Hi, my name is.......

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Cicelee, Jul 20, 2020.

  1. Jhenna_BB Proudly Prestigious Pointed Purveyor of Pincusions

    In another MMO, I was a founder. I came and went as farm mode in EQ allowed. I lost my name the first server merger that ever happened. The other player simply had more days played. It was only fair to strip the name. EQ absolutely should do the same with inactive accounts.
  2. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    I can empathise, I server-moved my original Berserker & didn't think to create a placeholder for the name should I ever return, I quit the game a few months after the move never really expecting to return.

    Came back to EQ after a 7 year hiatus could no longer play on the server I had moved him to so moved it back to its original server only to find his name had now been taken by someone else, hard luck me.

    Regardless of the circumstances if the name is taken it's taken in my view, while I totally understand how emotionally invested in that character name you probably are, someone beat you to it on that server & if they were to show up to find their name was gone they might be just as badly emotionally upset about losing as you are about not being able to use it, it doesn't matter if they made it the day before you arrived or twenty years ago, doesn't matter if they haven't played in a few months or a decade.

    There is no relativism worth getting into on names, pick a new name & move on.
    The can of worms isn't worth opening.
  3. Triconix Augur

    Shall I clarify further? I thought it was fairly straight forward what I meant. An inactive account of X amount of time and not paying for the services of the game should be purged. It's just simple clean up and maintenance. There's no need to clog storage for junk that has not been logged into in 10+ years, especially since there are no legal issues at stake.

    As someone who does a lot of work in IAM (Identity & Access management), purging of old and unused accounts should be a standard practice. This isn't your personal memoir. It's a product which is owned by a company and they should maintain the environment and not leave stale garbage around. You want to keep it for personal reasons? Open up that wallet and pay for it.

    Yes, the person returning should follow this advice. You lost your name from inactivity? Too bad. A person that is still playing and plans to continue to play should not lose their name due to some random stale account that hasn't been logged into in over a decade. That's just bad business in not keeping your customers happy.
  4. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

  5. Cicelee Augur

    No.

    Your active F2P accounts are fine. Because the key word here is ACTIVE. They are in use in game.

    But Bob, who has not logged into EQ since 2003 and has no intentions or desires to return to Norrath, really should not be holding onto name XYZ that someone may want who is ACTIVE. And to be perfectly honest, I seriously doubt Bob gives a halfling if his level 37 dwarf paladin named Dagnor becomes Dagnorx so that someone who is ACTIVE and wants to have a character named Dagnor can do so.
  6. Cragzop Cranky Wizard

    You decided to move...it was not forced.

    You either did not check before the move about your name (a less than 5 minute exercise) or you checked and decided to move anyway.

    Sounds like it's your fault that your toon had to change names.

    People can make whatever arguments for forced server mergers and names they want. None of that applies here.

    Didn't have to move the toon if the name meant so much to you. You did anyway. Live with the consequences and move on. Like everyone else did when you brought the nerf.
  7. Buster_Shruggs Augur

    How about Ciicelee? :) An extra vowel never hurt! I've done that for different toons also or when a name I wanted wasn't available.
  8. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    I am not worried about any of my accounts, I was using that as an example. So no more what if's here is a what was:

    Ticka a revered player who was taken from the game too soon due to a car accident in 2007, had a sword in the game named after him. He was a great player. We all got together and did the raid to make it drop and Ticka's real life father logged into Ticka's account and looted the sword. It was epic and a great overture to his father of how much he meant to everyone on that server. No one has logged into Ticka's account since then, about 14 years.

    Just some of the lore of the game. But hey, let someone else have his name. I have seen a few running around with names close to his, trying to imitate it but you can tell they are just fly by nights and will be gone from the game soon.

    I use him as an example but there are many others whose names stand for something in this game. There is no way to know if the name means something to someone or not. Nuff said.
  9. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    There is nothing to say that this char isn't on an active account and someone is playing on a different char.

    I've recently returned to a char I haven't played for 10 years, I'd be pissed if her name had been changed through no fault of her own, just because I found another char I enjoyed, especially on an account that had been subscribed for 20 years.

    Anyone changing servers (not merged) should know by now they run the risk of losing their char name.
    CatsPaws and Corwyhn Lionheart like this.
  10. Cicelee Augur

    Well this situation would not apply to you, since the account has been active for 20 years. I am not suggesting that alts on an active account get changed names; I am suggesting characters on accounts that have not been logged on for 10 years (or whatever time frame could be decided upon) no longer have first priority exclusive naming rights to a name that the actual person behind the account has long since left. And I am referring to the account not be logged in for 10 years, not the 7th alt on the account on a server that is no longer played on.

    I knew the risks involved with the name change. I knew the server i went to did not have that name. I chose to anyways because the situation on the other server was more beneficial to my character and far more important than a name. Having said that, if there was a situation where the person who "owns" the name on the new server has not logged into EQ on any account since 2003.... why does that person still "own" that name? Do we really expect them to come back in 2020? And if they DO come back (the 0.001 percent chance it happens), then they still get their name back! A petition to remove the x from their name, a quick search on the account to see that it was added due to inactivity, and then all is done. No harm, no foul.

    If it bothered me, I would not have transferred servers. It doesn't bother me now. It was merely a thought I had. I am 99.999% confident it will not come about, so it is merely a discussion point if anything. But I am glad to see some of you are far more emotional and invested against this than I am for it...
  11. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    I still think the question is why should someone else lose their name because you decided to move servers? I think this would be a different matter if EQ had an actual policy in place to deal with inactive characters but that could be hard to implement at this point in the games life cycle. As an example WoW has a policy to automatically free up names after a certain amount of time with no activity on that character regardless of the account status or someone wanting the name.

