Names of Merged Characters "Second Chance"

[Rendra]

This should totally be addressed, its wrong that we have to lose our names to people that don't play or have never deactivated their account... SE should go through and deactivate people that haven't played for 6 months if not longer... so the people that still do play can at the very least have a chance at their name they have carried for years. I didn't lose my name but i have many friends that have and instead of renaming themselves they just add an extra letter to their name which looks dumb.

[Mirage]

It's also wrong that a 6year old character should lose their name to a 3 month old character, just because that character happened to be on the "right" server.

The oldest character should be kept, as long as both accounts are still active. If the oldest character with the name is on an account that has been inactive for 12 months, that character's name should probably be changed. Maybe an email notification should be sent to the holder of the inactive account where he would have a few days to reclaim it if he really wanted it. That should probably also require a re-activation, so that people wouldn't just do it all the time with no real intent to start playing again.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

So when you first made your characters, did you put so little thought into it as people seem to have done in the merger? What was the rush?

[Crysten]

I can't really add to this without sounding biased, but I lost my name in the Unicorn > Fenrir merge.

I would be in full support of a system for any player who has come from a transferred server to potentially reclaim their name should they wish to do so, especially for names reserved and taken by inactive accounts.

For those players with names taken by mules, I feel this should also be taken into consideration. Should a character be under level 10 or so, it'd be nice to see the player with the older character or most playtime take precedence in this case.

For fully active characters (one of my friends is a victim of this, the player with his name on Fenrir is more than active on the server and I've seen him running around a ton), there isn't much you can do. :<

To quote a suggestion from another forum, which I'll also be submitting through POL shortly:

My suggestion is regarding players that were forced to change their character's names during the recent forced world merge.

I realize that having two characters with the same name on the same world is impossible, and that the world merge itself was a necessary thing to do. But the way the character name priority was determined was incredibly unfair, and short-sighted. Many players with main characters that they have had since the game began years ago, were forced to lose their name, their very identity, as a result of this merge. To lose a name because another player's main character that they have also had for years has that name is one thing, and perhaps unavoidable. But many people lost their names due to them being taken by long-abandoned and deactivated characters, alternate level 1 mule characters, or in the worst case, someone recently creating a new character solely to prevent someone from being able to keep their name. This should NOT have happened.

To correct this, two things need to occur. First, any main, long-standing, highly leveled character that lost their name to an un-leveled mule character, a recently created one, or an inactive account, should have priority rights to that name over that other character, and hence, should be allowed to change their name back to the original name from the former world. The unused character can then be the one forced to change their name. Secondly, for any future world merges, this priority should be automatic.

SE's decision to simply use a priority based only on which characters were on the source and destination worlds is ridiculous. It's incredibly unfair, and frankly, demonstrates extreme apathy and laziness on the part of SE. This needs to be fixed, and then also prevented for next time.

[Octaviane]

So when you first made your characters, did you put so little thought into it as people seem to have done in the merger? What was the rush?

Do you ever have anything nice or constructive to say?

[erevan]

I had to change my name also, but what I don't get, I never saw "my" name on the new server, it only existed on Ramuh and on Fairy. So after the update, I was excited about logging in and wham, had to change my name. Of course, I haven't talked to anybody about it yet and I'm praying we get the "second chance".

[Bubeeky]

Do you ever have anything nice or constructive to say?

It's not mean imo to point out that the people who have had the unfortunate circumstance of losing their loved name have put very little thought into their new one. We all put a lot of thought into names when we first made a character, why is it so terrible to wonder why they didn't put just as much thought into their new names?

[Leif]

I give my full support to this idea.

I'm very attached to my name, even having to change it slightly makes me cringe. (Leif to Leifs? Ew.)

It really bothers me to lose my name to someone who hasn't played in several years (there's no record that I can find of a Leif on Bahamut, so that says something), add to the fact I hopped from Bahamut to Ramuh in the first place, the name Leif wasn't taken, and that was the only server that had it available.

I got to have the glory of having the name for a few months, and then the server merge announcement hits. Not only am I being forced back onto the server I left, I'm losing a character name that I treasure.

It really is a kick in the face to some of your customers, SE. Something really needs to be done to remedy this.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

It's not mean imo to point out that the people who have had the unfortunate circumstance of losing their loved name have put very little thought into their new one. We all put a lot of thought into names when we first made a character, why is it so terrible to wonder why they didn't put just as much thought into their new names?

Yes, exactly. And on a further note, you knew the merger was coming. Why no forthought just in case?

And I have another question too. In this "name reclaiming" process. Who has the right to say who gets what name?
Also, what anti-griefing measures do you suggest for said process?

[Crysten]

It's not mean imo to point out that the people who have had the unfortunate circumstance of losing their loved name have put very little thought into their new one. We all put a lot of thought into names when we first made a character, why is it so terrible to wonder why they didn't put just as much thought into their new names?

The OP illustrated this point perfectly - hard to think of a "good" name when all the alternatives that you have in mind are taken already.

I sat around for HOURS only to see around 15 names I would've remotely liked to have all taken. I don't see how that "isn't putting much thought into it."

In addition, many people (myself included) got this name change completely by surprise. The only means we had to check if our names were taken was through FFXIAH for around two months because of the server lockdowns, remember?

And I have another question too. In this "name reclaiming" process. Who has the right to say who gets what name?
Also, what anti-griefing measures do you suggest for said process?

This has already been illustrated by posts already.

a) In the case of active, levelled accounts, the older account should take precedence. This is the case for most MMOs. I will agree though, there is no truly fair way to decide in this scenario.
b) Mules (characters under say, level 10) and inactive accounts (those who have not played in x time, or have no active POL ID) should never have dibs on a name. Perhaps give them a chance to reactivate using the Return to Vana'diel programme.

In my case, I'm firmly in support for situation B, A however, is much more of a touchy subject.