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This is even more true now that the game is free. Anyone could come back at any time without so much as looking for their credit card.|
Originally Posted by MementoMori
Exactly, many log in at odd times or on off days, The issue is simply if you took a week long vacation and came back and your fav alt had been set to ginaric because of something like this you would be pissed no company wants to deal with something like that so they will not do it.
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Coming up with cool character names can be a bit of a chore, but even after eight years there are plenty of possibilities yet to be explored. The main thing, I've found, is to go to the name-check part of the character creator before you spend a lot of time working on a costume. It'll save you a lot of grief.
And who knows? With a little imagination, you might even end up creating a cooler name than the one you originally had in mind. Necessity is the mother of invention, and all that jazz.
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Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze
Nice build
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"English doesn't borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar."
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Oh and before the inevitable "I don't want to use a foreign language for a name." whining starts. The truth of the matter is there is no such thing as a name in "English". Most of the English language is derived from words taken from other languages.
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Why, when we already have an infinitude of excellent names to use?
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Originally Posted by Adelante
Will there be another wipe so people can have names to use?
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The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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Because that's what the players want. A couple years ago, at one of the Player Summits, Positron asked the group about non-unique naming. He set it up in an "All for/all opposed" manner. For the "All for" side, there was a smattering of support. For the "All opposed", the response was thundering.|
Originally Posted by Jack_NoMind
Honestly, I don't see why we need unique names in the first place.
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There may have only been 100-200 people in that sample, but it is fairly representative of the playerbase, in my experience.
I personally think that they should have non-unique naming per account (ie, since I have the name "Roderick" on Victory, I can make as many "Roderick" characters as I want, but others can't use the name), but that's a topic for a different thread.
@Roderick
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I suspect it follows the full moon cycle, but I have no proof. |
Originally Posted by Eldorado
I would have guessed this topic comes up about once a month. 16 threads in the past year (plus this one) means it comes up once every three weeks!
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Throwing darts at the board to see if something sticks.....
Come show your resolve and fight my brute!
Tanks: Gauntlet, the streak breaker and you!
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Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
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Representative of the players who are West Coast residents and/or the well-heeled and rabid fans who can afford to make the trip, maybe. |
Originally Posted by Roderick
A couple years ago, at one of the Player Summits....
There may have only been 100-200 people in that sample, but it is fairly representative of the playerbase, in my experience. |
I wish they could afford to do these all over the country (or even the world), but I'm not willing to pay monthly fees of $39.95 to make THAT a reality either.
"But it wasn't anything some purples and oranges and lots of screaming in fear couldn't handle." -- Werner
30 level 50's: 12 scrappers, 7 other random melee types, 11 blaster/blapper/support squishies, two accounts, and a TON of altitis since 4/28/04
It was neither rude nor immature, it just wasn't what you wanted to hear.
How have we raised a generation of people who regard any situation where everyone else does not conform to their whims as some kind of personal affront?
It's probably true that there are some "good" names sitting on dead accounts. However, it's almost certainly true that a lot of the names people really want are actively being played, and no amount of action against dormant accounts would free up those names. I know I have personally seen people with altered names that are attempts to get the name in use by my actively-played 50s. I'm certain that those people want the name I am using; it seems logical that some of them would agree with having the script run to try and get the very name I am using.
The fundamental reason we have unique names is the same reason you want to take the names other people are using for yourselves: a unique name is a very important part of a comic book character's identity. A task force of six Batmans would be stupid. He's THE Dark Knight, not "Hey, it's one of those Dark Knight guys."
In my crankiest moments, I fantasize that the Devs run TWO scripts to solve the "name problem:"
- A script combing through the forums and identifying all the account names of players who have advocated taking names away from other accounts.
- A script on the game's databases, removing (and replacing with "Genericxxxx") all the names from the accounts identified by Script 1 and only from those accounts.
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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I wonder if they're confused because I have their username as my global.
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Originally Posted by Mr_Morbid
Dead realms? Are you under the impression that names (other than the global) are unique across servers? They aren't.
