Irrelevant Hot Take

[Embered.5089]

13 minutes ago, Westenev.5289 said:

I just wish there was an easier way to check usernames avalability before I "create" the character.

You can attempt to add them into your friend's list. If it adds, then it's taken. If it doesn't add, it's available!

[ArchonWing.9480]

20 hours ago, Zavijah.2695 said:

I do agree that names should re-enter the pool for use if they have not been used after a certain time. 

 

A name is not intellectual property held by the individual or trademarked on the server.
It is the series of keystrokes your created character is designated by on Anet's server. 

 

Under T's & C's we all know the game has a finite lifespan anyway, even if decades -  so getting hung up on ownership or self identity for something people may or may not return to is irrelevant. 

 

In FFXIV, if you don't even enter your house and interact with an item within a 30-45 day window, the house you paid millions for returns to the available cycle. So for perspectives sake, if you really value your identity, you'd bare minimum log in to the launcher that doesn't even require you to enter log in details. Get your daily login reward, then go on with your life. 

If you can't even do that, you don't deserve to keep your name. 

 

People are sure making a big issue about getting a few keystrokes they can't get, then.

 

As for the rest, well, I'm glad this isn't FF14 then.

[Westenev.5289]

2 minutes ago, Embered.5089 said:

You can attempt to add them into your friend's list. If it adds, then it's taken. If it doesn't add, it's available!

 

And I think it's sad people have to resort to doing that.

[Linken.6345]

20 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Not sure what this has to do with anything.

If the person (quoted) spent a lot of time 'creating' the character, and then had to scrap (delete) it because the name they had wanted wasn't available (and could not come up with another name they liked), there would be no name 'saved for 24 hours'.

 

My suggestion was to check for the name, in-game, before spending time 'creating' the character.

 

And aint the best way to check availaiblity to create a throw away character with said name.

 Then have 24 hours after you delete it to make your real character.

Instead of looking up name and maybe have it taken before you completely made you character?

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Yes, that's another alternative.  Just skip to end.  Yes.

Both ways are good. 

Thanks.

[Lyssia.4637]

55 minutes ago, Embered.5089 said:

You can attempt to add them into your friend's list. If it adds, then it's taken. If it doesn't add, it's available!

I've been playing since launch, and that never once occurred to me.  That is downright brilliant.

 

And way cheaper than what I was going to suggest, which was (if you create characters a LOT) just invest the 800g in a single name change contract that you only use to check names, not actually change any of your current chars.

[Solvar.7953]

The other problem with expiring names is that it then becomes a timing issue of who gets the name after it becomes available.  I could imagine the next complaint is 'I was waiting for Gandalf to become available, and someone grabbed it before I was able to log in and take it'.

If you are having trouble finding names others haven't taken, then your choice of name is not unique.  It may be that only 1 other player would have chosen that name, or it may be that 100 other people would have taken that name if available.   Having names age out may not dramatically increase the availability of names you want.

In addition to comments others have made regarding people losing their names being upset, I think if Anet were to do this, they would probably want to add a warning notification (if you do not log in in 30 days, your names will be changed), which would probably get most people to log in just to prevent that happening (even if they end not logging in again for another year).  And this process would likely free up a lot of names that in fact no one wants, so if those players do return, they would find that their characters have been renamed for no good reason.

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Here's some official responses:

 

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Requesting-a-Taken-Name/first#post4248872

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Character-Name-Wipes/page/2#post4645082

 

I doubt it will ever change. 

 

If you would like to have a little fun time-traveling, you can peruse these threads, with the same suggestions and same responses from 7 years ago.

 

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Release-names

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Character-Name-Wipes/page/1

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Delete-inactive-character-names-please/page/1

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Taken-names

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Requesting-a-Taken-Name/first#post4248872

[Teratus.2859]

11 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

You might consider checking if the name already exists (in-game) before making a character you will ultimately delete.  Save yourself some time.

Outside the game I don't think there is any way to do this.

Many of the characters I create I do so away from the game.. usually while zoning out while traveling or at work or school etc
It's a fun way to keep my mind occupied while i'm bored and gets me excited to come home and load up the game.
 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

2 hours ago, Teratus.2859 said:

Outside the game I don't think there is any way to do this.

