No names left, do we need to wait on GW3 to be able to play?

[Danikat.8537]

I often name my temporary sylvari based on plants they remind me of and I can usually find a name via the plants Wikipedia page. Sometimes it does involve going to genus or family instead of species, picking a less well known species, or using a common name but once you're on the page all the info is there anyway. There's also the option of slightly changing the spelling.

Sometimes I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the names that were taken. Like when not only Zanthia by everything I could think of like Mystic Zanthia or Alchemist Zanthia was taken. For a long time I could have sworn my siblings and I were the only people who had even heard of Legends of Kyrandia, so it's kind of nice to know there are other fans not just out there but playing GW2. (I can't remember what I named the character in the end.)

Then there was the day they added the new PoF hair styles to the game and I loaded into the human starter instance and found myself next to two other Missandei's. 😄

[Agramon.4278]

There are many banned accounts and more than not logged once for 5 years. Anet should remove all those names and give them all back into pool, give a free name change option at first login for long term offline players.

[Veprovina.4876]

4 minutes ago, Agramon.4278 said:

There are many banned accounts and more than not logged once for 5 years. Anet should remove all those names and give them all back into pool, give a free name change option at first login for long term offline players.

And then someone who hasn't played for 5 years decides, "Hey, there's lots of new stuff in Gw2, i wanna check it out!", only to find his characters deleted, or account gone just so someone could maybe use their name?

Yeah, not gonna happen.

[Astralporing.1957]

57 minutes ago, Agramon.4278 said:

There are many banned accounts and more than not logged once for 5 years. Anet should remove all those names and give them all back into pool, give a free name change option at first login for long term offline players.

People that have not played for 5 years or more can return (and in fact they occasionally do return). And bans can in theory be appealed or reversed (no matter how unlikely it might be).

Additionally, one of the reasons for not releasing names from banned accounts is that Anet does not want those players to just start new account with the same name and pretend nothing happened - bans are supposed to be painful. And having your preferred character name permabanned can indeed be painful.

 

[Danikat.8537]

56 minutes ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

And then someone who hasn't played for 5 years decides, "Hey, there's lots of new stuff in Gw2, i wanna check it out!", only to find his characters deleted, or account gone just so someone could maybe use their name?

Yeah, not gonna happen.

I'm completely against removing names from old accounts for exactly this reason.

My character names are important to me, they're part of the characters identity. If I came back to a game even after years and found they'd been removed because I hadn't met the companies schedule for logging in that would be the last time I ever did. I'd delete the game and never look back.

The most I think would be reasonable is to do the opposite - email accounts that haven't logged in for years to ask if they still want the character names and only remove those where they get a response from the player saying they don't want them any more. Admittedly the problem there is when the email address doesn't exist any more. My Ultima Online account might still exist but the email address used to register it definitely doesn't and there's no way for me to get it back because the email provider doesn't even exist either so there's no way for them to contact me. But I can't think of any way to identify accounts like that without also getting false positives like armed forces personnel who miss the email because they're deployed when it goes out.

Also I once read an article about a game (I think it was City of Heroes) which did remove names from inactive accounts then announced they wouldn't be doing it again because months later less than 20% of the names freed up were being used and the number of complaints that all the good names are taken by inactive players hadn't gone down. (I suspect that game was top of the list for people taking names from popular culture which they were sure no one but them knew about or would want. If Condiment King wasn't taken on ever server I'd be very surprised.)

[Veprovina.4876]

2 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

I'm completely against removing names from old accounts for exactly this reason.

My character names are important to me, they're part of the characters identity. If I came back to a game even after years and found they'd been removed because I hadn't met the companies schedule for logging in that would be the last time I ever did. I'd delete the game and never look back.

 

Same. And i kinda remember one game that did that, but i'm not sure which one... I don't think it was a big game or anything but they purged inactive accounts. Safe to say, i never played it again. I don't even remember it now. 

 

2 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

The most I think would be reasonable is to do the opposite - email accounts that haven't logged in for years to ask if they still want the character names and only remove those where they get a response from the player saying they don't want them any more. Admittedly the problem there is when the email address doesn't exist any more. My Ultima Online account might still exist but the email address used to register it definitely doesn't and there's no way for me to get it back because the email provider doesn't even exist either so there's no way for them to contact me. But I can't think of any way to identify accounts like that without also getting false positives like armed forces personnel who miss the email because they're deployed when it goes out.

