Clearing locked character names

[Marshal_General]

duplicate post

Edited August 24, 2021 by Marshal_General

[ZacKing]

9 hours ago, Supertanker said:

I mean, the level 49 character would still be there, just with a generic name (if someone took it.) They just have to think up a new name, which I don't see as a huge deal. Renaming is free and easy.

 

Isn't it interesting how the "they can just think up a new name" thing only works one way in these discussions? 

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Marshal_General said:

I didn't when I was deployed to Panama for 3 months. 

Your statement actually solidifies the argument against “protecting deployed military”.  3 months.  No problem.  We are talking two years.   Were you deployed into a situation with no access to the outside world for two years?   Has any American (other than PoWs and incarcerated service members) been without some access to the real world in two+ years?

[Glacier Peak]

1 hour ago, Marshal_General said:

I didn't when I was deployed to Panama for 3 months. 

Cool, you did before and after though right?

[Ukase]

20 hours ago, arcane said:

I took more than 2 years away on live. This is not something you can ever assume. The devs can draw a line and deal with the repercussions, but at no point can they draw a line AND entirely avoid pissing off some players.

If you took more than two years away on live - you would deserve to lose your names. There! I said it - what we were all thinking but too polite to say. 

If you take a break from the game for two years - I don't care if you were behind enemy lines, fighting for my right to utter things like I often do in this very forum - you should lose your name. You're already putting your real life in the line of fire, losing a character name is a small thing. 

There's more than one player in my SG that is in the military. They all have found times to log in. Sporadically, but they do check in. Two years? I was in the military. I served. Got 30 days of leave per year. Granted - family gets pissy if you spend too much time gaming, but it only takes a minute to log in. 

You take that much time away - yes, you lose your name. 

But that's just my opinion. I don't make the rules, so relax. 

Pardon my while I shine these boots up. 

Edited August 24, 2021 by Ukase

[ZemX]

1 hour ago, ZacKing said:

Isn't it interesting how the "they can just think up a new name" thing only works one way in these discussions? 

 

Bit of a false equivalence.  One person being asked to "think up a new name" is an active player.  The other is someone who returned to the game after two years of not logging in even once.

 

And it's probably a rare case on top of that.  Of all the people who haven't logged in in two years... how many do you actually think are EVER coming back?  How many people came over to the game in 2019 because a friend told them about it.. and then they left after a day because everybody kept laughing at them when they asked how to calculate their gear score?

[Glacier Peak]

26 minutes ago, Ukase said:

If you took more than two years away on live - you would deserve to lose your names. There! I said it - what we were all thinking but too polite to say. 

If you take a break from the game for two years - I don't care if you were behind enemy lines, fighting for my right to utter things like I often do in this very forum - you should lose your name. You're already putting your real life in the line of fire, losing a character name is a small thing. 

There's more than one player in my SG that is in the military. They all have found times to log in. Sporadically, but they do check in. Two years? I was in the military. I served. Got 30 days of leave per year. Granted - family gets pissy if you spend too much time gaming, but it only takes a minute to log in. 

You take that much time away - yes, you lose your name. 

But that's just my opinion. I don't make the rules, so relax. 

Pardon my while I shine these boots up. 

That is awesome 😆 I think it is fair to say that in addition to the 30 days a year I got leave, I was able to snag wifi at any of the bases I was at too. Even places like Afghanistan and Iraq had PXs and mobile hotspot cards you could pick up. All I'm saying is, if you wanted internet, you'd find it lol

[arcane]

6 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

Bit of a false equivalence.  One person being asked to "think up a new name" is an active player.  The other is someone who returned to the game after two years of not logging in even once.

 

And it's probably a rare case on top of that.  Of all the people who haven't logged in in two years... how many do you actually think are EVER coming back?  How many people came over to the game in 2019 because a friend told them about it.. and then they left after a day because everybody kept laughing at them when they asked how to calculate their gear score?