Many of the characters I create I do so away from the game.. usually while zoning out while traveling or at work or school etc
It's a fun way to keep my mind occupied while i'm bored and gets me excited to come home and load up the game.
 

That's why it says "in-game". 

One can't waste the time creating a character (in character creation, which is the lament I was responding to), then having to abandon/'delete' it outside the game, anyway. 

[Teratus.2859]

25 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

That's why it says "in-game". 

One can't waste the time creating a character (in character creation, which is the lament I was responding to), then having to abandon/'delete' it outside the game, anyway. 

Sorry I blanked the "in-game" part, that was my bad.

Perhaps there's some ground there to request that the naming segment of a character creation be relocated to before all the fine tuning of appearance etc.
A lot of people myself included can spend a significant amount of time messing with those sliders to get the perfect features we want.
It's kind of a running joke in RPG circles actually lol

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

1 minute ago, Teratus.2859 said:

Sorry I blanked the "in-game" part, that was my bad.

Perhaps there's some ground there to request that the naming segment of a character creation be relocated to before all the fine tuning of appearance etc.
A lot of people myself included can spend a significant amount of time messing with those sliders to get the perfect features we want.
It's kind of a running joke in RPG circles actually lol

Yeah, that's why the other suggestion of 'skipping to the end', then trying the name is also there.  If available, one can delete the character and have 24 hours to create the character as desired before the name is released back into the game. 

[Teratus.2859]

Just now, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Yeah, that's why the other suggestion of 'skipping to the end', then trying the name is also there.  If available, one can delete the character and have 24 hours to create the character as desired before the name is released back into the game. 

That's certainly an option that could save some people a lot of time, can't argue with that.

[Astralporing.1957]

14 hours ago, Westenev.5289 said:

 

And I think it's sad people have to resort to doing that.

That's the point - most people don't have, and are doing completely fine.

[Cronospere.8143]

I think its weird people arent creative enough to think of a good name. 

I never have any problems. Created a new canthan character last week. First try i could enter the name. 

 

 Its rubbish if i dont play a character for a year that my name would dissapear. Then what? When i return? "Sorry your characters name has been taken, because it hasnt played since 2019, please think of a new one..." 

Yeah, no, that aint gonna work. 

[Vidit.7108]

When people make a character they are asked to give it an identity and backstory. The name is a part of the roleplaying experience that Guild Wars 2 provides. If you allow duplicates or name decay you are erasing part of someone's story. We're looking at a year and half content drought from when the last proper living world episode was released. Any player that took a hiatus after that, as far as they know, their name they had for years was still doing to be there when Anet releases EoD. 

So I'm against doing anything like making people's names available to other players when this game doesn't do anything like a subscription model and tells you your characters are yours no matter how much commitment you want to give back. Especially when this game goes months between releases and years between expansions. People who only come back after an expansion shouldn't expect things like this to change.

[Danikat.8537]

7 hours ago, Solvar.7953 said:

The other problem with expiring names is that it then becomes a timing issue of who gets the name after it becomes available.  I could imagine the next complaint is 'I was waiting for Gandalf to become available, and someone grabbed it before I was able to log in and take it'.

If you are having trouble finding names others haven't taken, then your choice of name is not unique.  It may be that only 1 other player would have chosen that name, or it may be that 100 other people would have taken that name if available.   Having names age out may not dramatically increase the availability of names you want.

In addition to comments others have made regarding people losing their names being upset, I think if Anet were to do this, they would probably want to add a warning notification (if you do not log in in 30 days, your names will be changed), which would probably get most people to log in just to prevent that happening (even if they end not logging in again for another year).  And this process would likely free up a lot of names that in fact no one wants, so if those players do return, they would find that their characters have been renamed for no good reason.

 

That's a good point too.

