What I dislike the most

Excellent point. I've gone back and edited my original post, since I'm not familiar with the differences between copyright and trademarks (if that wasn't apparent).

As far as the game is concerned both copyright and trademarks fall under the companies copyright policy and people that aren't familiar with the intricacies of the actual laws are probably lumping both together like the company policy does.

That's within the context of the EULA. The subject seemed to have come up in relation to analogizing what the unique naming policy is intended to do within the game. It seems to be more related to trademark, where the intent of the law is to prevent confusion by preventing people from using trademarks that are too similar to someone else's within the same context (roughly analogous to CoH requiring unique character names within a specific server), rather than copyright which is intended to protect creators by allowing them to be the only person that can profit from their creations for a limited amount of time (some people seem to think that limit apparently is "until the heat death of the universe", but that's the principle).

I don't think NCSoft is attempting to make sure I am the only person that gets to play with my names until I die, I think NCSoft is attempting to make sure no confusion arises between two different character names and all other players that could confuse the two.

Which is exactly happened to the EU players when the server lists got merged. Their global names were changed against their wills regardless of the fact that many of those affected had those names for 7 years.

And the ironic thing about this discussion is that both sides are arguing that they don't want to change the name they've "chosen" for their characters.

Side A wants a specific name and doesn't want to change or modify it to something else because someone got it first.

Side B already has a specific name and doesn't want to change or modify it because someone else wants to use it as well.

It's the same argument. "Don't force me to change my characters names."

Oh I agree with you, I'm just suggesting a possible explanation as to where the confusion might be stemming from.

It's also "I want old names! Gimme old names! Naming system BAD because I didn't get old names!"

Sucks for the guy trying to invite you to team, though.

It wouldn't look the same in game to me.

And it wouldn't give me any problems trying to invite him to a team.

If I teamed that is.

I'm not the only one using different fonts from the standard game fonts.

Haha, it does lol but that's the point when you have to ask yourself:
Do you mind being a bit more aggressive when looking for teams to compensate with the difficulty of the way your name is spelled?...Just so you can get that name you really wanted? Do you really have to have it that bad?

Or are you willing to think of something else?

You can also do that trick with the letter O. One of my toons is named 0phite instead of 'Ophite' beceause the name was taken. I had to have 0phite instead of Ophite at the time because it was my Global name and I wanted to have a toon on that server with my exact Global Name... for example how Zombie Man and Airhead? are actual toons, Posters and Glob- well you get the idea.

There's even more desperate tricks like Using "Tha" or "Da" instead of "The" with names...also you can consider L337 speak...mind you I have only used Leet speak on my freakshow-based toons.

I try to exhaust all of the above options before I think up another name if I am REALLY fond of it. I refuse to use underscores or xX SnakeBooty Xx. *sticks nose up in air* hmph!

Ah, well that's awesome!
Again it depends on if you really have to have that name! Also, if you really care if that they can tell that you changed the letter to a number. Most of the time they will understand and think nothing of it. 95% of the time you can think up something different that's just as awesome.

I guess another trick is spelling out numbers.

Thinking about it, Ophite kinda sounds weird to me. Zerophite kinda has a nice ring to it though...and it has ophite in it

I don't have a lot of trouble naming alts simply because I don't want the 'old names'. I didn't want Flame Guy, I wanted Lord Pyroclast, and I got him. Sometimes it takes a second try, I admit. This weekend I tried Shroud, and it was taken. Bloody Shroud, however, was not, so a new dark/dark blaster got to start patrolling Atlas Park.

In all fairness, though, I sometimes wonder if the solution isn't so much 'be more creative' as 'try another server'. I'd lay good odds that something like my Shattered Mirror is taken on Freedom and/or Virtue. But on Pinnacle, my stomping ground, there are fewer players, and therefore more names available.

How so? I just click on the name in the chat box and send him an invite. How the name is spelled isn't relevant.

Yeah but then you have those server fanatics that believe there is only One Server and they shalt not have any characters on any other servers.

Or to put it another way

One Server to rule them all, One Server to find them,
One Server to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Well, if the request comes from another player saying "Invite my friend Parallell Parking." it could be trickier. i've had similar issues because the name had a period added and the person asking me to invite them didn't make it clear.

Which is why I always tell them: Have your friend send me a tell. It confirms they wanna join and makes it a simple CLICK to invite them

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

Or I pass them the Star and let them invite their friend. cuz freems can't send tells.

That could work.

Nah, I stuck with Ophite. It's a /Poison Corr, he's a Snake Priest which is slightly making jest of the actual Ophian Priests. He's also green like Ophite the Stone. I guess Zeroophite would kinda fit though since genesis and the number zero both signify the beginning in a way.

You are right, of course, and every time I typed 'copyright', I did, in fact mean, trademark. I know the difference and knew it was wrong when typing, but was more trying to get across what was being said that was being disputed. Guess I should have just cleared up the confusion first rather than compounding it. But my point, as you say, was the unique naming system is there to avoid confusion as much as anything.

It was bad enough when freedom was about to launch and we got access to Exhaulted and I was running to Ms Lib to train a new toon only to run into another, L50 (obviously transfered) toon. This toon had the same name and similar cossie to an SG mate on my home (read predominantly played server, not only server). I start to strike up a conversation thinking it is said SG mate (I know, should have checked my globals list first, but hey ho) only to have the person utterly confused by having this random person comming up to them and talking what may have been gibberish.

No harm, no foul. As far as I know, was not done for greifing perposes, was was enough to leave me very confused for a little. But if however, this was happening on my home server becase unique naming had been revoked I could see it happening so much more.

Originally Posted by Forbin_Project Then it's time for them to get off the cross, use the wood to build a bridge, and get over it.

That Apple is an active CO player should not affect Orange's desire to make an Apple character in CoH.

Who said that Apple's activity should cause Orange to change his desire to make an Apple character? Orange can "desire" anything he wants. That doesn't mean he's gonna get his desire satisfied unless Apple frees up the name and it's not taken first by another player desiring the same name.

Thank you for explaining how the current naming policy works.

Nah it's a legacy issue due to the game launching with out the global system. Since the only unique identifer was a characters name, you couldn't have two characters of the same name in the server database.

Who was explaining the naming policy? We were talking about how just because someone desires something doesn't mean that said desire will be fulfilled.