Guild Wars 2

ASP.8093:

Shenakitten5792:

19 character limit, 27 characters = 27^19 = 1570042899082081611640534563 = 1 × 10 ^ 27 possible names.

This math is useless, since a random string of characters is not, substantively, a “name.”

(This is not an endorsement of the OP.)

it is, all you need for a name is to be able to enter the game, I’d start entering random characters as soon as I figured out all the regular sounding stuff was unable to be used.

Devildoc.6721:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

“In before the names don’t matter crowd:”

Well obviously the names we chose DO matter to us and we don’t want to lose them just because we stepped away from the game for a year, or three.

I’ve made a couple of names recently. The first one, I chose a short plant name. It was taken. I changed a couple of letters and had a name that went through. Took only 2 or 3 minutes. My second name, the first choice was short and taken. I added another letter then a lore appropriate second name and then it went through. Maybe 2 minutes max.

Names can matter, I mean some people just throw together a name and call it good, others actually put thought into it.. and if they lose that name, a temporary break could quite realistically become a permanent break. I don’t know if I’d stop playing the game entirely after losing a name, but I’d stop playing that character probably.

I’ve had some character names for years, starting from Guild Wars 1 and continuing Guild Wars 2. One of them was my char that I got 50/50 in the HoM with. I never want to lose my chars names I have years of history with them and to lose them because I stopped playing for a while, that would be awful.

Halan.7931:

Miku.6297:

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

Sylvari don’t have surnames.. Getting a lore correct name (something Gaelic or Celtic) is really hard for them.

For Norn, Charr or Human it’s much easier.

Hmm ok, well could you maybe list some examples? And lets be honest… Even if this were to happen (which it shouldn’t) how many people would get “lore” names? How many people here are hoping for “lore” based names vs the list of common names that are taken?

Many one word, 3-8 character names are still available, like I said I just made my new mesmer “Kindzi” last night.

when i pay for this game i also pay to use a character name in the game until i decide that i no longer want to use the name.

so, to OP proposal, no, my character name is mine regardless of how long i stay away from the game.

I’m still mad because someone took “Jake from State Farm” before I could

Miku.6297:

Halan.7931:

Miku.6297:

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

Sylvari don’t have surnames.. Getting a lore correct name (something Gaelic or Celtic) is really hard for them.

For Norn, Charr or Human it’s much easier.

Hmm ok, well could you maybe list some examples? And lets be honest… Even if this were to happen (which it shouldn’t) how many people would get “lore” names? How many people here are hoping for “lore” based names vs the list of common names that are taken?

Many one word, 3-8 character names are still available, like I said I just made my new mesmer “Kindzi” last night.

Not endorsing the wiping of names, but it is pretty hard if you want an authentic Celtic name. I recently made a female sylvari and tried every name from http://www.druidcircle.org/library/index.php?title=Celtic_Female_Names_Glossary to no avail, so I had to settle for something vaguely authentic-sounding but doesn’t actually follow proper naming conventions.

That being said, whether or not other people “get” lore names is unimportant, it’s entirely how you feel about your own character’s name.

I took a page out of GW1 naming with having a first and last name in my charcters. You can come up with some interesting combination and it makes it harder for other player to have them. Granted, a couple times a name is use, but sometimes you can substitute a similar sounding spelling to achieve the same name, like say Sapphire is what you want, try Sappfire, heh.

I saw someone pushing this idea last year. It’s an absolutely terribly idea.

You have a list of 50 names that you want, you can’t get them, but you’re still playing.

The people with those names would be devastated and extremely angry if they lost them and whatever marginal benefit you think you would get is nothing compared to the massive blowback Anet would get from their long term, loyal player base.

It’s way too late to implement a name reclaiming system – if people had known early on that names have to be refreshed or reclaimed every year or so, then fine – people would know that and account for it – but it’s never been that way so to try to do that now would be extremely unfair and inconsistent.

And who would benefit from this?

A hand full of obsessives with the need to wear a short name.

How would Anet benefit? How would the playerbase, as a whole benefit?

They wouldn’t – they would just feel anxious about their names.

The reason most MMO games expire names is because they want you to maintain your subscription. Name loss is there to penalize people who stop paying. It’s not there to help “the community”. The game is not made more healthy by returning good/popular/short names to active use.

