Time to enforce the name holding expiration rules

[Ghost]

27 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

To quote Greycat:  "The prefix for the "no" i would put on this is decidedly not family friendly. Or quiet."

Requiring me to level to keep my name is bovine exhaust of the highest order.  Probably three-quarters of my toons are currently level-locked for one reason or another.  At least one I'm considering will be permanently level locked.

Now now, no reason to get upset over my opinion

Was just stating what I would do, which of course means nothing.

 

 

 

 

[GM Impervium]

54 minutes ago, EmperorSteele said:

Whatever names you people are trying to get, and can't, only proves how unoriginal you all are!

 

*goes back to playing his claws/regen named Generic0134782*

 Fix'd that for ya! 😉
 

[Galaxy Brain]

This comes up often, and I think basing it off account activity then character level is most fair.

 

If the account itself is inactive for 90/120 days, characters under lvl 10 get unlocked for naming rights. Another ~40 days, under lvl 20, and so on. If you log in and play any character though it re-locks all your names. Even lvl 1 Wolverp33n that has been offline 400 days as long as you are actively playing.

 

Going after truly inactive *accounts* I think is fair as 3 months + extra time per level bracket is plenty to play at all. It shouldn't even wipe names as @Player2 mentions, which gives good odds they'd still be there.

[Dragon Crush]

3 hours ago, GM Impervium said:

 Fix'd that for ya! 😉
 

New hero idea. Pick an iconic powerset with a dull grey costume...

 

"*Famous Hero* saved your parents lives before you were born and you ended up named after them, and ended up developing similar powers after *Famous Hero* retired so you decided to follow in their footsteps. However, the superhero registrar didn't appreciate  your similar name, and when you insisted it was your real legal name and showed your license to prove it they used their administrative spite to change both your superhero and legal name. You are Generic and you fight crime."

[golstat2003]

1 hour ago, Galaxy Brain said:

This comes up often, and I think basing it off account activity then character level is most fair.

 

If the account itself is inactive for 90/120 days, characters under lvl 10 get unlocked for naming rights. Another ~40 days, under lvl 20, and so on. If you log in and play any character though it re-locks all your names. Even lvl 1 Wolverp33n that has been offline 400 days as long as you are actively playing.

 

Going after truly inactive *accounts* I think is fair as 3 months + extra time per level bracket is plenty to play at all. It shouldn't even wipe names as @Player2 mentions, which gives good odds they'd still be there.

I could agree with this. Logging in once per 120 days shouldn't be an issue.

[Doomguide2005]

I'm currently one of those inactive players.  Since roughly late February when my computer died I've only been able to access the internet via my phone.

 

With that said I think what's outlined above is quite fair.  I'm personally not too worried my names will get gobbled up (well maybe one is at risk).  But if it does at this point simply being able to get back in game and online will be a teensy tiny price to pay to do so.

[MTeague]

1 hour ago, Dragon Crush said:

New hero idea. Pick an iconic powerset with a dull grey costume...

 

"*Famous Hero* saved your parents lives before you were born and you ended up named after them, and ended up developing similar powers after *Famous Hero* retired so you decided to follow in their footsteps. However, the superhero registrar didn't appreciate  your similar name, and when you insisted it was your real legal name and showed your license to prove it they used their administrative spite to change both your superhero and legal name. You are Generic and you fight crime."

I remember seeing oldschool Generic products in grocery stores.  

It wouldn't make for that great a costume, but hey... probably possible.

 

[Outrider_01]

19 hours ago, Player2 said:

"Ashen Reaper" sucks.  Done?  Not even close.  More like giving up on the concept and trying to find something else to spark my interest because something about the game frustrated me.

Give me some concept and a few ideas you have.  Maybe I can give you a good one or something to inspire you.

 

And if you are frustrated about the game because of names, welcome to MMORPG circa 1999.  You must be more into board games non-D&D, cause nobody names the dog for Monoply, chess pieces, or Connect-4.  Otherwise, all online games experience this problem.

