Guild Wars 2

Ever present forum bug.

Tumult.2578:

Dinks.2478:

Tumult.2578:

Dinks.2478:

Tumult.2578:

Read it all and my opinion hasn’t changed. I started with 2 years but that’s certainly flexible.
Just out of curiosity, what does everyone think happens to stuff you have in a guild vault after that much time, let alone whether your still a member, or anyone is still a guild member?
At some point, it’s not coming back, it’s starting over. Whatever that point is, is where the names should be freed. I’d imagine Anet could get a pretty good idea of when that point is.

And once again that point should be never. If I want to quit for 3 years and come back I should still have my name. You should have started day one like the rest of us.

Actually started on day 3. What does that have to do with this topic?
If you started on day one then your likely playing multiple characters and have seen how difficult it is to have a name anywhere near what you’d want/like.

This is not the same game we started with. It’s free to play now and a lot more names are needed. I feel entitled too, playing from the start, but I probably should change that because new players have just as much right to the game, and a name, as we do.
You may think a 2 year break is fine. Don’t be surprised if the whole game is gone in 2 years.
I offered my opinion, so did you. Let’s respect them both.

Mine is not an opinion, its a statement of fact. And no, this game is not free to play. The “free to play” model is an open trial.

More importantly, assuming they are free to play then no actually they don’t have as much right to the game as me.

Provide a copy of the company’s written statement that they will never change the current naming policy.
Make up your mind whether the game is free to play or not. lol
Better yet, understand that just because your saying it, doesn’t make it so.

From the first page of this thread, a quote from ArenaNet’s Forum Communications Team Lead, discussing the naming policy that began from the start of the 10 year old plus Guild Wars 1 and the policy for the 3 year plus Guild Wars 2. A policy that’s been consistent for over 10 years and two games is unlikely to change.

Requesting a taken name

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.

Tumult.2578:

Dinks.2478:

Tumult.2578:

Dinks.2478:

Tumult.2578:

Read it all and my opinion hasn’t changed. I started with 2 years but that’s certainly flexible.
Just out of curiosity, what does everyone think happens to stuff you have in a guild vault after that much time, let alone whether your still a member, or anyone is still a guild member?
At some point, it’s not coming back, it’s starting over. Whatever that point is, is where the names should be freed. I’d imagine Anet could get a pretty good idea of when that point is.

And once again that point should be never. If I want to quit for 3 years and come back I should still have my name. You should have started day one like the rest of us.

Actually started on day 3. What does that have to do with this topic?
If you started on day one then your likely playing multiple characters and have seen how difficult it is to have a name anywhere near what you’d want/like.

This is not the same game we started with. It’s free to play now and a lot more names are needed. I feel entitled too, playing from the start, but I probably should change that because new players have just as much right to the game, and a name, as we do.
You may think a 2 year break is fine. Don’t be surprised if the whole game is gone in 2 years.
I offered my opinion, so did you. Let’s respect them both.

Mine is not an opinion, its a statement of fact. And no, this game is not free to play. The “free to play” model is an open trial.

More importantly, assuming they are free to play then no actually they don’t have as much right to the game as me.

Provide a copy of the company’s written statement that they will never change the current naming policy.
Make up your mind whether the game is free to play or not. lol
Better yet, understand that just because your saying it, doesn’t make it so.

Sure the game is free to play but Anet has both implicitly and explicitly indicated that people who purchase the game have more, “rights,” than those who play for free.

Sorry, but after Hot, I believe literally anything can be changed at their whim.
Thanks for posting the policy. I believe we are aware of it.
Policies change.
I didn’t start the topic, I’m only supporting one side, unless/until someone gives an actually better reason for keeping the current “policy”.

Ashen.2907:

Tumult.2578:

Dinks.2478:

Tumult.2578:

Dinks.2478:

Tumult.2578:

Read it all and my opinion hasn’t changed. I started with 2 years but that’s certainly flexible.
Just out of curiosity, what does everyone think happens to stuff you have in a guild vault after that much time, let alone whether your still a member, or anyone is still a guild member?
At some point, it’s not coming back, it’s starting over. Whatever that point is, is where the names should be freed. I’d imagine Anet could get a pretty good idea of when that point is.

And once again that point should be never. If I want to quit for 3 years and come back I should still have my name. You should have started day one like the rest of us.

Actually started on day 3. What does that have to do with this topic?
If you started on day one then your likely playing multiple characters and have seen how difficult it is to have a name anywhere near what you’d want/like.

This is not the same game we started with. It’s free to play now and a lot more names are needed. I feel entitled too, playing from the start, but I probably should change that because new players have just as much right to the game, and a name, as we do.
You may think a 2 year break is fine. Don’t be surprised if the whole game is gone in 2 years.
I offered my opinion, so did you. Let’s respect them both.

Mine is not an opinion, its a statement of fact. And no, this game is not free to play. The “free to play” model is an open trial.

More importantly, assuming they are free to play then no actually they don’t have as much right to the game as me.

Provide a copy of the company’s written statement that they will never change the current naming policy.
Make up your mind whether the game is free to play or not. lol
Better yet, understand that just because your saying it, doesn’t make it so.

