Guild Wars 2

It is honestly absurd that you haven’t already. People die. People quit. Nearly every AAA mmo wiped names after a year or two from totally-inactives. NCSoft actually does this and they are your publisher…

Give them a month or two advance email notice. If they still fail to log, wipe their names.

I’ve been tracking 50 people who I want to buy names from, and none of them log in. The (very) few who actually logged in once or twice would not take any amount of gold to release the names.

It also goes without saying that permbanned accs (hacking, etc) should have their names lost.

No.

This game was sold as pay once and come and go as you like. In some cases those names were reserved for years through a GW1 system. They effectively bought those names for use when and as they see fit.

I agree with you about permabanned accounts though.

It is honestly absurd that you haven’t already. People die. People quit. Nearly every AAA mmo wiped names after a year or two from totally-inactives. NCSoft actually does this and they are your publisher…
ANet wants people to be able to come and go as they wish. That is one of their big selling points. Logging in to see names that were carefully chosen removed and given to someone else is a major inducement to log back out.

Give them a month or two advance email notice. If they still fail to log, wipe their names.
Does this include people who are in the Armed Forces and can’t play or people who are ill and can’t play but will return later if and when they can?

I’ve been tracking 50 people who I want to buy names from, and none of them log in. The (very) few who actually logged in once or twice would not take any amount of gold to release the names.
Which tells you how much people value those names and how angry people would get if this suggestion were actually implemented.

It also goes without saying that permbanned accs (hacking, etc) should have their names lost.
The permanent loss of those names is part of the punishment to those accounts.

tl:dr
Be more creative. If someone else has the name you want then try harder.

From Gaile:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Requesting-a-Taken-Name/first#post4248872

Gaile Gray.6029:

We do not take character or display or guild names away from valid accounts. Someone may step away and return to the game later, so the names must stay in place.

Lol you actually Stalked other account names because you couldn’t come up with a name yourself ? I had cancer last year and took a break for a year for recovery . I sure wouldn’t like it if anet simply wiped m characters names because of people like you who can’t come up with a “good” name . Be creative and come up with something else . No one else should have their names taken away because you couldn’t make the effort to create one you like .

And what if they’re dead and have been inactive for 3 years?

I have taken seveal accounts worth of names on mmos I have zero intention of playing.

You can’t beat logic, letting dead accounts keep names is pandering to the wrong crowd entirely and makes no sense.

There is little excuse after a year, no excuse after two years of inactivity.
Also, we can’t diversify names much, even accented names are taken.

You’re also forgeting that names are shared by ALL SERVERS including EU, WHICH IS INCREDIBLY BAD. Most mmos, that wipe names, do NOT share names across a population this large… and still wipe names.

Toxicity only uses 3-6 letter names that are not accented.

Just wanted to add, people play on ‘invisible’ mode for peace and quite, work unsociable shifts, play on different time zones, basically life happens.

If a name is taken try and be flexible and use variations, alt codes etc, we cant all have what we specifically want in life, but it can be close.

JustinFarfan.6840:

Lol you actually Stalked other account names because you couldn’t come up with a name yourself ?

As I said, he only uses 3-6 letter unaccented names. He has been offering gold stacks, precursors, and probably full legendaries.

A legendary skin is like $300-400…

xuse.6817:

And what if they’re dead and have been inactive for 3 years?

I have taken seveal accounts worth of names on mmos I have zero intention of playing.

You can’t beat logic, letting dead accounts keep names is pandering to the wrong crowd entirely and makes no sense.

There is little excuse after a year, no excuse after two years of inactivity.
Also, we can’t diversify names much, even accented names are taken.

You’re also forgeting that names are shared by ALL SERVERS including EU, WHICH IS INCREDIBLY BAD. Most mmos, that wipe names, do NOT share names across a population this large… and still wipe names.

Toxicity only uses 3-6 letter names that are not accented.

What proof do you have that they are dead and not just taking a break?

This game was advertised as one that you could stop playing and then return and pick up right where you left off with nothing lost. If your name is changed, then you’ve lost something.