19 hours ago, Player2 said:

Guess what:  not everyone agrees with you on how easy is to just pick a different name and be done with it.  If it works for you, great.  But your solution isn't right for everyone.  Nor would I expect any given solution for any other problem to sit perfectly fine with anyone else.  People have a right to be dissatisfied with things.  Deal with it.

Self plugging my guide for references to use that makes me look like an asshole

Hero Names now in PowerPoint Presentation

Kind of buried

General Forum Thread - Name Assistance Brigade (N.A.B.ers)

20 hours ago, Player2 said:

It isn't that it's assumed that people are squatting on all the good names,

Wiki source - words in multiple languages - an impressive amount of words, even if some do not translate into english or the text format isn't allowed.

No, there is no such thing as a "good name" .  Just what you find acceptable.

20 hours ago, Player2 said:

And as the original poster even said, there's no particular name that he's even looking to acquire.

gonna call bullshit on this statement.  Not calling a liar, but simple deductive reasoning; nobody brings something to attention for no reason. Screaming babies want 1 of  3 things; attention, diaper change, or food.  Its not to say change the TV channel.  Basically, you don't state something if there is a problem unless there is actually a problem. 

 

It isn't hard to create a name if its taking, just got to keep trying.

 

Forgot I called this thread gonna happen on Dec 3rd

Can't figure out how to do that in post pic looking one 😢

[Dragon Crush]

19 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

cause nobody names the dog for Monoply

What do you mean no one names Mouse?

 

And some of those guides might be useful. While I don't necessarily run into taken names all the time, I do have far more trouble coming up with names than I do character concepts.

[Player2]

3 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

Give me some concept and a few ideas you have.  Maybe I can give you a good one or something to inspire you.

 

No thank you.  I prefer to come up with my own character ideas, even if sometimes they might be inspired by someone else in some way.  Start giving me ideas and I will shoot them down one by one out of hand because they're being handed to me.

 

3 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

And if you are frustrated about the game because of names, welcome to MMORPG circa 1999.  You must be more into board games non-D&D, cause nobody names the dog for Monoply, chess pieces, or Connect-4.  Otherwise, all online games experience this problem.

 

Hey, there's an idea.  Make a decision about things I must like because of how you choose to interpret something I've said.

On second thought, how about don't infer conclusions based on information presented.  I guarantee they'll usually be faulty.

All online games do not suffer this naming problem.  Maybe they used to, but not all of them anymore.

 

3 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

Self plugging my guide for references to use that makes me look like an asshole

Hero Names now in PowerPoint Presentation

Kind of buried

General Forum Thread - Name Assistance Brigade (N.A.B.ers)

Wiki source - words in multiple languages - an impressive amount of words, even if some do not translate into english or the text format isn't allowed.

 

Meh.  I've given away literally over a thousand great name suggestions over on the Excelsior forum Name Release thread for people to either claim or use as inspiration.

 

3 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

No, there is no such thing as a "good name" .  Just what you find acceptable.

 

Read what I wrote:  "It isn't that it's assumed that people are squatting on all the good names,"

It isn't that that people are assuming that... it's that with the unique naming system making character names a valuable commodity, some people are frustrated that people can come in, make a thousand characters, get bored, and then walk away from the game with all those names removed from the available pool.  If one person did that, it would be significant.  If ten people do it on a smaller scale, it could equal out to the same chunk removed from a given shard's available names (to say nothing of if they create multiple characters across two or more shards).  Over time, if dozens of people or hundreds of come and go after a "moment" of nostalgia in COH again or try it out for the first time after hearing others talk about it...  a small but significant chunk can become much more sizeable.  But yes, let's focus on the idea of what constitutes a "good name" and completely miss the point.

 

3 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

gonna call bullshit on this statement.  Not calling a liar, but simple deductive reasoning; nobody brings something to attention for no reason. Screaming babies want 1 of  3 things; attention, diaper change, or food.  Its not to say change the TV channel.  Basically, you don't state something if there is a problem unless there is actually a problem. 

