Character Name Purge with Folks not Playing Anymore

Read the post I to which I responded, in particular the part I bolded:

Notice that nowhere in that post did the poster say anything about subscribers keeping their names. He simply made the statement that if a character gains no levels in over 6 months, you can pretty positively say that character is not being played.

And my response, directed specifically at the bolded part:

If pointing out that there is a very valid reason for a character to remain at a low level, even level 1, for months or even since early access makes me dense, then I guess I'm dense.

You are correct. Neither person A nor person B "owns" the name. That does not change the fact that person A is "in possession" of something that person B covets(wishes for eagerly). Person B wants to take something that person A currently possesses, and will try to justify it any way that they can. Nothing more, nothing less.

I'd support this.

Wow, working through some anger on this subject, are we?

I have no vested interest in this subject. I'm merely stating my opinion. My opinion is that the paying customer should be valued, and the free to play customer that abandoned the game, after enough time has passed, should be valued less.

I'm not expecting Bioware to read my opinion and suddenly implement it. As a matter of fact, I would be surprised if they did. But IF they did, I would support it. If they don't, no biggie.

And just to demonstrate my support, let me bring up my old GW account that I created 8 years ago and abandoned after a few hours of play, never to return again. I would expect the name I gave my toon to have been returned to the pool of available names. It would be a logical extension of my having abandoned the game. I'm gone, don't need the name anymore. I couldn't muster up the interest to log back into the game to delete the toon. So, return the name. If someone else claims it, and I somehow magically regenerate an interest in Guild Wars and I see I've lost the name, it won't bother me One. Little. Bit.

Actually, it's NOT that simple, because I don't fall under that category. I have all the names I want. I never lost a name. I don't covet any other name. I have the option to name change right now, and I'm not interested in even seeing if any other names are available. Basically, I'm a happy camper as far as names go.

So if it's not about me coveting another's name, then it's not as simple as you state it is.

Ninja Edit:
Actually. Something about your argument bothers me. I asked this:

and you answered with the above.

Here's how I read your answer:

"Yes, the free to player who never plays the game should keep his name because other people are greedy."

Eh?

Yes, there are games out there that you can forfeit your name if you've been unsubbed for a long time. World of Warcraft is one, heard of it?

City of Heroes had the best policy when it came to name precedence. If you were not a paying customer and hadn't logged in for X amount of time AND the character was under a certain level, another player could use that name. Everyone knew how long and what level so people who really wanted to save that name could level that character over the threshold if they knew they wouldn't be able to play for a long time but wanted to come back.

delete

Or make the name/legecy combo unique.

World of Warcraft does not.

GMs might rename a level 1 character to free up the name if it hasn't ever been logged into (Aka placeholder characters). They will not rename a level 90 that hasn't logged in for a while.

You are using absurd extremes here. I can not speak for everyone, but I don't think many people are saying they want a max level character to lose their name. And, you are also wrong about WoW. A GM freed up a name for me from a character that was inactive. It was a low level character (over level 10) on an unsubbed account. They do it. It has been in EQ, EQ2 and other MMO's.

So, in summary, you are wrong.

Also, take these facts into account - 1) People lost name in transfers from ghost servers; 2) Later they were told that there were going to be mandatory server transfers (which they did not when transfers first started out); 3) They were then told that there would be some sort of metric for determining name placement (which was not announced when transfers were first opened); 4) Hence, some people, who had the misfortune to pick servers that died or Bioware decided to close lost names they had picked at early as the first day of head start. These people would like the ability to get that name IF it is sitting on an inactive unsubbed account (I would go evern further and say on a lower than level 15 or 25 character). 5) This is not a unique request or feature that is uncommon in other MMO's.

No. No i am not. Blizzard themselves have stated that on their official forums.

This isn't an extreme either. People want to be able to choose names. Some of those names are taken by level 50s that haven't logged in in a while.

Forced renames isn't the answer you seek. The naming system itself is out dated. TOR's using the same naming system that WoW, SWG, EQ1/2, etc use. I think instead of the character name being unique, the character name/legacy combo should be unique.

Annnd yes. I lost 3 character names myself in the force move. One of them was a character name i had rushed to create on day 1 to make sure i get it. Would i like to force rename another character to get it back? No.