Character names already taken - PURGE!

Tonight I conceived a great RP idea for a female Sylvari Necromancer. Went through the character creator, got to the final step of naming her, and every single name I could think of was taken. Even with the help of Wikipedia and dozens of tries, I could not find a fitting name for her and ended up giving up on the concept. GW2 seriously needs to purge all the idle low level characters out there that are just taking up names for people to "reserve" names or whatever.

I have three names that I would really like that are already taken. It used to be four but one of them freed up one week and I nabbed it :)

But I don't think it would be fair for those names to be taken away from the players who are currently using them. First come first served seems appropriate for this case . . .

For me, when I can't use a name I like I normally go for adding a second name. I can't recall a time that didn't fix the problem for me. I know a lot of other players use alternate spellings as another way to fix it, but I prefer the second name. If you can't find something you like, I feel like you're probably limiting yourself unnecessarily . . .

How do you know that the names you wanted are on “ idle low level characters”?

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:How do you know that the names you wanted are on “ idle low level characters”?

I know several of mine are. Just mules or birthday farmers or however you want to think of them. But I bought the slots and made the toons, and I hope to play them all someday though I know I won't. Trying to decide which toons are or aren't 'worthy' of saving is probably one of the reasons anet with with the current system . . .

Anet have stayed they will not purge names and that is the correct thing to do imo. There are infinite number of names so as long as creativity is shown, this should never be an issue

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:How do you know that the names you wanted are on “ idle low level characters”?

I don't on an individual basis. But I know it's a toxic practice that I have seen here and in other games as well. When I can go through an entire encyclopedic list of plant names and not find ONE I can use, there's a problem, because there's just not that many people playing this game.

Just think of better names. I never had any problems finding a name for my characters and never was a name I chose already taken. Just don’t name your character Legolas or Gandalf and you will be fine.

I do not think Anet will ever do a purge of low level characters (like Everquest did a few times) for the simple reason of the Birthday presents getting better and better, the older your toon gets. Nice dyekits(the sixth year dye kit lets you choose Permafrost, the whitest dye in the game and costing hundreds of gold on the TP), Experiencescrolls for your key runners (the higher scrolls also opening up the better level up rewards like Boosters) and more.

The outrage would be humongous.

I never really had a problem thinking up names for the myriad of characters on all my Alt accounts, I do often use this name generator though and then tweak myself. https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/fairy_names.php Please note that they also provide a lot of of other themes for names, not just Fantasy. Regular names, cultural names from lots of countries, everything.

The fact that you can have a first and second name, where only a single character needs to be different then someone else name, makes it real easy. Unless off course you MUST have that one name you thought of.

Not going to happen and Anet has said they aren't going to do that. It's completely unfair to the person who chose the name first, especially since it's impossible to know if they're never going to come back to the game or on hiatus due to real life circumstances. Sure you may be attached to a name as concept, but that doesn't mean people aren't attached to the same name on their existing character.

Also, think of other names to try. Add titles. Do two or more names. Look at the massive fantasy name generator site (that actually has a GW2 section!). If you want a meme name or the name of a character from a different piece of media, you're probably out of luck. If you go original names—especially with the aforementioned addition of a title or multiple names—it's far easier to find a name that isn't taken. I have 35 characters currently (spanning since launch to the latest being created in December) and only three ever weren't taken. One was a meme name, one was a pun, and the third was plant-based and everything was taken for some reason, so I just made her last name "Plantsbane" out of frustration and she's been Plantsbane ever since, and honestly she's more memorable because of it.

Be original. You can also rush through character creation to try names you want. If you find one that's free, you can delete the character and remake them properly as your account reserves the name of a character for 24 hours after deletion.

@Jimbru.6014 said:

@"Randulf.7614" said:Anet have stayed they will not purge names and that is the correct thing to do imo. There are infinite number of names so as long as creativity is shown, this should never be an issue

I agree because after 7 years they needs to make "Search" box much bigger so people can see before posting same Ideas that will get same answers

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/9755/name-purge-its-about-time

You can't have my names. I kinda like them.

