head start over games in those genres.

So true. Since comic book superheroes originally derived from science fiction (Superman, Human Torch, Shock Gibson, Blue Beetle), pulp mystery (Batman, Crimson Avenger, The Clock, The Arrow) and fantasy (Doctor Occult, Namor, Zatara), even from the genre's earliest days almost any kind of name was appropriate.

I'm always amazed at how many pretty cool names are still out there. When I was making Quick Red Fox I had second thoughts on the name. "Sly Fox" was taken everywhere I looked (4 servers), but "Sky Fox" was free. Sky Fox is kind of a cool name, I think. I decided I preferred QRF, so stayed there, but there were plenty of other options still available for that general concept. And as you can see from that very short list of names above, descriptors are common and just sticking "Doctor" in any of its forms in front of your name is a tradition from Day One. (Literally. Siegel and Shuster's creation before Superman was Doctor Occult.) I have Doctor Omen on Virtue who's only a couple years old. I mean, seriously, nobody snapped up "Doctor Omen"?! That name is so awesome, I'm taking it with me wherever I go in the future.

And with the invention of Captain Marvel, you don't even have to be affiliated with any sort of armed forces or even a boat to call yourself "captain". How cool is that? Yeah, plenty of cool names left. It'll be a while before we have to resort to "Capt. Dr. X".

Reminds me of the time someone dared me to make character based on the name of a kitchen appliance. So I simply changed the spelling of the second word and instead of a Deep Fryer I now have the Deep Friar a philisophical monk who fights crime with his command of the fires of creation.

That's probably a thread topic by itself for a later date. A red name might be inclined to answer once CoHF2P has been successfully launched, but they're unlikely to make it a priority even afterward.

Yup, as a founder, lifetimer and active member of several communities, my experience was profoundly negatively impacted by what they did to go F2P. Of course, they'd been going downhill for quite a while before that.

As to lore-friendly names, my wife, daughter, and I still have no problems coming up with them. I saw the jokes and comments and pretty much said the same thing I've said here: There is no shortage of good names.

Not being an raider, I can't speak to that experience since F2P. But from the rest of the game, nothing has changed for us in a negative sense. Sometimes experiences are what we bring to it and our perceptions can live down to our expectations, whether they need to or not.