inactive names

[painkiller3]

some other games announce a reset of inactive names every couple of years to free up the Drizzt's and Darthvader's that haven't been used over a period of time. any thought to freeing up names of inactive accounts of over two years? if the player logs in they either change their name or get "Darthvader-1"?

[Vellrad]

drizzzzts, aragorns, gandalfs, legolases, elminstrels, darthvaders etc should be banned

come up with something original

[painkiller3]

drizzzzts, aragorns, gandalfs, legolases, elminstrels, darthvaders etc should be banned

come up with something original

i've seen too many zgyr's lately...

[JOTMON]

some other games announce a reset of inactive names every couple of years to free up the Drizzt's and Darthvader's that haven't been used over a period of time. any thought to freeing up names of inactive accounts of over two years? if the player logs in they either change their name or get "Darthvader-1"?

One issue I see...Why should someone who joined last week have the same access as someone who tried to get that name 7 years ago and couldn't because it was taken..
or every person after that first person....

I would suggest if they do reset old expired names/accounts that the list of names be put up for some sort of a bidding process.. longest continuous term player getting first access to the name..
or
Have an auction and let the highest bidder pay for the name.

[Mirilan]

drizzzzts, aragorns, gandalfs, legolases, elminstrels, darthvaders etc should be banned

come up with something original

+1

[Gljosh]

drizzzzts, aragorns, gandalfs, legolases, elminstrels, darthvaders etc should be banned

come up with something original

Would DizarthVadyrz be original enough?

[Enoach]

One of the things I applaud Turbine for doing is not purging inactive accounts. This allows for players to return where they left off no matter how long it has been.

I'm sorry you didn't get the name you wanted, but maybe now it is time to be creative.

[painkiller3]

...
I'm sorry you didn't get the name you wanted, but maybe now it is time to be creative.

i've been here since 2009 and have all the names i wanted...i saw that on a different forum and thought it might be a nice thing for new users. no need to be a jerk

[Enoach]

i've been here since 2009 and have all the names i wanted...i saw that on a different forum and thought it might be a nice thing for new users. no need to be a jerk

Was not trying to be a jerk and apologize if I came off that way to you. I simply like Turbines policy of keeping accounts even if they have been inactive since 2006.


Just as a note... I've been playing since the summer of 2006. The name I wanted for my character Enoch was already taken way back then, so I opted for the alternate spelling of Enoach. This name issue has been around for a long time.

[FranOhmsford]

some other games announce a reset of inactive names every couple of years to free up the Drizzt's and Darthvader's that haven't been used over a period of time. any thought to freeing up names of inactive accounts of over two years? if the player logs in they either change their name or get "Darthvader-1"?

2 Years may be a bit short but DDO is closing on 10 years old now so maybe it's time to reset the names of characters who haven't been logged on for at least 5 years.
Especially as with F2P DDO had a massive influx of players who tried it for a day or two then left!

drizzzzts, aragorns, gandalfs, legolases, elminstrels, darthvaders etc should be banned

come up with something original

Actual Famous names are supposed to be not allowed anyway and can be reported {whether the GMs do anything or not is a different story}.
BUT How exactly are Turbine gonna ban every single possible misspelling of every single famous name out there?

One thing that annoys me is characters with names that are just a random sequence of consonants - Should the Devs ban that as unoriginal too?

One issue I see...Why should someone who joined last week have the same access as someone who tried to get that name 7 years ago and couldn't because it was taken..
or every person after that first person....

I would suggest if they do reset old expired names/accounts that the list of names be put up for some sort of a bidding process.. longest continuous term player getting first access to the name..
or
Have an auction and let the highest bidder pay for the name.

You must be joking?

Why should someone who has multiple characters already get the opportunity to name a new alt that they may only use as an Elite Opener, Haggle Bot or Mule Toon over the Newbie who wants that name for their FIRST and MAIN Character?

Why should getting a name come down to how much spare cash you have?




Personally I just want Surnames to count towards the uniqueness of a Character's name so that Khorvaire and Cormyr stop being nations where no two people have the same first name!

I'd also like for Surnames to be added to Guild, Friends and Who lists to make it easier to know who someone is - A whole lot of my characters for example have one of two Surnames - Ohmsford and D'Alderaan.