Sure the game is free to play but Anet has both implicitly and explicitly indicated that people who purchase the game have more, “rights,” than those who play for free.

Exactly. I believe this thread is asking "Do “more rights” include keeping the character name(s) in a game you haven’t played for years?" It’s asking if the policy should change.
Discussion can provide positive feedback either way if we view the discussion that way.

Tumult.2578:

Ashen.2907:

Tumult.2578:

Dinks.2478:

Tumult.2578:

Dinks.2478:

Tumult.2578:

Read it all and my opinion hasn’t changed. I started with 2 years but that’s certainly flexible.
Just out of curiosity, what does everyone think happens to stuff you have in a guild vault after that much time, let alone whether your still a member, or anyone is still a guild member?
At some point, it’s not coming back, it’s starting over. Whatever that point is, is where the names should be freed. I’d imagine Anet could get a pretty good idea of when that point is.

And once again that point should be never. If I want to quit for 3 years and come back I should still have my name. You should have started day one like the rest of us.

Actually started on day 3. What does that have to do with this topic?
If you started on day one then your likely playing multiple characters and have seen how difficult it is to have a name anywhere near what you’d want/like.

This is not the same game we started with. It’s free to play now and a lot more names are needed. I feel entitled too, playing from the start, but I probably should change that because new players have just as much right to the game, and a name, as we do.
You may think a 2 year break is fine. Don’t be surprised if the whole game is gone in 2 years.
I offered my opinion, so did you. Let’s respect them both.

Mine is not an opinion, its a statement of fact. And no, this game is not free to play. The “free to play” model is an open trial.

More importantly, assuming they are free to play then no actually they don’t have as much right to the game as me.

Provide a copy of the company’s written statement that they will never change the current naming policy.
Make up your mind whether the game is free to play or not. lol
Better yet, understand that just because your saying it, doesn’t make it so.

Sure the game is free to play but Anet has both implicitly and explicitly indicated that people who purchase the game have more, “rights,” than those who play for free.

Exactly. I believe this thread is asking "Do “more rights” include keeping the character name(s) in a game you haven’t played for years?" It’s asking if the policy should change.
Discussion can provide positive feedback either way if we view the discussion that way.

The answer to the question being asked is an objective, “yes.”

Tumult.2578:

Sorry, but after Hot, I believe literally anything can be changed at their whim.
Thanks for posting the policy. I believe we are aware of it.
Policies change.
I didn’t start the topic, I’m only supporting one side, unless/until someone gives an actually better reason for keeping the current “policy”.

Considering you asked “Provide a copy of the company’s written statement that they will never change the current naming policy," then a statement that they will not and the names must stay is about a good a written statement that they will never change the current naming policy as anyone here can give you.

To reverse that now would be to go back on a promise made to everyone who bought the game and was told that they could come and go and their accounts would be safe from character name removal. There would be many people unhappy about that promise being broken. There would be a large backlash for that. And just to make the new people, who might not even continue playing, happy.

What is much more likely, if there ever is a new name scarcity, is that they enable capital letters inside names (to count as a new name) or that they increase the number of letters allowed so that longer names can be made.

I guess what I am struggling with is that claim that they will never take names away.
I never heard it or saw it, and certainly not any actual promise beyond current policy.

Taking a closer look at Gaile Grey’s post, on the first page of this thread, she talks about across the board name wipes, not exactly what this thread is discussing now and she also states that she hasn’t heard any internal talk about changing that.
Doesn’t that clearly imply that it could change?

I understand the statements of support for the current policy but I don’t believe they outweigh the statements of support for change.

Tumult.2578:

I guess what I am struggling with is that claim that they will never take names away.
I never heard it or saw it, and certainly not any actual promise beyond current policy.

Taking a closer look at Gaile Grey’s post, on the first page of this thread, she talks about across the board name wipes, not exactly what this thread is discussing now and she also states that she hasn’t heard any internal talk about changing that.
Doesn’t that clearly imply that it could change?

I understand the statements of support for the current policy but I don’t believe they outweigh the statements of support for change.

Could is not may or will. Possible is not probably or likely. Almost anything is possible. But if she said, “I have not heard anything of that being planned or even proposed on our side” then it’s not even a gleam in a developer’s eye. They don’t see it as a problem and they feel that, as she said, “Lots of forum members have given some good ideas for naming your character and any work-around that may be needed for a taken name. I feel sure you’ll come up with something that suits you”.

Do what I do, get names off of the WoW random name generator.
That thing is gold.

Sure a claim that they will never take names away is a bit off because Anet has the power to change any policy they choose. They could take all character names away and require every player to rename every character, on a first come first served basis. They could do so every month.

Anet has never explicitly said that they will not delete all non human characters next Monday. In fact they have said less counter to that possibility than they have said counter to the possibility of taking away character names…

Ultimately, when attemting to predict what the company will do in the future you can’t really just rely on what they are technically capable of while ignoring a pattern of stated intent that remains unbroken over a period exceeding ten years.

