Irrelevant Hot Take

[ywhl.8592]

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Edited October 19, 2022 by ywhl.8592
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[Teratus.2859]

They should just make it based on account name.

There's no good reason imo why people can't have characters with the same name, specially when we all have unique account names anyway.

It only encourages joke names, silly names and gibberish names that in all honesty are quite annoying to see.

Edited August 13, 2021 by Teratus.2859

[ywhl.8592]

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Edited October 19, 2022 by ywhl.8592
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[Farohna.6247]

Ooh meeting my name twinsie would be fun!

[ywhl.8592]

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Edited October 19, 2022 by ywhl.8592
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[Jilora.9524]

No, GW2 is one of the few games you can take a long break from and come back and still be able to play new content right away w/o any gear grind. I'm sorry there is some name you want but I'd be angry  if any of my names were gone. They got the name and who are you to take it because they left and came back and now we have to rename all our characters because you think 18m or w/e time chosen is enough. 

[ywhl.8592]

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Edited October 19, 2022 by ywhl.8592
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[kharmin.7683]

I am against this proposal.  It is definitely not "needed".

Edited August 13, 2021 by kharmin.7683

[Lord Trejgon.2809]

I don't like the specific idea of OP - the arbitrary decision on how long character can keep their name is not a good one imo.

 

The idea just after it, should be doable I think - we already have unique account name, so characters could use that in addition to their name as UID I think (or even better, use acc name and character slot number as UID), and this would open all the names for new characters.

[The Greyhawk.9107]

HARD disagree with almost all proposed by both the OP and the first reply. 

[Sobx.1758]

52 minutes ago, Teratus.2859 said:

They should just make it based on account name.

There's no good reason imo why people can't have characters with the same name, specially when we all have unique account names anyway.

It only encourages joke names, silly names and gibberish names that in all honesty are quite annoying to see.

And for some reason you believe that allowing repeated names won't just spawn multiple of the same joke/silly names?

[Mungrul.9358]

While I think it was silly of ANet to restrict names so that every name is unique and can't be duplicated, being a player who returned after a seven year absence, I would have been massively ticked off to discover my character names had been given away in my absence.

 

Now, this topic has ended up giving me a rather Machiavellian idea; make names tradable 😈

Allow the players who hold them to put them up for bidding. Hell, I have a couple I'd be willing to sell, for the right price!

[The Greyhawk.9107]

1 minute ago, Zynk.9015 said:

Care to elaborate? Or is your position pointless?

Why is it pointless just because I didn't elaborate further?  Why do you need more than "I don't want people to lose their names if they haven't played in X amount of time"?  I don't always feel like writing a kitten essay for every comment.

[Embered.5089]

5 hours ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

While I think it was silly of ANet to restrict names so that every name is unique and can't be duplicated, being a player who returned after a seven year absence, I would have been massively ticked off to discover my character names had been given away in my absence.

 

Now, this topic has ended up giving me a rather Machiavellian idea; make names tradable 😈

Allow the players who hold them to put them up for bidding. Hell, I have a couple I'd be willing to sell, for the right price!

But if they haven't logged in for a year, chances are that they aren't trying to sell the name. They're just gone, or taking a long break.

 

I can take breaks that last years. I still always come back and expect my gw2 account and characters to be just how I left them before. It would be quite annoying if I lost a name.

 

I don't have a problem making new names. Except for my first character which only has a first name, all of my characters have unique first and last names without using accents. It really wasn't hard. Sometimes the name isn't even that unique in my eyes, like Magenta Murdermane. I made that one a few months ago. It's my charr mesmer jp porter. I also have names like Silversword, which really is not unique imo, although the first name is Sinviri. The remaining two are Cream Lightpaw and [character deleted]. They are all, btw, charrs. I am happy with these names and personally do not want to see anyone else with them. It would make me feel like the effort that I put into creating names that are tailored to my characters are suddenly not as tailored as I thought. I also really do not want people running around, pretending to be me. I don't like the first comment's suggestion.

