Free up names of long inactive players

I don't think SE should devote resources to worrying about people who name their character variations of main characters from other FF games.

A thinly veiled criticism of my choice of character name, can't see how it's any different from naming yourself after one of the main characters from the X-files.

It doesn't matter what your name is. The fact of the matter is having to change your name no matter what happens simply sucks. I don't know about anyone else, but when I made my character my name wasn't something I was primarily worried about, in fact, I was an impatient child who simply wanted to play his game. I made my name a combination of my nickname from Xbox Live, Demon, and my real life name, Justin, to form Demonjustin. Over the last few years I haven't actually become known as either of those two names however, I've become known as DJ. Luckily for me, I've become known by two letters that are little more than initials, if I changed servers and had to change my name I'd only have to make sure I'm still DJ.

What of other people? If I had been named, say, Tidis, what might my nickname be? Well, I for one would likely call someone like this Tid, or simply spell out the entire name. Being forced to change this would cause me to change what people commonly and easily address me as. In this specific case, Tidis changed their name to Taidis, and with that name I'd call them Tai. Such a simple change would be an annoying one for anyone to put up with as changing what you're being addressed by is something hard to get used to after a long period of time. In my opinion it's not something we should just have to deal with if in the end the people who are taking up out current name aren't even playing and likely never will again. For this very reason it's why I think there should be a cut off date of some sort where your name is no longer your own and you should be treated no different than if you had transferred servers upon returning. If no one took your name then awesome, but if someone did then you're the only one to blame as you made the choice that ultimately lead to your name being lost.

The less said about my in-game nickname the better, simply put, despite the paradoxical nature of it, my nickname is longer than my actual character name.

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Originally Posted by Tidis

A thinly veiled criticism of my choice of character name, can't see how it's any different from naming yourself after one of the main characters from the X-files.

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This is actually the name I ended up going with after my original was taken when servers were merged. I tried 8 or 9 others I liked more, ended up typing this one in and it went through.

It's not that big of a deal and you could... I don't know, just get over it?

You seem to be under the impression that I'm authentically upset about losing my original character name, nope, it sucks sure but going with the spelling Taidis is how I pronounce it anyway. Just because I'm now suggesting this doesn't mean I'm upset at all, I knew before I made this suggestion I wasn't going to save my name, there was no way an SE representative would see this and implement a change before I moved server.

That doesn't mean I suddenly don't think this is a good idea.

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Originally Posted by Tidis

So, this has only cropped up because I know a group of us are planning on transferring servers but on the server in question my name is already in use but the Tidis on that server hasn't played for 4 years. It seems lame to lose the character name I've had since I started playing in 2007 because of someone who hasn't played in years.

I believe there should be a cut off point where player names become available to use, in the unlikely situation of a player returning after years away, they would be the ones who have to change their name due to being inactive for so long.

I hope people agree with me, of course I may be alone in this! I did have a brief search for similar topics but it seems people incorrectly posted them in the website feedback forum so it might have been completely missed.

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I lost my name due to the server transfer also. It's annoying no doubt - and pissed me off. But I don't agree with your solution because I would be equally annoyed if I took a long break from the game only to come back and find my name had been stripped from my character.

I think the better solution would be for SE to simply add something to the name so they wouldn't be identical - such as a reference to their original server or something.

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Originally Posted by Dale

I lost my name due to the server transfer also. It's annoying no doubt - and pissed me off. But I don't agree with your solution because I would be equally annoyed if I took a long break from the game only to come back and find my name had been stripped from my character.

I think the better solution would be for SE to simply add something to the name so they wouldn't be identical - such as a reference to their original server or something.

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I had friends who lost their names due to the server merge, and some quit if not right away, soon after. I do think the name can be very meaningful to a person. I'd have quit if I lost my name. I never felt it was fair for an ACTIVE player to lose their names to an inactive player because they were on the 'losing server'.

I've also taken breaks a few times and probably wouldn't come back if my name was changed. In another game, I paid for early access to get my favorite name, then took a break and lost it, and I didn't go back, mainly because I felt I had paid extra just to get the name I wanted and was angry.

But I don't see why there couldn't be a time frame/level check where an inactive player is considered gone if they haven't played in five years, or didn't play more than a month when they did play, or had no job higher than level ten. I don't think all inactive accounts are the same, and it's a shame to lose names that may have never been used more than a week or two. I can see not renaming an old level 75, but an old level 5 char? Really?

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Originally Posted by Dale

I lost my name due to the server transfer also. It's annoying no doubt - and pissed me off. But I don't agree with your solution because I would be equally annoyed if I took a long break from the game only to come back and find my name had been stripped from my character.

I think the better solution would be for SE to simply add something to the name so they wouldn't be identical - such as a reference to their original server or something.

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Surnames say HELLO!

Perhaps it could be rolled out with the new UI.

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So, this has only cropped up because I know a group of us are planning on transferring servers but on the server in question my name is already in use but the Tidis on that server hasn't played for 4 years

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So don't transfers servers than, and keep your name. Which is more important to you? I think transferring, especially as a group, serves little purpose at the present time. If you're moving because you think your server is dead, I've got news for you, they're all about the same amount of dead.

Also, your name is already an altered spelling. Maybe there's a better altered spelling that is available.

Surnames would actually be kinda nice. It somewhat solves naming problems because people can have the same first or last name as long as the other one is different. The only downside is it leads to a lot of stupid two word phrases being used for names instead of using "real-sounding" names.

Also, I could see an exception for characters created on accounts that never played past their free 30 days or other free trial, or that never played past a very early point in the game. These people are probably not as attached to their names, are the least likely to be coming back, and least likely to be upset or turned away by having to change names if they do come back.