(REQUEST) Change Name Restriction Change (That time again!)

Soo... what you're saying, then, is that you didn't read the full text of the original post or anything after.

I think I'd only agree to the goofy @handle bit is that there would be a forced numbering system implemented for the repeat names. I know, that probably wouldn't be feasible, but if someone else would grab Hraesvelg, I'd damn well want something very apparent that it wasn't me. Hraesvelg II@dumbidea, for instance. Griefing seems like it would be too easy.

LOL,

Post about what you want, not about what the topic is, surely the right way to go...

Every time I've seen one of these threads, the debate rages on for many pages. In the end, after the dust has settled, we are typically left with it only being FTP players who would be subjected to this, with something around a sixth month window if inactivity. This seems very fair to me. I would fully encourage this. Guessing it would free up tens of thousands of names.

As for the @handle? No. Distinctive names are one perk those of us who played this game from the beginning should be able to retain.

In CoH, it was my first character "Turret". So: @Turret.
In STO, it was originally your account name, but (much later) they realized it was a bad idea, and allowed everyone to change it. If they wanted to. CoH allowed one change as well.
I totally agree that the @name being the account name is a bad idea.

(emphasis, mine)
I'm all for the 6mo of inactivity thing.

As for the bolded part, I had a name in beta, early access and all through live. He was my main.
When the merge happened, names became first come, first serve (not based on time played, as the devs promised).
I lost that name. It may sound stupid, but it did kill that character for me.
I had other names taken from me during the merge that I had at launch, but those were much less important to me compared to my main. Similarly, I knew a couple people who created NEW characters and took names of players who had been in game a long time (due to the merge).
Anyway, that "perk" appears to not exist to the devs. Or, at the very least, is considered insignificant.

**puts 2 pennies on the table**

kinda how i felt about having to put 00 at the end up my first character Blackout but now i see it as a sig and a ID for one of my character so all my character have 00 at the end of there names

My personal thoughts on this, is that I would not want any player to feeel "robbed" of losing their names because they have had them and want to keep them for whatever reason (inactivity, deployment, broken computer, etc.) Sometimes there's higher priorities in life, ya know?

However, most everyone has gone through difficulty in creating the name that they wanted during character creation to find some alternative. Whether like Solowing or Feenicks or others that as found a way around it and are happy with the solution...there was still a roadblock.

That roadblock, which can be a point of frustration is what I am posting about how to find a solution.

The secret identity (or @Handle) idea is an option to present to the dev team. It can't be the ONLY solution, and maybe they can find a better one (shrug)

If you like the system as it is and claim "first come, first serve"..well that's your right.
My right also is to post alternative options.

At the end of the day, we can work around the current problem as best as possible, but it is still a problem that will continue to grow as the game moves forward and people come and go....unless the current path is changed.

Here's the thing. I'm not coming in here spearheading this for my complete and utter agenda to get a name I want. Far be it. In fact, being here since launch, I have 20+ names that I am proud to own that I didn't need to find alternative ways of spelling. I love them all and use them to some degree or another, so I have no reason to release them.

I'm doing this to benefit the community as a whole, whereas, for me, I could be selfish and not give a rip cause I got the names I want.

So in the end, I'm asking you, the players, the supporter and the nay sayers to think outside of yourself for a moment here and look at the community impact and help show the devs why this is a problem and help create a solution.

Thank you

I believe I posted this in a previous thread, but my solution to this problem would be this:

Free 2 play

Lose their names after a year of inactivity. But, they receive inactivity notifications (via email) at six months, eight months, and right before the names are taken. All they have to do to keep their names is log in once.

Premium

Pretty much the same, but instead of the names being taken forcefully, they have the option to give up their names. They should get inactivity emails every month until they either log in or give up their names.

Legendary

As long as they had a sub, their names cannot be taken, but inactivity emails will be sent with the option. (So basically, premium and legendary are the same since they both paid money into the game)

CONCERNS

Now, in order for the released names to be known, the Devs will either have to have people sign up to get a notification when the name they desire becomes free, or post them on a forum thread.

This I feel well cause problems. We all know that there will be people who abuse this by camping/farming names (and then maybe selling said names for profit). Also, it just makes things first come, first serve again, just more recently.