Tumult.2578:

I understand the statements of support for the current policy but I don’t believe they outweigh the statements of support for change.

The statements of support for the change are limited to a tiny fraction of players. The the current protects everyone who takes a break from the game, whether due to RL commitments or other (perhaps less important) reasons.

Regardless, it isn’t free to change the current system. Every proposal in this thread (and previous ones) requires some amount of technical changes and retraining of personnel to support the change. Reclaiming names from infrequently-used accounts still requires identifying those accounts and figuring what names (if any) to free up, plus support for people angry that their old character were renamed. Changing the rules for what names can be chosen (via adding a number or whatever other alternative) requires fundamental changes to the underlying mechanics that support chat, guild rosters, and other ‘social’ aspects of the game.

In the end, the justification for all this effort is that a small fraction of players have imposed on themselves a set of requirements that limits their choice of names.

tl;dr the costs are high and the benefits go primarily to indulging personal preferences.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Tumult.2578:

Sorry, but after Hot, I believe literally anything can be changed at their whim.
Thanks for posting the policy. I believe we are aware of it.
Policies change.
I didn’t start the topic, I’m only supporting one side, unless/until someone gives an actually better reason for keeping the current “policy”.

Considering you asked “Provide a copy of the company’s written statement that they will never change the current naming policy," then a statement that they will not and the names must stay is about a good a written statement that they will never change the current naming policy as anyone here can give you.

To reverse that now would be to go back on a promise made to everyone who bought the game and was told that they could come and go and their accounts would be safe from character name removal. There would be many people unhappy about that promise being broken. There would be a large backlash for that. And just to make the new people, who might not even continue playing, happy.

What is much more likely, if there ever is a new name scarcity, is that they enable capital letters inside names (to count as a new name) or that they increase the number of letters allowed so that longer names can be made.

To be fair, the full quote in this thread is:

Gaile Gray.6029:

As I said some time ago, and thanks for finding that quote, Qugi, we don’t do “name wipes” on a regular or even irregular basis. It may be that at some point in the Guild Wars 2 future there’s a “reset” of names, but I have not heard anything of that being planned or even proposed on our side.

Lots of forum members have given some good ideas for naming your character and any work-around that may be needed for a taken name. I feel sure you’ll come up with something that suits you.

Which means at some point in the future, there may be some names that are freed up.

So there’s no written statement that says they’ll never do name wipes. Just that there currently are not any name wipes and that none are currently in the works.

This whole thing is seriously a non issue. Off the top of my head:

Xowen Solocup
Xowen Ingridsdottir
Xowen Of The Dream
Xowen Nowex
Xowen Brokenclaw

Not all those can be taken, and if they are change it a bit.

You don’t have to use a one word name. Change a letter. Add a letter. Add a surname. Add a title. Be a little creative. A tiny amount of flexibility and creativity will give you a char name without asking to take someone else’s.

It’s not a serious issue to me, beyond debating the possibility of change.
While some may appreciate how easy it is to make names, others don’t appreciate the break from lore or immersion that requires, and others simply want simple names.
I locked down some names early in the game and it is still possible to come up with a 6 or even 5 letter name but it isn’t easy.
I just think it is naive to think that if an MMO can last 10 or even 15 years, then the name policy still wont change or that something will not happen if you stay away for years.

I don’t know, I could name my 13 characters in Guild Wars 2, my 6 characters in Guild Wars 1 and my 6 characters in TES:O on the first try. Even my Asura who have one-word names.
I never understood how that’s an issue unless you’re really fixated on a certain name. Take a random name you like, search for lists of surnames in different languages if you’re feeling adventurous. Add a title if you must.

But then again every second name I see these days is something along the lines of xXxUbertankxXx or |||y are u dead|||.

If I choose to name my character a certain way and then don’t log in for a long time, what gives. Just be more creative. That would just add more insecurity and instability to the game by the developers/management.

Tumult.2578:

It’s not a serious issue to me, beyond debating the possibility of change.
While some may appreciate how easy it is to make names, others don’t appreciate the break from lore or immersion that requires, and others simply want simple names.
I locked down some names early in the game and it is still possible to come up with a 6 or even 5 letter name but it isn’t easy.
I just think it is naive to think that if an MMO can last 10 or even 15 years, then the name policy still wont change or that something will not happen if you stay away for years.

The names are released, the short and popular names are quickly snapped up. And there you are. Back where you were before the names were released. Any one who didn’t get one will have to go back to being creative, just like now. And on top of that you have people who come back after a period of time to find char names gone from their account and who come to the forum to rant and rave about how ANet lied to them. Or they log back off and never come back.

Unless and until names are so impossible to make that it’s an actual problem and not just a problem for those that don’t want to try a bit harder, they should leave the names alone. In addition, what they should do before that is to loosen the naming rules to allow capital letters in the middle of a name (and have that count as a new name) and to increase the numbers of letters allowed. Doing those two changes will gain them millions of new names without angering owners of older accounts.

Seera.5916:

Which means at some point in the future, there may be some names that are freed up.

