After an account has been suspended/banned.
Release the names under that account after a period of time so others who wish to use those names can do so.
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It will never happen. It would only discourage people who were thinking of returning after a long break, and that's the last thing that SE would do.
I disagree with this. Someone beat you to a name, better luck with your next choice.
Games already uses this system, for example in DC Universe Online when your account is inactive so long they'll just add a (_I) behind your character's name to release it, and I'm not even asking for a dick move like that to force you to pay for a name change.
Maybe after a period of a year or more, but definitely not 6 months. A lot of people go through times when they have to take months off of the game for one reason or another. I doubt I'd be playing a game where if my rl life got busy and I took a break, I ended up having to change my name because someone had been allowed to snatch it up from me while I was gone. If you want to be able to use the name you came up with without dealing with it being taken, then be more original.
This isn't DC Universe Online. DC Universe Online is not only FTP, but a different game. Releasing trial accounts names that have little chance of returning after a year, that's understandable. But this game usually only has one character per player. I would be pissed if I took a break for any amount of time and came back to find my only character's identity forcefully changed.
So you are telling me this game doesn't borrow system/game play elements wise from free to play and pay to play alike? Like I said, I only vote, I didn't say it needs to be 6 month. If people wants a year, then make it a year. Right now is indefinitely and I don't feel that's fair to paid customers.
It's completely fair to paying customers, they also get a name that other players can't have on that server.
I'm okay with trial accounts losing their character names after some point and time.
I'm fine with any permanently banned account getting their names released.
I'm not fine with any player that has put money into the game losing their character's identity because some arbitrary amount of time has passed.
I think you should be coming up with a unique name for your character anyways. The only people who would have a problem with it is people who try to come up with silly names (Strawberry Shortcake, etc) that aren't actually names, or people who want a character named Daenerys Targaryen because they're completely uncreative. Though the latter doesn't get stopped anyways...Apparently there's a million ways you can misspell those so that you can use them...
If someone's account has been cancelled or permanenently banned though, I think the names should be released. They'll never come back to that account, because they're either permanently banned or they can't get their account back because they cancelled the service account, so there's no reason for their character's name (or the character itself, honestly) to be sitting there taking up space.
Being inactive or temporarily suspended shouldn't be a reason to lose your character's name. That'd be rude. I take breaks from the game, some long, some short - I'm sure there'll be a break in the future that's longer than 6 months and if I were to lose my miqo'te's name (or my Au Ra's in a few months) I'd be very, very sad.
DCUO has so far only done this a handful of times, I think once MAYBE twice, in the 5+ years its been around. They do it in a large sweep, not after X amount of time has passed. And they announce it.
FFXIV has the following factors working against it in this regard:
1) DCUO rewards altoholism. Different powers, costumes, and even story options. FFXIV does not. There are different story options for the first 20 levels based on where you start, but other than that each playthrough of the game is exactly the same. Other than wanting to try out different races or needing extra storage space, there's no practical reason to have more than 3 characters on a given server. Meanwhile in DCUO, there's an incentive to have as many as you want to try different power combinations or mentors or the like.
2) DCUO has simply been around longer than FFXIV.
So combine those factors and I wouldn't count on seeing anything remotely like what you want for SEVERAL years.
Nope. I can stop playing for long periods and I spend a decent amount of time on names. To lose it would put me off.
Ok, now we are getting somewhere. At least start with removing characters SE knows won't be making a comeback. I mean I'll do a name sweep in Lodes Stone for a popular like James Bond, I can guarantee you some of the server will not display a character with that name, but you can't create a character with that name on that server anyways.
Why are you concerned about this anyways? Did you not get the name you wanted?
Considering how restrictive cannon Female Lalafell names are, I would not be surprised that this might be a legitimate issue for her, as I had some of the same issues renaming myself.
It can be tricky on certain heavily populated servers, but I still aggree with everyone here that the only names and characters going should belong to perma-banned players, not someone who is taking a break!
Perma banned accounts should be released. They aren't coming back anyways.
Did you get banned, bought the game again and want that name back? :P
No, originally I suggest that all the inactive account after a period of time should have the name released so people who wants those names and have an active account will have a chance to get it, especially a new player who never had a chance to pick that name earlier. And if the person come back give them a free name change. Then everyone told me to go to hell lol.
Please don't put words in peoples mouths.
On topic: There have been times where I couldn't play and stopped payment on my account. If I had come back and not had my name I would have been livid.
Like others have said, it's one thing to release the names of account who have a 0% chance of coming back (banned accounts), but for someone who has been an upstanding citizen of this community? A lot of people spend quite a bit of time on their names and characters. They shouldn't be punished just because they have other things to do than play at that point in their lives.
Someone disagreeing with you and then giving a reason why they feel that way is not necessarily telling you to go to hell or whatever, that is taking opposing points of view too seriously.
You are giving your opinion and they are giving theirs, its as simple as that.
Sure, some could have disagreed more tactfully but coming off a little brusque and telling someone off are completely different things.
Well, how long did you leave? If you're saying that you left for 6 months and couldn't renew one month to refresh whatever policy SE has on purging old names then I say you didn't care enough about the name to begin with. Even if that's not the policy SE actually has.
If SE had a policy saying it will release names on accounts receiving no payment for 6 consecutive months and I cared, I'd fork up the fourteen bucks and not think twice about it.
its been first come first sever for taking names on mmo for the longest time.. so your just going to have to find another name or reserve it upon the game release. i have a name on hold on my account when i get 10$ for a name change.
I'd be fine with them doing what some other websites I've used do with usernames: if someone doesn't log in for a year, they send that person an e-mail notifying them that because they haven't logged in for a year, their username is now classed as "inactive" and will be deleted in 30 days unless they log in.
That would give people who are still interested in playing the game the chance to keep their names and weed out the ones that really and truly are abandoned. Because, let's be real here, if you haven't logged in in a year or more and you don't respond to an e-mail, you're no longer actively playing. Why shouldn't an active player be able to use the name?