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It's not a question of 'need'; it's a question of 'want'. We want them. By "we", I mean "most of the players".|
Originally Posted by Jack_NoMind
Honestly, I don't see why we need unique names in the first place.
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| Of course it's a bit late for this now. But City2 is only, what, five years away? |
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
Why, when we already have an infinitude of excellent names to use?
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Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
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Because when I'm tanking, I don't want someone to go "Hey Hyperstrike!" and wonder if they're talking to me, or to the scrapper on my team. Or the brute. Or the SoA. Or....you get the idea.
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Originally Posted by Jack_NoMind
Honestly, I don't see why we need unique names in the first place.
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Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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Originally Posted by Eldorado
Representative of the players who are West Coast residents and/or the well-heeled and rabid fans who can afford to make the trip, maybe.
I wish they could afford to do these all over the country (or even the world), but I'm not willing to pay monthly fees of $39.95 to make THAT a reality either. |
You want to listen to well-heeled clients. They're in a position to throw large sums of cash your way.
You want to listen to clients rabid enough to make cross-country treks to give input. Even if the input is bad or dumb. Keeping players like this involved brings money your way.
You want to listen to local clients. They know where you live and may own powerful firearms.
This way lies common sense.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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Originally Posted by Sailboat
A task force of six Batmans would be stupid. He's THE Dark Knight, not "Hey, it's one of those Dark Knight guys."
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I agree with your argument, but... it might not have been the best example to use...
Keep NCSoft from shutting down City of Heroes : http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
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Actually, the pre-existing scrip required you to log into each character so flagged to reset said flag. Such characters were discernible by their lack of an avatar showing on the character select screen.
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
If the account holder logs into the game before anyone else tries to claim a name then all the names on his account are reset as beng unavailable.
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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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You just did! Not only that, but you didn't even finish reading my post before you hit quote.|
Originally Posted by Schismatrix
This assertion has already been addressed in every other thread on the subject, so i'm not going to go into it yet again
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Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
Because when I'm tanking, I don't want someone to go "Hey Hyperstrike!" and wonder if they're talking to me, or to the scrapper on my team. Or the brute. Or the SoA. Or....you get the idea.
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It follows the lunar cycle on a different planet.
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Originally Posted by Rangle M. Down
I suspect it follows the full moon cycle, but I have no proof.
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Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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Isn't that the stuff at the bottom of the bowl when all the coleslaw is gone?
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Originally Posted by Ironblade
I would have said plethora.
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Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
I wonder if it's too late to try and get Name Wipe Plethora, thugs/time Mastermind, on Freedom?
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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That wasn't a couple of years ago. That was earlier this year. I was one of those thundering.|
Originally Posted by Roderick
Because that's what the players want. A couple years ago, at one of the Player Summits, Positron asked the group about non-unique naming. He set it up in an "All for/all opposed" manner. For the "All for" side, there was a smattering of support. For the "All opposed", the response was thundering.
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Also, regarding "active accounts", that criteria isn't as simple as it was before Freedom. If I don't play for a month or more, but I still pay the subscription, my account is obviously active. But if I decide to go premium, while still playing every day... yes, my account is still active. I have characters with (imo) awesome names that I haven't played for a year or more. I should not stand to lose those characters in the event that I decide to go premium. Ever. Regardless of what level they are, or any other criteria you choose to throw at it. And frankly, this is as true of completely free, never-paid-a-freaking-dime accounts as it is of any others. Because that player might choose to actually pay money to the game, and would be far less likely to do so if their favorite character name got stolen.
And yes, stolen is in fact a deliberate choice of wording.
In closing, get over it. The answer is no. It has been no for several years at this point. It's going to remain no for the forseeable future.
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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None that are any good.|
Originally Posted by Jack_NoMind
There are games that use non-unique nicknames.
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In fact many of the big MMO's have unique name policies and of them, many are even more restrictive than this game where the player has to choose a unique 1 word name.
DDO
LOTRO
WoW
AoC
DCUO
SWTOR
GW
Warhammer Online
Aion
Lineage II
So the truth is that unique naming policies are an industry standard feature.