 

However, the OP did say that only free accounts have their character names deleted. I have met a couple f2p players who've played for years, but I think that they're in the minority. I think that most people who enjoy gw2 and are ready to take an 18-month long break are p2p. Therefore, I think it's an okay suggestion if only f2p accounts are affected. Names are still purely cosmetic. Having to pay to keep your name is not p2w. Your character will not be deleted and the first thing that you do when you try to play it again is to choose a new name, and it'll be free. So, I think that this suggestion is acceptable. On a side note, if this is implemented, then mail should only work with account names so that people aren't accidentally mailing a stranger when their friend's character is deleted.

Edited August 13, 2021 by Embered.5089

[AgentMoore.9453]

There have been threads like this in the past which were met with a sharp no. New players are not entitled to take things from the players that came before them, and the status of their account (paid, free, active, intermittently active, inactive) does not change that. Case in point, if someone buys a summer cottage and doesn't use it for part of the year (or ever), that doesn't mean someone else can buy it away from them because 'they weren't using it'.

 

I've played games that allowed you to reuse names (because each account had a unique handle), and while that could solve some of OP's issues here in GW2, it would require a robust reporting system for those who would abuse the ability to reuse names for the purpose of harassing others and defaming groups/individuals. This is actually something that already happens with guild tags (or even full guild names) and I've seen how hard it already is for people to report and litigate those situations with support.

 

So sure, suggest ways to improve the system we have, just don't approach it from the view that you're entitled to take from someone else. Because you're not.

[yoni.7015]

1 hour ago, Zynk.9015 said:

Anet, please, if you're going to demand we wait for a name to not be "In use" then you need to implement a system that prevents trolls, griefers, bots, or people who just simply don't play your game anymore who have nothing but a FREE ACCOUNT from permanently holding names. We have been pleading with you for years about this.

 

It's simple: 18 months of no activity = name goes back in the system.

 

On top of this strict "get lost" policy you currently grace us with, you force us to use only Latin alphabet unless we're running Chinese client, Capital First Letter After Every Space, and very few accents/no numbers. How is this supposed to support your policy of names when you limit the amount of options we have to whatever we can slang down into 19 spaces?

 

We, the community, are poised to potentially have one of the largest pop spikes in the history of the game due this coming year, and we are not ready for it.

 

edit: Teratus has a much more elegant solution below.

I never had any difficulties choosing a name. Just be a bit more creative. You can even take a first and a surname. 
So I am against it because it is not necessary. 

Edited August 13, 2021 by yoni.7015

[Parasite.5389]

Never going to happen, the original concept of Guild Wars' payment model was "Pay once, Play forever", that concept goes out the window if you take a break and find that you're investment(your character) is now gone and you have to start over again from scratch.

[DeanBB.4268]

I have 147 characters across all my accounts. While I haven't always gotten my first choice, I've never had any difficulty with names. You have 19 characters to utilize to come up with a name. It really isn't so hard.

[The Greyhawk.9107]

1 minute ago, Parasite.5389 said:

Never going to happen, the original concept of Guild Wars' payment model was "Pay once, Play forever", that concept goes out the window if you take a break and find that you're investment(your character) is now gone and you have to start over again from scratch.

To be fair, the OP is only talking about names, in the highly improbable chance Anet actually implemented something similar to what is being asked here your characters and all advancements and items acquired would still be there, your characters just wouldn't have names anymore.

[Super Hayes.6890]

The suggestion about making the system based on account names is great. However, I don't see this issue as something that needs to change. It would only be a slight quality of life improvement overall imo.

[Lyssia.4637]

Guild Wars, both 1 and 2, were my husband's favorite games, and after he died, it took about 2 years for me to come back.  When I did, it was because my kids wanted to play my husband's characters.  We all have our own accounts, but we still play his, (and yes, it's entirely legal, I conversed with the company about it) on anniversaries, game festivals, and new content.

 

So no.  Just no. 

