Irrelevant Hot Take

[Vlaxitov.9753]

5 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

The comparison to houses is a strange one to me. I'm not sure about other counties but in the UK you can only claim abandoned property if it's also unregistered - meaning no owner can be identified (which is the equivalent of an unused and available name, but genuinely hard to find). If the local council or the government are concerned you're not maintaining a property (or they want the land for development) they can buy it, but in spite of being called 'compulsory purchase orders' they're not actually compulsory and it's entirely up to the owner to decide if they want to sell or not. (Also they're required to pay at least the market value for it.)

 

So an equivalent system for character names would be that if you want one which is already in use you can ask Anet to contact the person who has it, and if they agree to give up the name you can have it, but if they refuse or don't respond you don't get it. Which I think is very different to what some people want to see happen.

 

In the traditional sense of the word it does, in that an entitlement is something you can reasonably expect to have because you meet the requirements for it. For example I am entitled to be paid for my job, because my employer and I both agreed a contract which says they will pay me.

 

Likewise the contract we all accepted with Anet says we're entitled to choose a name for our characters and only says those will be revoked or that we will lose access to them if we break the terms of service (either specifically regarding the name or in general). Therefore anyone playing GW2 is entitled to keep the names they've chosen indefinitely. There is no requirement to log in regularly or do anything else in order to keep them, only that you don't break the rules.

 

(The way many people these days use 'entitlement' is to mean things which are not a reasonable entitlement - things you should have no reason to expect, which is almost the opposite of the actual meaning, but I can see how it's fallen into use as a sort of short-hand.)

The issue is in the maintaining of said property. Local governing bodies assume ownership of abandoned properties all the time then try to sell those properties to recoup lost tax revenues on them. You can also be evicted from your own property if you aren't maintaining it to whatever standards authorities have decided on. The user agreement has a naming policy, but it doesn't specifically say anyone is entitled to their character names indefinitely. What it does say is that the game is "licensed not sold." That you don't actually own anything in their game at all. That its a service and they reserve the right to change or revoke that service at any time for any reason.

Anyway I'm done, its settled as far as I'm concerned. Character names made 9 years ago on accounts that haven't been active for that long should have an infinite reserve by popular demand in these forums. Its not really worth arguing over any further.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

10 minutes ago, Vlaxitov.9753 said:

Did you even bother reading the post I was responding to? They said don't approach this topic from the view that anyone is "entitled" to use their character name in an online game regardless of how long its been since they've played it. That their character names are the equivalent of owning property in the real world. If thinking you should have an infinite reserve on character names in an online game regardless of how long your account lays dormant has nothing to do with entitlement I don't know what does.

I get it, my opinion on this isn't popular among the group here discussing it. I just don't think its rational to strongly oppose putting at least some kind of time stipulation on character name reserves in an online game that has had almost ten years of character creation. Lets make it 5 years, if you haven't logged in for 5 years you lose reserves on your character names once someone else tries to make a character with that same name. I don't think that's unreasonable.

 

It's very unreasonable. You don't know why they laid out of the game. Let's say someone did a 4 year stint in the military, suffered related injuries and spent over a year recovering. They finally get around to logging into their GW2 account and poof their character names are all gone.

 

Say someone is homeless for an extended period of time and it takes over 5 years to get back on their financial feet and get Internet access and a computer. They finally get around to logging into their GW2 account and poof their character names are all gone.

 

The point is that you don't know why they haven't logged in for an extended period of time. There are all sorts of scenarios that could keep people out of the game for a long time. It's unfair to take their character names away just because they had a possible bad time.

 

Allowing multiple players to have the same name also presents some issues of copycat trolls trying to cause problems for a given player. That could create bad situations with guild membership.

 

The best solution is to broaden the characters allowed. Add numbers and some punctuation. Some real world names have punctuation; such as Gaelic names. The umlauts ÄÖÜ are currently allowed. They could even increase the length to 25 characters but the 19 character limit might be hard coded and would could break stuff. I'm fairly sure each character has a backend enumerator to identify it and so the name might be just a label.

 

Names really aren't that hard to come up with. I named my beta character I created yesterday on the first try using a normal first last name combo. Along with the typical name, someone can use <name> of the <place> or <name> the <profession> or <name> with the <descriptor>.

 

Example:

 

<name> the Bonebreaker

<name> the Rabid

<name> the Drunkard

<name> the Brute

<name> the clumsy

<name> of the Drifts

<name> of the Winterfell

<name> of the Tundra

<name> of the Mists

<name> with the Watchful eye

<name> with the White Hair

<name> with the golden locks

 

 

[Vlaxitov.9753]

24 minutes ago, Tekoneiric.6817 said:

 

It's very unreasonable. You don't know why they laid out of the game. Let's say someone did a 4 year stint in the military, suffered related injuries and spent over a year recovering. They finally get around to logging into their GW2 account and poof their character names are all gone.