Not quite. This means that at this moment they do not intend to change that policy, but she won’t commit to any more definite statement. Which is Anet’s general policy, by the way – no promises are definite and unchangable. This doesn’t mean they intend or want to change everything. Just that they are cautious.

Besides, as has been already mentioned in this thread, freeing the unused names will not help OP in any way. He doesn’t want unused names to be freed – what he wants is for the names he wants to be taken away from other players and given to him. And since all the desirable names that do not require a lot of imagination to think of would end up on the accounts of active players (generally – players that are more active than OP, and thus would be online and checking well before him), he is still quite unlikely to get his wish.

Tumult.2578:

It’s not a serious issue to me, beyond debating the possibility of change.
While some may appreciate how easy it is to make names, others don’t appreciate the break from lore or immersion that requires, and others simply want simple names.
I locked down some names early in the game and it is still possible to come up with a 6 or even 5 letter name but it isn’t easy.
I just think it is naive to think that if an MMO can last 10 or even 15 years, then the name policy still wont change or that something will not happen if you stay away for years.

And yet, that is exactly what has happened with Guild Wars. Ten plus years, and still no names released for that game.

Astralporing.1957:

Seera.5916:

Which means at some point in the future, there may be some names that are freed up.

Not quite. This means that at this moment they do not intend to change that policy, but she won’t commit to any more definite statement. Which is Anet’s general policy, by the way – no promises are definite and unchangable. This doesn’t mean they intend or want to change everything. Just that they are cautious.

Besides, as has been already mentioned in this thread, freeing the unused names will not help OP in any way. He doesn’t want unused names to be freed – what he wants is for the names he wants to be taken away from other players and given to him. And since all the desirable names that do not require a lot of imagination to think of would end up on the accounts of active players (generally – players that are more active than OP, and thus would be online and checking well before him), he is still quite unlikely to get his wish.

Like I said, sometime in the future there may be some names freed up.

The funny thing: I played a game with a similar naming “policy” before. I started 10 years ago, quit 4 years ago, started again – but I deleted my old account when I quit.
So, I used 2 of my names from here and found that one of the names from there is still availlable here, while the other name I tested from here is also still availlable there.
Most of them are proper names and all single words. I’m kind of proud of myself that I’m really that good to find single word names no matter when or where. So, be a bit more creative – I’ve seen a lot of creative names out there – even “cosplay” and no, it wasn’t all öüäø

I blame free accounts for this

Jovani.9207:

I blame free accounts for this

People complain about name before play for free happen. Source, post from Gaile I link early in thread about name happen long before free play. Here is it again.

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

yes, but when you put into account that some people who try the game out for free and never come back there is a problem. Those names will be bound to the free accounts and therefore will never be able to be used ever again.

Jovani.9207:

yes, but when you put into account that some people who try the game out for free and never come back there is a problem. Those names will be bound to the free accounts and therefore will never be able to be used ever again.

Well as some post in this thread all good name gone already. So free player can not have them.

I disagree with name problem. Just few month ago I make some new character with good 5 letter name. Problem is not free player or old player. Problem is player that think should have some common name and get mad when some person have it. It really is not hard to make name if spend time to think.

It’s a little tedious, but still possible to get good, thematically-appropriate names. I made seven new characters after this last character slot sale (two asura, two sylvari, a norn, human, and charr) and was able to give them all decent names without resorting to accent marks.

Only problem I had was if I tried too many names too quickly, I would start getting a “you’ve tried too many names” error and would have to restart character creation.

I certainly don’t want a number attached to my character names in chat. The only way to save RP chat logs is to screenshot them and it will be cumbersome to have every line of mine start with:

Donari Mal Di Bette (Donari.5237)"

I mean, it’s actually a little annoying just having the full name there, as it is 19 characters it does eat up the line space … (I have much shorter names for most other alts).

I’m on the side of keeping names, though. My alt names are RP names, they fit into a lot of story continuity, they are part of the alt’s very identity. I don’t think it’s impossible to get good sounding names, either, even short ones — heck, I picked up Morbriath in the last year, just moving Arthurian syllables around.

Maybe if the game were sub based it could be a money thing for ANet. The trigger for me to buy Warlords of Draenor was the announcement that they were going to release all the names of people who didn’t log in for x time. I didn’t want anyone else on Earthen Ring to be Issaela or Jenafeine or Frelle etc, so I re-upped. Now .. I don’t care. Not ever going back to that game, so one day others may take the names. But Blizzard made money off me at the time.

I’d support a change to allow capital letters in the middle of names if only because then I could properly use some Irish surnames if I wanted (and presumably other languages have similar spelling rules that I’m not familiar with).

Eg. Seán Ó hÓgáin, or Máire Ní tSuibhne (just using real world examples rather than fantasy names)

I was ludicrously happy that accents were allowed when the game launched, since I used to have to go to a load of trouble to find words or phrases to use that were still grammatically correct but didn’t use a fada.

Here is a solution:

Give us a feature in the chat window to “Show account names” of other players. The option would be off by default so players who don’t want to see all the extra text in the chat window won’t have to.