Def false equivalence yeah. One player wants a name that’s available and the other is just seeking to seize other people’s stuff 😉

[Generic001]

What are the actual chances that if this is done that any desired names even get freed up?

why do you think  your  the one that is going to get *That* name anyway?

I expect that the name problem is actually created by those players who LOVE this game and play often and have been active for a very long time and locked in all the names they had on live, and names on live they wanted but were unavailable.

 

My guess is that mostly all this would cause is grief. heck the game is just over 2 years old, so your not going to get a lot of names for a long time.

 

the nice thing about HC is that its free, so if you are paying a sub to play another game, letting this one sit a bit is easy because one has no skin in the game.

[ZemX]

15 minutes ago, arcane said:

Def false equivalence yeah. One player wants a name that’s available and the other is just seeking to seize other people’s stuff 😉

 

Nope.  Your "stuff" belongs to the Homecoming team and so does mine.  If they decide it's not your name after two years of inactivity then nobody is taking anything from anybody.  You abandoned it and someone else picked it up.

[Snarky]

And to be clear i am not saying log into every character.  One log in on any character for a few seconds preserves your entire accounts 1000s of names for two years.  That is a 50 minute investment for 100 years of character name safety.  Work with me here.

[A Cat]

Personally, I'm not having that hard of a time getting names. If anything I am shocked at what I have successfully named things as. I see really awesome names all the time out in the wild. I know this is all anecdotal and all. I may not get my first choice but I get a good choice. What's the pop compared to live? I'm guessing way smaller. Though 1k slots might make each person take more names. 

[ZemX]

1 minute ago, Generic001 said:

What are the actual chances that if this is done that any desired names even get freed up?

 

From what I hear, a whole ton of people logged in when HC went live or shortly afterwards, coming over from games like WoW to look about.  They then got bored and left.

 

There might be quite a few names nobody has used in two years.

 

But the flipside is... what's the harm?  This sort of thing is common in MMOs.  I've been thinking of playing SWTOR again recently and I know, when I go back, I'll probably be picking new names for any characters I have there.  It's been over a year.  Might be two.  Not a big deal though to me.  If someone wanted one of those names and was actively playing?  Good for them.  If I cared that much, I'd have kept playing.

 

I think it's a small thing either way that people are making into a much bigger deal than it is.  If it never happens, it won't be the end of the world for me either.  

[Generic001]

1 minute ago, ZemX said:

But the flipside is... what's the harm?  This sort of thing is common in MMOs.  I've been thinking of playing SWTOR again recently and I know, when I go back, I'll probably be picking new names for any characters I have there.  It's been over a year.  Might be two.  Not a big deal though to me.  If someone wanted one of those names and was actively playing?  Good for them.  If I cared that much, I'd have kept playing.

 

I think it's a small thing either way that people are making into a much bigger deal than it is.  If it never happens, it won't be the end of the world for me either.  

 

oh, and don't think I disagree with the premise of the service owner setting new rules like this. I think its a perfectly acceptable thing to do, and simply send out an email with an updated ToS. giving  like a 30-day notice.

 

I just think that people are going to be disappointed with what becomes available to them as individuals. We'll get 4+ pages of forum posts on  which day of year/time of day is the best to do it.  

[ZemX]

1 minute ago, Generic001 said:

I just think that people are going to be disappointed with what becomes available to them as individuals. We'll get 4+ pages of forum posts on  which day of year/time of day is the best to do it.  

 

I wouldn't call it disappointment.  If it doesn't free up a bunch of names, it means most of the accounts are held by active players.  That's good news. 

[arcane]

17 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

Nope.  Your "stuff" belongs to the Homecoming team and so does mine.  If they decide it's not your name after two years of inactivity then nobody is taking anything from anybody.  You abandoned it and someone else picked it up.

