Name Reservation Changes

I call bullschnitzel.

The basic argument is "They have it and aren't using it, free it up so others (implied *I*) can have it".

That's selfish as all hell.

As to "outrageous". Let's just agree that it's a personal value judgement...

I disagree. I think attempts have been made to make it "sound" reasonable.

Yet. See the "Give an inch, take a light-year" issue I talked about before.
Regardless of what's freed up, people are still going to gripe that "All the good names are taken". And then, they'll just push for a more draconian purge.

ALREADY certain individuals here have been talking, lovingly, of a 90 day purge policy favored by large orcs. Ostensibly to make their plan sound more reasonable. But, eventually, that's what's going to be demanded.

Slippery slope.

No. It "sounds" reasonable. There's a difference.

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You forgot.

4) Those who STILL didn't get the exact name they want would STILL be griping about "All the good names are taken" and be pushing for a more draconian purge.

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I didn't say you were a thief. I, and others, implied that the plan more or less constitutes theft. You may not comprehend the difference. But there's a very distinct one.

Am I stopping you from expressing yourself?

Am I telling you "STFU"?

No. I'm simply disagreeing with your POV and picking apart your attempts at an argument.

If that makes it suck to be you, that's your problem.


The problem is, the number is still arbitrary. I could argue for four years (a college education or a basic military stint) or six (a military stint in a mission-critical MOS).

And I'm saying I disagree with you, and it would be a move that alienates people (and not just those people you think it would alienate).

The problem is, you can't even guarantee that it would do this. You have exactly ZERO clue about the quality or desirability of the names that would be freed up.

And we'd be looking at the same complaint again later on. Or people pushing for an orcish 90-day policy.

In short, slippery slopes are slippery.


I'm not trying to be a "forum guard", whatever the hell that's supposed to be or imply. But nice try (well, not really). I'm disagreeing with your point of view. And because I'm attacking the point of view, rather than you, it's quite hard for you to sic a mod on me. So, instead, you're going to try passing it off as someone who thinks they're a "forum guard" and simply ignore the points made because they're inconvenient.

Okay, that's cool.




You're promoting a plan to make someone remove something from possession of others that doesn't belong to you, ostensibly so you can hopefully obtain it.

What would YOU call it?

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You haven't been reading some of the current peer-reviewed science journals have you?

You ask them for something simple, like a confidence level and you get a blank, uncomfortable stare that never ends...

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And your argument...is a slippery slope saying if we do 3 years then.. what's next 3 months??
And yet the 90 days was given as an example of what we are not advocating The general consensus for the purpose of this thread has been... 3 years

pot...kettle.

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

It's there character name to do with as they please (well exept the offer to sell it, isnt that against the ELUA?). Suckie, but, look on the bright side, they're not making Spider-Man clones!

Well, that'll happen no matter what. Still no reason not to do it.

And this isnt even me trying for some name for myself (though...I can think of three I wouldnt mind getting on Virtue), I was actually thinking of others.

I'd rather see a name that seems out of a comicbook over a name that reads as some D&D Fantasy Furry.

Even if this were the case (cough slippery slope cough) do you really think the Devs would submit to a more draconian purge? Is that your concern that we would go to a 90 day inactive account name purge? I would think the unwillingness of Paragon in the past would squash that concern.

Not doing something because people would complain even more about doing something seems a bit of a fallacious argument..doncha think?

People complain about everything in this game from itrials, super packs, tier 9 rewards, costumes, alignment switching, kb, etc etc... Yet sometimes that complaining results in better things for the majority of the community....not doing something out of fear that it will not appease a few people seems silly when the nature of this playerbase seems to bi**h about everything

(Great example... look at this topic... it has not even been mentioned as a thought by the dev team but people already have their knickers in a twist over it....for fear it would devalue the ... "customer" who hasn't logged in for over three years lol)

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

As is doing something for the same reason.

We simply disagree on whether or not implementing this plan would result in "better".

You obviously feel that it would.
I, just as obviously, don't.

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And people griping is no reason to actually DO it either. As you said, no matter what, someone's going to gripe.

I understand what you're saying. Please understand that when I use "you" or *I* when talking about this, I'm utilizing a rhetorical abstract. Because, at some point, there's ALWAYS self-interest involved. Even if the person making the argument at a given point has no real plans to benefit from said actions, SOMEONE who's following the argument IS.

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No. There is no "general consensus" for the purpose of this thread.

There's a general consensus of those who agree with the purpose of the thread. But that's not the same thing.

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Hyper-Strike is from Chicago too.... Hmmm
(See: Who Wants To Be A Super Hero Season 2)

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

Life is arbitrary. It isn't full of absolutes. Even most things that people accept as absolutes aren't. However it is possible to suggest something that isn't black and white, as in this case.

So what do you want? A suggestion that is absolute or one that gives the developers a starting point to start researching feasibility?