Then, remove the character name restriction completely. Our account names would be the unique identifier. If you see multiple players in the chat with the same exact character name it could get a little confusing, but having account names displayed in the chat would help with that.

This would eliminate the problem with “taken” names completely. Some people have issues where they delete a character in order to free up the name but after waiting over 24 hours the name is either already taken by someone else, or the name is still not freed up but they can create a character with that name on that same account.

Let’s face it: the only reason why people are complaining lately and asking for character names to be freed up from accounts that haven’t been logged into for a while, is because people aren’t original in the first place. They can’t come up with something new that nobody else ever thought of.

And when a character name is popular, players resort to putting in X’s and/or other random letters into their names because what they want is already taken.

I’d rather see a hundred ‘Naruto’ running around than some stupid crap like ‘Xx Naruto Xx’ or ‘III Naruto III’. Because it looks stupid when people do that.

So what difference would it make? Obviously with popular names players aren’t being original in the first place. So it shouldn’t make a difference if a hundred, or even a thousand, players all have the same exact character name, because they will find “creative” ways to use a name they want and wind up looking ridiculous doing it.

Charrbeque.8729:

I’d rather see a hundred ‘Naruto’ running around than some stupid crap like ‘Xx Naruto Xx’ or ‘III Naruto III’. Because it looks stupid when people do that.

You’re going to see that anyway, even in games that don’t lock out names on a first-come-first-served basis have names like that and seemingly in the same quantities.

How do you get around the screenshot griefer hypothesized above? Also, some names are original (and thus easy to get). A hundred Naruto’s, fine, if they really want to name themselves after a popular … anime? not sure, I don’t know what Naruto is … character despite it having nothing to do with this game’s world background until such time as they are reported for a ToS violation, fine.

But I will say that easy going as I am about most things, having someone else decide my lore-appropriate, carefully crafted name that I have woven into stories lasting for years (eg the plot from Donari’s character concept to well after launch in which he finally learned that his adoptive father happened to be his real father and his best friend was his half brother) … that would cheese me the heck off, much the same way an artist on DeviantArt is rather unhappy when someone nabs his/her images to post on their own DA page and claim credit for painting them. It’s theft. I don’t want a hundred Donari Mal Di Bette’s running around, or David Raffino’s, or Jin Macklin’s. Make up your own darn names, people.

Multiple names in the same chat that seem not to be the same person? Sure, you can check the account name under your suggestion. But if the “impersonator” (or duplicate) is solo in the map that day? Players aren’t going to examine their id every time. Look at guild tags, which are not unique though guild names are. I was RPing in the ruins of LA at one point and out of the blue someone came up, saw my tag, and said “JEST? I hate you guys! You did this awful thing!” And ran off before I could get any explanation as to how our small RP guild with a deep core ethos of honesty and helping people could possibly be the one he was thinking of, especially since as an officer I was apprised of all the drama. Apparently he didn’t look further to see we were “The Jesters” and not whoever had wronged him so.

Let players copy other people’s names and reputations of innocent people will be trashed.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Yeah, I can’t get on the ‘delete their name if they have been inactive for ’x’ time or longer’ bandwagon. Nope, sorry.

I would be utterly kittened if names that I stayed up all night to get at launch were suddenly “gone” because I chose to take a break, or because life was more important than a game for a period of time.

But what if they hadn’t been on since the first week of launch?

Riku.4821:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Yeah, I can’t get on the ‘delete their name if they have been inactive for ’x’ time or longer’ bandwagon. Nope, sorry.

I would be utterly kittened if names that I stayed up all night to get at launch were suddenly “gone” because I chose to take a break, or because life was more important than a game for a period of time.

But what if they hadn’t been on since the first week of launch?

Some of those come back. I’ve seen posts from people who’ve been gone for a long time. A new guildie was gone for 2 plus years, and has returned. There’s threads on this forum on a regular basis where people are returning after long absences, and they are returning to an intact account without char names having been stripped from it. It’s one of the bonuses to this game that you can leave and know your account is there waiting for you, untouched, when you return.

Seera.5916:

Rio.4259:

I don’t really agree with “flushing” inactive names/characters, either. If there was some kind of technical reason/need for it and it was only on characters that have been inactive for a very long time then…maybe. But not specifically JUST to release the taken names.

Like others have said the best way to make sure you get the name you want is to use a last/surname. Make one up that you like, and odds are your name will always be free. As for Asura not having last names….Asura names are pretty random and easy to make up. There was even an Asura NPC in GW1 named “Ybbob” (Bobby, spelled backwards).

The name I like to use, “Rio”, is always taken….everywhere….within minutes of the servers opening. So…I got around it by making a last name that I ALSO like very much. Dunno why others can’t do the same.

Some people like to follow the lore and Asura and Sylvari don’t have last names.

However, they do have titles. So those of you who like to follow lore, give your Asura or Sylvari a title if they end up having a taken name.

Or if you’re a really enterprising Asura from the College of Dynamics, you discover something amazing:

She calls it “Secondary Identification Nomenclature” or SIRname, for short.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Riku.4821:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Yeah, I can’t get on the ‘delete their name if they have been inactive for ’x’ time or longer’ bandwagon. Nope, sorry.

