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Well, then. I guess those "junk names" the devs mentioned must have been pretty huge for it to be the bulk of purged names.|
Originally Posted by Yogurt
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| All because of the glorious Name Purge. Why can't this happen again? |
(And like I keep pointing out, we're not talking about a idle timer of years, here. Those name purges nailed anyone who was gone for three months or more.)
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That's all well and good, but I was discussing second-hand accounts of players getting character names purged, particularly those quitting over getting generic'ed (or being unable to find a "good" name). It's becoming evident that at this point in the thread, posters aren't reading the counter-arguments very closely...|
Originally Posted by Yogurt
Well here are several first-hand accounts of the wondrous results from the last Name Purge
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| Why can't this happen again? |
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
I'll point out that Zwillinger said on ustream this morning that they have no plans to run the name purge script in the near future.
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I can make the assumption because it's happened to me in another game. The moment I got the email that they were removing inactive properties from the game world to make room, the game went from maybe I'll go back to see my house on the beach and play some more someday, to never again.|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
I did.
While not statistically significant, it has been amusing to watch other assume to know what the reaction would be from ex-subscribers. |
It's not a stretch of the imagination to think people would make the same choice about this game, and think that the devs who decide to make that sort of thing happen should think at least twice about it.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
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A game I used to play gave each player a unique ID# but allowed you to have any name you wanted, even if there was already a somebody going by that name. Not everybody looks up global names right off the bat so one could destroy the reputation of a respected player by creating an impostor and being an absolute jerk.| It's why I still stand by my opinion that the only real way to solve the "taken names" issue is to just change what's considered unique. Global names, or some kind of player ID, something along those lines. |
One thing that might alleviate the taken name issue for a while is the allowing of accent marks and special characters but eventually we will see people abusing that and making junk names like ßillyßadass
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When we have people in a tizzy about how the heavens will shake and the game code will collapse* if the current script is run, I'm not sure why this even gets brought up.|
Originally Posted by LittleDavid
Not when a different solution to this problem would let people make characters with the names they want, while the players who have characters by those names won't get punished for not being active enough.
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*How's that for hyperbole?
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Gee, maybe it's because there are people who don't like the idea that they could lose their character names just for being away for an arbitrary amount of time?|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
When we have people in a tizzy about how the heavens will shake and the game code will collapse* if the current script is run, I'm not sure why this even gets brought up.
*How's that for hyperbole? |
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Originally Posted by Xieveral
A game I used to play gave each player a unique ID# but allowed you to have any name you wanted, even if there was already a somebody going by that name. Not everybody looks up global names right off the bat so one could destroy the reputation of a respected player by creating an impostor and being an absolute jerk.
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In other words, the IDs were made intrinsic to the friend system, but not invasive like the "e-mail" name@globalname system someone brought up.
For starters, I'm of the opinion that 3 months is a reasonable time limit for EX subscribers to expect anything on an account to be there if/when they ever decide to resub. 6 months would be MORE than reasonable. It shouldn't really matter why you left the game and it shouldn't really matter why you want to return. I just don't see (personally) that anyone should have reason to believe that a single byte of information about characters they once had will remain. Now, that doesn't mean that any such hopes should be dashed just to make the point - only that anyone returning to the game after 6 months away ought not have any reasonable expectation that they can just pick up where they left off.
Even under ideal circumstances, the longer the span of time between having an account discontinued and anyone reactivating it the greater the chance that more than just the name would be unavailable. Costume parts can change or be removed. Powers are frequently altered both in unseen mathematical ways as well as animations and can even be renamed or removed. This is why when such changes are made accounts are granted respec and tailor tokens. And then of course there's what gets ADDED to the game... while it's still the same game it ever was in many ways, a player returning now from years ago will find boggling differences in gameplay.
