Name database - Will this get cleaned up?

[nzer]

2 minutes ago, Luminara said:

You said that even if people know they have to log in before X period, they're going to forget or just not do it, and they'll lose names.  You've said that multiple times, so I don't need to quote it.

 

Now you say that people are not going to forget and constantly log in on time to camp names so they won't lose them.

 

Those statements are not in any way contradictory. It is entirely possible for someone to start camping names when they read about the name release policy, then eventually stop, forget about the policy or just stop thinking about it, and then get hit by it after taking a short break from the game. We're talking about people here, not robots.

 

And if your problem here is that the "everyone" in your previous comment was meant literally, again, please stop with the pedantry. I said people will start camping names, not literally everyone. It is entirely possible for some people to start camping names while other people read the policy, ignore it, and forget about it, and while other other people don't learn about the policy at all.

 

9 minutes ago, Luminara said:

I know the GM would ascertain the full situation, make a judgement call, reach out to the player who had the name if he/she felt it was warranted and try to find a resolution satisfactory to both parties.

 

This is a meaningless platitude. Unless the character was named after their recently deceased grandmother, or something, there is zero chance a GM takes a name away from its new owner after who knows how many weeks or months and gives it back to a player who lost it due to this policy.

 

In fact, that exact scenario is in direct opposition to what basically all the proponents of this policy are saying in this thread, which is that the policy is A-OK because if someone doesn't log into a character for a full year they clearly weren't using it and deserve to lose the name.

 

15 minutes ago, Luminara said:

So the people who never come back don't have names locked away...

 

But if they do come back, sorry to anyone who claimed those names, because they actually still belong to their original owners and will be given back? Do you hear what you're saying right now?

[PeregrineFalcon]

21 minutes ago, Luminara said:

I know the GM would ascertain the full situation, make a judgement call, reach out to the player who had the name if he/she felt it was warranted and try to find a resolution satisfactory to both parties.

I wonder how many players would voluntarily give up a name if contacted by a GM.

 

How many of you in this thread would?

[Oubliette_Red]

1 hour ago, nzer said:

 

I mean I don't know how you would expect me to explain it. I can't put years of professional software development experience, decades on forums for numerous games, and constant interaction with gamers of various stripes throughout my life into a forum post.

 

You'd do it for Randolph Scott.

 

[lemming]

2 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I wonder how many players would voluntarily give up a name if contacted by a GM.

 

How many of you in this thread would?

Assuming this would be on the names that were freed up by this policy, and I grabbed one that was held by someone that was away.

There are two names I'd be petulant about giving up.   I suspect they are in the limbo state since I did email the owners back in 2019 with zip response.

 

Most of the others on characters I would change to the preferred version, I would switch back.  If I got around to changing in the first place.  Most are fine as is.

[Coyotedancer]

3 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I wonder how many players would voluntarily give up a name if contacted by a GM.

 

How many of you in this thread would?

 

In all honesty? It would depend on the name... A favorite? No way in hell. They'd have to force that point with me. 

 

A member of the gang I wasn't so attached to? Maybe. I wouldn't exactly be happy about it, but if there was a compelling reason the other player needed it (It once belonged to their main and absolute favorite, for instance-), I could probably be convinced. 

[Ael]

4 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I wonder how many players would voluntarily give up a name if contacted by a GM.

 

How many of you in this thread would?

It depends on the name. If it's a favorite, yeah, that won't be happening. A toon that I'm not really attached to, however, probably. It depends. Is it a name that I'm still super chuffed with, and I have plans for the character, for the not-so-distant future, or is it something that's barely into the double digits and I haven't touched it in more than a year? If it's the former, I'll probably still hang onto it, but if it's the latter, I likely won't mind giving it up in lieu of something else. I've given up names a time or two before.

[GM Crumpet]

The thing with live was people were restricted on how many names they could have and so a name release policy wouldn't really have too much impact. We now have 1000 slots and unlimited accounts. I have seen accounts with 300 and 400 level 1's that are just name camping. They are never going to be used. The chances of an individual name being released is small on it's own, but cumulatively when there are just so many sitting idle the effects can be huge. The solution I suppose is to rename them all really badly so nobody would try for that spelling 🙂 

[Excraft]

5 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

I have seen accounts with 300 and 400 level 1's that are just name camping. They are never going to be used.

 

Would you happen to know how many accounts with 300 and 400 level 1's are there in relation to the total number of accounts?  I would wager it's a very small, fractional percentage, if that.  Also, how are you determining they will "never be used"?  Unless those accounts belong to someone you all know personally who is definitely never coming back, it's still possible someone may use the name, small as a chance as that might be.  I'm not suggesting this policy get changed or removed.  I'm just curious about the stats as I think it important and more data provides more clarity.  Thanks.

[Mopery]

I was fortunate enough to grab a good number of desirable names when HC first launched, and on at least one occasion have been mistaken for a "famous" player from Live because I had "their" name. The argument could be made that this other player is "more deserving" of that name than I am, although I would dismiss that argument on general principle. Had they loved this game as much as I do, they would have been searching for info during the blip like I was, and would have found out about HC in time to log in and grab that name. They didn't. It's a hard knock life, for them.

