issue 27 Focused Feedback: Name Release Policy - Phase 1: Warning Mode

[UltraAlt]

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Edited July 22, 2022 by UltraAlt
Ms. Citation attacked me!

[aethereal]

20 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I guess  you need to level them up to 6 in case of a 31 day emergency .... if you think that is likely.

You attributed that quote to me, but it's not me, it's, uh, Zepp I think.

 

And: yes.

 

Realistically, the people who are at risk of losing names under the current proposition is not "people who have one or two beloved non-traditional characters."  They can advance those characters to level 6 with ease, or just log into them once a month (and emergencies where you actually can't log in to a computer once in 30 days are rare as hen's teeth).  It's the people who have 20 or 30 such characters, for whom it would legitimately be a slog to log into them once every 30 days -- not a huge problem, but a tiresome chore -- and where they'd have to devote quite a few hours to get them all to level 6.

 

And that's as it should be.  Because that's name squatting.  Having a whole stable of characters who you don't play but sit on should be a pain in the ass, to discourage people from doing it.

[UltraAlt]

1 hour ago, aethereal said:

You attributed that quote to me, but it's not me, it's, uh, Zepp I think.

 

yeah, looks like, I have no idea how that happened I did the select text and hit on the quote selection.

I'll see if I can fix it

must have quoted it out of your post instead of their original post

Edited July 22, 2022 by UltraAlt

[UltraAlt]

On 7/20/2022 at 2:22 AM, Zepp said:

As per my prior post. I generally check the toon on a daily basis, however if I go abroad for research and then some emergency occurs and I am away for more than a month, that is the issue. Thirty days is somewhat reasonable in most situations, however there are certain circumstances that may make it unreasonable.

 

 

I guess  you need to level them up to 6 in case of a 31 day emergency .... if you think that is likely.

 

[UltraAlt]

1 hour ago, aethereal said:

(and emergencies where you actually can't log in to a computer once in 30 days are rare as hen's teeth)

 

Back during the late 2000/early 2010's Recession when I couldn't find decent employment due to deciding to change jobs at absolutely the wrong time, I came to a point where my computer said it was find to upgrade to Windows 10 both by Toshiba and by Microsoft. After three times of installing Windows 10, Windows 10 crashing completely, reinstalling Windows 8, reinstalling Windows 8.1, and reinstalling Windows again both Toshiba and Microsoft posted that my computer was not compatible with Windows 10.

I had to reinstall Windows 8 and reinstall Windows 8.1 another 3 or 4 times. I had to replace the hard drive and reinstall again in order to get the computer working, by that time the process had somehow damaged my graphics card so I could no longer play the game that I was playing at the time. It took me like 6 months to save up enough money to get a computer so I could play the game again. Ended up playing some other less graphic intensive games in the meantime.

So yeah, I have been there, but I try to log my characters up to 20 most of the time before they go into rotation. I do have a handful that are sub 20, but, hey, I'm an Altoholic.

I play the 100+ characters I have as  I have a whim for it.

 

Some of my sub 20's at this point are for my Origin Quest project.

... and it's getting to a slogging phase even around level 10 for those 5 characters, but It wouldn't have been a hassle to log that handful (well maybe 2 handfuls) of characters that I have that are sub 20, and I may have leveled some of them up to 20 to avoid the hassle when that was still the base for 365 days.

 

Is it name squatting to make some many characters?

I don't think so. we have 1000 slots.

I'm not putting my name on a character just to seize control of the name. I'm making characters that I play when I get the whim or if they are in rotation.

Some characters get more play than others because I often get on a project with a friend and stick with a character from level 1 to level 50.

At level 50 is when my characters go into the storage closet, but level 50's always get to keep their names. Somehow that is ironic to me.

[Jedediah]

Posting to show my support for this change, and to argue that the original time frames make much more sense.  

 

This change encourages the creation of new heroes and likely increases the amount of people who will be actively playing the game, which is one of the most important goals for any change.  I liked the original time frame for the warnings, because as others have pointed out getting to level 6 can take about 15 minutes, leaving name hoarders an easy way to effectively lock down a name for a year in exchange for a minute or two of time to login.

 

I know a lot of people in this thread are frustrated by this potential change, and while many of them argue for their point quite well I suspect that they are the loud minority in this case. Since they see themselves as the ones being the most affected they are also the loudest about the change.

[Ironblade]

20 hours ago, lemming said:

I was just over on Beta and noted that if I delete a character, I couldn't reuse the name right away.   I did a variation, then after I logged it off, was able to rename to the old one.   I'm guessing a five minute cool off?   On the other hand, you can rename a character to something and create a new char with the old name immediately.

I've seen this on live, also.  I think there might be some sort of internal clean-up routine that frees up the name but it's on some kind of cycle, once a minute or something.

