DCUO needs to get a clue from BIOWARE: Name Expirations!

I agree with everything you've said except...:
DCUO does NOT need to get a clue from anyone!
And players who put netspeak, XXX-es and whatnot in their name just to keep the name they're stubbornly refusing to give up are just plain idiots. It makes it harder to message them or reinvite back to a group. Besides, what's so original about Dr. Who or General Zod (Yes, I had to go there )? I made up my own name and it's legen-wait-for-it...

Mepps actually said to convince him of the benefit re-releasing unused names, but to this point I think we've failed. Part of the issue I think is whether or not there is agreement on what an 'inactive' name is (the threshold I'm using is 'not being logged into for one year or longer). Opponents of an inactive name purge say one of two things - once someone has a name it's theirs forever, and/or people just need to get creative. Neither are very compelling arguments in my opinion. My guess is that the actual "cost" to purge inactive names is greater than the perceived benefit (which again, is in real dollars), and thus, no motivation to do it. My guess is their research indicates having 'the perfect name' is not a deal breaker for people wanting to try the game, and as such, they'd rather pour their resources into other ways of rentention (graphics updates, overall game experience, etc.). I will say names are very important to the development of my characters and greatly influence my experience with each character; must be the minority.

I do understand the reasoning behind why people don't like this idea and I'm not trying to say they don't have some merit to them. People on both sides have been betrayed as selfish which is a gross over generalization. For your friends who were waiting for the PS4 release could they have logged into their DCUO account at least once a year to not let their names expire? Actually this might be good for DCUO since it would give players who have been away from the game for a while a reason to log back in and see how things are and maybe stick around for a bit.

It just shows what an awesome MMO this is that the names are so important to us all

while yes it seems simple to just log in from time to time but for some its not possiable like for example: one of my friends when he left dc about a year ago he was fed up and had no plans on comming back yet I know him as he has done that before and a few months later he came back. and then when he left again later he thought again Im done this game just has too many problems and he deleted his system and sold it as this was the only Playstation game he played. but there again they anouncd in july that DCUO will be ported to PS4 well when they anounced that he was excited to play it again as it was system problems that he disliked most and now wants to play again on PS4 which he is getting at tax time. and when he logs in he exspects to be able to play his characters again.. this is just one example of one person and many others have there own reasons as stated before. these people I know have spent tons of money on this game and when they come bac kwill spend much more and if this was implimented they wouldnt return and these are exsperianced players not like most of the low quality players we have now. I do not support people losing their names when game goes under and servers are off line yall can have what ever names you want on the game you go to next (IF YOU GET IT FIRST) but you dont have a right to names someone else has in this one as long as it is still going

they have. the contract is = we pay money; they let us play their game.

a player is only entitled to play the game. they are not entitled to keep names. they don't own them.

there is proof. they cancelled their payments and stopped playing the game. that is proof they left. if they ignore the game for a year. that is also proof. if they ignore EVERY reminder or notice to log in to keep their names, that is ALSO proof.

if they want to come back they can log in 1 time a year or pay a name parking subscription.

also, for zod's sake, we are NOT talking about copyright names. those are locked in every MMO. we are not talking about copying iconic names.

if you run a restaurant and i leave without paying... do you call the police on me? or do you wait a couple years to see if i come back and pay? you should NEVER go into business. ever.

there is not. most of the names you all have claimed were great, are absolutely horrible and stupid names.

it does make sense. that's why every game with a static namespace like ours does this.

it does NOT hurt returning players. any player who plans to return will log into their account at least one time a year OR will pay for a name parking subscription OR can contact support to inform them they aren't able to log in for some reason. returning players WILL NOT lose their names. only players who aren't going to return or ignore their notices will lose their names.

ahhh see, this is the true way you and opponents in this argument really think. you think players who aren't happy with existing names are stupid or trying to take names that are locked out from copyright. this is where the argument of "first come, first serve" comes from -- it's a form of elitism in the game... having a cool name means you've been there from the beginning and are a vet OR you're very creative. it's an unspoken badge of honour.

yeah, no. this is garbage and not a business reason.

they're not customers unless they are paying and playing regularly. they're not entitled to keep anything anymore. that's how EVERY business AND MMOs work. get over it.

you want to keep your name for 3 years? sure, no problem -- PAY up. lol

this is the very definition of entitlement.

it is SELFISH to want to keep names for people (your friends?) who quit playing years ago, hoping they might come back; instead of letting the new players who want to pay and play right now, have them. that is ENTITLEMENT.

there might be players coming back to the game with the PS4 launch because of how crappy the ps3 is. but if they wanted their names, they will log in at least once to keep their name OR make arrangements to keep their names.

no. you cannot have a name unless you pay/play and use it. that's it.

