This game seriously needs a name purge

[Veltamore]

Problem with a Name reset is who gets first shot at names once they become available.
Some players have been trying to get certain names since the start of the game and only managed to snag them when a new server was created, which then peeved off the person who had the name first.

So.. how do you define rules for who gets first pick/pass on names..

1. treat it as a first come first serve.

2. Auction

3. Reservation

4. New server

.. or other....



Personally I would like to see a Server Merge where players from old servers migrate to a new server (for free), Founders and VIP's get 30 days to migrate toons with no new name creations.

This allows existing names to migrate to the new server and retain their names.
..a period of time before the transfer would be needed to lock down or restrict eligible transfer players/names..

Then open up transfers to non-VIP players for 30 days to transfer to the new servers to retain their names.

Then unlock Name changes for 30 days (paid service)

Followed by unlocking new character creations which on a new server would be clear of all historical names since it is a new server.


Merge all the old remaining servers from the old alt worlds onto a secondary new world with no server transfers available for 30 days..
with all remaining players that have been active within the last year moved from the old servers...


The result would be two new Server Worlds with no historical baggage and only players that have actively logged on in the last year.
Any remaining old players logging onto the game from the pre-existing old dead server would only be left with an option to join one of the two new servers and potentially subject to forced name change.




This would free up old locked down names and cleanse old historical data baggage from the active world servers while merging players into more robust active worlds.
..Would still be some technical issues like transporting guilds, converting guilds ships into transportable tokens, Bank items, TR caches, Shards, etc....

+1

[Azriel_Angelus]

This game is actually the reason why my name is Azrielah or Azriel in literally every game I play, I being the edgy teenager when i started playing of course wanted the name Azrael, but I've come to just like this changed spelling and as I said have only found one game where the name was already taken. Plus Azrielah and Azriel works better for female toons anyway

[Alcides]

Sorry I have namea on toons I've played since 2006... I should not have to give up those names because someone else is too unimaginative to come up with something original. Sorry you'll just have to tough it out.

[Captain_Wizbang]

https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/

[JohnFlory]

In a perfect world we could simply swap the requirement of uniqueness from "first name" to "first name" + "last name". I mean, how crazy is this world we live in, where every single person has to have a different first name? That puts some serious pressure on new parents, unless they got lucky and someone in the family recently died so they could use their name again.

Probably impossible given how everything in this game is tied to the first name alone though...


A purge would seem reasonable - every character that hasn't been played in 5 years gets automatically renamed to basically a serial number and gets a free name change certificate so they could rename the character to their wishes if they actually come back (veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery likely). If noone else takes their name, they might even get their old name back. There would be very few people who would feel any downside of that (again: they'd have to a) be offline for more than 5 years, b) actually come back, c) have a name so common that it gets taken in the mean time and d) care so deeply about the name that they are hurt by it) it's not that unreasonable to do.
The accompanying question would be how much of a computational effort this would require... Also: what if someone deliberately names their character in the style of the serial number to block the automated process. Well, easily circumventable with a special character...

[The_Apocalypse]

A new server every so often would allow for names from scratch again, so long as they don't allow server switches to the new servers.

Though, altering the game so as to allow surnames to be recorded is definitely a good idea.

[Captain_Wizbang]

A new server every so often would allow for names from scratch again, so long as they don't allow server switches to the new servers..

So what do you think is going to happen when people X-fer toons from HL server to their main?

People running around with 1 at end of name like we do now?

What if there are doubles, even triples of any given name?

It's a slippery slope for sure.

[Memnir]

So what do you think is going to happen when people X-fer toons from HL server to their main?

xxxDrizztxxx-1 (or 2, or 3, or 23, or 85, or...)

[Tscheuss]

In a perfect world we could simply swap the requirement of uniqueness from "first name" to "first name" + "last name". I mean, how crazy is this world we live in, where every single person has to have a different first name? That puts some serious pressure on new parents, unless they got lucky and someone in the family recently died so they could use their name again.