 

Kinda seems like a lot of work just for a few names. I bet most people who don't plan on returning would either ignore the email and not bother responding, or have inaccessable emails. So for a few people that would respond to that, maybe, idk. Plus, there's always the thought that you might return someday, and just for that i don't think people would want anything messed with. 

2 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Also I once read an article about a game (I think it was City of Heroes) which did remove names from inactive accounts then announced they wouldn't be doing it again because months later less than 20% of the names freed up were being used and the number of complaints that all the good names are taken by inactive players hadn't gone down. (I suspect that game was top of the list for people taking names from popular culture which they were sure no one but them knew about or would want. If Condiment King wasn't taken on ever server I'd be very surprised.)

Haha, this is actually my main argument against this really. Cause i can imagine that happening. It's not that everyone took all the good names, it's more that - people want familiar names from existing franchises, and those are all taken first come first serve, after that, there's variations, and after that, it's kind hard to get that name without changing it too much.

So it's not that the names are taken, it's that people are unwilling to budge when they see their favorite name taken. 

Just make another one, there's tons of options. 

And in GW2, with spaces, there's quite a lot of possible combinations.

So even if they purge the few names that they could, i doubt they would suddenly become taken again soon.

 

And as they say, limitation breeds creativity. Way more creative stuff happened when people were limited by certain systems or mechanics, than when given everything possible.

 

I mean, maybe a stupid comparison but, just look at BDOs character creation. With all the facial sliders and somehow, every female character in that game looks like an anime waifu, eGirl or a copy of some famous person. Meanwhile, in GW2 - while the female meta is still strong - i saw a lot more variety in female characters.

 

Same with names. Without the forced creativity, a lot of people would just pick the name of their favorite character and call it a day. And if 1500 people like that character, that's 1500 people running around Tyria with some name from that anime that's popular this month... 

 

Just my take on it anyway. 

[Quench.7091]

It is a very common practice in MMOs to eventually free up character names for accounts that haven't logged in for several years. People pass away or just simply move on. It's a part of life. The game should eventually consider it, even though it is easy to create a first and last name combination for a character.

 

Side Note: Avoid using accented characters within names. They're annoying to type. People may want to mail, invite, or whisper you using a chat command or other form of textbox.

[Danikat.8537]

Yeah I'm not saying contacting inactive players and asking if they still want their character names would be practical or would free up a lot of names, it's definitely not something I expect Anet to do. But it is the only reasonable option I can think of. It should always be up to the player to decide if they're done with a name they've got.
 

1 minute ago, Quench.7091 said:

Side Note: Avoid using accented characters within names. They're annoying to type. People may want to mail, invite, or whisper you using a chat command or other form of textbox.

As with the earlier discussions about accents I think this one might be different between the NA and EU servers because in a lot of languages (including those officially supported by GW2) accents are not random decoration or a way to duplicate a letter and therefore a name, they have actual meaning and taking them out would change the name.

[Veprovina.4876]

42 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Yeah I'm not saying contacting inactive players and asking if they still want their character names would be practical or would free up a lot of names, it's definitely not something I expect Anet to do. But it is the only reasonable option I can think of. It should always be up to the player to decide if they're done with a name they've got.

True, if they go that route, people should have a say in it.

 

42 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

As with the earlier discussions about accents I think this one might be different between the NA and EU servers because in a lot of languages (including those officially supported by GW2) accents are not random decoration or a way to duplicate a letter and therefore a name, they have actual meaning and taking them out would change the name.

This!!!!

 

Not that GW2 allows such characters but, in my language, č, ć, c are all different letters, not just accents. They're not interchangeable. Same with š, s or ž, z, đ, d... We even have combined letters like "dž" and "lj". So i totally understand when someone uses an accented letter. It's not always just an accent.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Veprovina.4876

[Orthonen.9470]

I don't know I used Fantasy Name Generator and got a bunch of names, sometimes you have to give your character a last name.

[vandrefalk.6823]

On 4/4/2022 at 2:09 AM, E3C4EF7E-2001-4311-9291-12E0BB18CEFF said:

Who wishes to name the character "xsalokhsjanlfkn"?