Mepps actually is not a Dev. Mepps is the community manager and the liaison between the Devs and the playerbase. his responsibility is to communicate information shared on the forums and social media to the Devs and release information from the Devs to the community. he doesn't develop any part of the game. it's not his decision to decide if name purging is beneficial to the game or not, or if it will happen. it is a large business decision to be made by the lead Devs like Larry Liberty, Spytle, Deadmeat.

I never said Mepps was a Dev nor did I say he was the decision maker in this discussion. He did, however, respond to posts in this thread and did in fact say that he wasn't convinced a name purge to appease current and future players outweighed the benefits of a potential return to the game by previous players. While he may not be the 'decider' with regard to any such name re-release, as you say - he's the liaison between this board and those who are in a position to make such a decision. So while I thank you for your response to my post, I don't know that it was necessary. If Mepps is the conduit of information between the two parties in question, and if he said he needs to be convinced such a decision is good for the game, it makes sense to include his name and quotes in this discussion especially if he has the discretion to determine what, if any, discussion we have here is worth taking up the food chain.

I have a friend who is lost to DCUO because of naming frustration and I would expect that he is not a unique little snowflake either. There are also many people who try the game and don't like it and leave for good. Unfortunately those accounts have tied up a name that someone who does play the game would like to make use of but can't. I don't want to see people like your friend there loose his characters' names so there would have to be some mechanisms in place to handle accounts like that. There have been some suggestions about the person getting an email before their name expires to provide them with options on how to keep it.

i know. i'm just pointing this out because it's not his decision and some people may be thinking it is. Mepps "saying no" or not is irrelevant. we don't "need" to convince Mepps. the issue stands on it's own merit. i guarantee you that someone in that office has dicsussed this before our discussion here. it just helps to convince Mepps of the merits of this as he is then an advocate when coming back to the devs with our feedback, rather than being an opponent. leaguemates (who do not post on the forums) have been discussing this thread and several expressed absolute disappointment in Mepps' casual dismissive response. but i'm sure he relays ALL feedback regardless of his personal feelings towards it.

i'm relatively certain that the issue is open to discussion or this thread would have been closed by now; just like the discussion that preceded shared SPs. there was a week of back and forth in several threads before Spytle confirmed that it was happening.

were you fail to see mouse is that both of these list mine and yours are no more valid than the other one they are both OP your ideas on the topic are a valid way of seeing it just as mine are, both make business since to one group or another. both cant be happy. but inless they can get a true cash increase by letting these names go they arent going to change anything because it isnt cost efective to change for no real advantage other than to cater to the complainers.

again all we are doing with this is spinning our wheels as nothing we say changes our views since the whole issue is OP driven on how the game should handle this issue but its not up to us to deside its SOE

Certainly, they're sensitive to the name issue - for those here when the server merge was announced, all anyone cared about what whether or not they would get to keep their names. I wonder how many folks who were lucky enough to keep their names during the server merge have left the game never to return? I was relieved I got to keep a few names, especially my main. And what I find funny/ironic is that when the server merge occurred, the criteria used to determine which player got to keep a name in the event of a collision was 'time played' on said character. Now, that doesn't appear to carry as much weight.

I hate the idea unless there would be an insurance policy to pay DCUO every year per name to keep our name like 15 dollars per toon so we don't lose our names do to loss of job cause usually loss of job means everything gets cut off and finding work is very hard these days. I have 17 toons so the cost to keep all my Toons names would be 255 dollars for name keep insurance.