 

Commonplace names get taken up quickly in any game, use that grey matter and come up with something original instead. Add a title, or an adjective, maybe even an adverb to a name, and viola! New original Hero/Vigilante/Rogue/Villain/Loyalist/Resistance. Returning players who feel entitled to certain extremely popular and unimaginative names deserve the mental anguish of not getting what they want for once. There is no reason for there to be 15 Ubermans on the same server, all insisting that they're the "original".

[TorontoSunshine]

May I recommend ChatGPT for finding an alternative name? It may be wrong about proper dental care, but wow does it come up with some magnificent monikers!

[Excraft]

2 minutes ago, Mopery said:

There is no reason for there to be 15 Ubermans on the same server

 

Why not?

[TorontoSunshine]

10 minutes ago, Excraft said:

 

Why not?

I ask this question as well. Ubermans (or would this be Ubermen?) are like Okotberfest beer nuts: you can't stop at just one.

Edited February 8 by TorontoSunshine

[Troo]

35 minutes ago, Mopery said:

deserve the mental anguish of not getting what they want for once

 

oh my

which barista failed to deliver a quality product this morning?! 😛

[Water]

31 minutes ago, Mopery said:

I was fortunate enough to grab a good number of desirable names when HC first launched, and on at least one occasion have been mistaken for a "famous" player from Live because I had "their" name. The argument could be made that this other player is "more deserving" of that name than I am, although I would dismiss that argument on general principle. Had they loved this game as much as I do, they would have been searching for info during the blip like I was, and would have found out about HC in time to log in and grab that name. They didn't. It's a hard knock life, for them.

 

 

That's where I am on this argument. The devotee of any game gets the goodies when they first arrive, why should CoH be different. I was here securing my chosen names from the beginning, where were you (latecomer) whilst I've been supporting my game? I don't hoard names either, except for a minimal amount I wish to later develop. It is not unknown even on live that there existed name blockers. Some of those blockers sold names just like internet 1.0 do and have always done due to the non fungibility of names there and here.

 

[Troo]

37 minutes ago, Mopery said:

Returning players who feel entitled to certain extremely popular and unimaginative names deserve the mental anguish of not getting what they want for once. There is no reason for there to be 15 Ubermans on the same server, all insisting that they're the "original".

 

..and +1

[skoryy]

6 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

The thing with live was people were restricted on how many names they could have and so a name release policy wouldn't really have too much impact. We now have 1000 slots and unlimited accounts. I have seen accounts with 300 and 400 level 1's that are just name camping. They are never going to be used. The chances of an individual name being released is small on it's own, but cumulatively when there are just so many sitting idle the effects can be huge. The solution I suppose is to rename them all really badly so nobody would try for that spelling 🙂 

I would think this would be where a mass manual renaming tool would be handy.  Just something for the GM to click all those level 1s and rename them 'No########'.

[ZemX]

13 minutes ago, Water said:

That's where I am on this argument. The devotee of any game gets the goodies when they first arrive, why should CoH be different. I was here securing my chosen names from the beginning, where were you (latecomer) whilst I've been supporting my game? I don't hoard names either, except for a minimal amount I wish to later develop.

 

And the name policy would let you do that easily.  There's really been only a few people clamoring for the name policy to be MORE aggressive than it is.  I think the way it's written now is more than generous and does allow reserving some names without too much trouble.  

 

I'm sure we'd all draw the line somewhat differently but for me, I look at the whole, "reserved for future use" situation like this:  If I'm gonna play that soon?  Great.  If I'm not going to play that for at least a year or more?  I should release it.   The new name policy won't mandate that.  You can absolutely camp names indefinitely if you're willing to actively refresh them.  It's a compromise.  If it were more aggressive than that it would start to sweep up more and more temporarily inactive players and that's not wanted.   But giving people a year to refresh a level 6-49 character is much more reasonable even if it allows determined camping.

 

Does it make it very much more difficult to camp 300 level 1 names though?  Sure does.  And good.  What a tool that person is.  I bet they filled entire closets with toilet paper during the pandemic too.

[Skyhawke]

Every so often, I'll go through the stable and any character below 25 gets the "does this bring me joy" test, especially if they haven't been played in a long time. I, like many of us, will see someone so something, check their info for power selection and make one for myself. Sometimes they become a high level character, sometimes they never hit level 10. Those will get purged even when they have some banger names I can't believe I got.

 

My 50s? No, each one was a journey and I'm attached, even if I rarely play them. My main gets pulled out maybe a couple times a month, but I'm usually playing new projects when I'm on. That being said, I'd never freely offer the name up, even if a new player wanted it to start a new journey. I think that's where most are at: cooperation within reason.

 

Except whoever these people are. Screw them.

7 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

 I have seen accounts with 300 and 400 level 1's that are just name camping. 

