Policy Makers need to discuss new naming policy, IMO

I understand, unfortunately both systems do have flaws. I am glad your names were here but you must understand you are an extreme outlier to the normal standings. That is not to say your voice is invalid I actually greatly appreciate hearing from someone like you. It proves that there are players who return after very long timeframes. Though if you have unique names the chances of it being taken go down significantly.

Maizing is far less a common name than say Gaandallf or something equally generic.

If it's truly as you describe, they can probably find a different server...after all, they are new by your own scenario, otherwise they would probably already have that name. Yeah, maybe they want to try it out and be with friends, etc but most probably, they are just looking to play the game and the server isn't important.

That said, if they are late to the party, they can get a new name in that game if they want to play on a specific server. It's happened a few times to me...no big deal. Sometimes I run into forums which I have other interests that I have that problem. Again, no big deal, I am not expecting someone else go give up their forum name just because they have 1 post 5 years ago.

If you didn't get on first...again, why is it that you feel ENTITLED to the name? Why do you want someone else's baggage? What name is so gosh darn important that you must absolutely have it at all costs? Jabober_01?

Which keeps the game going?

• New Players
• People who haven't logged in for 4 years.

Which keeps guilds full of active members?

• New Players
• People who haven't logged in for 4 years.

Which helps bring in $$$ to SoE?

• New Players
• People who haven't logged in for 4 years.

New players shouldn't be having to use nameslikethisplustenletters or lookicanfacerollmykeyboard, because someone 5 years ago took the 4 letter ones.

If the name is so completely unimportant that you really don't need it then the person who hasn't logged in in 5 years clearly doesn't need it that much either. Why should they be entitled to a name for a game they probably aren't ever going to log into again.

logical argument in a pay to play subscription service, illogical in a FTP model. Anyone that cannot come up with a unique name needs to learn to search the hundreds of sites out there that cater to fantasy name generation or even hit the hundreds of sites that list various other names for other countries, and genres such as Viking names or other names

i think it has to be more than 3 letters. i have a few with 5 letters and some with 4 but when i tried to do anything shorter i got that the name wasn't long enough

i like the idea of having to approve for a friend's list. it might be a little anti-social, but sometimes it is just too easy to find people who may be avoiding you. there was a guy one time who was always after my chanter on eq1 to do spells for him. she didn't mind doing spells, but he would have no mats, some of which are expensive and he always claimed not to have money for mats or ingredients. when i refused to do any more - especially when it got to higher levels and in eq1 you often lose the entire combine no matter how good you are at it, he began to pester other people in my guild to do them for free. he would add any researchers he found to his friend's list and check daily to see who was on. this was just one example of friend list abuse- there are tons more.

I've played LOTRO for quite a while and often take long breaks from the game. i have mules as well as toons who are quite high in crafting there. I have never come back to find my names changed- knock on wood

yeah they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but it didn't quite feel like that when i say a level 2 on eq1 who copied my chanter- same race, same style of hair, etc, and same name- just spelled slightly different. i only hope she doesn't get a bad rep and someone think it is me. names do count in reputation on games. i use the same names for my toons on all of the games i play too. and i use the same toons in beta. people know it is me when they see me if they know me from the other games i play.

i find it interesting that on yahoo, and other social services, if you try to get a name that is already taken, it is declined even if that account has been inactive for years- and no one makes a fuss about it.

hmmm- new players? or new paying players? i think if you are ftp or even silver you shouldn't have a vote in names. and i always thought that people who use long names did so to make a statement. i have about 30 toons on different accounts all on the same server and have never had a problem coming up with names. when i use a long name like jusledouxit or iaintdunnit - it's because i am making a statement- not because i ran out of acceptable names

edit- oh and i do play them- most are over 20

Probably because Yahoo is nothing like an MMO? And personally, I'd rather not play an MMO where I have to interact with Suka994. That kind of naming is probably the biggest immersion killer out there.

It's not so much an original name as a name that's meaningful to that player. And it's one thing to have a favorite name not be available because someone's actively playing that character, another entirely to find out you couldn't get it because it's taken by a level 1 guardian who's still on Isle of Refuge (not Queen's Colony or Outpost of the Overlord, Isle of Refuge) with all of 15 minutes of play time.

suka994? who's that? my name is suka- or is this a kind of dig at me?

how do you find out those things? i am really curious. plenty of times i try for a name and it is taken but i have no clue as to how to find out who owns it. if i do a /who when i get in the game, all i see is who is on in my zone at that time.

Not a dig, it's an example. Services like Yahoo don't allow duplicate names, instead they just add numbers on the end. EQ2 and every other respectable MMO does not do that, because it kills immersion. If we followed their example, you may be Suka, but then there'd be a Suka1, Suka2, Suka7, possibly all the way up to Suka994.

kk i get it- and on eq we would be sukaa, sukaaa, sukara, sukia and so on -- seen it lots of times

Try to add one letter. See what happend Rhitalin or Rittalin or some such. Play with letters that sound the same. You may get a result.

/petitioned?

It's hard (for me, YMMV) to imagine that someone trying out a game will download it, get to character creation, then quit before even playing because they can't use a specific name.

I can see someone who played previously, left for whatever reason, then came back to characters with the original names removed - deciding not to play again. I understand people are wanting to put time limits on it (time gone? hours played?) but it seems like a lot of extra work for coders that might be better spent on things that actually need "fixing".

Again, this is just my take on it, but I like to be creative with character names, reading up on the racial traditions, then looking for names that have a meaning that might "fit" with the race and class I have chosen. As someone else mentioned, anyone who is trying to "reserve" a name on all the servers will probably be spending a good bit of SC since EQ2 isn't like LotRO - where you get a set amount of characters slots on every server available - here, you have to choose your slots/servers wisely.