 

Nice, comparing people's complaints to "screaming babies" to completely invalidate their concerns.  You win the internet.  Feel good about yourself?

But to address your point:  Yes, people do complain about something even if it's nothing they want directly.  Some people don't like hearing the name-squatting complaint and, not worrying about their own interests because it probably won't affect them, encourage ideas like the name purge because then when people continue to complain about a name they want not being available, the purge can be pointed to as at least something having been done to try to help the situation.

But you keep calling people babies, I'm sure that will help too.

 

3 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

It isn't hard to create a name if its taking, just got to keep trying.

 

No it isn't hard at all.  I could just close my eyes and press my hands against the keyboard for a random assortment of letters and / or numbers.  Boom, name, easy.  Is it desirable?  No.  Would I be interested in playing a character thusly named?  Very unlikely.  And while I have time and again compromised while choosing names for my characters, I find that the more I am pushed away from my original choice with substitutions and compromise, the less interested I become in the character.  Names are more important to some people than others, so maybe don't assume that just because it's easy for you that it's easy for everyone.

 

3 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

Forgot I called this thread gonna happen on Dec 3rd

Can't figure out how to do that in post pic looking one 😢

 

Yes, you are quite prescient.  Or maybe you have a knack for seeing patterns.  I mean, this topic does come up a lot.  Often enough that one might think the Homecoming team might address it at some point.  But so far nothing.

 

 

 

[Tath99]

I wasn't aware there was an "expiration rule" on names in use.

 

Could someone point me to where it is documented?

 

 

[Grouchybeast]

23 minutes ago, Tath99 said:

I wasn't aware there was an "expiration rule" on names in use.

 

Could someone point me to where it is documented?

The policy was announced way back in May 2019, but it still hasn't been implemented.

[Solarverse]

10 hours ago, Galaxy Brain said:

This comes up often, and I think basing it off account activity then character level is most fair.

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

I should not have to constantly sweat a character losing a name because I have not logged him in for a while. I will eventually log him in, but I don't want to feel pressured to log him in just for the sake of losing a name. My account is active every single day, that should be enough. Meanwhile, we have people who started off on this server (because it was the only one) created a bunch of characters sucking up a bunch of good names, but then left the server in favor of others, or they just got bored with the game all together. Inactive accounts should lose the names, not accounts who play every day.

[GM Impervium]

Just popping back in for a sec to remind everyone to keep things civil and to be excellent to each other 😃

And, as an aside, I do want to say that we are still looking into this. However, experience has shown that when we make a sweeping change, sometimes things get overlooked, or there's unintended consequences, or whatever. I'm sure everyone knows about the adjustment to /ebfp, and the introduction of LRTP and all that, and how through feedback we added more powers, and changed requirements, and kept going back and forth, and no matter what, some people were still... not very happy. Well, guess what? On top of all of that, if you transfer between shards, LRTP no longer works (Pro tip, don't transfer characters right now, it breaks LRTP). So THAT's broken, and we're still trying to fix it.

Note that this is NOT the thread to discuss these changes, but I bring them up to draw a hypothetical comparison:

If we're going to do this? We have ONE shot. We won't get weeks of fine tuning, and adjustments, and feedback. We'll code it in, flip the switch, and it's DONE. And if there's just one misplaced argument, or IF statement, or 1 or 0? Then it might make all CURRENT names unlocked, and suddenly you'll see someone with YOUR main's name in Atlas broadcast screaming out for DFB. Or maybe everything will seem fine until you transfer servers, and despite the name being available, it gets lost in the void and becomes unclaimable. Or someone else transfers onto your sever and takes your name WHILE you're playing that character!

All the same people who want names freed up, are the same people who are most likely to be negatively impacted if things go wrong. So we HAVE to get it right the first time. It's a huge undertaking, so we just ask for patience while we dot our i's and cross our t's. Thank you 😃

(Note that I'm not trying to be the final word on this, feel free to continue exchanging ideas, but again, please keep it civil!)