Probably impossible given how everything in this game is tied to the first name alone though...


A purge would seem reasonable - every character that hasn't been played in 5 years gets automatically renamed to basically a serial number and gets a free name change certificate so they could rename the character to their wishes if they actually come back (veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery likely). If noone else takes their name, they might even get their old name back. There would be very few people who would feel any downside of that (again: they'd have to a) be offline for more than 5 years, b) actually come back, c) have a name so common that it gets taken in the mean time and d) care so deeply about the name that they are hurt by it) it's not that unreasonable to do.
The accompanying question would be how much of a computational effort this would require... Also: what if someone deliberately names their character in the style of the serial number to block the automated process. Well, easily circumventable with a special character...

I will just leave this here.

I do wish the LotRO solution were at least based on Account activity rather than Character activity; however, there are many names that are safe from change regardless of being inactive from the first year of play. There were players who made characters of the same name on all 29 worlds. XD

Here is a point I have made in more than one thread on this type of topic. A DDO character name can be up to 12 characters long. Assume a conservative sample of six, two-character, consonant-vowel syllable permutations, and we have 20 * 6 = 120 syllables for 120^6 = 2,985,984,000,000 possible names of that style alone. Three trillion possible names that will have some melody or euphony, even if they have no pre-established denotations.

Three trillion. More than enough for everyone, even if DDO lasts another dozen years and beyond.

As for the -# being temporary, there is a Chosen-1 and a Catch-22 on Hobbitside.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Eye Dhisagree.

[Yokido]

Inactives should get similar treatment as those in a coma, but of course this is a GAME, not RL, so maybe not as critical a scenario...

If we don't already - delete toons with little accumulated & little recent activity. We don't have the raw data so we won't know where to cut it off at really... Firing from the hip, if a toon's under 10 and over 2 years inactive, give it a numbered name. If they come back they just need a rename.

[MacDubh]

So what do you think is going to happen when people X-fer toons from HL server to their main?

People running around with 1 at end of name like we do now?

What if there are doubles, even triples of any given name?

It's a slippery slope for sure.

Hope they'll all be -HL1 or - Hardcore1, with special little writhing flames rather than wings, and special farty sounds whenever you log in ...
And the bloody footprints should make splooshy sounds.

Truth is most people will transfer them, strip stuff from them, then ritually execute them on the Altar of Hardcore as they have no past-lives, etc. . Every toon sacrificed to the Altar of Hardcore will generate a free Bloody Heart of Wood and an xp stone equivalent to the xp they gained, to reward those who have made Hardcore a resounding success.

[Uska]

Be original

[Uska]

There isn't a better name, than the one you want.

Being original is better

[Uska]

What really blows my mind is this game has the perfect way to allow for anyone to have the names they want.... SURNAMES! WHY don't surnames count as part of your characters name? That would fix everything!

That would complicate tells and mail

[Uska]

I have no idea why you are linking thesaurus.com ... Do you name your characters with adjectives? Because this thread is about using real RP names.

Using a name from fiction like isn’t rp

[JohnFlory]

How to reach 25k posts: post 4 times in a row for the prize of only half a thought.

One can be original while still landing on a taken name. Noone is talking about 7million Drizz't, that's just people without arguments fighting their strawmen. As a mathematician AND linguist, I can also unequivocally tell you that it's not as simple as calculating possible syllable salads to figure out potential naming. First up, there is no Beholder race, so half the options are already out of the window. A roleplaying name will have some distinct features, often tied to the race of the character (which gets odd with some TRs, but that's a thought for another day). I can still remember naming toons when I was actually looking for good RP names, and even though neither of my ideas was stolen from any source, it'd still be very possible to land on something that's already taken. Sure, if you want to call yourself ThaFr0zenPorcupine, go ahead. No RP though.