 

Say someone is homeless for an extended period of time and it takes over 5 years to get back on their financial feet and get Internet access and a computer. They finally get around to logging into their GW2 account and poof their character names are all gone.

 

The point is that you don't know why they haven't logged in for an extended period of time. There are all sorts of scenarios that could keep people out of the game for a long time. It's unfair to take their character names away just because they had a possible bad time.

 

Allowing multiple players to have the same name also presents some issues of copycat trolls trying to cause problems for a given player. That could create bad situations with guild membership.

 

The best solution is to broaden the characters allowed. Add numbers and some punctuation. Some real world names have punctuation; such as Gaelic names. The umlauts ÄÖÜ are currently allowed. They could even increase the length to 25 characters but the 19 character limit might be hard coded and would could break stuff. I'm fairly sure each character has a backend enumerator to identify it and so the name might be just a label.

 

Names really aren't that hard to come up with. I named my beta character I created yesterday on the first try using a normal first last name combo. Along with the typical name, someone can use <name> of the <place> or <name> the <profession> or <name> with the <descriptor>.

 

Example:

 

<name> the Bonebreaker

<name> the Rabid

<name> the Drunkard

<name> the Brute

<name> the clumsy

<name> of the Drifts

<name> of the Winterfell

<name> of the Tundra

<name> of the Mists

<name> with the Watchful eye

<name> with the White Hair

<name> with the golden locks

 

 

OK, but no, I don't think making even longer names available is a good solution.
That would just promote ever stranger names.
I'd never name any of my characters "the, with, of" anything personally.
Again, I'm kind of over it at this point.
It is what it is. I think its unreasonable to allow infinite reserves on inactive accounts spanning several years, others think the opposite. Going to have to agree to disagree. Take care.
 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Vlaxitov.9753

[patton the great.7126]

Oh look, another thread crying for unoriginal character names to be opened up so they can slide right in to occupy such names as fluffypants, or patton the great. Get over yourselves, we were unoriginal first! Deal with it.

[Faridah.8431]

Made one beta character for Willbender, got name on first try, it's not even that unique.

[kharmin.7683]

8 minutes ago, Faridah.8431 said:

Made one beta character for Willbender, got name on first try, it's not even that unique.

I'll bet you didn't try using Legolas

[Arnox.5128]

I never had too much of a problem with this, but regardless, I did bring up an easy solution to this whole issue a long time ago where, like core usernames, a character's name would have a number appended to the end of it that would normally be hidden unless someone in the map you're in also has the same name. But, the GW2 community being what it is, I got shouted down because I guess people want to be completely selfish with their names.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Arnox.5128

[Danikat.8537]

6 minutes ago, Arnox.5128 said:

I never had too much of a problem with this, but regardless, I did bring up an easy solution to this whole issue a long time ago where, like core usernames, a character's name would have a number appended to the end of it that would normally be hidden unless someone in the map you're in also has the same name. But, the GW2 community being what it is, I got shouted down because I guess people want to be completely selfish with their names.

How would that work in all the situations where you're trying to contact someone who isn't in the same map? Like inviting people to join a group or guild or mailing items? How would you know which one to choose if the numbers only show up at specific times?

[Arnox.5128]

48 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

How would that work in all the situations where you're trying to contact someone who isn't in the same map? Like inviting people to join a group or guild or mailing items? How would you know which one to choose if the numbers only show up at specific times?

Of course you could make them show up at will with a key press or, better yet, after right-clicking the name.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

5 hours ago, Arnox.5128 said:

I never had too much of a problem with this, but regardless, I did bring up an easy solution to this whole issue a long time ago where, like core usernames, a character's name would have a number appended to the end of it that would normally be hidden unless someone in the map you're in also has the same name. But, the GW2 community being what it is, I got shouted down because I guess people want to be completely selfish with their names.

The problem with that is one has to memorize numbers.

Send mail...which John.xxxx was it?

Guild list...which Daffy.xxxx was it?

Etc. 

[Ashen.2907]

"We."

 

Is there a hamster in your pocket?

 

Personally I think it is fine as is. It is not at all difficult to create/name new characters.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

I made 3 beta chars yesterday and named them. Each took two tries. I changed a letter after the first try failed, and they each went through on the second try. 
 

Of course I wasn’t hung up on having a certain name. I got a book that was lying around, opened it and looked for interesting personal and place names. 

[T G.7496]

You're absolutely right.

I do not want to share my name with you or anyone else.

Luckily, the naming rules of this game mean that I never have to worry about that.