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... and as an aside, I'll mention a friend's experience with the recent fully voiced MMO that just went FTP after... loudly encouraging people to switch servers. She switched from one (one that we were both on, btw) that really *did* have only 4-5 people on at peak times. (When she and I make up nearly half the server's population, there's a problem.) Her favourite character? Lost the name. In fact, probably half her characters had to be renamed.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
None that are any good.
In fact many of the big MMO's have unique name policies and of them, many are even more restrictive than this game where the player has to choose a unique 1 word name. |
Result? Last straw for her. Even with it now being F2P, she no longer plays it.
Now, as far as THIS game:
The only thing I'd feel "safe" wiping are banned accounts. Given that most of those are likely spammers, unless you just HAVE to have JPOIUER9387 or QLXOIER923, I don't think said wipe would help you out much. Even trial accounts need to be considered "live," given the Freedom model - and it certainly seems (unscientific information ahead!) that we've had quite an uptick in "Yeah, I played this back in 2004/5/6/7/8, heard it was free so I thought I'd give it a look again" since then.
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A task force of six Batmans could never happen.|
Originally Posted by Sailboat
A task force of six Batmans would be stupid. He's THE Dark Knight, not "Hey, it's one of those Dark Knight guys."
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Why?
Because the minute the notion of a TF came up, they'd all inform you that there's already been a joint strike operation that eliminated the threat by undermining all the support structures in place, causing the alliance to fall apart, making them all easier pickings than taking a level 50 T4'ed-to-the-gills, IO'ed-to-a-fare-thee-well, Incarnate toon into a -1x0 level 1 mission.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
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this is reasonable.|
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Now, as far as THIS game:
The only thing I'd feel "safe" wiping are banned accounts. |
if you manage to get yourself banned, you forfeit your name rights.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
Hello, my name is @ukase, and I'm a returning player. I have been returned for over two years now. I was gone for....maybe 40 months.
When I left, I had, I think 10 level 50s, plus a few that were close to it.
Cantankerous on Triumph (a tank, naturally)
Treacherous on Triumph
Perfidy on Triumph
Ukase Rex on Triumph
Confidence on Triumph (an empath)
Ukase Rex on Infinity
Ukase Rex on Liberty
Scipio on Liberty
Imperious Rex on Liberty
Galactic Kegger on Liberty (a warshade, which would benefit more from larger groups -big party, Galactic Kegger, get it?)
Some, I transferred and subsequently renamed - like Treachery.
If I'd lost the name Cantankerous on my tank, I would have probably done everything I could to get my money back for that month - and after meeting with inevitable disappointment at the outcome of that request, I'd have left and never come back.
The more characters you make, yeah, the harder cool names are to get.
When I tried to transfer my tank of Triumph, and found the hard way that the name was taken, yes, I was irked. I improvised and made up a new concept that I like better. Now his name is Zorba, on Champion.
I know it's irksome to be driving your car, and get an idea !*! Yeah! I'll name it Gumbo and make it a cajun cook who got caught up in some bad voodoo! And then you find the global name of the character Gumbo belongs to @Tr1alAcct3 -- well, yeah, that's a bummer.
And you try it on another server you like and that one is taken by
@xXSOLXx, well, you get the picture.
That's where you just go back to the drawing board.
Since I've returned, I've contributed a good bit in the market, and on the servers I play on. (I'd like to think so, anyway)
So, to the op, and anyone else that thinks old accounts need to be wiped out so you can have your cool name - think how you would feel. You come back - and even if you're not mad enough to rage quit over being generic'd, you've got to come up with a different name. All you folks that root for the name wipes - you would likely have a fit. (and rightly so)
I vote no. (heh, as if it were up to a vote. )
"Most people that have no idea what they are doing have no idea that they don't know what they are doing." - John Cleese
@Ukase
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Originally Posted by Ukaserex
The more characters you make, yeah, the harder cool names are to get.
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It is? (says the 300+, two account altaholic.)
_________
@Inquisitor