 

A while ago I randomly decided to make a character called Zanthia based on one from an old point-and-click game which no one seems to have heard of whenever I've mentioned it (either online or in real life). Not only was that taken but numerous variations of her titles from the original game like Alchemist Zanthia or Mystic Zanthia were also taken, meaning it wasn't just people using an alternate spelling for Xanthia (which is both a genus of moths and apparently more common as a real name), it was other people re-creating the same character I was. I actually thought that was cool, it's nice to know I'm not the only Kyrandia fan out there.

 

But it does mean if the name Zanthia was taken away from whichever account has it I'm still highly unlikely to get it because there's tons of other people who will be trying for it as well.

 

I can't remember now what I got in the end, only that it took far more attempts than I'd expected for what I'd assumed was an obscure reference.

 

(Then there was the day the Elonian hairstyles became available and just for fun I made a character called Missandei of Narth and found myself standing in Shaemoor next to two other Missandei's and discovered I only got the name because I spelt Naarth wrong, apparently 1/2 the game's population had the same idea. 😆)

 

Needless to say most of the time when I'm not deliberately copying a character my first step is to think of a name that's not from another game or a book, movie or whatever.

[SlateSloan.3654]

some years ago I wanted a name but it was taken.

 

I thought to myself "ok then put this player on friendlist and maybe you can work something out with him when he gets online"  thats some years ago, this player has never been online since I put him on my fl...

 

I gerally support the idea of a names swipe but I think its not that easy for anet as many character names also where taken over from GW1. So what to do? Swipe them in GW2 but leave them in GW1?? Is there any critical system behaviour if only GW2 names get swiped? Or do we just swipe GW1+Gw2 together to have it clean..

 

I mean at least we live in a world of digital information.  Anet could easily write an email in a case of sweep.

Like "Hi Player One, you have not been online since 365 days. We would be happy to see you again in Guild Wars 2! Please note that your character names will be set back as soon as you are XXX days offline to give others the chance to get their wanted name".

 

It would be good to get any statement from anet ragarding this to have clarification I think.

[Dante.1763]

13 minutes ago, SlateSloan.3654 said:

some years ago I wanted a name but it was taken.

 

I thought to myself "ok then put this player on friendlist and maybe you can work something out with him when he gets online"  thats some years ago, this player has never been online since I put him on my fl...

 

I gerally support the idea of a names swipe but I think its not that easy for anet as many character names also where taken over from GW1. So what to do? Swipe them in GW2 but leave them in GW1?? Is there any critical system behaviour if only GW2 names get swiped? Or do we just swipe GW1+Gw2 together to have it clean..

 

I mean at least we live in a world of digital information.  Anet could easily write an email in a case of sweep.

Like "Hi Player One, you have not been online since 365 days. We would be happy to see you again in Guild Wars 2! Please note that your character names will be set back as soon as you are XXX days offline to give others the chance to get their wanted name".

 

It would be good to get any statement from anet ragarding this to have clarification I think.

No. Its still an awful idea. See my post about not being able to login for two years, again. I would have been pissed off.

 

Also heres your response:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Requesting-a-Taken-Name/first#post4248872

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Character-Name-Wipes/page/2#post4645082

 

They have had no change in policy or statement since then. Thank the gods.

[Lyssia.4637]

2 hours ago, SlateSloan.3654 said:

I gerally support the idea of a names swipe but I think its not that easy for anet as many character names also where taken over from GW1. So what to do? Swipe them in GW2 but leave them in GW1?? Is there any critical system behaviour if only GW2 names get swiped? Or do we just swipe GW1+Gw2 together to have it clean..

Even leaving aside the connection between names in GW1 and GW2, it's a HUGE assumption that it's even possible for Anet to change the naming system.  Unique character names have been the policy since GW1 launch, and Anet reiterated repeatedly at GW2 launch that it would remain the same; this is code that was built into GW2 from the beginning.  Even if you take the "nothing is impossible, it's just code" view, extracting that code and changing it, with all the modifications necessary to everything based on it - mail, friends/blocked lists, account info, even the way characters are restored - without introducing game breaking bugs anywhere in that whole system, would have to pass the risk vs reward test for Anet.  And I'm not even talking about good will from players; I mean in terms of not making a mistake that breaks the game in ways that seriously damages it's reputation.  I seriously doubt even the players in this thread who support the idea would put up with bugs that wipe not just names but entire characters, or transfers them to other people, or whatever.  Think I'm exaggerating?  Didn't the bug just in the level 80 boost delete characters completely?