    In truth for EQ I am not sure it would be worth the dev or cs time to either create an automated system to do the work or the manual work needed to track down characters, check if they are active and make any changes that are determined.

    https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/000011226
    Yinla and Skuz like this.
  12. Triconix Augur

    Oh I get it. You want names preserved for possible sentimental and/or memorial reasons. Again, DPG isn't in business to do that. They are in business to have people enjoy their games. A person who isn't paying/playing anymore is no longer a customer and should no longer remain a priority. That's like business 101. It comes off as harsh, but that's the reality of it. DPG is in the business to make money and someone that isn't paying them is someone that isn't helping their business. They should be trying to keep their current customers happy and if that means purging accounts that are unused for X amount of time without an active subscription, then so be it.

    My company just lost a well renowned and respected doctor to COVID. You know what's going to happen to his account in about 7 years? It will get deleted. You know what's going to happen to his mailbox in about 3 months? It will get deleted, unless on litigation hold and last I checked it was not.

    If you want to have a memorial or something to honor a lost guildie/friend/family member then do it with your resources. This is a problem that many people have understanding. A business doesn't operate with emotions like individuals. At the end of the day it's trying to make money. Don't expect a company to use their resources, free of charge, to do a nice thing because you have some emotional attachment to it. If that emotional attachment meant that much to you then pay for it. That's really what it comes down to.

    Why should someone who is no longer a customer be entitled to that name over an active customer? Especially if that ex-customer hasn't been a customer in a decade or more? What benefit is that to DPG? They aren't making money from leaving that around.
    Seor, Coagagin and Chopin.Xegony like this.
  13. Password1234 Augur

    I think "why should someone get to keep a name if they decided not to play anymore?" is a valid question.
    Zarzac likes this.
  14. Veteran_BetaTester PIZZA!



    I clicked this thread just because of the title thinking the exact same song ;)

    I agree Corwyhn, a lot of old GM support (that is now gone) should be offered to us 'somehow'.

    That is actually how it is on my server, you buy his (the one that seems to 3rd party play/helping to gear everyone in the guild) loot with $ then you get a ' good word ' on your app.
    On that topic, #Lack of GM support. #Game is dying.
  15. Waring_McMarrin Augur


    That is why I brought up the point of it being different if there was a policy for handling names taken by inactive characters. It is one thing to lose a name because there is a well documented policy in place to handle inactive characters but a different one because someone decided to transfer to the server the character is on.

    As for the situation in question here we have no way of knowing if the character in question that has the name is in an inactive account and the player has quit the game or if it is on an active account and that character either isn't used much or just hasn't been online at the right times.

    There really isn't anyway for a player to determine the status of an account of a random character.
  16. Leex Pewpewer

    Has anyone mentioned the trolls who steal names on different servers because they have no life, and want to be spiteful?

    Those are the worst.



    Looking @ you Drinal & Cazic.
  17. yepmetoo Abazzagorath

    Because the expectation of their current PAYING customers is that their accounts are offered the same "protection".

    Its called, "good business sense".

    Might as well ask why we have to uphold diplomatic immunity after criminal acts, or the geneva convention acts against torture, or let people charged with crimes have rights. Those more real world and extreme examples have the same point though, its not to protect one person, its to protect everyone.
    Elyssanda and Yinla like this.
  18. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    There are a few names, that if they appeared on the server again that would upset a few people and possibly cause them to freak out.

    Every char on a server has a history, they have mixed with lots of different people on the server, some have passed on to the big gaming land in the sky, having someone show up with their name wouldn't be right. We have a couple still in the guild, we have a vendor that looks identical to one of them, they are not forgotten.

    To some it isn't just a name it is a person, a memory.

    And I'm sure players turning up on the server with those names don't want tells saying "I thought you were dead".
    Corwyhn Lionheart likes this.
  19. Xyphen Maximum Augur

    Dear MyPrevious401k, I've been having issues logging in to access my previous tax documents. What happened?

    MyPrevious401k: We deleted your account and purged your data because it was old.

    Stay away from my databases, sir.

    Sure, if some naked, level 1 on your server that hasn't played in 15 years has your name -- maybe they should X it. Anything much beyond that is just ridiculous.
  20. Triconix Augur

    [
    Not really comparable, but sure. I manage multiple databases and it's literally in our legal policy documents to purge old accounts of former employees. You do realize that major corporations delete things all the time? Take away an 0365 license and your mailbox will be permanently deleted in 30 days. User comes back because they need data for it? Too bad, it's gone. It was corporate data anyways and they lose all privileges to it the second they walked out the door.

    At the end of the day, you cannot compare 401k financial documents with an unused, unpaid character. A 401k is an ongoing active account.
    Lmao that's not even close to comparable. You're comparing a game to a person who commits first degree murder? Those people have rights because they are written LAWS AND TREATIES. Its ILLEGAL to do otherwise. There's no legal issue with renaming or deleting an unused character in a game. What an absolutely idiotic comparison.

    Paying customers have protection...because they are paying. Non paying former customers don't have any protection because they arent customers? How is that so difficult to understand? A person who doesnt pay for a service isn't a customer. Why should they be entitled to any protection? A citizen of Canada shouldn't expect the protection of the United States military in times of a crisis just because they once had a visa for the US.
    Coagagin and Chopin.Xegony like this.