[painkiller3]

Was not trying to be a jerk and apologize if I came off that way to you. I simply like Turbines policy of keeping accounts even if they have been inactive since 2006.

sorry i took it personal and i shouldn't have. my idea was to reset the names not the accounts.

[FranOhmsford]

One of the things I applaud Turbine for doing is not purging inactive accounts. This allows for players to return where they left off no matter how long it has been.

No-one's asking for ACCOUNTS to be PURGED.

Just for the names to become available - If the original player comes back then there's a chance his/her name won't even have been taken anyway and it can be reassigned straight back to them as they log on!
OR
If that name has been taken they simply get a FREE Re-name!

I'm sorry you didn't get the name you wanted, but maybe now it is time to be creative.

How creative can you get when there's 10 years worth of already taken names?

P.S. calling your character xhmkfhtrrbn {I so hope no-one's done that exact combination?} ISN'T creative - It's lazy!

Coming up with a 3 letter name in 2006 and adding S, SS, SSS, SSSS, SSSSS, SSSSSS, Z, ZZ, ZZZ, ZZZZ etc. as you create more alts also ISN'T creative! - It shows you can't be bothered to come up with something new!

Oh and makes it so that someone who actually wanted to name themselves Max for example can't because someone else has taken that name AND all possible misspellings for his/her alts!

[Enoach]

sorry i took it personal and i shouldn't have. my idea was to reset the names not the accounts.

For this you need to put yourself into the shoes of the person that just lost their character name because they were inactive for some set period of time. I know people that have returned after 5 years of absence from the game. It could be a source of frustration for a returning player to have to rename some or all of their characters. I think Turbine made a better choice by not doing this and potentially alienating a group of returning players.

[Phoenix-daBard]

Actual Famous names are supposed to be not allowed anyway and can be reported {whether the GMs do anything or not is a different story}.

They do force name changes to names that are identified as TOS violations.

Personally I just want Surnames to count towards the uniqueness of a Character's name so that Khorvaire and Cormyr stop being nations where no two people have the same first name!

I don't often agree with Fran but ^^^this^^^ +100. I would go further and have choosing a surname as part of account creation and all your characters get that surname.

[Enoach]

No-one's asking for ACCOUNTS to be PURGED.

Just for the names to become available - If the original player comes back then there's a chance his/her name won't even have been taken anyway and it can be reassigned straight back to them as they log on!
OR
If that name has been taken they simply get a FREE Re-name!



How creative can you get when there's 10 years worth of already taken names?

P.S. calling your character xhmkfhtrrbn {I so hope no-one's done that exact combination?} ISN'T creative - It's lazy!

Coming up with a 3 letter name in 2006 and adding S, SS, SSS, SSSS, SSSSS, SSSSSS, Z, ZZ, ZZZ, ZZZZ etc. as you create more alts also ISN'T creative! - It shows you can't be bothered to come up with something new!

Oh and makes it so that someone who actually wanted to name themselves Max for example can't because someone else has taken that name AND all possible misspellings for his/her alts!

Sorry I just don't think this is a good idea to take names even from inactive accounts as it can hurt the returning market. For those that remember the server merges and the angst over name ownership they might understand a little better why I think that allowing even inactive accounts to keep their character names is a good practice for Turbine.

As for the 3 letter name and different letter counts in most cases this was a player getting past the issue that you didn't have an account relationship in the name, there was no way of knowing right off that two different characters were the same player. This gave them a way to create a Player Recognition. Personally I opted for the Surname myself, but each player had their own way of dealing with this.

Of course the funniest name I saw (Years ago) was Qwerty. I have not seen that character in a long time but it was both funny to me as well as possibly considered lazy by your standards.

[FranOhmsford]

For this you need to put yourself into the shoes of the person that just lost their character name because they were inactive for some set period of time. I know people that have returned after 5 years of absence from the game. It could be a source of frustration for a returning player to have to rename some or all of their characters. I think Turbine made a better choice by not doing this and potentially alienating a group of returning players.

Why is it that in every thread that even mentions this suggestion someone will state they KNOW people who've returned after a ridiculously long time away?

I simply don't believe there can be that many people who've done this!

A Handful perhaps at most!