But maybe for 1000G?

How much is a name worth to you?

@Jimbru.6014 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:How do you know that the names you wanted are on “ idle low level characters”?

Names that you want but can’t get because someone else has already thought of that name and created a char for it is not a toxic practice.

You can use last names. If you wanted, for example, a necro named Nightshade you can use Nightshade as a first name and pick a last name. The name will almost certainly go through.

Dont forget that you can use sirnames.

Plant names to try:Albartine MoonblossomAvon RosethornCurly Sue WheaterleafBalsam WhitebloomRowan Björk (or Björk)

I never had problems finding names in this game and also this topic is a pretty beaten dead horse ?

I guess one improvement they could make is to move naming to the first step instead of the last, since it is the only place in character creation where failure is possible . . .

@Jimbru.6014 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:Anet have stayed they will not purge names and that is the correct thing to do imo. There are infinite number of names so as long as creativity is shown, this should never be an issue

This isn’t one of those bad decisions though. The naming system is incredibly flexible. Previous threads have shown large community support for no purging. There is no criteria for determining lapsed account names given players drop in and out all the time and Anet want players to feel their names are safe.

I have two unplayed characters in two years - I’d be furious if they took them away. Same if I took an extended break which many players do

Yep, I support Anet on this. I have seen sooo many people return after not having played for years. Also, say you really really really really want the name Steve. Steve is probably taken, I'm assuming, but what about these options(or similar):

Prefixes: Scoundrel Steve, Sassy Steve, Seksi Steve, Courageous Steve, Mister Steve, Lord Steve, Poor Steve, Stealthy Steve, etcSuffixes: Steve Eclipse, Steve Smith, Steve Sondgarten, Steve (any lastname, really)Identifiers: Steve Chrono, Steve Firebrand, Support Stevewvw: Big Daddy Steve, Steve Goes Deep, Steve Aintaktrainpvp: Steve Inurface, Tuuveeoneme Steveaccount similarity names: For this, say the account name is Greystoke. So you might have Grim Greystoke, Steve Greystoke, Greystoke Goes Deep, Greystoke Won'thealyou, etc. These names, on the same account even, can range from serious roleplay-Lord Greystoke, to roles, to silly-Greystoken Giggles. For each new character, just fit that account name in somehow.

You can almost always fit a name to a concept using something like that, no alt letters necessary.

@Randulf.7614 said:

@Jimbru.6014 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:Anet have stayed they will not purge names and that is the correct thing to do imo. There are infinite number of names so as long as creativity is shown, this should never be an issue

This.

I had to stop playing for three years due to RL engagements and no internet during the time. If i had came back and my characters names had been wiped i would have left without a second though.

Add to that, i have never ever had a name be rejected unless it was a very common name(add a last name, problem solved.) or one from pop culture. I have 3 named after characters from MLP on my account, one of them was taken for 6 years and i tried it one day and i got it.

I've had to modify the original name idea of about half of my characters, but never too much.

The problem is essentially single-word names. My two Humans, two Charr and one Norn all had two-word names in the [Given name] [surname] format (surnames being family name for human, warband-based name for Charr and a deed name for Norn) and all five whent through at first try as far as I can remember.

Meanwhile my two Asura and two Sylvari, who by lore use single-word names, all had do add or modify something.

A list:Race+profession - Planned name - Final nameSylvari Mesmer - Froich - FroíchSylvari Warrior - Grainne - Grainne of the DawnAsura Necromancer - Raaki - Necromancer RaakiAsura Engineer - Tokk - Engineer Tock(I forgot the double k, I'm honestly thinking about changing this to get it right)

Yes - the asura name additions are unimaginative, but they got me the core of their names with zero further experimentation. I don't think I've ever been stuck on the name choice for more than two minutes after I've actually settled on a base name.