I would be utterly kittened if names that I stayed up all night to get at launch were suddenly “gone” because I chose to take a break, or because life was more important than a game for a period of time.

But what if they hadn’t been on since the first week of launch?

Some of those come back. I’ve seen posts from people who’ve been gone for a long time. A new guildie was gone for 2 plus years, and has returned. There’s threads on this forum on a regular basis where people are returning after long absences, and they are returning to an intact account without char names having been stripped from it. It’s one of the bonuses to this game that you can leave and know your account is there waiting for you, untouched, when you return.

I can agree with that.
I am victim to have the name taken seconds after I went to make my character though. arugh!( at ore launch)

Honestly: I’ve been confused in other games because someone on another server had the same name – or because they had a slightly different spelled name. I don’t think any of those who thought they knew me would take the time or effort to look up the account name (in fact no one knew I was a girl until we either partied up , but my account name wasn’t enough for some, or until we were in TS, or until they introduced themselves (while already have been in a party) and I introduced myself). So, lets just keep it as it is – you can always chose a/several surname/s – I think that trouble is by far less than being confused with someone else as that is really annoying.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Tumult.2578:

It’s not a serious issue to me, beyond debating the possibility of change.
While some may appreciate how easy it is to make names, others don’t appreciate the break from lore or immersion that requires, and others simply want simple names.
I locked down some names early in the game and it is still possible to come up with a 6 or even 5 letter name but it isn’t easy.
I just think it is naive to think that if an MMO can last 10 or even 15 years, then the name policy still wont change or that something will not happen if you stay away for years.

The names are released, the short and popular names are quickly snapped up. And there you are. Back where you were before the names were released. Any one who didn’t get one will have to go back to being creative, just like now. And on top of that you have people who come back after a period of time to find char names gone from their account and who come to the forum to rant and rave about how ANet lied to them. Or they log back off and never come back.

Unless and until names are so impossible to make that it’s an actual problem and not just a problem for those that don’t want to try a bit harder, they should leave the names alone. In addition, what they should do before that is to loosen the naming rules to allow capital letters in the middle of a name (and have that count as a new name) and to increase the numbers of letters allowed. Doing those two changes will gain them millions of new names without angering owners of older accounts.

This raises another issue actually: The OP is working under the assumption that the names they want are on inactive accounts. Or at least that there are a lot of inactive accounts each with large numbers of characters with desirable names on them. But I don’t think there is any way to know that.

Even if you add someone to your friends list all that can tell you is if they’re on at the same time as you, not when they were last online.

So it could easily be that Anet do go through with this – wiping names from characters after some arbitrary period of inactivity and risk upsetting returning players and then it doesn’t actually achieve anything anyway, because the names people want are still taken and may never be freed up under this system.

Gaile Gray.6029:

But as I said initially, I know of no plans to clear names whatsoever.

Well that’s good to know as I still play Guild Wars 1 from time to time and I would be absolutely crushed if my almost 10.5 year old characters were deleted.

LOl @ Donari:

Seriously, learn to where you have to make a draw line …
Do yiu seriously also want to sue now every single person in the world, that shares with you the name too and say them they stole your name too?

This is ridiculous. Nobody has the right to claim names, as if they belong only to them, be it in real life, or be it a a freaking game.
We are only in this situation now, because ANet forcefully artificially limitates for everyone the maximum amount of how oftenly a name can exist in this ganme, so that we even come at all into this shameful situation at all, that people start fighting over names and who or what the hell has here “more rights”, than other players?

Seriously, this discussion has reached a new “low” by this kind of niveau, when we start already discussing about, who has here more rights over names, that it gets really laughable.

And when people already fear personally more, that they MIGHT lose their “reputations” instantly due to some dumb trolls that you find in every single freaking only game there is – this kind of thinking comes over with the bitter taste of biased bad made experiences, that pigeonhole people that you don’t know, but maybe just share with you in a game the same character name instantly into a wrong way, as if every single person that shares with you the same character name is some kind of bad potential “indentidy destroyer” rollyeyes

What kind of bad experiences must someone have made in a game, to have this kind of thinking …. that the very first thing they can think about and fear about when hearing about names should become unrestricted/unlimited in the amount of how often they can be used, that the very first thing that people should under their opinion od is having nothing else in mind, than to copy someone else to destry that persons identity…

Seriously, do some peopel even think for a moment first about what they write, before they write??
Or do you seriously believe, people here have constantly nothing better in their lives to do, than to search for other people to copy them and do bad things under their copied names in the hope they can destroy someones reputation???

How much paranoia must a person have to think from everyone in a game that might share their character name, that this player did this only, to hurt me??
Seriously guys, come back to sense.

Such thinks like these kind of horror scenarios won’t happen, when Anet would allow infinite character name sharing.
And if such things should really happen in a game, then will get situations quickly cleared by the Customer Support who’s still then in the end responsible for persons who violate the game rules and solve the situation quickly through simple and unique identifying tolls with the simplest and strongest identifiyer still being the unique display name which simply can’t be copied as the unique 4 digit number on each display name makes it impossible for wannabe imposters to copie someone with that.