 

Anet has never suggested that they would change their stance ( 👍 to them), but even if they did, for practical reasons, I think the best chance of it ever happening would be on the launch of GW3.

[Brandon Uzumaki.1524]

Lol, people suggesting being able to have duplicate names, would be amazing seeing all the fake "MightyTeapots" running around asking people for "donations to the new tournament", nothing could go wrong with that suggestion at all hehehe.

[Moira Shalaar.5620]

This question keeps coming back. I answered a couple years ago and am just going to paste part of that answer regarding the ethics of this issue:

Ultimately this is a matter of low stakes ethics. I say low stakes because either way in this setting nobody dies, no populations are devastated. It is what makes both sci-fi as a genre and gaming as a modality interesting: they become ethics laboratories.

earlier on 4/10 you commented:

  Quote 

It's actually quite intriguing how opposed this community is to this common practice compared to any other game community. It's generally seen very favorably there. While some even become really toxic about the mere notion of it here.

It is the ethics of this issue that has many of us who disagree with you and the OP adamant about our position. I find it interesting that you consider those who hold to an ethical view that differs from your own to be "toxic". I am assuming here, and feel free to correct the assumption, but i would guess that the comment in view is where this idea of purging names is identified as theft. That is an ethical, moral valuation, clearly one that you disagree with, but an ethical, moral valuation nonetheless, not toxicity. I am not calling you unethical either, so please do not read that into my statement. I'm simply saying that there are multiple standards of ethics involved here. 

Here are some ethical questions involved in this matter:

1. What are the "rights" of players who have not logged in for a length of time?
2. What are the "rights" of active players?
3. What is/should be the deciding factor(s) when the "rights" of two parties come into conflict? Active status? Significance/Severity of "needs"?
4. What is the hierarchy of priorities? (i.e. Is active status most important? is temporal precedence most important? is current possession {of a name in this case} most important? Is there potential for developer profit?) 
5. What role should profitability and its potential play in policy decision making in a for profit company? Should profit and its potential supersede player "rights"?
6. Is ArenaNet obligated to keep its word given at launch and since with regards to leaving accounts/names untouched?

Clearly different parties in this thread have different answers to these questions. These questions ought to be answered in an unbiased manner, meaning answering them in one's favor simply because they are in one's favor WOULD be unethical. I'm sure there are other ethical considerations involved, those are just the ones I could pick out off the top of my head. 
 

[Faridah.8431]

On 8/13/2021 at 2:24 PM, Zynk.9015 said:

-snip-

Long post. I think in the end we'll just have to agree to disagree. I believe the system as exists now is fine. I'd be absolutely fine with expanding symbols available for use, or character limit, etc.

 

What I am not ok with is more technical/mechanical. 

1. Again, we don't typically know people by their account names, therefore character names have to be unique.

2. To add to that, a lot of confusion can and would present if multiple people had the same name, especially so if one of them was a harasser of some kind. That gets...messy.

3. GW2 is the kind of game that invites periods of time for people to shelve it for a while, and then later come back. I know I've done that all the time. That should not be penalized by having their names taken away. That's just inherent with a game that has historically had content droughts, or game modes that are not devoted a lot of updates.

[Chichimec.9364]

So I was setting up my three beta alts today and came up with a simple name scheme for them. Beta One Necro, Beta Two Guard, Beta Three Mes. Though I thought I was starting their set up fairly early, Beta One Necro was already taken as were the more obvious variations on that theme. I have to confess it took me a whole minute and a half to finally come up with some untaken names - Alpha One Necro, etc. And that actually made me smile. Everyone else can be betas but I'm gonna be an alpha.  Name dilemma resolved nicely.  🙂

[Blude.6812]

Just going to say it, Not going to happen and it has been clearly explained why not! Those that keep asking and ignoring what has been said--too bad, get over it .

Edited August 17, 2021 by Blude.6812