Like I said before, you shoulda been at the party sooner. If your favourite drink is gone, pick another.

Edited August 18, 2021 by TwoGhosts.6790

[Vlaxitov.9753]

7 hours ago, Arnox.5128 said:

But, the GW2 community being what it is, I got shouted down because I guess people want to be completely selfish with their names.

 

This is not the GW2 community, this is the GW2 forums community, the 0.00000000000000000000001% of the "player base" with post histories in the thousands who will often spend more time trying to farm dopamine with snarky contradictory comments every other thread in the forums than actually playing the game. Its pretty standard fare in most online game forums that usually makes suggestions useless.

[Radina.6057]

How come I imagine everyone who cries for names to be returned seems to be after names like Tony Stark, Harry Potter, or Bibi Blocksberg? 
This game has the option to use double names. Just name your character after whatever you want to call it and come up with a family name. Robbing people of the names they claimed years ago is not a solution. Its just creating crappy situations for people who come back. You gonna mourn the name you lost and have to come up with a new one just to start playing again. There is no need for that to happen.

[Chichimec.9364]

11 hours ago, Vlaxitov.9753 said:

...Anyway I'm done, its settled as far as I'm concerned. Character names made 9 years ago on accounts that haven't been active for that long should have an infinite reserve by popular demand in these forums. Its not really worth arguing over any further.

There are some topics that get endlessly argued about on these forums and this topic is one of then. Anet has made its position clear. The majority of folks on the forum seem to agree with them. And yet the pointless arguing goes on and on. Even a person who says its not worth arguing about keeps on arguing about it. Sigh...

[Vayne.8563]

On 8/15/2021 at 10:25 PM, 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.

You want a name and someone else has it.  I want lots of things I can't have.  I know that if I came back to a game and all the names on every character I own were wiped, I'd leave the game and not come back.  There are all sorts of ways to make variations on a name, but more, not having that name available provides the opportunity for creativity.

I'm on the Tarnished Coast server. Recently I made a WvW character and found in all this time, no one had taken the name Tarnished Coaster.  I was pretty surprised. It was better than the name I was planning to use...which was already taken.

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

4 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

The problem with that is one has to memorize numbers.

Send mail...which John.xxxx was it?

Guild list...which Daffy.xxxx was it?

Etc. 

This is already true for display names.  This is exactly how display names work too.  Of course, once you make them, they're that way forever and you can't change them.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

1 hour ago, Sir Alymer.3406 said:

This is already true for display names.  This is exactly how display names work too.  Of course, once you make them, they're that way forever and you can't change them.

Except you can, but risk fubarring-up your account. 

 

Which is exactly what might happen if the less-than-creative got their way.

[Chichimec.9364]

3 hours ago, Radina.6057 said:

How come I imagine everyone who cries for names to be returned seems to be after names like Tony Stark, Harry Potter, or Bibi Blocksberg? 

Sheesh, what have you done???  Tony Stark I know and Harry Potter too of course, but Bibi Blocksberg? That was a new one on me and so I had to google it. Sigh, now I'm gonna have to watch the series and I suspect that after I do, my next elementalist will have to have whatever variation of that name I can think of that hasn't already been taken. Hmm, maybe Bibi Rad Blocksberg so all of Tyria will know who is responsible for yet another Bibi running around there. Or maybe Rad Bibi Blocksberg...or...Bibi Dina Blocksberg. So many choices! I might have to make an elementalist for each possible variation. Whew,  this naming stuff is hard!

  😁

Edited August 19, 2021 by Chichimec.9364

[Arnox.5128]

6 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Send mail...which John.xxxx was it?

Guild list...which Daffy.xxxx was it?

 

For sending mail, most people are already right-clicking the name and opening the mail dialog that way. Guild list, again, you could just right click it and have the name display in full.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

5 hours ago, Arnox.5128 said:

 

For sending mail, most people are already right-clicking the name and opening the mail dialog that way. Guild list, again, you could just right click it and have the name display in full.

Again, if you don't know which John it is in the Guild? 

How does that help? 

[Dante.1763]

2 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Again, if you don't know which John it is in the Guild? 

How does that help? 

Sheesh people already get confused in my guild because theres two "Dantes", be way worse if there was more of us, and it is a popular name in gaming.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Dante.1763

[mtpelion.4562]

Just in case ArenaNet reads this thread, I wanted to make sure that they know that I at least thoroughly disagree with the OP's suggestion and premise. 

 

If any changes are needed, then allowing for LONGER character names would be the only thing I see as being valid. 

[Ronald McDonald.8165]

Sorry but if you're having trouble coming up with names in a game with as many characters and spaces are allowed, then you got a creativity problem.