I’ve seen posts on the forums where people say, I’ve been gone for a year or I’ve been gone since shortly after launch (almost 3 years). Obviously people are coming and going after long absences and to punish them for not logging by taking their names away is against ANet’s policy of, come and go as you want. Your account will still be there and all you need to do is log in and start playing.

Yeah, considering the number of “Playing again after a two year break” posts we see in various sections of the forums (as well as in map chat in-game), I think it’d be a bad move on Anet’s part to start doing name wipes. And, as was already quoted above, they don’t plan to start doing such a thing because they want players to be able to come back and play, even if they decide to take a break for a while.

You won’t be saying that in 5 years when even FULLY accented names are gone and a higher percentage of the “inactives” are “dead irl”.

It was an unreasonable promise to make, and keeping names cycling is a good thing. Your account, skins etc are still there. If you wish to keep your name the least you can do is log in once per year to show you aren’t dead.

Many new players will see name creation takes 6+ hours and not even bother to play – possibly even demand refunds.

xuse.6817:

JustinFarfan.6840:

Lol you actually Stalked other account names because you couldn’t come up with a name yourself ?

As I said, he only uses 3-6 letter unaccented names. He has been offering gold stacks, precursors, and probably full legendaries.

A legendary skin is like $300-400…

Hmm, Ive yet to see a legendary worth more than $0.

Perhaps he should consider just offering $300-$400?

If someone wanted me to give up a character name Ive been using since 2005, specifically made a point to reserve for GW2, and for which I would have to either delete the character or purchase a name change, I would want more than what you describe him as offering too.

Gold I can get. If you are going to offer something that I can get by playing the game it had better be a lot of it. If someone wanted my main’s name I might be willing to part with it for 100k gold.

Toxicity.5392:

I’ve been tracking 50 people who I want to buy names from, and none of them log in. The (very) few who actually logged in once or twice would not take any amount of gold to release the names.

You’ve stalked FIFTY people???

I’m just imagining…
Wolverine
Wolverine Is The Best
Wolverine Is My Fav
X Wolverine X
Wolverine Logan
Wolveryne
Wooolverine
Wolverines Friend
Girl Wolverine

I currently have 14 characters on my main account and five on my second account. No problems coming up with names for them. And who knows where the game will be in 5 years? Arbitrarily freaking out about a Doomed Future With NO NEW NAMES is silly.

It’s not an unreasonable promise to make, and it’s a good way to actually keep players coming back to their accounts.

ASP.8093:

Toxicity.5392:

I’ve been tracking 50 people who I want to buy names from, and none of them log in. The (very) few who actually logged in once or twice would not take any amount of gold to release the names.

You’ve stalked FIFTY people???

I’m just imagining…
Wolverine
Wolverine Is The Best
Wolverine Is My Fav
X Wolverine X
Wolverine Logan
Wolveryne
Wooolverine
Wolverines Friend
Girl Wolverine

you forgot the xXx variants. :P

That being said while people who haven’t played for a whatever amount of time shouldn’t be considered a dead account. Ones from old trial accounts that haven’t been touched probably should. I think there are also other things that will cause an account to be permanently terminated such as doing a charge back on your credit card. On the other hand I doubt there is a significant number of those.

xuse.6817:

You won’t be saying that in 5 years when even FULLY accented names are gone and a higher percentage of the “inactives” are “dead irl”.

It was an unreasonable promise to make, and keeping names cycling is a good thing. Your account, skins etc are still there. If you wish to keep your name the least you can do is log in once per year to show you aren’t dead.

Nope.

I use things that I buy how and when I want to. I dont need to prove anything to anyone regarding how I use my purchases.

Feel free to cough up a sufficiently enticing offer and we will talk. You mentioned $300-$400 so we can start there.

Maybe they should start allowing Chinese, cyrilic, japanese fonts for speech and names then by your logic.

It is not difficult to log in once every year or two to keep your names.

Speding real money for in game items from other players is RMT and against the TOS. So the type of people defending this rule advocate violating the TOS. Nice.