Ah, xsalokh, the famous adventurer who single-handedly took down the massive Earth Elemental and ran the umpteenth key farm of his mentor Xsalokh the Many-alted. We knew him so well up until personal story level 10.

[patton the great.7126]

Funny, I create a new key farm character each week with new names, never had that problem, and they are all acceptable if I wanted to keep them. Perhaps a lack of originality amd user error is the cause of your problem. 

[Danikat.8537]

31 minutes ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

This!!!!

 

Not that GW2 allows such characters but, in my language, č, ć, c are all different letters, not just accents. They're not interchangeable. Same with š, s or ž, z, đ, d... We even have combined letters like "dž" and "lj". So i totally understand when someone uses an accented letter. It's not always just an accent.

The thing I find annoying (as a native English speaker) is that English should really be the same. A lot of letters are pronounced differently based on the word they're in or even where they are in a word - for example Pacific Ocean has 3 C's and they're all said differently. Accented letters could make that obvious, but instead you just have to figure it out by trial and error (because it's also not consistent across words).

It's also not like accented letters are unknown in English as they tend to stick around on loan words from other languages, at least for a while. Although that might be where the idea that they're optional comes from. You're very likely to see a jar of Jalapeños with the accent in the logo and 'jalapenos' in the ingredients list (and absolutely no indication anywhere that the J is pronounced H, even though that's a far more likely mistake for an English speaker than getting the ñ wrong.)

I once read that English is 3 languages in a trench coat just waiting for other languages to be distracted so it can go through their pockets for spare grammar. Don't even get me started on place names. (Although if you're really struggling a map of the UK can get you both great sylvari and even asura names and ones that will get you banned.)

[MrDoge.9408]

You just have to be creative ) i made a necro and name it "WillUMarrowMe" or my alac is "Alactating".

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

On 4/4/2022 at 8:16 AM, Astralporing.1957 said:

What if i want to interact with someone i do not play with regularly? After a few days i may remember someone's character name, but i will have a problem with their full account names. If more than few days have passed, the chances of me remembering the numbers that go with the account name will be exactly zero (seeing as i struggle even to remember mine own).

I can imagine it.

Me: "Hello Nyan Cat #1! Hello Nyan Cat #2! Hello Nyan Cat #3!"
Nyan Cat #574: "I'm #3 he is #69..."

[Holykitten.3064]

On 4/4/2022 at 6:48 PM, adrunkmunkey.6059 said:

Literally made a thief last week named Quietly Farting. I don't think there's an issue with names being taken

You just reminded me of my Guild Master's Necromancer, Zailent Pharter haha.

[Donari.5237]

I still come up with lore-appropriate one word names with relative ease.  And I never use special characters, I like typeable names.  Most recent examples:  Sylvari Virtuoso named Greiwynn (grei to sound like grey, wynn as the olden times word for woman, and she's all in greyscale hues with bits of pink).  Asura Mechanist named Jeidd (these Canthans are totally ripping off her innovative JeiddTech power techniques and trying to hide it with a simple name change!  The gall!).  It is true that Jeidda and Jeiddi were taken, which would have been slightly more feminine names, but I'm happy with her name and it certainly didn't take hours.  I have ... 32? more? ... characters now and only one of them ever caused me any trouble securing my first-tier choice of name.  Oddly enough, that's the one I was trying to name from an Arthurian name generator 😉

These "release old names" threads are a constant on these forums, and the arguments against doing it are cogently presented every time.

I saw one person in the thread fret about getting timed out searching for a name and having to restart the character.  The easy fix for that is to choose the name first, making any random character you like, then delete and remake with care.  A deleted character's name is held for the account for 24 hours.  Granted it won't help if you are someone who gets inspired by the final looks of the character when figuring out what name will float over their head, but it is a way to avoid losing a lot of fiddling with sliders.

[dusanyu.4057]

On 4/4/2022 at 10:03 AM, Witch of Doom.5739 said:

All my Asura insist on being called Savant ________ .  Conceited little things, aren't they?  They told me I was dumb and that when I die I'll leave a dumb corpse

all of my Characters are Asura the snark is part of the fun that goes with enjoyable animations  and the grate voice acting

[Arty.3261]

I was able to name a character Erp Alt in 2022.

 

 

There's plenty of names left.

[Gibson.4036]

I’m surprised every week by how easily I can make key related names.