[Greycat]

29 minutes ago, GM Impervium said:

, so we just ask for patience while we dot our i's and cross our t's. Thank you 😃

Try crossing your "i"s and dotting your "t"s. *nods*

[Six-Six]

This name release thing pops up every so often, and there is never a closure to it. One side will agree, another camp will not. I personally am not hung up on names. In fact, on more than one occasion a name that I liked was taken and forced me to think of a different one. long story short, the concept for the toon evolved, powers were re-rolled, costume was made to fit the new name. and I must say it ended up being a better toon.

It amuses me to think that all these people wanting a name that they were beaten to assume that whoever beat them to it is just sitting at level 1 and will never play it again.

[Solarverse]

2 hours ago, Six Six said:

This name release thing pops up every so often, and there is never a closure to it. One side will agree, another camp will not. I personally am not hung up on names. In fact, on more than one occasion a name that I liked was taken and forced me to think of a different one. long story short, the concept for the toon evolved, powers were re-rolled, costume was made to fit the new name. and I must say it ended up being a better toon.

It amuses me to think that all these people wanting a name that they were beaten to assume that whoever beat them to it is just sitting at level 1 and will never play it again.

This right here. One of the things that made this game unique from others is the fact that nobody else will be running around with the name you have chosen for your character. I will never understand why people want to join a game and then make demands that the game changes to fit their needs. Not the betterment of the game for all, but to be made better for them specifically. Then, those same players get board and leave the game and us die hard fans are left with the aftermath of their wrath. It's like, "gee...thanks for dropping by and getting the game changed in a negative way for me and then leaving after you have finished customizing it to fit your personal needs." I am not saying that all players do this, but I have seen it happen on multiple occasions.

 

For an example, half of the PvP nerfs that have happened over the years were demanded by players who honestly didn't even PvP all that much. They destroyed PvP for those of us who PvPed hard core. They came and tried out PvP, cried about it on the forums, demanded it be nerfed, succeeded, then they got bored of PvP and moved on. Meanwhile, the rest of us were stuck with the nerf that they cried for.

This game has ALWAYS had names being unique per each character...let's not change that tradition now...please.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Solarverse

[Galaxy Brain]

Agreed @Six Sixand @Solarverse, though I still think it's probably fair to start looking at accounts where there's been NO activity.

[Infinitum]

2 hours ago, GM Impervium said:

Just popping back in for a sec to remind everyone to keep things civil and to be excellent to each other 😃

And, as an aside, I do want to say that we are still looking into this. However, experience has shown that when we make a sweeping change, sometimes things get overlooked, or there's unintended consequences, or whatever. I'm sure everyone knows about the adjustment to /ebfp, and the introduction of LRTP and all that, and how through feedback we added more powers, and changed requirements, and kept going back and forth, and no matter what, some people were still... not very happy. Well, guess what? On top of all of that, if you transfer between shards, LRTP no longer works (Pro tip, don't transfer characters right now, it breaks LRTP). So THAT's broken, and we're still trying to fix it.

Note that this is NOT the thread to discuss these changes, but I bring them up to draw a hypothetical comparison:

If we're going to do this? We have ONE shot. We won't get weeks of fine tuning, and adjustments, and feedback. We'll code it in, flip the switch, and it's DONE. And if there's just one misplaced argument, or IF statement, or 1 or 0? Then it might make all CURRENT names unlocked, and suddenly you'll see someone with YOUR main's name in Atlas broadcast screaming out for DFB. Or maybe everything will seem fine until you transfer servers, and despite the name being available, it gets lost in the void and becomes unclaimable. Or someone else transfers onto your sever and takes your name WHILE you're playing that character!

All the same people who want names freed up, are the same people who are most likely to be negatively impacted if things go wrong. So we HAVE to get it right the first time. It's a huge undertaking, so we just ask for patience while we dot our i's and cross our t's. Thank you 😃

(Note that I'm not trying to be the final word on this, feel free to continue exchanging ideas, but again, please keep it civil!)

