Free up names of long inactive players

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

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.

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The problem with eliminating older accounts like this is you are saying one customer is worth more to you because of X. Just because JohnBoy316 decided to RP as a gardening mastermind and never EXPd at all doesn't mean he has any less right to his account than SuperSaiyinCloudX, who hit rank 6. They both bought the product and paid for service.

Dude...

Here's part of my AH transaction history from ffxiah:

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Imperial Bronze Piece        Nov. 18, 2014        Pett        Fussel        5,000
Meat Mithkabob x12        Sep. 22, 2009        Fussel        Kyosak        4,000

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There's a flat 5 years break where I didn't pay and didn't play.

Now here's, what the SE Account Management System says about my RotZ registration:

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Rise of the Zilart        Nov. 19, 2003

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I played and paid for 6 years straight. Then I took a break for 5 years. Now I'm playing again.

This disproves the statement "They won't come back" by example.

Surnames would work if it was done in the fashion of FFXIV (other games might do it as well). Some games, EQ and LOTRO for example, have surnames but treat them like titles more than anything and you still wouldn't be able to create a character with the same first name.

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Originally Posted by Sfchakan

The problem with eliminating older accounts like this is you are saying one customer is worth more to you because of X. Just because JohnBoy316 decided to RP as a gardening mastermind and never EXPd at all doesn't mean he has any less right to his account than SuperSaiyinCloudX, who hit rank 6. They both bought the product and paid for service.

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So maybe something like playtime, furnishings, level, and elapsed time since last login could be factored in? Besides, gardening mules have nothing of value and are no different from a character used for storage. I don't really think SE will do anything about this as it's far easier to do nothing, but it is probably something that should be considered if they decide to do another server merge.

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Originally Posted by fussel

Dude...

Here's part of my AH transaction history from ffxiah:

Code:

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Imperial Bronze Piece        Nov. 18, 2014        Pett        Fussel        5,000
Meat Mithkabob x12        Sep. 22, 2009        Fussel        Kyosak        4,000

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There's a flat 5 years break where I didn't pay and didn't play.

Now here's, what the SE Account Management System says about my RotZ registration:

Code:

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Rise of the Zilart        Nov. 19, 2003

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I played and paid for 6 years straight. Then I took a break for 5 years. Now I'm playing again.

This disproves the statement "They won't come back" by example.

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Dude... Your situation is very atypical. There are probably only a handful of players like you who take such a long break and are playing today.

You're right, SE will and should never delete older characters again willy-nilly just to appease a portion of the fan base. It would be a terrible move and prove detrimental to efforts to get people to return to the game as paying subscribers.

Any level of measurement isn't valid. Someone who barely got to play years ago might have been too busy because of real life obligations to advance far in the game, but now has all the time in the world and could subscribe for months or years to come. That's what I was getting at.

Why try to make some existing paying customers happy if they are essentially content enough to continue playing and you risk losing additional customers? It's a bad move and could spin off some bad PR.


I think adding surnames would be the least amount of work required and not risk potential revenue. Simply have the surname hidden until you check the person, having it displayed either in the chatbox or in a new field on the existing display boxes.

Will surnames be added? I don't think they've ever hinted at doing such a thing, so I feel it's unlikely at this point.

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Originally Posted by Sfchakan

You're right, SE will and should never delete older characters again willy-nilly just to appease a portion of the fan base. It would be a terrible move and prove detrimental to efforts to get people to return to the game as paying subscribers.

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I did say that SE probably will do nothing. I did not say that SE should do nothing. The rest of that is your argument, not mine.

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Originally Posted by Sfchakan

Any level of measurement isn't valid. Someone who barely got to play years ago might have been too busy because of real life obligations to advance far in the game, but now has all the time in the world and could subscribe for months or years to come. That's what I was getting at.

Why try to make some existing paying customers happy if they are essentially content enough to continue playing and you risk losing additional customers? It's a bad move and could spin off some bad PR.

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How can someone who "barely played" "years ago" get so attached to his/her character's name to the point that the person will not resubscribe because the name is no longer available?

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Originally Posted by Sfchakan

You're right, SE will and should never delete older characters again willy-nilly just to appease a portion of the fan base.

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Deleting characters would be a terrible solution. Treating the characters as though they had transferred servers and disconnecting their names from the characters/servers until the person resubscribes would be a great solution.

So stealing someone's original name is a good solution?

Sorry, guys, I don't think you're selling me on this being a good idea. I don't see how it would work out well for SE.

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Originally Posted by detlef

Dude... Your situation is very atypical. There are probably only a handful of players like you who take such a long break and are playing today.

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I'm not saying that I'm against names being freed up from inactive player accounts (under reasonable conditions anyway) but saying that the above scenario is "very atypical" is really just speculation. I don't personally think it's quite as a rare as you think and certainly not just a "handful." I've seen enough evidence to the contrary on the reddit forums alone to come to that opinion. With the plethora of mmorpgs out these days, it doesn't seem at all a stretch that someone might stop playing their "main" game for a year or two while trying out the newer titles. Then there's also lengthy deployments, accidents, and/or unexpected financial troubles on top of that for some.

I'd also argue that, in FFXI's case specifically, there's likely a considerable amount of people (like myself, for instance) that quit playing this game many, many years ago because we were tired of having to try for hours to get a group, only to have the healer leave right when we joined -- I can't even count the number of times that happened to me on my DRK. The addition of trusts and a more solo-friendly experience in general is still relatively new in this game, so I'd wager that you'll see more early-era players returning these days than you would have prior to the aforementioned changes -- and many of them would probably be coming back hoping to see their old characters in tact, name and all.

Don't get me wrong though, I'd love to be using my own favorite name right now too (Seilan, which I use for any game that I'm able) but I also think the terms for potentially taking a name from someone need to be carefully though-out, given some of the reasons above. Just my two gil anyway.

I do think a fair compromise would be to restrict which names are freed up based on how much progress the character has made, whether it be a minimum level, playtime, whatever would be fair.