This little spray of lava that you’re experiencing is nothing compared to what would happen if they did this.

Look how badly people freaked out over the inclusion of the “free” game when you buy HoT. That was over an imaginary $10 slight. It would be 100X worse if they started name expiring.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Devildoc.6721:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

“In before the names don’t matter crowd:”

Well obviously the names we chose DO matter to us and we don’t want to lose them just because we stepped away from the game for a year, or three.

I’ve made a couple of names recently. The first one, I chose a short plant name. It was taken. I changed a couple of letters and had a name that went through. Took only 2 or 3 minutes. My second name, the first choice was short and taken. I added another letter then a lore appropriate second name and then it went through. Maybe 2 minutes max.

Names can matter, I mean some people just throw together a name and call it good, others actually put thought into it.. and if they lose that name, a temporary break could quite realistically become a permanent break. I don’t know if I’d stop playing the game entirely after losing a name, but I’d stop playing that character probably.

I’ve had some character names for years, starting from Guild Wars 1 and continuing Guild Wars 2. One of them was my char that I got 50/50 in the HoM with. I never want to lose my chars names I have years of history with them and to lose them because I stopped playing for a while, that would be awful.

Absolutely, I can understand, it’s especially bad if you have a reputation on a game or a lot of friends who know you by that name. Now this other dude’s running around with your name and people mistake them for you, and they may trash your reputation. People may think you sold your account, etc.

Toxicity.5392:

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

This is the only part of the post I agree on personally, as someone else stated, it wouldn’t be fair to people who had real life issues come up that foced them to take a break, eg: Cancer.

-no-

Even banned accounts get reinstated if people can prove they were hacked..
With regard to all other purposes… I wouldn’t think it to be fair… I wouldn’t like it if I’d had to leave and see my acount dissapear.

Instead of revoking inactive account character names, easier solution would be actually to modify the character creation screen. Enable a “confirmation” check that the character name is not in use (on the last creation page). That way, players can play around and test ideas without full commitment and end up creating “A Kitten” as their character name.

Xbon.9086:

ASP.8093:

Shenakitten5792:

19 character limit, 27 characters = 27^19 = 1570042899082081611640534563 = 1 × 10 ^ 27 possible names.

This math is useless, since a random string of characters is not, substantively, a “name.”

(This is not an endorsement of the OP.)

it is, all you need for a name is to be able to enter the game, I’d start entering random characters as soon as I figured out all the regular sounding stuff was unable to be used.

In other words, all the Si-Fi/Fantasy names you wanted to use where gone, probably at launch, and you couldn’t think of one by your self?

Sometimes when I’m bored or afk in game, I wander over to the forums to see what new useless discussions are taking place. In 3 years it has never ceased to deliver.
10/10

Miku.6297:

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 ^^;.

Well, that also has proven, that not all names from TV-shows were taken, before you created your character.

However, I found it a little strange to name a tree after an Omec. ^^

xuse.6817:

[…]
Everyone in my skype room agrees with me.

OMG, I’m gonna put this very sentence at the end of every post I’ll ever make on these forums from now on. Great way to increase the validity of all my arguments.
Seriously though, this is so awesome, I admit I had to laugh a little

Also to prove you wrong, I made a random guard for messing around (literally only like lvl15 tops) in pvp like 3 months ago with the name “Counters”, no accents. Clearly all names whether they be original or not aren’t taken.

Akikaze.1307:

Instead of revoking inactive account character names, easier solution would be actually to modify the character creation screen. Enable a “confirmation” check that the character name is not in use (on the last creation page). That way, players can play around and test ideas without full commitment and end up creating “A Kitten” as their character name.

Um, you can just try to whisper the name before creating the character. If you get an error message, the name is available.

xuse.6817:

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

Why? I have yet to run into a problem where i couldn’t use the name i thought of because it was already taken. It just takes a bit of imagination and inventiveness, as well as using names that are longer than 5 letters.

TL/DR
Use longer names, two/three part names, and original names (not based on games/books/movies/comics/anime characters etc) and you will be fine.

xuse.6817:

it’s just people who started when game opened, took all the good names

On the contrary, all the names of my recently made characters were really good. And i didn’t even need to tweak them to be able to use them – they were still free for the taking.