 

Umm yeah take all the time you need.  lol

 

There is one sgmate that would love to have my names unlocked just to make humorous effegys of me.

 

So please take any amount of time to not let that happen.  lol

Edited December 10, 2020 by Infinitum

[Rathulfr]

1 hour ago, Galaxy Brain said:

Agreed @Six Sixand @Solarverse, though I still think it's probably fair to start looking at accounts where there's been NO activity.

 

Spot on.  If an account has been unused for a over a year, I think that the character names associated with that idle account should be made available for players with active accounts.  It doesn't really matter how long/often a particular character logs on, if the associated account is inactive/unused.

 

Case in point, I brought a friend to CoH in April 2019, and we played together for a few days.  He created a character named "Florida Man", which is hilarious.  He hasn't played since then, over a year and a half later.  He says he's no longer interested, and won't play again.  Now I'd love to play "Florida Man", but the name is locked up on his idle account.  The issue isn't that "Florida Man" is taken, but rather that "Florida Man" is taken by someone who hasn't played in over a year, and probably won't ever play again.

 

Back in April/May/June of 2019, hundreds of thousands of accounts were created.  I suspect that many of those accounts were basically demos or nostalgia accounts, which means they've been unused in the past year.  But every single character name of those idle accounts are currently held in perpetuity. 

 

I agree with the OP that this isn't right.  At some point, we have to set (and enforce) a "statute of limitations" for inactive accounts and their associated character names.  I understand that sometimes, real life gets in the way, and accounts can go idle for reasons beyond our control (such as military deployment, long-term disability, computer failures, etc.).  So I'm all for some kind of really liberal limitations (at least one year, maybe two) for account activity.  But at some point, you have to favor your active player base over your inactive player base.

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Rathulfr

[Galaxy Brain]

9 minutes ago, Rathulfr said:

I agree with the OP that this isn't right.  At some point, we have to set (and enforce) a "statute of limitations" for inactive accounts and their associated character names.  I understand that sometimes, real life gets in the way, and accounts can go idle for reasons beyond our control (such as military deployment, long-term disability, computer failures, etc.).  So I'm all for some kind of really liberal limitations (at least one year, maybe two) for account activity.  But at some point, you have to favor your active player base over your inactive player base.

I'd say there should also be a way to combat it if you fall into one of those categories via GM discussion. You're gonna be unable to play? You can submit a request to reserve the account perhaps that would be viewed by a person. 

 

Before folks say that would be abused:

 

1. The vast majority of inactive accounts are people who would not be active in this way

2. People who would do this just to troll are doing some very advanced trolling if they go in to reserve a ton of names, then say to keep it active... which by them going in to make names gives them that (x amount of time) buffer lol

[Rathulfr]

19 minutes ago, Galaxy Brain said:

I'd say there should also be a way to combat it if you fall into one of those categories via GM discussion. You're gonna be unable to play? You can submit a request to reserve the account perhaps that would be viewed by a person. 

 

Before folks say that would be abused:

 

1. The vast majority of inactive accounts are people who would not be active in this way

2. People who would do this just to troll are doing some very advanced trolling if they go in to reserve a ton of names, then say to keep it active... which by them going in to make names gives them that (x amount of time) buffer lol

 

Honestly, I think it would just be easier for the HC team to announce an annual "character name release event" (for lack of a better name) on the game's anniversary date.  Publish it in patch notes and send reminder e-mails to all account holders.

 

Something like: "Effective April 24th (or whatever the official anniversary date is), all accounts idle for over XXX [days/months/years] will have their character names un-reserved according to our established name reservation policy.  If you wish to retain your character names, please logon to your account at least once before that date.  If you're unable to logon to your account by that date, please open a support ticket on the forums (or in Discord)."

 

That way, active players will always know what's coming, idle players who may have been away for awhile will be encouraged to come back at least once a year, and idle players who don't care can ignore it (assuming e-mails from HC aren't already sent to their spam folder).