It’s not too difficult to think of more original names, either. Or to use one of the (pretty good) name generators out there. There are even ones themed to the different races.

Answer to the opening post: No. Absolutely not.

Tera did something similar (adding _1 to names of characters that had been inactive for a year, except they also did it to inactive characters that hadn’t been around for a year anyways), and even that felt like a jerk move to pull.

And, seeing as you have no way to tell when people die/quit for good, this reads off as something that could, and would, be abused.

So, no. Just because you feel like stealing other names is not a good reason to suggest something like this.

You want peoples character names to be taken away from them because you can’t be more creative with your names, basically.
No. People take long breaks, and life happens, people should be able to log in to what they had, without the possibility of there being a notification that their name was purged for someone else to use, and have to choose new names.
Not going to happen.

I’m 100% against this, there is no reason to wipe names from users who are in good standing. People take breaks and come back, they should have their names still there when they return. Why should you be entitled to TAKE a name away from a player just because they haven’t logged in?

The most interesting part about this… Lets say A-net did wipe some of them, do you think you would get the name first? What if someone else got it… You’re right back were you started. The only difference is: a player that got the name in the first place had it taken form them (which is just plain wrong).

As far as the whole name sale thing, I agree with Ashen. A character name could be worth quite a bit more then what you are talking about being offered. ^^; Maybe multiple legendary weapons and we might be able to have a talk xD

2 years without logging in at all and then after a 1 month notice that you need to log in, and then still not logging in, is not a “break”.

You would have no excuse in that scenario and I’m not even sure why/how you think you can defend that. Everyone in my skype room agrees with me.

xuse.6817:

Everyone in my skype room agrees with me.

And (almost) everyone in this thread disagrees with you.

xuse.6817:

2 years without logging in at all and then after a 1 month notice that you need to log in, and then still not logging in, is not a “break”.

You would have no excuse in that scenario and I’m not even sure why/how you think you can defend that. Everyone in my skype room agrees with me.

Just because some entitled uncreative person wants my name, is absolutely NO reason that I should HAVE to log in to keep it. If I take a 2.5 year break and come back, that’s my business. I don’t need a “excuse” life happens, deal with it.

xuse.6817:

2 years without logging in at all and then after a 1 month notice that you need to log in, and then still not logging in, is not a “break”.

You would have no excuse in that scenario and I’m not even sure why/how you think you can defend that. Everyone in my skype room agrees with me.

No excuse is needed as the name is theirs to use when they see fit.

Death also happens, and it makes no sense to let 1,000 dead people sit on 8,000 names. (or more)

Even if you took a break nothing is stopping you from logging in once, at all.

And yet not a single person here that owns the game does.

Toxicity.5392:

It is honestly absurd that you haven’t already. People die. People quit. Nearly every AAA mmo wiped names after a year or two from totally-inactives. NCSoft actually does this and they are your publisher…

Give them a month or two advance email notice. If they still fail to log, wipe their names.

I’ve been tracking 50 people who I want to buy names from, and none of them log in. The (very) few who actually logged in once or twice would not take any amount of gold to release the names.

It also goes without saying that permbanned accs (hacking, etc) should have their names lost.

I took a 14 month break. I’d have been super kittened off if my names were gone and would have left on the spot.

I also guarantee you there is a fairly large portion of the players that feel the same as I do on this subject.

xuse.6817:

Death also happens, and it makes no sense to let 1,000 dead people sit on 8,000 names. (or more)

Even if you took a break nothing is stopping you from logging in once, at all.

So someone passes away and your biggest concern is taking their in game name, that’s real nice :/

There’s no reason I should have to log in even once if i am taking a break, no matter how long.

They have probably the best naming system in any game. I just picked a surname and used all my favorite character names with that surname.

Though, I suppose Legolas Lipschitz doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

xuse.6817:

Death also happens, and it makes no sense to let 1,000 dead people sit on 8,000 names. (or more)

Even if you took a break nothing is stopping you from logging in once, at all.