If the Chat would enable everyone at will to quickly see the display names of other players without having to do with that the report procedure just to get to see it (we already see easily the display numbers of other people already in our friend lists ect) and can make from there comparisons if someone is the real or a fake person…
If that would be possible to see easiyl, it woudl improve everythign already alot and would make things alot easier for everyone to recognize in the Chat if somebody writign in it is the same person, or just someone else that uses the same character name.

And still then.. think about it, when Anet would make it possible to share names infinetely, how oftenly do you believe will you come really then into a situation, where you will make discussions with other people and then will participate others with exact the same name??

WHat do you seriously guess, how oftrnly this situation will happen in a game like GW2, where all players are splitted up among several douzens of different world wide servers, speak different languages, may share in most cases only the name, but not the same race, not the same class, have not the same body height and so on.. theres also alot of other factors with that you can differentiate between players, not just only the name.

People should stop to try making out of ants now elefants here …
The issues and problems that people are desperately doomsaying and badmouthing here in order to try for making up “arguements” against infinite name sharing definetely won’t happen here in this game the way they kind of “foresee” that it would happen, unless fortunetelling has become finally a serious “job” that works ….

About the name-removal thing: I think what should happen to people who’ve been inactive for two years is this.
Their characters’ names will not be removed. They will be changed. See that 9267 after my username? That four-digit number that their username has added to it, preceded by a space, will be added to their characters’ names. (Example: Naruto 3948) They have the option to change it back if possible, or change it to something else.
Sound better? If this is implemented, I can only imagine how many sylvari and asura names will be freed up…

Gaile Gray.6029:

Chad.6104:

Just this afternoon there was a new guildie in guild chat saying that he hadn’t played in 2 years and had just come back to the game. I bet he wouldn’t even had logged back on if he got to character select and found that all his chars had their names removed and he was expected to get brand new names.

That could happen, I agree. I remember something similar happening with a game I loved, body and soul. (In fact, I had an NPC named after me in that game.) I had a lot of responsibilities (including starting at ArenaNet) and I wasn’t able to play for a while. When I logged in after just a bit over 3 months, I found not only my name, but my character had been wiped. I confess it — I was gutted. I sat looking at the screen for a long, long time and finally thought, “Nope, I can’t do it.” I never played the game again.

I like that we don’t do name wipes. We did one, only, for Guild Wars, and that was after years and years. I believe it was in preparation for the launch of GW2. In that case, and I I feel sure we’d do the same in the future, we gave a lot of advance notice so players knew that they simply needed to log in to retain their name. But as I said initially, I know of no plans to clear names whatsoever.

Actually wasn’t a name wipe there either, though. That was just for the list of names that were being reserved in GW2, and yeah there was a lot of notice on that to log in so you make sure the name you wanted would be reserved.

As should have already been stated, Say you wanted the name James.
But James of course is taken.
Alternatives as examples
Jämes
Jámes
Jamés
Jámés
etc. Windows has a character map you can use to access alternate characters. You can easily get names you want. Is it frustrating to find that a name you really wanted is taken? Of course, I’ve had some I couldn’t get, and I have a name someone else wanted. It caused a bit of a whisper headache for a bit as that name was their account name. I was never asked to give it up (the person never actually contacted me, it was always others by accident), nor should that be expected anyways.

19 character 2 word minimum limit was no issue in GW1, and it had more limits on what letters could be used.
GW2, you still have the 19 character limit, but you have a lot more freedom on character names, and account names don’t even need those characters as it gets a different number added to it.

I’d rather have people running around with interesting or lore-friendly names than everyone having names like “Box,” or “Execute.”

This issue could be helped if Anet expanded the amount of characters allowed in names from 19. Some people want their character names to be sayings or phrases instead of just a name and a limit of 19 makes this really hard.

Surname is a good option indeed. But I selfishly admit all my charr are single names only, and I like them that way. Some required some creativity, some, I got lucky with – I still can’t believe Morhault wasn’t taken when I created my Revenant this autumn (come on, people, read more books). And I enjoy it because it makes sense lore-wise (as my charr’s warband is only given when playing Blood, and some of my charr are simply gladiums who never touched the personal story), and frankly, mostly because when I get a letter, it just simply grinds something in my little black writer heart to see something along the lines of “Looks like the tide has turned, Ragenar Steelmane” coming from Rytlock in a place that calls for rank or one name only.

Maybe, for future reference (and I apologize if that has already been suggested), an optional Surname bracket would be nice instead. The kind storywriting could use naturally (with either of the names) but would still be able to distinguish all the “Jane” players in the world by their full display name. After all, that’s what surnames pretty much are for IRL x)

Hardly appliable now, but maybe Guild Wars 3?

Orpheal.8263:

LOl @ Donari:

Seriously, learn to where you have to make a draw line …
Do yiu seriously also want to sue now every single person in the world, that shares with you the name too and say them they stole your name too?