With 3 years, they can query the database and see how many characters will be affected and how many accounts would be affected. They can then adjust the query. They might find out that players aren't returning after a year's absence and set the cutoff lower, they might find that players are gone for 4 just aren't returning, no matter what their hopes were. The game has gone from over 200k at its height, but now is around 100k-120k. If the potential exists as you are suggesting, the current numbers would be higher thanks to the new F2P hybrid model.

The reason that slippery slope arguments are fallacies is that they only see issues as being binary in nature and assume that there is a transition between points A and B.

People for the suggestion are saying 3 years is a middle ground between locking names forever and deleting accounts with more than 90 days of inactivity. It doesn't matter what names are freed up and quality is purely subjective. Quantity might be relevant, but only Paragon Studios will ever know exactly how many names are freed. However what Paragon Studios gets is good customer relations with their prime business target: subscribers. As long as a player subscribes, the player doesn't have to worry about the name policy. If the account doesn't log into the game for 3 years after they STOP subscribing then, and only then, will the name be freed.

Your points boil down to the statements that doing this will be a slippery slope and that 3 years is an arbitrary amount of time. That isn't making any point. All that you are doing is taking a logical fallacy and applying it to the suggestion. At best you are trying to demonize players making the suggestion by calling them thieves.

Character names don't belong to any player.

Lets look at a specific example: a character name is held by @TRIALXXXXX

To have a global name like that, they had to exist prior to the EU server merge. This means that this account has existed for at least a year as a trial account. This account hasn't been logged into or the name would have been changed. Why value this account more than an active account? You claim people are guilty of class discrimination. I'm saying that it just makes business sense to treat your prime customers (active players, especially subscribers [either actively playing or paying] ) better than players that have a non-existent to low chance of ever returning.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

qft

Maybe I'm too cynical but I can't believe someone would snag a well known forum members name because they want to emulate them. The only thing that makes sense to me if they are using the name is they wanted to besmirch those peoples reps. In my opinion that type of motivation if acted upon would fall under griefing/harassment.

But like I said, it's possible I'm too cynical. I could be wrong.

To be honest that doesn't bother me, at least they are putting an effort to create a character persona. I can even accept a regular name because there are examples of heros/villains using their regular names, or they don't have a secret identity.

Jean Grey
Sue Storm
Reed Richards

So I'll encourage people for making an effort even if it isn't super hero-ee/comic bookie.

It's the nonsense and gibberish names that make me wince.


Oh and as to if the devs decide to run it again, I trust them to decide if it woul be worth the effort. They are the only ones that can pull up the data and see if in fact running the script will free up decent character names or a pile of garbage no one would want.

And before someone tries to argue that the worthyness of a name is subjective, it isn't hard to tell the difference between Napalm Nick and something like asdfjkl; or RMTsitename.com.

The devs have said many things then changed their minds.

Also, the one they ran was limited in nature. What is being asked for would open up many more (or so goes the thought).

Of course, even if it did open up a flood of names people do want, FP and HS are correct, you may still not get the name you've been wanting as someone else could beat you to it.

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The issue wasnt that the past naming purge didnt free up names, its that no one used those particular ones. Id be willing to bet an expanded name purge would result in the same effect, Im just not willing to get behind that.

This isnt a problem (for me), and while Im sympathetic to your frustration, admittedly theres only a finite numbers of names possible, I just dont think this will have the effect you want and Im not willing to take something from even a non-playing customer without proof that this will solve the problem for the playing customer.

Or it was never on an inactive account to begin with. This game is known for having a lot of long term veteran players.

Yes, because the internet is SO HARD TO USE.
It's simply IMPOSSIBLE to access an online thesaurus to come up with alternative words, or check out foreign language dictionaries!

And roughly 30% of the English language derives from French, so....

In any case, you don't have to like the name, it's mine.

We've established your preferred MO is to covet someone else's name and contrive a way to take it away from them rather than expend a bit of effort to come up with an alternative, so I'm comfortable disregarding your opinion of what constitutes a 'good' name.

I have at least 50 characters I play more or less regularly. Some got their names right off (Nethergoat, for example, or one suggested by my nephew, Bad Guy Controller), but many were the result of trial and error.

I have another Moon themed character, a villainous dominator based on a character from my Champions pen & paper campaign many years ago. In the campaign her name was Lunacy. That was taken. So I went for Lady Lunacy, which wasn't taken.

My fire/rad controller went through a gamut of names before I found the right one- Three Mile Isleman.

etc etc.


I don't know what point you think you're making here and suspect you've lost the plot yourself.

But to sum up my position:

jacking names other players have already taken = bad

coming up with names other players haven't taken = good

Wow. Hmmm...where have I ever covetted a name? Because I agree with the suggestion I covet names now?

I just think it's a good idea to free up names for people who have been gone for a long time and chances are they're not returning.

If I coveted names, I'd likely go the route other players have gone, reported the person as a copyright infringement when they weren't and then snatch up the name, because the GMs just took the word of the people for it.

Or are you afraid you might go inactive for 3+ years and then return?

And jacking names from comics= bad (cough Lunette cough)

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

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