 

Is that a perfect solution?  No.  But it's better than idle accounts camping on character names forever.

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Rathulfr

[Six-Six]

But then it's no longer a name release for the sake of releasing names. It becomes something I can wholeheartedly support. If an account hasn't been played for a given time, despite warnings of account termination, then the account deserves to be deleted. The release of names in said account is just a by product.

Name release because of Account deletion due to inactivity is not the same as finding a loop hole to release those names because I want them more, and I deserve the names because I (promise to) play more than whoever has it now.
 

[Outrider_01]

9 hours ago, Dragon Crush said:

I do have far more trouble coming up with names than I do character concepts

Start with a name first , concept second.  Sometimes creating something it entirely changes.

9 hours ago, Player2 said:

I prefer to come up with my own character ideas, even if sometimes they might be inspired by someone else in some way.  Start giving me ideas and I will shoot them down one by one out of hand because they're being handed to me

Never said the character, names might inspire it.  You can always change something, maybe you wanted a military theme named Major Payne, its taken and while you are mulling it over you get inspiration for a Mace melee called Major League and make it look like the White Sox.  You could make a night vigilante themed around Casy Jones (Teenage Mutant Turtle) but call them Batboy who looks like the Red Sox. Sometimes taking a list of words from several given might allow you to make your own by combining two.

9 hours ago, Player2 said:

All online games do not suffer this naming problem.  Maybe they used to, but not all of them anymore.

True.  Then again a (@account)McTough Guy hiding the global is a half ass fix for modern games. seeing Caption Atomic Awesome and two other guys standing next to you feels less unique; unless its friends and you are just joking a triplicate character.  CoH global is a chat channel and friend list.

 

9 hours ago, Player2 said:

I could just close my eyes and press my hands against the keyboard for a random assortment of letters and / or numbers.  Boom, name, easy.  Is it desirable? 

Mxqlpxm, theme is a trickster. literally facerolling the keyboard using the font based around the look of lower case Q and P it mirrors.  Based on a character from Batman, annoying person you can banish by making him say his name backwards.  My character you just say the name backwards but being mirrored font you can't.

 

9 hours ago, Player2 said:

Nice, comparing people's complaints to "screaming babies" to completely

Chill out..  another analogy would be "wish this place served chili burgers."  You are bringing to fact the restaurant doesn't have chili burgers,  you wish they had them. 

 

The baby vs name comparison is not calling people a baby, an actual baby is bringing to the fact it wants attention, food, or a diaper change not some random thing like changing the channel.  How would the OP "not be desiring a particular name" if they are bringing up the name policy?  All the sources I list, trillions of combinations would mean you could make any particular name if someone else had one.

 

If you tell a friend you are hungry and want to go to though a drive thru, you are telling them you want to go through the drive thru.  You ask if they are hungry and want something to eat, open end question that may or may not result in going through the drive thru depending on the answer.

 

You don't start a thread making a suggestion about enforcing the name policy, unless you want a particular name.  Explain exactly how the OP is not looking for a particular name, using the drive thru analogy.  I can't fathom how they would say it otherwise given all the resources I show you and the creativity of the human mind.

 

If I offended you I am sorry that.  I find I can piss people off just by saying hello.  Its just who I am.

[Rathulfr]

9 minutes ago, Six Six said:

But then it's no longer a name release for the sake of releasing names. It becomes something I can wholeheartedly support. If an account hasn't been played for a given time, despite warnings of account termination, then the account deserves to be deleted. The release of names in said account is just a by product.

Name release because of Account deletion due to inactivity is not the same as finding a loop hole to release those names because I want them more, and I deserve the names because I (promise to) play more than whoever has it now.
 

 

Agreed.  It's one thing to threaten to take away the character names of an active account, than it is to do so for an idle account.  If you're active, your character names should be preserved for as long as your remain active; but if you're idle, you shouldn't expect your character names to be preserved forever.

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Rathulfr