This is ridiculous. Nobody has the right to claim names, as if they belong only to them, be it in real life, or be it a a freaking game.
We are only in this situation now, because ANet forcefully artificially limitates for everyone the maximum amount of how oftenly a name can exist in this ganme, so that we even come at all into this shameful situation at all, that people start fighting over names and who or what the hell has here “more rights”, than other players?

Seriously, this discussion has reached a new “low” by this kind of niveau, when we start already discussing about, who has here more rights over names, that it gets really laughable.

And when people already fear personally more, that they MIGHT lose their “reputations” instantly due to some dumb trolls that you find in every single freaking only game there is – this kind of thinking comes over with the bitter taste of biased bad made experiences, that pigeonhole people that you don’t know, but maybe just share with you in a game the same character name instantly into a wrong way, as if every single person that shares with you the same character name is some kind of bad potential “indentidy destroyer” rollyeyes

What kind of bad experiences must someone have made in a game, to have this kind of thinking …. that the very first thing they can think about and fear about when hearing about names should become unrestricted/unlimited in the amount of how often they can be used, that the very first thing that people should under their opinion od is having nothing else in mind, than to copy someone else to destry that persons identity…

Seriously, do some peopel even think for a moment first about what they write, before they write??
Or do you seriously believe, people here have constantly nothing better in their lives to do, than to search for other people to copy them and do bad things under their copied names in the hope they can destroy someones reputation???

How much paranoia must a person have to think from everyone in a game that might share their character name, that this player did this only, to hurt me??
Seriously guys, come back to sense.

Such thinks like these kind of horror scenarios won’t happen, when Anet would allow infinite character name sharing.
And if such things should really happen in a game, then will get situations quickly cleared by the Customer Support who’s still then in the end responsible for persons who violate the game rules and solve the situation quickly through simple and unique identifying tolls with the simplest and strongest identifiyer still being the unique display name which simply can’t be copied as the unique 4 digit number on each display name makes it impossible for wannabe imposters to copie someone with that.

If the Chat would enable everyone at will to quickly see the display names of other players without having to do with that the report procedure just to get to see it (we already see easily the display numbers of other people already in our friend lists ect) and can make from there comparisons if someone is the real or a fake person…
If that would be possible to see easiyl, it woudl improve everythign already alot and would make things alot easier for everyone to recognize in the Chat if somebody writign in it is the same person, or just someone else that uses the same character name.

And still then.. think about it, when Anet would make it possible to share names infinetely, how oftenly do you believe will you come really then into a situation, where you will make discussions with other people and then will participate others with exact the same name??

WHat do you seriously guess, how oftrnly this situation will happen in a game like GW2, where all players are splitted up among several douzens of different world wide servers, speak different languages, may share in most cases only the name, but not the same race, not the same class, have not the same body height and so on.. theres also alot of other factors with that you can differentiate between players, not just only the name.

People should stop to try making out of ants now elefants here …
The issues and problems that people are desperately doomsaying and badmouthing here in order to try for making up “arguements” against infinite name sharing definetely won’t happen here in this game the way they kind of “foresee” that it would happen, unless fortunetelling has become finally a serious “job” that works ….

At this point, it’s likely too costly for the benefit to do the switch over between the system we have no and the one you propose. They won’t see enough added profit to make it worthwhile.

Not to mention, the majority likely don’t care enough to have a strong preference for either system and aren’t going to be that happy or sad regardless of the decision.

But the small portion that would greatly prefer a system like yours is matched by the small portion that greatly prefer the current system. So ANet can’t please everyone. So they may as well just leave it as it is, since neither system is better than the other objectively. Each system has its pros and cons. And whether a system’s pros or cons outweigh the other is subjective.

Food for the thought: how would a Change Name Contract weight on name wipes?

Would that costumer who bought the gems with real life money be flagged for a refund?

City of Heroes did it, and everyone HATED it. There was a massive wave of complaints about it, and they were back several years.

It’s not a good idea.

Orpheal.8263:

People should stop to try making out of ants now elefants here …

I agree. Just use a surname or a little creativity to get a name.

Don’t write walsl of text about a minor issue or argue for a total overhaul of the naming system because you can’t get the EXACT name you want.

As someone whose entire roster of over 20 toons are pop-culture references/cosplays, I do often find exact names are already taken. That being said I’ve always found satisfactory names just by adding their occupation, title, or various other descriptors.

For example during the beta weekends I tried out revenant and after playing dress up decided I could make an ok looking ninja turtle. I managed to reserve ALL 4 TURTLES just by adding their family name “Hamato” (like Hamato Yoshi, so Hamato Leonardo, Hamato Donatello, etc.) . This was after the beta weekends in the middle of the HoT hype train and a couple seasons into Nickelodeon’kitten reimagining of the franchise which is still going strong today. Even if those names were taken (which I was expecting) I would have adapted with something like “Blue Leader Leo” or “Party Dude Mikey” or “T M N T Raphael”.

The same extends to any name. Want to RP as Bob? Maybe Bob is a bartender so you could call him “Bob The Bartender”, “Bartender Bob”, “Bob Booze”. Point is there are near infinite ways to name the same character. Just think beyond the name alone.