 

It's not THAT hard to come up with new names, and much easier than in other games (WoW, anyone?)  because in GW2 you can use spaces, titles, etc.  I've rarely had trouble with names I wanted, using first and last names, that couldn't be solved with the addition of a title, initial, or a slight change in spelling.  If nothing else, use the random name generators floating around!  There's plenty to chose from, including ones specific to GW in general and GW2 specifically.

 

  I'm fine with the non-unique name system suggested above, but personally, I'm still of the opinion that Anet was being unnecessarily generous letting people's GW1 names be used by other people in GW2.  And that said, with some of my favorite names from my own characters in GW1 being used... I adapted.  Adapt.  Be creative.  Don't steal.  Seriously. 

[Danikat.8537]

I'm completely against the idea of taking away character names from existing accounts. If I logged into a game after a time away and found my characters names were gone I'd log out, uninstall and never go back. I certainly wouldn't advocate doing that just because someone thinks they're more entitled to the names than the people already using them. We frequently see topics from people coming back to GW2 after months or years of not playing (and the break was not always by choice) so it seems extremely presumptuous to declare that they've left permanently and don't want the names any more.

 

I also disagree that it's difficult to come up with a good name. I make new characters regularly and while I admit I don't always get my first choice the only times I have trouble are when I'm just putting random letters or syllables together to make something which sounds like a name or when I'm copying a name from somewhere else or referencing something (like when I and probably everyone else tried to get Will Bender as a name yesterday). In both those cases there's simple solutions, like putting different random letters/syllables together or slightly changing the reference. When I tried to call a human elementalist "Someone Elsa" and it was taken I changed it to "Who Elsa" and got it.

 

When it's not just a random name for a short-lived temporary character and I put some thought into it I have no trouble coming up with something I like which is appropriate for the character and which is available. Sometimes I've come up with 3 or 4 variations which were all available and picked between them.

 

3 minutes ago, The Greyhawk.9107 said:

To be fair, the OP is only talking about names, in the highly improbable chance Anet actually implemented something similar to what is being asked here your characters and all advancements and items acquired would still be there, your characters just wouldn't have names anymore.

 

Maybe for some people that seems ok, but for me character names are important, it's part of who they are. Saying "oh they'd be fine, it's just their name would be gone" is like saying "Oh it's just their appearance would be randomised" or "it would just swap their professions around". It would mean losing something - their name and part of their identity.

 

25 minutes ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

While I think it was silly of ANet to restrict names so that every name is unique and can't be duplicated, being a player who returned after a seven year absence, I would have been massively ticked off to discover my character names had been given away in my absence.

 

Now, this topic has ended up giving me a rather Machiavellian idea; make names tradable 😈

Allow the players who hold them to put them up for bidding. Hell, I have a couple I'd be willing to sell, for the right price!

 

I actually suggested that in one of these threads years ago, but as far as I know no one has done it. I find it odd that these topics always start from the assumption that the name the OP wants is taken by an inactive account, they never seem to consider the possibility that the other person is still playing, even though that could be quite useful because it opens up the possibility of being able to buy the name from them.

 

I wouldn't change my permanent characters names, but if someone asked about a temporary one I'd consider it, especially if I'm expecting to be done with them soon.

[Fuchslein.8639]

1 hour ago, Teratus.2859 said:

They should just make it based on account name.

There's no good reason imo why people can't have characters with the same name, specially when we all have unique account names anyway.

It only encourages joke names, silly names and gibberish names that in all honesty are quite annoying to see.

 

I would love this.

I think it's great that you can leave a blank and really give your character life with a good name. That was the first time I've seen something like that in an MMO.

I have some names with ^'` ect. I don't see what the technical problem would be with this?

[ywhl.8592]

Repo

Edited October 19, 2022 by ywhl.8592
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[Witch of Doom.5739]

We ≠ I.

 

I'm fine with the system the way it is.  I've taken breaks from the game and if I came back and found my character name gone, I'd be royally angry.  Also, I don't get people (not the OP in this thread) saying they can't find or think of any good names.  I can think of dozens for my alts that aren't in use.  Be creative.  Be original.  Not that my main has an original or creative name!  It's my old one from GW1 and I think one of my kids came up with it.