The devs can step in and do whatever they want, yes. Does not change the fact that the fundamental divide in this argument is between people that feel entitled to their own stuff vs people that feel entitled to everyone’s stuff

[ZemX]

Just now, arcane said:

Does not change the fact that the fundamental divide in this argument is between people that feel entitled to their own stuff vs people that feel entitled to everyone’s stuff

 

Only if you are suffering from an excess of melodrama.  Might want to see your doctor about that.

[ZacKing]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

Bit of a false equivalence.  One person being asked to "think up a new name" is an active player.  The other is someone who returned to the game after two years of not logging in even once.

 

Correct.  It's ok someone gets annoyed in this equation so long as its the other person 

[ZemX]

2 minutes ago, ZacKing said:

Correct.  It's ok someone gets annoyed in this equation so long as its the other person 

 

It's okay if it's the other person who abandoned the game for two years.  Yes.

 

And... I think I'm done feeding the trolls.  Hope you had your fill, guys.

[ZacKing]

9 minutes ago, ZemX said:

It's okay if it's the other person who abandoned the game for two years.  Yes.

 

And... I think I'm done feeding the trolls.  Hope you had your fill, guys.

 

I guess you missed this...

 

On 8/23/2021 at 11:56 AM, ZacKing said:

if an account hasn't logged in in a couple of years though, chances are pretty good they're gone for good and level 49 and below names should be released.

 

Now there's been a couple of people here who've said they do take extended breaks from the game and it would suck for them to be returning to find their stuff all renamed.  But like I said, it's ok for someone to get annoyed so long as it's the other guy.

 

 

[Erratic1]

I get  why people are passionate on the matter, both pro-release and those opposed. It can be frustrating to have a concept and struggle to find an available name which fits it and at the same time there are still some real gems out there which have not been gobbled up (I got Arachno Lad and The Depths both in the past few months).

 

I thought there was a sliding scale beneath 50 for names releasing with it taking lengthier periods of inactivity based on the level of the character before the name went free.

[ZemX]

4 minutes ago, ZacKing said:

Now there's been a couple of people here who've said they do take extended breaks from the game and it would suck for them to be returning to find their stuff all renamed.  But like I said, it's ok for someone to get annoyed so long as it's the other guy.

 

Wait, you're serious?  All the little smileys... I just figured you were joking or trolling.

 

Then again, here you are just trying the straw man argument a second time while ignoring my answer.   One more time then and I will assume you're a troll if you ignore it a second time: No, I'm not okay as long as it is someone else.   It's okay because the whole point of a name release policy isn't to steal things from people that still want them but to recover abandoned names from people who are never coming back.   Obviously, there's no 100% perfect way to know someone has left for good so you draw a line somewhere reasonable.  And two years is more than reasonable.  Doesn't mean you can't find one or two people who came back after two years.  But that also doesn't make it an unreasonable policy.  It is not too much to ask, if people actually care that much, to freakin' log in ONCE in that much time.

 

And that's really about all that I can say about it.  It's just not worth having a huge fight over.  It's probably not happening anyway.

 

[arcane]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

 

Only if you are suffering from an excess of melodrama.  Might want to see your doctor about that.

Erm nope only posted facts

[Nerio72]

Does someone wanting a name that's taken somehow hurt you people? There's names I would like, and it would be great if they got freed up, that doesn't mean I'm not creative, just that I really like that particular name.

 

Every time this comes up people act like you are selfish or dumb or not creative. If you disagree with freeing up names that's fine, say so, but try to do it without belittling someone that disagrees with you. And please stop using the military as a reason it shouldn't be done. There is no deployment that lasts two years. I logged into my Live account while deployed in Iraq, it was unplayable unfortunately at that time but that was many years ago, internet speeds are much improved now.

 

 

[arcane]

16 minutes ago, Nerio72 said:

Every time this comes up people act like you are selfish or dumb or not creative.

Having two options, “get my own” or “take someone else’s”, and even thinking about the latter is, factually, by nature, selfish.