Well thanks a lot Bioware.

My method of naming is to take parts of words from different languages and mash them together to make name.

Now as far as BW is concerned and game going F2P (sort of), they don't see any account as a "dead account".

That's clever.

My method is usually to mix booze, kung fu, and BBQ for moronic concoctions no one would want.

Although people whisper me a lot for drink recipes or ***** in gen because now they're hungry or out of hooch.

Wait, booze, kung fu and BBQ? Three of my favorite things

Alt codes work wonders. As long as you don't make it the first letter of your name (like some people) friends and members of your guild can still find you. It's not exactly "your name" but hey, it's close.

Not sure that's a relevant consideration. The question is not "is it necessary?" Because frankly, nothing is necessary when talking about this game. It's all what we want. I agree with you that people should just be honest about this issue. They want the names they want.

But I think you're giving too short shrift to the importance of this to many people. A person's character is the way they interact with the game. Names give that character an identity. It may not be hugely important to YOU, but it is to many. This issue comes up in every game that forces unique character names. It is not unreasonable to note that games that have come out recently have found means to deal with this unique identifier problem. Taking aside the server consolidation, as the game ages, the amount of 'decent' (which is in the eye of the beholder true enough) names dries up.

Sure you can say people are being unimaginative if they want to name their character "Michael," but hell there are probably several hundred thousand people (if not millions) with that name in real life. It's not crazy to complain that any developer hasn't used the very available tools to allow people this option.

It's simple really. IF a charcter name is an important part of game play for you.. it is probably a name that spans MMOs as you play different ones. IF SO... then it is in your best interests to create clever, unique, yet appealing to you names, that you can reasonably count on being available for you now.. and in the future in another MMO as well.

Personally, waaaaayyyy back in the days of DAoC... WAY before there were expanded character sets allowed in MMOs) I decided that character names were important to me AND I also recognized that character names were first come first serve. So I created names with silent consonants or slight vowel/spelling variations to meet my requirements. I have since used those names over and over again on server after server and MMO after MMO and I have literally never had a name denied to me for the half a dozen that are important to me.

You can either play victim, or take charge of your experience. The choice is up to the player.

And if they were available, that would be great, but they're not. So they players choices: complain about it or deal with it.

How many Cathar characters do you see with cat-oriented names? I see a lot, maybe the majority. Part of the problem is players' own lack of creativity. To add to what I already said, sure, it'd be great if the game had a way so that every Cathar could be named Thundercat, but it doesn't. Players can continue to spit into the wind over the "problem" that all the "good" names have been taken if they want, but the only purpose it servers is to create forum entertainment,

You can say 1000 times BWEA should have used such tools, but they didn't. If people start unsubscribing and giving "Name taken" as the reason, BWEA will do something. If people keep paying and playing despite periodic complaints, why should BWEA bother?

Not true, I would argue that any account that hasn't either generated any revenue (sub, CC, ect) and has not had a single log in, within a 6 month period, is dead.

That's your opinion. You have no idea how BWEA views it, as Jacen_Starsolo pointed out.