And IF I hadn't played DDO in 5 Years I'm pretty certain I wouldn't even be able to REMEMBER my Character names never mind CARE that I had to re-name them!

[FranOhmsford]

Sorry I just don't think this is a good idea to take names even from inactive accounts as it can hurt the returning market. For those that remember the server merges and the angst over name ownership they might understand a little better why I think that allowing even inactive accounts to keep their character names is a good practice for Turbine.

It was good practice at first but after 10 years it becomes increasingly more of a Problem than a Solution!

As for Server Merges - That's a completely different issue where Two people actually have had the same name and possibly for a long period of time - Those People both feel they have a RIGHT to that name!

I've also stated again and again that in the case of Future Server Merges the Devs should do something about naming conventions so as to alleviate this issue:

They could:
1) Add "of Thelanis or "of Sarlona" etc. monikers to the ends of each name - These could even be HIDDEN so as to not annoy people who didn't want to be known as Milkybarkid of Wayfinder {Again I so hope that name isn't taken!}

2) Allow Surnames to become part of the unique name so as to make the possibility of two players with the exact same name much smaller!

3) Allow the Player's actual Username to count towards uniqueness of character names and therefore allowing MULTIPLE Paul's, Guillaume's and Mohammed's {can I even type that name?} on EVERY server!

Or a combination of any or all of the above!

As for the 3 letter name and different letter counts in most cases this was a player getting past the issue that you didn't have an account relationship in the name, there was no way of knowing right off that two different characters were the same player. This gave them a way to create a Player Recognition. Personally I opted for the Surname myself, but each player had their own way of dealing with this.

I know - I opted for surnames myself!

But surnames don't even SHOW UP to other players which is a major cause of this issue!

Of course the funniest name I saw (Years ago) was Qwerty. I have not seen that character in a long time but it was both funny to me as well as possibly considered lazy by your standards.

Qwerty
1) has a vowel whereas I stated ALL consonants.
2) actually works as a name. Especially as it ends in a Y - Something many many names do in real life!
3) Rolls off the tongue - Unlike chgkrtlmmmb for example {Again no offense meant to anyone who's actually called their character chgkrtlmmmb.}.

[FranOhmsford]

They do force name changes to names that are identified as TOS violations.

Sometimes - Not always!

I would go further and have choosing a surname as part of account creation and all your characters get that surname.

This would be even worse!

My suggestion would be that first name AND surname would count TOGETHER towards the uniqueness of a character name!

Just because I have Fran Ohmsford doesn't mean I don't want someone else to be able to name THEIR character Rob Ohmsford!

Just because I have a character named Annatalisa D'Alderaan doesn't mean I'd be unhappy to see Carla D'Alderaan running around Cannith!

Oh and why should I be FORCED to have ALL my characters have the EXACT SAME Surname?
Molineux for instance doesn't even HAVE a Surname and doesn't WANT one {He's Warforged!}

[Enoach]

Why is it that in every thread that even mentions this suggestion someone will state they KNOW people who've returned after a ridiculously long time away?

I simply don't believe there can be that many people who've done this!

...!

In this case because I actually do KNOW people that played 5 years ago and I was able to get them to come back at some of the Major changes, some stayed and some didn't. Of those that stayed it was because the changes were what they were looking for when they left.

Personally I think the headache this could cause verse how many of these sought after names are actually on inactive accounts may simply not be as worth while as some may think.

We simply disagree that this is needed at this point of time even with DDO just celebrating its 9th anniversary.

[JOTMON]

You must be joking?

Why should someone who has multiple characters already get the opportunity to name a new alt that they may only use as an Elite Opener, Haggle Bot or Mule Toon over the Newbie who wants that name for their FIRST and MAIN Character?

Why should getting a name come down to how much spare cash you have?

Why not, if 7 years ago I tried to get Drizz't and it wasn't available so I created Drizzzz't.. why should you who came along 5 years ago be able to get it before me.
It wasn't available when I tried to get it and now it is.. why shoud you as a newer player be able to bump in front of me in the lineup for names.

I could then give up my stupid variation that I ended up with and someone else could get that one.
Why should I be stuck with a alternative derivative that I didn't want either. and some newbie picks up a name that I wanted to get from Day 1.

Whether I use it on my main or one of my 40 alts is irrelevant.