Let's go on: most names are rather short. In fact, the only entries in the top 10 baby boy names of the USA in 2018 that are longer than 6 letters (William and Benjamin) have abbreviations that are in most cases used instead of the given names. With 6 letters and reasonable vowel structures, the options dip rather heavily.

So the next person who unironically tries to say that everyone who has a first choice for a name that's already taken is either oblivious, ignorant or really bad at naming characters with proper sounding fantasy names. Looking at you, porcupine. Looking at you.

[Tscheuss]

How to reach 25k posts: post 4 times in a row for the prize of only half a thought.

One can be original while still landing on a taken name. Noone is talking about 7million Drizz't, that's just people without arguments fighting their strawmen. As a mathematician AND linguist, I can also unequivocally tell you that it's not as simple as calculating possible syllable salads to figure out potential naming. First up, there is no Beholder race, so half the options are already out of the window. A roleplaying name will have some distinct features, often tied to the race of the character (which gets odd with some TRs, but that's a thought for another day). I can still remember naming toons when I was actually looking for good RP names, and even though neither of my ideas was stolen from any source, it'd still be very possible to land on something that's already taken. Sure, if you want to call yourself ThaFr0zenPorcupine, go ahead. No RP though.

Let's go on: most names are rather short. In fact, the only entries in the top 10 baby boy names of the USA in 2018 that are longer than 6 letters (William and Benjamin) have abbreviations that are in most cases used instead of the given names. With 6 letters and reasonable vowel structures, the options dip rather heavily.

So the next person who unironically tries to say that everyone who has a first choice for a name that's already taken is either oblivious, ignorant or really bad at naming characters with proper sounding fantasy names. Looking at you, porcupine. Looking at you.

Beholder names often have adjacent consonants, so I know you are not referring to my conservative example calculation.
As for short names, I see many long names in game that are informally addressed in short form. I know more than a few players who use a common short name as a root for their character names while fleshing out the rest of the name with something unique and fitting to each character, and we call them by that short name.

I will make an offer. Go to this thread if you are having trouble coming up with a name that you like and is available on your server.

[SirValentine]

Creating a different format for names could solve this problem as well as have other benefits.
...
Only SSG can really be sure what the balance of cost versus benefit is and what risks they'd be running by making a change. My guess, and it's nothing more than that, is they think the cost and danger of messing around with names like this outweighs the benefits of selling more name changes and laying the groundwork for easier movement of characters between servers and server merges.

Changing the format would probably be lots of work and/or risky.

But we already know the system handles just fine names containing dashes and digits. It wouldn't "solve" the problem, but would greatly alleviate it, if they just allowed us to use dashes & digits in names at character creation time, instead of only after a server transfer.

Then, if someone's uncreative and upset that they can't be "Drizzt", OK, they can be "Drizzt-345" if they really want.

[JohnFlory]

As for short names, I see many long names in game that are informally addressed in short form. I know more than a few players who use a common short name as a root for their character names while fleshing out the rest of the name with something unique and fitting to each character, and we call them by that short name.

I will make an offer. Go to this thread if you are having trouble coming up with a name that you like and is available on your server.

Missing the point here. I, as most people who play many RPGs have a certain set of names that I usually use, in fact I have a library of about 10 which work in my personal canon who all have certain external and internal characteristics. Most of them are rather short, some are longer, neither is even close to being tied to some existing work of fiction. Names are important. And you don't go into a game trying to find a game, you go into a game trying to give a name. Sure, I can name characters, but if they don't get the names I had in mind for them when creating a character, it just doesn't feel the same. Yes, if you play for the grind and they are just toons to get loot with - who cares? My banking toons don't mind having roman numerals in their names to indicate which level of item they hold. My favor farmer doesn't need a name that can be pronounced. My main? She cares. And if she's a female halfling rogue, she doesn't like being called "Urgalf Stonebreaker", eventhough that name might technically be available.