Character Name Purge with Folks not Playing Anymore

I only reviewed the first page of replies to see if this has been mentioned, but...

Subs should be able to keep their name at least as long as they are subbed (plus a grace period), regardless of "activity".

Maybe we could include a clause regarding the people who left before F2P started?

I know that of the 1.7 million at launch, at least 1.2 million aren't subbed. If someone left before Nov 2011 and they're not back by Nov 2013 it seems fair that we can use their character names.

GW 2 is flexible and it's not. Sure you can add a last name to your character and space it. But it's all tied to every server, eventually if the game picks up more popularity, that may become a problem. Still, it is quite flexible I agree.

I'd prefer a @ legacy to names already taken on this game to allow you to use whatever name you want or in fact just make your legacy your last name like you can. Might be a solution, but it could also cause problems.

Astounding. You say in one sentence that it would be nice for it to be better then in the next suck it up and deal with it? Wow. Yeah, Let's never improve QOL in this game.

If people are out of touch with their email address, they probalby won't be able to come back anyway.

I agree with the approach suggested by the OP. If someone's long gone from the game, their names should be freed up.

In games from which I am long gone, I don't care about my names. I mean, I had some good ones in WoW and LotRO. But I haven't played either in well over 18 months. If Blizzard or Turbine want to liberate those names so others can have them, that's fine with me. If I decide to go back and have to change my characters' names as a result of the rename, that's fine with me, too.

Same would be true of SWTOR if and when I leave and stay gone for a long while.

What are the rules for "a while"? Dunno. I'm sure the brilliant devs at BWEA can figure something equitable out.

/signed
Well said.

That's right my friend. I am completely capable of acknowledging idealism, while maintaining a practical and pragmatic outlook that some requests by MMO players are simply more trouble then they are worth to address. This topic is one of those cases, as far as I am concerned.

I know.. that's complicated for some to grasp. But that is not my problem, that is their problem.

There is not a fair and appropriate method to deal with the OPs desire. There are plenty of unfair, and inappropriate ways to do so. So from a pragmatic standpoint.. this is not a can of worms that should be opened and spread all over the table as far as I am concerned.

MMO life is like real life... it's a cupcake. So suck it up, and move on IMO. Names are first come first serve (except where forced consolidations required a controlled over-ride). Personally, while I would benefit personally to access to a few very common names.... I am not willing to see names stripped from US service personnel who are overseas whose only fault is that they are serving over seas and cannot access their account while serving their country. Yes my friend.... I am not selfish enough to want that sort of silliness just for a name.

Besides..your premise is flawed. There is absolutely no way to tell if a player has left the game for good, or why. So there is no way to administer name seizures fairly. The only way to address the "gone forever" player held names is if the player voluntarily gives up their name as part of leaving the game for good. Guess what.. players CAN do that today.. just delete the character.

AND.. on a strictly practical view.... freeing up a name by force, just to let it reenter the naming pool, does not guarantee the OP, or you, or me, or anyone that they will gain the name they want. So the entire concept is doomed from the get-go.

As to your snarky statement about QoL... I am on the record many times about seeing continued QoL improvements in the game. But this is not a QoL topic... it's a special interest topic... for a minority of players. It in no way improves quality of life in game play. Your snark is completely misplaced here, which I find to be an unusual thing for you in my experience.

Yep good idea. If they've got the bandwidth or interest to do it, which I doubt would be the case.

Honestly ... I would hope the majority of people would want all the developers concentrating on creating new content, WZ's and FP's.

On or around the two year anniversary than Bioware can see about purging accounts and freeing up names if no one has been on in two years. Two years seems fair.. If anyone had been deployed in the service they would have been back by then.

My suggestion to deal with this would be to move any characters that are on *ACCOUNTS* that have been idle for a given period (12 months?) to an archive of some kind, freeing up the names to be re-used.

If the player returns at a later date, when the pull their characters back from the archive, they will be forced to rename at that time.

As far as Military duty (or family member), or other legitimate reasons to being away, a simple email to CS requesting that their account be flagged "DO NOT ARCHIVE" should suffice to hold those names in those circumstances.

I acknowledge that you are trying to be constructive.. but this idea is impractical in the extreme.

There is absolutely NO objective reason to make a player send a "permission slip" to Bioware home office to hold a name for later use. Besides.. how exactly would you prevent people from misusing this...... creating a name they know someone else wants, and then putting an hold note to Bioware on the name? In other words.... it does not solve the alleged problem.

On a more practical note.. I seriously doubt that Bioware wants to maintain a data base of "permission slips" which would be adhoc at best, and a disaster at worst. It too would be abused and suck up CS resources with "Hey, I sent an email reserving ABC name, and you did not do it! Fix NAO!!" dog-ate-my-homework style complaint tickets.