[ForeverLaxx]

2 hours ago, Jedediah said:

Since they see themselves as the ones being the most affected they are also the loudest about the change

Imagine that. The people who will be affected by a change are voicing their concerns while those who aren't either don't care or are dismissive regarding those concerns. I fail to see how the former is a problem but the latter should be applauded.

 

In any case, all this worry about "name campers" is silly. You're not getting a list of released names so it's not like you'll even know that the name you wanted is available in the first place. And, just like on Live, the kinds of names going up for release, or at least the vast majority of the released names, are going to be unwanted names from the start as they exist for reasons that aren't "name hoarding." Even the number given by a GM is but a small fraction of the names that would have released on Live when this initiative was ran twice, and it was so unsuccessful in curbing the "name camper" claim they never bothered to run it after that.

 

To me, all this name gnashing just seems like wasted effort. They'll run the program, you won't get your name, and you'll still be annoyed. All we're doing is adding enforced upkeep to the playerbase. I knew it was coming, but it's still annoying. At least when I was playing on Live, a paid subscription guaranteed my names were free from being ripped out of my hands, but if the kinds of names I see people demanding be freed are anything to go by, I don't think any of my names are in danger to begin with.

Edited July 22, 2022 by ForeverLaxx

[Jedediah]

25 minutes ago, ForeverLaxx said:

In any case, all this worry about "name campers" is silly. You're not getting a list of released names so it's not like you'll even know that the name you wanted is available in the first place.

 

I am not looking to collect new names, as I said in my last post I believe that the biggest effect will be to see new characters created by both new and old players.  New characters usually means more active players and that is the ultimate potential good of this change.

 

Yes I do worry that this thread is making it seem like more people oppose this change then actually do.  People who are pro this change mostly don't feel the need to post in the focused feedback thread because they have no feedback beyond, "sounds good". While those who oppose it post and reply and end up taking up the whole conversation.

[Zepp]

Just to clarify, as a practice, I log into all my characters on the first of every month. so even for toons waiting to be leveled, the risk of losing them is minimal. But, as UltraAlt pointed out, emergencies do happen. My only real concern is my banking toon, who has a good name and is known among enough players that someone poaching his name would be painful. If this change goes into effect as is, I will likely level him through Exploration Badges (hopefully there are enough to get to level 6). That being said, I think that the concerns of players who play characters but keep them at level 5 or lower for whatever reason are legitimate. Frankly, whether the majority agrees with this change or nay is not my concern. I am hoping that minor adjustments can be made to make sure this change is fair for all players and takes into consideration the possibility of emergency situations arising.

My other issue is, if the current model is basically taken, could the number of days at least be changed to 30 days warning, 37 days inactive in order to allow logging in only once a month with some leeway rather than having to login twice some months?

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, Zepp said:

Just to clarify, as a practice, I log into all my characters on the first of every month.

 

How many characters is that?

Stating that show perspective.

[Zepp]

3 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

How many characters is that?

Stating that show perspective.

currently 47, although I am considering a cull

 

Edit: I generally play at least ten of them during the month, but they get the log-in, Inner Inspiration, post Inspirations on the Auction House, QuitToCharacterSelect treatment as well.
17 are currently below level 6, they are either earning enough (through various marketing practices) to buy the starter kit (Mystic Fortune, Secondary Mutation, Inner Inspiration, Return to Battle, Reveal, Portable Workbench, 1k Enhancement Converters, Full set of Enhancements, and 1bil influence). Others I am considering whether to reroll or nay. But they are all on the list.

Edited July 23, 2022 by Zepp

[UltraAlt]

6 minutes ago, Zepp said:

currently 47, although I am considering a cull

 

I have over 128 at this point.

I don't power-level.

I only have like 2 or 3 50s at this point.

This policy will have little to no impact on me.

 

If they would have kept the 2nd tier to level 20-?, the only impact would have been that I would likely level up some of my sub 20s.

I keep some sub 20's to lead DFBs for new characters. I kind of feel a bit weird about leading them with a character that is over 20, but I know that it is good for the game to support low level characters (regardless of them being new players or not).

 

I really don't do enough low level mission team leading. I need to get better at that.

[Zepp]

9 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I have over 128 at this point.

I don't power-level.

I only have like 2 or 3 50s at this point.

This policy will have little to no impact on me.

 

If they would have kept the 2nd tier to level 20-?, the only impact would have been that I would likely level up some of my sub 20s.

I keep some sub 20's to lead DFBs for new characters. I kind of feel a bit weird about leading them with a character that is over 20, but I know that it is good for the game to support low level characters (regardless of them being new players or not).

 

I really don't do enough low level mission team leading. I need to get better at that.

I don't power level either, I just got my tenth lvl 50 recently and am going back to make sure all my lvl 50 toons have the 4 stat-boosting Accolades. I have a bio and Mids build for every character as well.