There are two types of reasons people have trouble finding a name that isn’t already taken:

• They hate inventing character names.
• They have imposed a set of requirements that limits the choice of names.

In the first case, the OP’s solution won’t be of much help; they still will hate inventing names. In the second case, I don’t understand why ANet or especially other players need to indulge one player’s personal preference for names.

A very uncomfortable feeling, ‘tracking’ 50 people’s names… wtf?

Anyway, why do so many MMO players use one name? This is Guild Wars, you can use a full name. Just combine two or more words and you shouldn’t have any problems finding one…

Pandaman.4758:

Not endorsing the wiping of names, but it is pretty hard if you want an authentic Celtic name. I recently made a female sylvari and tried every name from http://www.druidcircle.org/library/index.php?title=Celtic_Female_Names_Glossary to no avail, so I had to settle for something vaguely authentic-sounding but doesn’t actually follow proper naming conventions.

That being said, whether or not other people “get” lore names is unimportant, it’s entirely how you feel about your own character’s name.

I’ll repeat what I said above: use a byname or epithet. It’s what people did throughout history to distinguish individuals with the same name.

Easiest way to get your “RP-friendly” sylvari name without compromising.

Devildoc.6721:

Names can matter, I mean some people just throw together a name and call it good, others actually put thought into it.. and if they lose that name, a temporary break could quite realistically become a permanent break. I don’t know if I’d stop playing the game entirely after losing a name, but I’d stop playing that character probably.

I did.

When I played an “other game” I had a very nice name for my char. But then they “merged servers” and I had to rename my char after a year and it never was the same for me. My character lost not only its name but also its identity.

And after they merged servers again and I had to rename again I stopped playing that game not long after that.

So, I was very happy when I came to GW2 that character names are not unique to servers but to the “whole game” and if you have a chracter name (thats not against the Anet-rules) you can stay with it and it will not be taken from you.

Yes, the “space of names” is quite full now and sometimes it takes time and creativity to create a new name. It took me some time to find a name for my revenant (“Rytzok”) that is consistent with my own “naming scheme”.

But thats better than to “delete names” and take them away from players.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Akikaze.1307:

Instead of revoking inactive account character names, easier solution would be actually to modify the character creation screen. Enable a “confirmation” check that the character name is not in use (on the last creation page). That way, players can play around and test ideas without full commitment and end up creating “A Kitten” as their character name.

Um, you can just try to whisper the name before creating the character. If you get an error message, the name is available.

A quality of life UI change would be better. There are some older mmorpg that have this option, always curious why GW2 don’t have it. Additionally, new players wouldn’t know you can utilize this trick. In other games, whispering offline players would also say “error”. Most new players won’t even be aware you could use accent letters until they’re ingame.

Akikaze.1307:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Akikaze.1307:

Instead of revoking inactive account character names, easier solution would be actually to modify the character creation screen. Enable a “confirmation” check that the character name is not in use (on the last creation page). That way, players can play around and test ideas without full commitment and end up creating “A Kitten” as their character name.

Um, you can just try to whisper the name before creating the character. If you get an error message, the name is available.

A quality of life UI change would be better. There are some older mmorpg that have this option, always curious why GW2 don’t have it. Additionally, new players wouldn’t know you can utilize this trick. In other games, whispering offline players would also say “error”. Most new players won’t even be aware you could use accent letters until they’re ingame.

All it would take is for a little green tick to appear next to you “signature” in charater creation to see if the name was available.
I’m in for this idea.

A month ago I made a character with the name of Sarah Winds. Was honestly surprised that it wasn’t taken, and happy that I was able to get it. I have 8 characters and out of 8 of them. I’ve only had a name taken once, and that was because I put a space in the name. I removed the space and it wasn’t taken. Also I had taken a 2.5 years break before I came back to the game. Would have ended right there if my names were removed

Why surprised. It’s players who want Vegeta or Usagi or Cloud or Hermione or Drizzt who can’t find a name. Perfectly ordinary names shouldn’t be an issue.

There are so many countless possible names you can have, even if you choose Lore-Friendly names. Granted it’s harder to get an original lore-friendly name for Sylvari and especially Asura, but you can always use a title prefix.