T'seems to me, to make ANY kind of intelligent decision about freeing names you first would need data on the number of reactivated accounts and the amount of time they were inactive. Without that information we can only make BLIND guesses at the potential loss of business they might face from people who reactivate accounts - THEN find that their old characters names (and whatever else) are unavailable or have been changed - and AFTER THAT, and as a result of that, discontinue the account once again. Pretty sure that any subscription, ever, only grants you the opportunity to play not to have your characters stored for an indefinite period in any given condition should your account be discontinued. But without knowing specifically the frequency with which accounts are revived it's ALL pointless guessing. And even then that's just a STARTING point.
To really make an informed decision you'd further want to have surveyed the players of those reactivated accounts to find out how important, if at all, it was that their former characters and/or names were waiting for them. What HARD data is there on how many of them then immediately quit the game BECAUSE they no longer had the character names they used to, or the costume parts, or powers that they understood the function of and liked the look of, and how the game world looks and works, etc...?
Frankly, I say it's more important to keep the customers pleased who ARE paying you than to worry about the attitudes of customers who once did, but are not now paying you, -IF- they ever resubscribe AND immediately cancel again because the names of their old characters aren't there anymore.
While it would require additional customer service efforts I think there is a solution somewhere between the cries of "Never!", and "Do it NOW!" regarding freeing names. That is, if there is a name an ACTIVE subscriber wants that is unavailable they can submit a simple petition ASKING for that name to be freed. If a CSR finds the name assigned to an account that's been discontinued for x amount of time or more the name is given to the requesting party. Only names that are then desired by PAYING subscribers will then be lost by NONPAYING, theoretical REsubscribers.
But that's probably too cumbersome and expensive and unworkable for some technical reason. There should, however, be some established length of time that characters/names are kept after which they are automatically swept. Any further cancellations of accounts should come with the warning that character data WILL be swept after a give period in deferrence to the desires of PAYING customers.
JMNSHO
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There is nothing arbitrary about not playing in two or more years.
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Originally Posted by LittleDavid
Gee, maybe it's because there are people who don't like the idea that they could lose their character names just for being away for an arbitrary amount of time?
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And yet people want the name purge to nail anyone who hasn't played in three months. That's why it's arbitrary.
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Originally Posted by Yogurt
There is nothing arbitrary about not playing in two or more years.
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Because the first Name Purge did. Personally, three months might be a bit on the harsher side, but that "three month" figure is because that is what was used for the first two name purges. I would be happy with 1-year.
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Originally Posted by LittleDavid
And yet people want the name purge to nail anyone who hasn't played in three months. That's why it's arbitrary.
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They are grasping at straws in a futile attempt to justify their argument that thinking of original names is hard, and we should ignore the fact that many times those typos, hyphens etc. was the players first choice.
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Originally Posted by Electric-Knight
What in the blazes are people thinking is wrong with using a hyphen in a super hero's name?
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We didn't pick the 90 day limit, the devs did. And they did it without asking our opinion on it.
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Originally Posted by LittleDavid
And yet people want the name purge to nail anyone who hasn't played in three months. That's why it's arbitrary.
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I've no idea what that has to do with the "But running a script could destroy everything!" arguments balanced against the "Let's create a whole new naming system from the ground up for a seven year old game!" argument.
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Originally Posted by LittleDavid
Gee, maybe it's because there are people who don't like the idea that they could lose their character names just for being away for an arbitrary amount of time?
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If it was my choice I'd lean towards 6 months and then run the script annually.
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Originally Posted by Yogurt
Because the first Name Purge did. Personally, three months might be a bit on the harsher side, but that "three month" figure is because that is what was used for the first two name purges. I would be happy with 1-year.
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I know one game that did this (I've no idea how many MMORPGs ever have) and it was a "If you unsub for 30+ days, we wipe your account". I personally found that to be much more offensive than "You might lose your name (or might not) but your characters, possessions, etc will remain intact". What you describe sounds more like the former than the latter.|
Originally Posted by Lemur Lad
I can make the assumption because it's happened to me in another game. The moment I got the email that they were removing inactive properties from the game world to make room, the game went from maybe I'll go back to see my house on the beach and play some more someday, to never again.
