Guild Wars 2

With the expansion just around the corner and the recent Character slot sale, I was able to pick up a few extra slots however most of the cool, sought after names are already taken.

I have monitored a couple specific ones for over past 6 months and noticed these players haven’t longed in since.

Would highly recommend that any account that hasn’t logged in over a year or more should have their names revoked before the expansion launches. When and if those accounts ever decide to login, they can be given a free choice to get a brand new name.

This will allow new players coming to the game to also still be able to pick a name they potentially wanted.

No thank you. I was deployed for 9 months recently, and was unable to play up until this montha grand total of just a little over a year, Getting kicked out of all my guilds was bad enough,if i would have came back and my names where all gone as well, i would have been incredibly mad.

getting a name in GW2 isnt hard either, i just created a new character and the name i wanted was available, unless you are trying to name it after a very popular character from a book, tv or movie…or even history..its not that hard.

It won’t happen per Anet. I’ll try to find the post from them.

“Sought after names” like Gandalf & Jon Snow? How about picking something a little more original?

I disagree that names should be wiped. ArenaNet are kind in that they understand that sometimes someone might not be able to log into the game for a while, or want a break from GW2 etc so they don’t do it. Probably never will.

Also, you can never be 100% certain these characters haven’t logged in. They could be coming online as invisible, which won’t show up on your system of checking (I’m assuming you’re adding them to your guild to see when last logged).

It better not happen. Could you imagine the uproar if they did it.

Yeah, agree this is not a one I would like to see implemented, would hate to have a guildmate come back and them to find their name was replaced, they would just leave again.

I’d prefer spend a week trying to get a good name for a character than seeing anet strip away the name of people who bought the game only because they’re inactive for a while.

There’s lots of names out there once you stop wanting the “cool names,” that is, the whatever cool name is hot from current pop culture.

Make a lore appropriate name, check out foreign names, give the char a last name.

I just made a new one earlier. Went through the first try.

Wiping out old names is unneeded and will discourage the return players (and you’d probably not get that cool name anyway. Someone else would probably get it).

Or the so called inactive player you see just never plays at the same time as you because of time zones and/or work schedules.

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.

I always put a lot of thought into my character names – they’re always something that relates to the character even if it would only make sense to me. This has two outcomes relevant to this situation:
1) I very rarely try to use a name that’s taken.
2) I would be absolutely devastated if I came back to a game after a break and found my character names had been removed. To me that’s like suggesting randomly changing their appearance or swapping their profession – the name is as much a part of the character as everything else. If a game did that I think that would be the last time I ever played it.

I have to admit it seems like kind of a fluke to me that so few of the names I try to use are taken as I don’t think they’re that unusual. But then when you consider the number of possible names maybe it’s not so surprising. I do have a few screenshots of characters I met with very similar names to mine. But even the ones I use for temporary characters where I’ll use it for a week or two or a few months then delete the character and make a new one with the same name months or years later are usually available when I come back to them.

I think the only ‘original’ name I’ve tried to use recently that was taken was Keitei or Kei Tei. (Probably because someone had the same idea – adapting Katy, it’s not exactly an uncommon name, there were 4 of us in my class in school.) But I was able to get another variant so that was fine.

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, especially since it results in the same status quo: so-called “cool names” get gobbled up quickly on a first-come, first-served basis.

This topic comes up every so often. ANet’s made the same comment multiple times:

• There is no such thing as an “inactive account” — players might come back at any time. We’d hate for people to return only to find out that we took those from them.
• Nor does it make sense to release names on banned accounts — we don’t want players to start a new account and avoid some of their punishment by having access to their old names.

That’s even without talking about the expense of identifying which accounts would count for a purge or the effort spent explaining to people why they lost their names or fixing mistakes.

Finally, why should ANet do this? The only reason any of us wants these names freed up is if we lack the creativity to create other names. Releasing more names isn’t going to make that job easier: it will still be first-come, first-served, so only a few people will benefit from this undertaking.

In short, this is too much work to cater to the minority of players who don’t want to spend a little more time figuring out a name.

I have the two names of “droid” and “white dragon”

I took a years break before and if I came back having to rename my characters I would of just quit.

A lot of the cool names were given to people who bought the game before release and clicked log in every second for an hour before release to get these names. How would it be ok to take those away even if they never use them? They bought them and did what was needed to get them

Why this is a bad idea:

1. The Cost: People who lose a name due to this suggested change and who come back to the game get angry. Maybe they deal with it. Maybe they submit a ticket (CSR costs). Maybe they write angry forum posts or badmouth the game elsewhere (bad publicity). Also, anyone whose name was dropped has to go through the annoyance of renaming, whether the name(s) they used were sought after or not. More annoyance leads to more upset, more complaints, and more bad publicity.
2. The Benefit: for each sought-after name, one (and one only) player will get that name. Anyone else who wants that name will be upset or angry. Some of them will blame ANet because the way ANet implemented the feature (the timing was disadvantageous to their schedule). For every sought-after name there will be dozens if not thousands of names lost that no one wanted.

The cost in public relations alone far outweighs the potential benefit.

I can’t find an article about it now but I’ve also heard that when City of Heroes did this something like 2% of the names they made available were actually taken. The vast majority of names players wanted were being used by active accounts, so the clear-out didn’t help.

I think that they should remove squatters—unplayed characters under level 10 who were created years ago only to reserve a name for future use.

Hannelore.8153:

I think that they should remove squatters—unplayed characters under level 10 who were created years ago only to reserve a name for future use.

No

The one you were looking for.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Character-Name-cleanup/

Totally agree with Gaile Gray said.
There are so many options for names! Put some love on it.
You want a popular one? Make some changes.

Jon Snow From Cincinnati

No chance, because of the f2p nature of the game people pick it up and drop it all the time. Including returning for expansions.

Sure. As long as the released name has the appendage ‘On-Loan-Cuz-I-Could-Not-Come-Up-With-My-Own-Name’, and is given back to the original owner upon return.

Hannelore.8153:

I think that they should remove squatters—unplayed characters under level 10 who were created years ago only to reserve a name for future use.

This comment and OPs post gets a big no from me.

~double thumbs down~

I like short names, I don’t like using special letters as replacements, I don’t like giving characters lastnames. Having sad that, I am still against this idea.

This is just a business decision in the end. There would be a possibility for others to get confused or even scammed by a person taking over the names of a well known player. Let alone all of the complaining from those returning to the game just to notice that their most favorite names were taken they’d have to deal with.