For example, you want to choose your Asura to be called something like Blaxx. That’s probably taken (I dunno, I’ve not tried!) so if it is, think about what job title he could have. Is he a Peacemaker? Are you making him as a Vigil, Durmand or Whispers member? Perhaps a Lionguard? You can then try:

Peacemaker Blaxx
Lionguard Blaxx
Agent Blaxx

And so on. Suddenly your possibilities open up a lot more than trying a single name.

I don’t know if you’re trying for lore-friendly names, but I hope this helps. The idea of wiping inactive players’ names has been discussed to death many times, and it’ll never happen I’m afraid.

Last I logged in I had 44 characters – 3 of them nameholders for revenants, one a keyfarmer – and I’ve had no issue coming up with names for any of them, and only one has a single accent in their name, and that was only because I felt the name needed it. People’s lack of imagination, inspiration and general creativity is their own fault, and I don’t see why people who are taking a break should be penalised for it.

Quite a number of these names that I have are tied back to gw1 which was my first MMO. Though I know I’ve only been in Tyria for about 6 years, I am certain that there are other people who have had attachments to their names for many, many years longer than I have.

Though as I see it, accounts that are permabanned should have their names released for free pickings. The owner of that account would (obviously) not be logging in, and there’s no real reason to keep those names off the market.

As someone who is currently taking a break from the game, I completely disagree with the notion of having my names taken from me purely because I chose not to log in. No matter what reason one has to not log in for any period of time, the community does not have any right to know why. We take a break because we can.

Ashen.2907:

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

Miku.6297:

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.

As for deceased players I think that stripping the names from their account could be seen as disrespectful. If that happened to one of my close friends – or to me – I would be very upset.

imsoenthused.1634:

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.

To the OP and to this xuse guy – I think you’re acting incredibly selfish and entitled. You have no entitlement to other people’s names, taking a break or not, or even dead or not. It’s first in first served and you weren’t first. I suggest taking a step back and thinking about how you would react if you took a break to come back to stripped names purely because someone wanted what you had. Releasing permabanned account’s names I can get behind, but there is no reason to take someone’s name if they haven’t been banned.

tl;dr
Stop acting like selfish and entitled children. Devs have said this will not happen.

Did somebody take your favorie anime or GoT name? Oh your poor xXxLegolasxXx.

Wipe the names after 100 years of inactivity. They should be dead for sure by then.

xuse.6817:

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.

sure, why not. Would you be satisfied with [my favorite anime or fantasy trademark copycat name I took because I am lacking in terms of imagination and originality] in Japanese?

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

Lets forget the fact that some uncreative people see other people with good names and decide they have to have that name, proven by your and Toxicity’s own admissions, so it wouldn’t be as simple as just reclaiming your name.
I’ve had that happen in other games, I played, needed to take a break, and then came back to find either my names gone or characters flat out wiped, and my names taken.

So lets address the rest of your post.
“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”

This isn’t irony actually. It’s hypocrisy.
You sit there badmouthing people you’ve never met claiming they’re horrible people for taking names just to keep other people from having them, and then admitting you do the same thing.
Takes one to know one right?

‘May all your names be taken upon character creation.’ ~ Ancient gypsy curse

My advice is to just let it go and be more original.

I’m willing to compromise. If a name has been inactive for 10 years we can recycle it. However, if the player logs back in then you will be forced to do a rename and they get their name back.

I don’t think they should release banned acct names either. Why? Because the banned person could just buy a new account, use their same names and go on like nothing happened.
There needs to be consequences for being banned, and permanently losing your names is one of them.

And if someone has the name you want…find a different name. I’ve never had a problem, sure some of the names I originally wanted were taken, but I found a different name and I love the names i have.

The whole premise of this thread makes me laugh.

I’m the ghost of xmas past, and I strongly object to the OP wanting to wipe my account just so he can have the possibility of having my name. Just a suggestion, but why not think of a name not already taken, like everyone else.

Toxicity.5392:

I’ve been tracking 50 people who I want to buy names from

Ahhh so that is the mainreason of this post.
You want ’’cool’’ names that are already taken by others, and now you ask arenanet to delete all these accounts that are 2 months offline so you can buy those names you want.
You have to be realistic man. Not going to happen.
What kind of names are those anyway..
The Hulk? Superman? Goku?