 

The two impacts it will have on me are my toon working on his sixth billion without gaining any XP (if there is an emergency and I can't be at the computer for a month), and that I will have to adjust my login schedule rather than simply doing it at the beginning of the month.

Edited July 23, 2022 by Zepp

[Ironblade]

14 hours ago, Zepp said:

I will likely level him through Exploration Badges (hopefully there are enough to get to level 6).

There are 54 zones with the full 8 exploration badges, plus a handful with just one.

[Ghost]

There is no way to make every last person happy with any change.

If the only people who have a legit gripe are the RPers who keep their toons under 5 - the question has to be asked.  How many are there?

If they make up a tiny percentage of the playing population, well all I can really say is sorry, but it is what it is.  Do we really want to hold up something good to appease an insignificant number of players?

 

As has been stated earlier - Simply attempting to rename a character will reset the timer.  I did this on all 40 of my toons and it took less than 5 minutes.  
Worst case scenarios, it will take someone with 400 toons around an hour in total.

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Ghost

[Zepp]

3 hours ago, Ironblade said:

There are 54 zones with the full 8 exploration badges, plus a handful with just one.

Found an issue with this plan... You can not earn XP from Exploration badges until you are level 2

[Ghost]

1 hour ago, Zepp said:

Found an issue with this plan... You can not earn XP from Exploration badges until you are level 2

I can PL you to 2 in AE if you like 🙂

[lemming]

2 hours ago, Ghost said:

As has been stated earlier - Simply attempting to rename a character will reset the timer.  I did this on all 40 of my toons and it took less than 5 minutes.  

Worst case scenarios, it will take someone with 400 toons around an hour in total.

That will no longer be an option.  (It's explained somewhere in the thread why that won't work, but that's the behavior now on Beta.  Something with promoting/demoting in a SG and a couple other bits that mess with it)

[Ghost]

7 minutes ago, lemming said:

That will no longer be an option.  (It's explained somewhere in the thread why that won't work, but that's the behavior now on Beta.  Something with promoting/demoting in a SG and a couple other bits that mess with it)

Gotcha - thanks for passing that bit of info on.

[Zepp]

39 minutes ago, Ghost said:

I can PL you to 2 in AE if you like 🙂

I found a workaround (although it will take some time) that allows me to level without killing random people or being an accomplice to the killing of random people... (clicky-only AE arcs offer no XP to lvl 1 toons as well, btw)

Still, it will be strange to have my eternally level 1 character not being level 1...

[UltraAlt]

22 hours ago, Zepp said:

I have a bio and Mids build for every character as well.

 

I have a bio for a character before they enter THE CITY.

Heck, I have a bio for a character planned out even before I start making character.

As for Mids, that isn't happening. Each of my characters is unique and I really have to have done something wrong to respec. I think I have repec'd less than 5 times since I've been back in THE CITY. I figure if something was a little off, that's just part how that character developed.

 

22 hours ago, Zepp said:

The two impacts it will have on me are my toon working on his sixth billion without gaining any XP (if there is an emergency and I can't be at the computer for a month), and that I will have to adjust my login schedule rather than simply doing it at the beginning of the month.

 

If the name of the character is unique enough, you won't have to bother to make sure to log at any rate.

It doesn't remove the name, it just lets those creating new characters get the name if it is on on their hot picks list or someone randoms it.

[Zepp]

1 hour ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I have a bio for a character before they enter THE CITY.

Heck, I have a bio for a character planned out even before I start making character.

As for Mids, that isn't happening. Each of my characters is unique and I really have to have done something wrong to respec. I think I have repec'd less than 5 times since I've been back in THE CITY. I figure if something was a little off, that's just part how that character developed.

 

 

If the name of the character is unique enough, you won't have to bother to make sure to log at any rate.

It doesn't remove the name, it just lets those creating new characters get the name if it is on on their hot picks list or someone randoms it.

I have bios for characters that I decided not to make. I also make a Mids before hitting the character creator, that way I don't have to respec. Most of my characters names were available on the first try, so I am not too worried. I know how the system is intended to work. I just have concerns about whether the risk of harm to a certain portion of the player base has been considered when looking at the potential benefit (which, to be frank, is actually quite small).

[Ghost]

5 hours ago, Zepp said:

I have bios for characters that I decided not to make. I also make a Mids before hitting the character creator, that way I don't have to respec. Most of my characters names were available on the first try, so I am not too worried. I know how the system is intended to work. I just have concerns about whether the risk of harm to a certain portion of the player base has been considered when looking at the potential benefit (which, to be frank, is actually quite small).

It is impossible to make every last person happy whenever there is a change.

The potential benefit may be small to you, but it may be huge to someone else.   
 

 

[Andreah]

If a player puts this much work into developing their characters, they can spend the time to level up to 6 and then spend thirty seconds once a year ensuring the character's name will never be tagged available.