Another solution would be to allow people to use any name they want, but if they want to use Black Dawn, they are automatically named Black Dawn_II, or whatever number is needed.


EDIT: or they could do the @handle if we get to choose our handle, don't want it to be my station name. I would also like to disable it since I also have a few anti-social characters.

Black Dawn, I see your position and understand why you post it. Good reasoning. Thank you for the solution option.

Question: What if "we" could pick our secret identity (@Handle) name much like we did when creating cahracters? Since it won't be our game player name, rather an in-game account reference...that could be an option so we won't use our personal account info?

Magician,

If we could choose our handles I think that would be the best (if we have to do handles). Maybe an option could be that people who have the "original" name wouldn't have to have the @handle after their name. Also having the option to hide the handle would be ideal. Sometimes I just want to get in my alts and run the seasonal without being bothered/distracted.

EDIT: so with the two different options I put out in this post, those who have original names could hide the handle and those who aren't, cannot. Which seems like people would be upset by this.

The @handle thing can be implemented in a way that doesn't look dumb. Displaying the handle under the name, for instance, outside of chatboxes. Or having the handle as slightly faded (greyed out) text.

I just know that when I came up with the idea for a Rage toon named Mister Splats, I made him immediately even though I knew I wouldn't be using him for a while, because it seemed like a name that would be taken at some point.

Tell that to Star Wars kotor?

What about automatically deleting those characters who have not logged in for 6 months? 6 months it's a pretty safe time span to guess that this player is not coming back.

This option has been discussed and ideally does not seem like the "best solution" for the issue because there are many people that would be upset since...who is anyone to say they won't be coming back? That ramifications for an idea like this could cause player dissatisfaction and cause people to not return if they planned to at a later date. I personally don't like the idea of "renting" my character names.

For more information on people's thoughts about this, please review the previous 5 pages.

Also, you're not really addressing the point of my post. There were tons and tons of people who took 16 names each just so no one else could own them (yeah u might not understand it, but they literally never played a day on those names and this was long before f2p came out.) Those people also left before f2p came out (which is WHY f2p came out,) and the names are held hostage. The people who play and pay NOW shouldn't have to lose out because they weren't "here first." They're here NOW.

Ps - I have it from the highest authority that they are indeed working on figuring out a name change strategy, so the @handle may be coming after all, but if it does I'm still allowed to hate it.

LastSon, I understand your position perfectly. I don't think what they did was right or justifiable. However, with the current incarnation of things, they are in "hostage." Absolutely, I believe that people who are playing "now" should have rights to name availability.

However, in light of keeping options avaialble with minimal impact to "everyone" who has played, plays, or will play...I don't think killing the terrorists (?) is the best solution.

However, I appreciate your response.

I would be interested to learn more if there is an official solution coming for this problem.

Thanks!

Im still unsure as to how this will be displayed.

If its above our heads, it wouldn't be very desirable. However, if this displayed instead of our PSN name, It would make perfect sense.

so OP how do u feel it should be displayed?

Coming form CoH, STO and all those other fun games, I think it should ONLY be displayed when populating a chatbox for replying to, adding into a league or filing a report. Otherwise, I would prefer it hidden as well.

My personal thoughts, thank for asking!

Yeah, @handles usually aren't shown in the map, just our chosen names. They can appear in chatboxes though, I'd like for them to be an option to toggle on or off.

Things have devolved in this thread rather quickly away from the OP.

The OP contains a false statement used as a premise to bring forth the contention that a name change regulation change should take place. I disregarded the OP because a false statement used to present an argument... well, we all know what I mean. It's a moot point. I read the OP then disregarded it, and went on to what the topic at hand has actually become.

Then we have some posts in the thread that have some good ideas on the topic of "name change", and some bad ones too. A good one is that names should not have been limited to one space character in the string.

A really bad one is deleting characters that sit stagnant. Those are the intellectual property of those that created them. Those players are under no obligation to play DCUO on any type of basis - not even once annually - to maintain their characters. Furthermore, people have paid for those characters in many instances. It's like a town official saying to a resident, "We know you own your car, but it's been parked in your garage for 6 months and hasn't been brought on the road, so the town is going to seize that property from you."

The notion is completely ridiculous.