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

I started 3 years after GW2 Released, and I still managed to get names like "Fear Not This Charr", "Pact Charrmander", "Badum Tish", "Fractcharr of Mists" and "Healdibrand"

So I think the problem is not in the Uniqueness of name, just the fact of not being able to turn the wanted name into something  that no one has thought first; and avoid "Common Names" like Daenerys or any popular names (Seen several Hulk Hogans and such along the years).

You got to be creative.

[god fragment.5716]

I like to try cool names when naming characters, just to get rejected, but a few months ago i tried "Star God" and it was available! I still have no  idea how that is possible. But I often delete a character to give its name to another one and am guessing someone was doing the same and I he was really dissapointed when he realized I had snached the name from him 😄 Now if Im doing it, I skip most of the character creation and use the statues to buy a makeover kit.

 

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

25 minutes ago, civokenes.3284 said:

I like to try cool names when naming characters, just to get rejected, but a few months ago i tried "Star God" and it was available! I still have no  idea how that is possible. But I often delete a character to give its name to another one and am guessing someone was doing the same and I he was really dissapointed when he realized I had snached the name from him 😄 Now if Im doing it, I skip most of the character creation and use the statues to buy a makeover kit.

 

Names have a 24-hours grace period after the character with that name is deleted (players with the name is immune and can retake it immediately if they wish), after that it is free-for-all

[Quench.7091]

21 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

As with the earlier discussions about accents I think this one might be different between the NA and EU servers because in a lot of languages (including those officially supported by GW2) accents are not random decoration or a way to duplicate a letter and therefore a name, they have actual meaning and taking them out would change the name.

It's true that accented characters do provide a readable accent to a character, which is useful for voice chat usage, but weigh the pros and cons. The standard English keyboard isn't very good at providing accented characters, usually having the user typing out ASCII on a keypad, which may or may not exist on the keyboard. Standard English text requires a person to learn the pronunciation once verbally for voice chat, but they have the benefit of being easy to type. Accented text still usually requires the average person to learn the pronunciation, but has the added con of being difficult to type for a large amount of people. It's a short term benefit, which you only gain in voice chat, for long term inconveniences.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Quench.7091

[Genesis.8572]

On 4/4/2022 at 10:45 AM, Teratus.2859 said:

Old problem many have complained about for years which only gets worse as more players come into the game.

Odd. I mostly see your name floating around when it comes to this particular complaint and pushing up the post count. The rest of the community seems pretty happy with how things are. Even the OP was fine once they realized that they could uses spaces. 🤷‍♂️

 

On 4/4/2022 at 10:45 AM, Teratus.2859 said:

It's not impossible to still find names (I managed to get a good one a couple weeks ago) but i'd be lying if I said it was easily to find them.
I've spent literal hours trying to name some of my characters, exhausting countless names and combinations because everyone these days starts pulling up common naming websites looking for name inspiration.
And on a few occasions i've had to use a name change contract to replace a garbage name I hated but got stuck with because of the availability limits.

Compared to other games, getting names in GW2 is a cakewalk. It's easy to get names in this game. My main challenge with names has more to do with the time I put into creating a name that fits the character rather than acquiring that name or finding that the desired name is taken. The former is more difficult for me than the latter and they are hardly the same thing. 

 

I have been playing GW2 since the beta and have 20+ lvl 80 characters, but I also occasionally play WoW and SWTOR. Only about 2-3 years ago did I bother trying to "convert" some of my characters from these other games into GW2 counterparts. I got all the names was aiming for without any creative alterations. Same with my partner. I even made a new batch of characters around March 2022 for EoD, and SURPRISE! I got all those names too. 

 

On 4/4/2022 at 8:55 PM, PookieDaWombat.6209 said:

Yeah, I personally only "sit" on one name that I use for getting black lion keys.  

 

Mikey Farmer is a diligent worker. 😉 

Ah yes. Mikey Farmer. He tills the soil of my key farmer "Sir Black Lion Keys." 

 

On 4/5/2022 at 3:36 AM, Ashantara.8731 said:

Okayyyy. If you like to spell a name so that its pronunciation will be completely different from what you had intended, feel free to do so.

It doesn't really matter how you spell your character's name; it will always be pronounced "commander" (/kəˈmændɚ/). 😉