Please use the forums search feature. Discussion already exists. https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/95000/its-7-years-and-still-no-name-reset-why

I make new characters on a regular basis and the only times I have trouble getting the names I want are when I'm copying a name from somewhere or using a fairly obvious joke name (like trying to call a ranger Bear With Me). Or, occasionally if I'm just typing random letters until it looks vaguely name-like. If I'm actually trying to come up with an original name I rarely have problems, and often find several variations are available. (When I'm making a permanent character I spend a lot of time planning them out, which includes trying out a few different variations of the name to see how it looks, what people I play with shorten it to etc.)

Even when my first choice is taken I'm able to find an available name using one or more of these methods. They won't all work for all names, but between them I've been able to find an available version of any name I wanted:

• Change the spelling - sometimes even one letter added, removed or changed is enough.
• Change the wording. If the name means something or is referencing something maybe you can change it slightly? For example 'Silverwind' to 'Silvergale'.
• Change the language. If the name means something and the English (or Latin for plant names) version is taken try using an online translator to convert it to a different language. For sylvari names Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, Manx and Old English would be especially lore appropriate (plus older versions of all of those), but any language you like can work.
• Add a last name. If you're not worried about the lore then it works for all characters, if you are then humans have family names, norn have names referencing a parent, family or their own achievements and almost all charr have a warband name made up of two words.
• Add a title. This works for all characters and can go before or after the name. If you know what story choices you'll make you could pick one your character will get anyway like Lightbringer or Commander. Or make something up.

Edit: Other ideas which I personally don't like using but which do work are to add accented letters in place of normal ones (e.g. Stevé instead of Steve) or to add something random before/after like X Steve X or Steve Il.

@"Jimbru.6014" said:Tonight I conceived a great RP idea for a female Sylvari Necromancer. Went through the character creator, got to the final step of naming her, and every single name I could think of was taken. Even with the help of Wikipedia and dozens of tries, I could not find a fitting name for her and ended up giving up on the concept. GW2 seriously needs to purge all the idle low level characters out there that are just taking up names for people to "reserve" names or whatever.

Was it Amanita? That's what I always call my female sylvari necromancers. Especially after I found out that other than 'death cap' one of the common names for those mushrooms is 'destroying angel'. Of course Amanita itself is taken, but I'm always able to find something with slight variations.

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:How do you know that the names you wanted are on “ idle low level characters”?

That's what I always think when these topics come up. People who make these topics always seem certain that the names they want are on accounts which haven't been logged into in years, or low level characters that are never played, but to me it seems equally likely they belong to people who still log in and even if a purge did happen they wouldn't be available. Then what's the solution? Shift the goal posts and remove even more names from other players?

@Gop.8713 said:I guess one improvement they could make is to move naming to the first step instead of the last, since it is the only place in character creation where failure is possible . . .Easy to work around: click through character creation without bothering, pick a name and delete the character. The name will be reserved for 24 hours (IIRC) so you have plenty of time to create the character for real.

I wonder if the name 'Certs Fo' Romms' is available for the OP.

Anytime a name I've wanted has been taken, I just got creative and amended the name. Add a surname, add a title, change the spelling, or use accented characters. Players who have to take extended breaks from the game shouldn't have their character names revoked just because they haven't been able to log in, nor should the players who have low level characters that do nothing have their names revoked just because other players can't be a bit more creative.

At launch, I decided to use plant-based names for my Sylvari characters and made two. About a year later, I deleted one of them because I wanted the slot for something else (yeah, birthday, I know). I just now made a character using one of those names. So, either the name has been in use by someone else and the character was coincidentally deleted at some point, or it was unused for six-seven years. Maybe it's because "Heather Foxglove" consists of two plant names, one which is a fairly common given name in some areas, coupled with another as a surname.

So, bad design decision on ANet's part, or a player whose decision about what names are acceptable falls into too narrow parameters?

I just use alt keys to change a letter ie Ä