And this is why i think a confirm option would be a nice thing, so that strangers cant add people to their friendlist without permission.. You seriously stalk 50 people because you want their names. I know what i would do in such a situation. Its a wonder that you are not banned yet for people reporting you for harasment.
Btw you are in no way entitled to get other peoples play names, so you know.

Adding someone to try to speak to them when/if they log on does not mean they are stalking.

Adding someone to your friends list and asking them once if they would let you have/buy the name is not harassment. If you continue to pursue the person after being told no, and asked to stop then there would be cause for reporting. But reporting someone for adding you to their friends list, what exactly do you file that report under?

Back on topic!

The thing I don’t understand. These names even if freed would only be available for 1 person… Thus solving VERY FEW peoples issue with getting them.

TJgalon.5012:

I took a page out of GW1 naming with having a first and last name in my charcters. You can come up with some interesting combination and it makes it harder for other player to have them. Granted, a couple times a name is use, but sometimes you can substitute a similar sounding spelling to achieve the same name, like say Sapphire is what you want, try Sappfire, heh.

Perfect for a sylvari elementalist? :P

I played TERA for the 6 weeks free at the start then decided i didnt want to carry on with the monthly subscription. Then when it went free i decided to have another look at the game. Because my account had been inactive for a while they gave my cool name to someone else who was active. I logged out and deleted the game.
So no giving your name away because you havent logged in for whatever reason is the worst idea ever.

I wrote that on this very forum 2 years ago and still stand by it, so it’s a no from me to.

Behellagh.1468:

Why surprised. It’s players who want Vegeta or Usagi or Cloud or Hermione or Drizzt who can’t find a name. Perfectly ordinary names shouldn’t be an issue.

Well there is always Drizzzt, Drizzzzt, Drizzzzzt, Drizzzzzzt, Drizzzzzzzt, Drizzzzzzzzt, Drizzzzzzzzzt, Drizzzzzzzzzzt, Drizzzzzzzzzzzt, Drizzzzzzzzzzzzt, Drizzzzzzzzzzzzzt, Drizzzzzzzzzzzzzzt, Drizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt.

Endless Soul.5178:

The whole premise of this thread makes me laugh.

I find all the anti-support from the community rather amusing/encouraging.
And this was after staying up to 3am trying to get Prince Charrming for my mesmer and failing. ;_; I’ve since remade/renamed him and couldn’t be happier!

Miku.6297:

Adding someone to try to speak to them when/if they log on does not mean they are stalking.

Adding someone to your friends list and asking them once if they would let you have/buy the name is not harassment. If you continue to pursue the person after being told no, and asked to stop then there would be cause for reporting. But reporting someone for adding you to their friends list, what exactly do you file that report under?

Back on topic!

The thing I don’t understand. These names even if freed would only be available for 1 person… Thus solving VERY FEW peoples issue with getting them.

/Back on topic
You apparently did not read the OP’s post, hes perma tracking 50 people for their names. Since when is that normal behaviour? Furteron, i did not say people need to be always reported for adding someone to the friend list, i suggested an acknowledge option, so the player has control over who can add him to their friendlist. This prevents that harrasing (immature) players can add people to their friend list and track them.

Bolbo Baggins.8594:

Miku.6297:

Adding someone to try to speak to them when/if they log on does not mean they are stalking.

Adding someone to your friends list and asking them once if they would let you have/buy the name is not harassment. If you continue to pursue the person after being told no, and asked to stop then there would be cause for reporting. But reporting someone for adding you to their friends list, what exactly do you file that report under?

Back on topic!

The thing I don’t understand. These names even if freed would only be available for 1 person… Thus solving VERY FEW peoples issue with getting them.

/Back on topic
You apparently did not read the OP’s post, hes perma tracking 50 people for their names. Since when is that normal behaviour? Furteron, i did not say people need to be always reported for adding someone to the friend list, i suggested an acknowledge option, so the player has control over who can add him to their friendlist. This prevents that harrasing (immature) players can add people to their friend list and track them.

Agreed. I think the “Following” list should be removed and adding people as friends should be a mutual thing, also getting the option to block future requests from people but not the person themselves.

Back on topic.
If anyone whispered or mailed me requesting one of my names with a price they want to pay, I’d instantly block them.