THEY ARE WRONG. the TERMS OF SERVICE says you don't own your name and says that they are wrong. THIS IS A FACT.

how many times does this need to be said?

it is A BUSINESS not a CHARITY.

you are WRONG. ALL MMOs with a fixed namespace like ours must perform name purges at a specific level of "capacity" to ensure their players are getting optimal service because of this problem in generating DESIRABLE names. i have ALREADY given FOUR examples of LEADING MMOs which do this and by giving this example i am proving your statement here is WRONG.

there is not infinite DESIRABLE names and that is what is being discussed. "aasdlfjasdfkl;" is not a desirable name but names like that are infinite.

i don't need to justify ANYTHING because i'm not doing anything wrong. there is NOTHING wrong with recycling names used by players who have QUIT the game. those people are GONE. they're not coming back or they will log in within 365 days if they want to come back. how many times does this have to be said?

no, it is a FACT that those are not business reasons. and that is why it is.

WRONG.

Everquest, World of Warcraft, City of Heroes and StarWars; the Old Republic are ALL MMOs with established reputations and are LEADERS in the industry.

it is NOT an opinion. that IS the actual definition of entitlement. that's what that word means. entitlement is the belief that you deserve something that you don't earn, pay, or work for.

i'm not failing to see anything Drathmor. yes you are WRONG again. your opinion is uniformed and invalid. i'm not sharing my own opinion at all... i've explained why BUSINESSES choose to conduct themselves in this situation. this is NOT my opinion this is how THE INDUSTRY does things with cited EXAMPLES that have been explained at length.

and YES we've ALREADY explained MANY MANY MANY ways this will generate revenue. from new forms of subscriptions, to name change token sales to customer satisfaction to long term player retention. and YOUR OPINION says MAYBE a customer will come back someday and give the game some money.

you have absolutely no sense of how to run a business at all.

on PAGE2 (Click Here) i suggested a new subscription model to effectively "park your character names".

for $2/mo ($24/year) ALL of your character names on that account are reserved.

it's ironic. definitely. sigh.

Our devs are greedy I'm just giving them a 100% bonus. I log in once a 4 times a year with my Alts to run Seasonal content only till I'm ready to start actively using them however nothing is certain and honestly you would need a year sub to insure you never miss a payment do to loss of job.

How does this sound?

Legendary Players = Never lose names, do not have to log in regularly.
Free/Premium Players = Log in once per year per character to keep name.
Inactive Names = SOE sends email to account holder of names that have not been logged into for one year with a notice to log in to (enter character name) to keep said character name active, otherwise the name will be released for immediate use (and a rename token will be issued to your account).

your taking a few comments and making it my whole argument and that is wrong. me and others have given many reasons why we disagree and most are just as valid as the ones you state trust me i understand business and i understand criers and i know it cost money to make changes and the changes you want arent cost effective for the devs to spend programming time on this with out significant return and nothing you have sugested proves your assumptions are right with how people will spend their money. this movement is driven by a want not a need and is unjustified because the reasoning behind it is flawed in its belife that it will fix the outlying problem of people gettting good names because it wont fix the problem because there isnt one.

I hate that I have to keep writing in this thread because it is going nowhere but I refuse to let yall strong arm the conversation

i didn't bother reading any of this. you're factually WRONG. claiming that you're not wrong doesn't change the fact that you're wrong. you need factual information to back up a claim that you're not wrong. rather than share some opinions and ideas about something, how about you go out and research what you're talking about and how other games are doing things and why they do them.

awesome. remember to click LIKE on Magicians OP.

I don't like it I'm just saying the truth. This games about money mind you each post was sarcastic.

I'm not saying there is a problem but how do you know that there isn't one? Also I've seen a lot of people say that something like this isn't cost effective but there isn't any hard data to back that up either. Besides there have been lots of changes to DCUO that I'm sure wouldn't be considered cost effective but are done to improve current state of the game.
The direction of the thread is a result of those that have posted in it. If it is going nowhere then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Sounds like gold to me!
It would only take logging in once a year to keep your account untouched. Even if you are FTP, all you need do is log in once. Even if you were hospitalized for over a year, I'm sure you have at least one friend (unless you're AceOspadeS or Airsupreme) that would log in for you.