Sure there is something that can be stopping someone from logging in during any given period:

Desire to do so during that period.

The name is theirs to use or not when they see fit.

Asking the authorities to strip someone else of their posessions, “because I want it,” is horrible.

notebene.3190:

Though, I suppose Legolas Lipschitz doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

That name is now in my top 10 favorite names ever.

Everyone seems to think that because some games purge after 1-2 years, Guild Wars 2 needs to aswell.
I think even World Of Warcraft only purged after 7 years, and it wasn’t an automated one. And they had less names choices because having a space was not an option.

It’s all boiling down to people not being creative anymore, and wanting everything because.

RoseofGilead.8907:

xuse.6817:

Everyone in my skype room agrees with me.

And (almost) everyone in this thread disagrees with you.

I’d like to join the thread to say that I too disagree with this. It’s not unreasonable to expect an MMO to keep your character name if you take a break. Most MMOs that ice played will do so indefinitely. Acting like it’s somehow taking away from your game is absurd. As is asking someone to give up a name for you.

Also (to xuse) perhaps they agree with you or perhaps they’re showing solidarity with you or maybe they just want you to stop talking about it.

xuse.6817:

Toxicity only uses 3-6 letter names that are not accented.

Perhaps Toxicity should be less picky and try a 7 letter name..?

xuse.6817:

You won’t be saying that in 5 years when even FULLY accented names are gone and a higher percentage of the “inactives” are “dead irl”.

Many new players will see name creation takes 6+ hours and not even bother to play – possibly even demand refunds.

It isn’t that hard to come up with a name. Seriously. The only people what have trouble finding names are the people ripping names from other things such as tv-shows and books. Or are using extremely common words or proper names when making their character.

I can see it now…
Harry Potter, taken.
Eddard Stark, taken.
Spongebob Squarepants, taken.
Ugh, I can’t find a name! I want a refund! Waaah!

xuse.6817:

Everyone in my skype room agrees with me.

Whoa! That’s really impressive!!

That would be a nice way to be treated if you were a vet on a long time break.

Returning to your beloved GW2 to find you are named UntitledNonamewhoami

Kross.6428:

xuse.6817:

Toxicity only uses 3-6 letter names that are not accented.

Perhaps Toxicity should be less picky and try a 7 letter name..?

I just made a new sylvari mesmer named “Kindzi” 6 letters in the exact order I wanted, no special characters. So even 6 letter names with no special characters are still available ^^;. But yes I agree Toxicity might want to expand to a 7 letter names, it would open up the range of choices dramatically.

One of the long time (from Guild Wars 1) friends I know is ill now and hasn’t been able to play for a long time. Maybe she never will be able to play again. If she does get better and starts playing again, then what a blow to see her chars standing there nameless, just because someone else can’t take the time and effort needed to be a little creative.

As to the permabanned losing their names, that was explained the last time this idea came up (because believe, me, it has come up quite a few times) as being undesirable because the banned people might make a new account and get their old names back, or new people might use them and get shunned because everyone thinks it’s the bad person.

Even one word names are still entirely possible to come up with. With spaces and the ability to add surnames, prefixes, and titles before or after the name, there are still plenty of lore-appropriate ones left.

I would however support adding in the ability to use just one apostrophe somewhere in the name. That would stretch out the potential name lists quite a bit, albeit at the cost of making some easily confused names. If Je’han is a wonderful person and Jeh’an a complete git, you might mix them up in Map chat

Toxicity.5392:

It is honestly absurd that you haven’t already. People die. People quit. Nearly every AAA mmo wiped names after a year or two from totally-inactives. NCSoft actually does this and they are your publisher…

Give them a month or two advance email notice. If they still fail to log, wipe their names.

I’ve been tracking 50 people who I want to buy names from, and none of them log in. The (very) few who actually logged in once or twice would not take any amount of gold to release the names.

It also goes without saying that permbanned accs (hacking, etc) should have their names lost.

No. Gale said it’s not going to happen, deal with it. As others have said be more creative.

No.