 

 

[Excraft]

15 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

Except whoever these people are. Screw them.

 

Why?  For all any of us know, those characters were all named gibberish or something like costumetest001 through costumetest400.

[Skyhawke]

16 minutes ago, Excraft said:

 

Why?  For all any of us know, those characters were all named gibberish or something like costumetest001 through costumetest400.

 

7 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

I have seen accounts with 300 and 400 level 1's that are just name camping. 

 

Do I need to circle the words in crayon?

[nzer]

Regardless of the name policy, blatantly camping 400 names with unplayed level 1s is something that should be actionable. A GM should be able to generic all of those and leave an email saying "please do not do that again, or you will be banned."

 

That's the only thing that will actually prevent dyed-in-the-wool name camping.

[PeregrineFalcon]

8 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

The thing with live was people were restricted on how many names they could have and so a name release policy wouldn't really have too much impact. We now have 1000 slots and unlimited accounts. I have seen accounts with 300 and 400 level 1's that are just name camping. They are never going to be used. The chances of an individual name being released is small on it's own, but cumulatively when there are just so many sitting idle the effects can be huge. The solution I suppose is to rename them all really badly so nobody would try for that spelling 🙂 

 

2 hours ago, Mopery said:

I was fortunate enough to grab a good number of desirable names when HC first launched, and on at least one occasion have been mistaken for a "famous" player from Live because I had "their" name. The argument could be made that this other player is "more deserving" of that name than I am, although I would dismiss that argument on general principle. Had they loved this game as much as I do, they would have been searching for info during the blip like I was, and would have found out about HC in time to log in and grab that name. They didn't. It's a hard knock life, for them.

Thank you both for confirming what I said, years ago, in the last thread where we talked about this name release policy.

 

Just to recap: we have a GM confirming that many accounts have hundreds of unplayed, name-camping, level 1 characters. And, we have a player confirming that he logged on shortly after Homecoming started and made characters with all of the forum names that he could remember from the retail servers in a deliberate effort to keep them from getting the name that people associate with them.

 

Please remember, just as I said before, that these are the people (players, not the GM) that don't want you to be able to take their character names. Not because they're using those characters, but just because they don't want YOU to have those names.

[Excraft]

1 hour ago, Skyhawke said:

Do I need to circle the words in crayon?

 

Sure.  Please circle the words where GM Crumpet spoke to the specific quality of the names.  Maybe I missed it, but all that was said was they saw accounts with 300 and 400 names being camped.  No mention of what any of those names were, gibberish or otherwise.  It also wasn't stated how many accounts there are like that or how large a portion of the total accounts they comprise.  You seem to be the one making assumptions about this, not me. 

[Excraft]

50 minutes ago, nzer said:

Regardless of the name policy, blatantly camping 400 names with unplayed level 1s is something that should be actionable. A GM should be able to generic all of those and leave an email saying "please do not do that again, or you will be banned."

 

While I agree with the sentiment behind what you're saying, this is making an assumption that all of the names are "high quality/desirable".  Unlikely as it might be, someone may have created characters named "test001" through "test1000" or any combination of gibberish letter/number combinations just to try various costume concepts.  I've done that and I know of others who do the same.  We don't have hundreds of characters like that, but it does happen.  I'm not sure banning people for poor houskeeping of gibberish names on unplayed characters is a good idea.

[PeregrineFalcon]

13 minutes ago, Excraft said:

While I agree with the sentiment behind what you're saying, this is making an assumption that all of the names are "high quality/desirable".  Unlikely as it might be, someone may have created characters named "test001" through "test1000" or any combination of gibberish letter/number combinations just to try various costume concepts.  I've done that and I know of others who do the same.  We don't have hundreds of characters like that, but it does happen.  I'm not sure banning people for poor houskeeping of gibberish names on unplayed characters is a good idea.

Your statement here implies that GM Crumpet is a complete idiot. Worse, it makes it apparent that you think we're all idiots, because that's the only way that anyone could agree with this disingenuous post.

 

Now I've had some serious disagreements with the moderators in the past, and I have the warning points to prove it, but I don't believe for a minute that any of the Homecoming GM/Devs/Staff are stupid.

 

I find it far more likely that if GM Crumpet had seen a bunch of accounts with names like Test0001 -> Test 0857 it's highly likely that he they (sorry, didn't mean to assume your gender) wouldn't have said anything because they understand that no one is upset that they can't name their new main Test 0157. People want "cool" names like "Captain Skyway" and "Knight of the Hollows", so it's far more likely that the hundreds of camped names, that they're referring to, are names that fall under the subset of "cool", not utilitarian stuff  like Test 0485.

 

And you know this Excraft. Your entire post is utter disingenuous nonsense. No one is gonna get banned for having 800 variations of Test 0123, no one is getting banned for having a ton of characters named "Bzzrzrzrzrrrk" and "Urmomomoommmmmz" and you know it. In your zeal to win the argument you've gone completely overboard and you're trying to make a point that no one with a 3 digit IQ is going to believe for a second.