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In the realm of anecdotal "evidence", I knew a couple people I played with originally who were also un-subbed for the wipe (actually, one of them warned me about it since I never got the mail myself) who went on to re-sub later and weren't concerned. They've since quit again for unrelated reasons but I can't help but think, from only personal experience, that the "Ill will" arguments are overblown.
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The basic issue here is that people want names which other people have already taken for their characters.|
Originally Posted by Jophiel
I've no idea what that has to do with the "But running a script could destroy everything!" arguments balanced against the "Let's create a whole new naming system from the ground up for a seven year old game!" argument.
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That can be solved without revoking the names from anyone who already has them, which is why I keep bringing up the idea of using a unique ID or global name system over unique character names.
And honestly, the age of the game is not the problem with implementing a system like this. Reworking any existing game code, no matter how old, to introduce a feature that wasn't planned at first can be a challenge. Yet knowing this, I still would find it much more preferable to possibly losing character names just for being away for an arbitrary amount of time.
And yes, I'm going to keep saying "arbitrary," because there's a spectrum of opinions among the purge supporters as to who should get purged and how long they should be gone.
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That would be perfect.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
If it was my choice I'd lean towards 6 months and then run the script annually.
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Even if your account is active, if you have characters who haven't been played for more than 500 days* those names should be made available. Just sayin'.
*totally arbitrary number
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That falls apart when you consider that the $14.99 of a guy who never logs in is worth the same as the $14.99 of a guy who never logs out. If anything, NCSoft would probably rather have the easy money of a guy who pays fifteen bucks and puts no demands on the hardware or developers.
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Originally Posted by Baler
Even if your account is active, if you have characters who haven't been played for more than 500 days* those names should be made available. Just sayin'.
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We are following this thread and taking your feedback into account all.
However, to be perfectly clear: We are not currently planning another name purge in the near future. There are reasons for this, which I am not at liberty to discuss at the moment.
Andy Belford
Community Manager
Paragon Studios
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Let the rampant speculation begin! What nefarious reason do the devs have for not doing a name purge at this time? Was Positron locked out of his account by the updated security system leading him to block a name purge while he tries to find his original CD key before his characters all lose their names? Is War Witch using the lack of a name purge to camp the name "Lady Godiva" in expectation of the release of animated hair in Issue 23?
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
However, to be perfectly clear: We are not currently planning another name purge in the near future. There are reasons for this, which I am not at liberty to discuss at the moment.
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/e Waterbottle'd?
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
We are following this thread and taking your feedback into account all.
However, to be perfectly clear: We are not currently planning another name purge in the near future. There are reasons for this, which I am not at liberty to discuss at the moment. |
The plastic tips at the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Their true purpose is sinister.
--The Question, JLU
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So, there WILL be another Name Purge sometime after the the duration of time called "the near future" ends?|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
We are following this thread and taking your feedback into account all.
However, to be perfectly clear: We are not currently planning another name purge in the near future. There are reasons for this, which I am not at liberty to discuss at the moment. |
Instead of it being Soon it is going to be Later I suppose? You can't deny that with more time lapsing between the first Name Purge and CoH's Initial Release than the last Name Purge and now, the need for one has increased.
Thanks for following the thread!
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Thank you for your response, Zwillinger.|
Originally Posted by Zwillinger
We are following this thread and taking your feedback into account all.
However, to be perfectly clear: We are not currently planning another name purge in the near future. There are reasons for this, which I am not at liberty to discuss at the moment. |
Aaaand
/thread
Oh well, a single first-hand account is less unreliable than "my buddies told me that..." anecdotage.
Well here are several first-hand accounts of the wondrous results from the last Name Purge, these results are from Virtue, one of the most populated servers in City of Heroes. Look at pages 28 and keep going to around 35ish if I recall correctly, they're are tons of names being grabbed that people have been wanting, and other people compiling large lists of names now free. All because of the glorious Name Purge. Why can't this happen again?
Oh and this post in particular, http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...&postcount=574, as well as this post, http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...&postcount=584, just names a couple people were able to find free after the Name Purge.