I have quit another subscription based MMO before when I came back after a break and found that one of my characters was renamed because the account was inactive for too long and someone else claimed the name somehow.

xuse.6817:

You won’t be saying that in 5 years when even FULLY accented names are gone and a higher percentage of the “inactives” are “dead irl”.

GW1 has such cases, and there are still plenty of names available to use.

Your attempts of scare tactics fail. And the OP’s posts showing him stalking accounts shows nothing but creepiness.

Those who have their characters’ names changed do not like it when they come back, and GW2 has – as stated – been built upon the principle of being able to return when you want without any hindrance to your account.

It’s something ArenaNet has addressed and said they wouldn’t do. This has been their stance for 10 years – one of the very, very few things that haven’t changed from the earlier days of GW1 (let alone the days of GW2’s launch/development).

It’s not happening, and the forum and GW2 subreddit having constant flows of returning player threats shows that the need for Anet to keep their stance remains unchanged.

Anet has no real way to determine when a player dies, and whether or not that player gave their account to someone else who may or may not play the game before death even if they do. And furthermore, if they do find out about someone’s death they may decide to keep the name as posterity of the person – as such cases where Anet finds out about a players’ death is usually one where the player was active in the community.

It isn’t going to happen, I suggest you drop it.

Borsook says:

“if your name is so original why do you mind if your char is renamed? nobody will take it so you can claim it back, since it’s original right?”
wtf are you afraid of then
oh wait
it’s just people who started when game opened, took all the good names
and now sit on them thinking it’s ok

Ironically, Toxic and I do the same thing… take names and sit on them even if we have no intention to play kek

xuse.6817:

Borsook says:

“if your name is so original why do you mind if your char is renamed? nobody will take it so you can claim it back, since it’s original right?”
wtf are you afraid of then
oh wait
it’s just people who started when game opened, took all the good names
and now sit on them thinking it’s ok

Ironically, Toxic and I do the same thing… take names and sit on them even if we have no intention to play kek

If the name you’ve chosen is so unoriginal that someone thought of it 3 years ago at launch, then you aren’t trying very hard to get a name that truly is unique and meaningful to your char.

Try harder.

Kek.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

One of the long time (from Guild Wars 1) friends I know is ill now and hasn’t been able to play for a long time. Maybe she never will be able to play again. If she does get better and starts playing again, then what a blow to see her chars standing there nameless, just because someone else can’t take the time and effort needed to be a little creative.

And if she, god forbid, doesn’t? If arena.net did take away names, imagine what a blow it would be to people like the above quoted to randomly run in to some 13 year old punk using a departed friend or loved ones name to spew obscenities in to map chat. I’ve been in guilds that lost members in the past irl, and I can imagine how upset a guild member would be in that scenario, much less a real life friend or family member. So, no, flip blind through a book and stab words at random, use a random name generator, and get over yourself.

xuse.6817:

it’s just people who started when game opened, took all the good names
and now sit on them thinking it’s ok

The bit that you don’t seem to get is that it is OK. You wanting someone else’s name doesn’t change that. ArenaNet have said that it’s OK. In fact they even let us reserve our GW1 names in GW2 for three months.

Why should I have to even be concerned about someone TAKING my name from me? No matter how original or not, I got the name to use for my character. If you want a name for your character I suggest you log in and get it when/if it’s available.

Got a name you like, sit on it. There is nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is the idea that you can take a name from someone else just because they are taking a break.

Out of morbid curiosity what names are you guys trying to get?

Flawed logic: There is a low character limit on names and there are only a few alt codes that work.
Other language font names do not work or display in the game. Names are limited and it’s reaching the point where even name generators are failing.

Nobody would take your name unless you are never logging in for years straight and fail to act upon an advance notice that you are inactive.

I would concede defeat if they implement unicode and allow other language names plus symbols. We know that ain’t gonna happen, either, LOL

I think the OP and xuse need to stop acting like special snowflakes. You are not entitled to other peoples’ character names because you were three years late to the party or have the imagination of a rock.

Deal with it.