should SE delete characters that were never used

[Felis]

Rather than delete the character, they should just do what En Masse Entertainment did for Tera, any character that was inactive for a certain amount of time wasn't deleted, merely had their name taken and got flagged for a name change so that a whole bunch of names people wanted to use were freed up. WoW also has something like this where if someone else's character is inactive for a certain amount of time, you can request a GM to free up their name for your personal use.

While in those MMOs names are limited (example: only 1 Bianca each server), in FF XIV there will be only a limit of names if you use names from popular movies, series, games. At least try to choose a different surname (example: many Biancas with different surnames).

[Galaktica]

I think it makes sense for the amount of time you have logged to determine how long you have before your name is freed. If you barely have 20 hours of game time and haven't logged in in years, chances are slim you'l ever come back and/or care about your name. If you have a few 60s and/or a couple of hundred hours of game time (these are just random examples...) then your character name should be safe for at least something like 5 years (again, just an example, don't think too hard about it).

Alts on active accounts should be exempt IMO. It might suck to have someone sit on a name for years while they play other characters, but it'd be too easy for them to game the system anyway. "We noticed you haven't played the character, Anime Edgelord, in 365 days. If you do not log in with that character, then their name will reset and freed for another player to use." and then all you'd have to do is log in with that character, log out, and hop back on your main.

[Amiaze]

WoW made inactive character names available and gave the inactive character a free name change in case the player ever returned.

This is honestly their best solution. The main issue I see with deleting characters (whether it's to free up a name or just to free up server space for new players) is seasonal gear. If a seasonal event happens to fall below the level cutoff that would see you deleted for inactivity, then an inactive player wouldn't just lose their low-leveled character. They would also lose any seasonal gear, and most of that cannot be obtained again (barring that you pay for it via the Mogstation, which is a bit unfair).

[Breezelyn]

YOu cannot do tha on a online pay game. Why people will pay a entire subscrition only to log for 1 minute to keep his name? Some poeple just stop for a time, but maybe return someday. It is a waste pay a entire month to go online one minute for keep the name. If you don't have the name, just find another.

The amount of days can be changed. I was just thinking off the top of my head. Maybe 10 days or so. o.o;

[Bombface]

I absolutely agree with this. There are some quality FF names that are taken on all servers that are all lvl 1 and not even touched. That's ridiculous. Send them an email, they won't respond, then delete the name. I have Master Vivi as a main, but checked for the same name on other servers and they haven't been touched since launch. Shouldn't be allowed. They aren't coming back.

[Vespar]

The fact that we can have a first and last name, should clear up most of the naming issues people have. Choose a different name...
It really is too bad so sad that you didnt get to that name first, but that does not mean that SE should kill off anyone's character no matter how little or long or it has been played.

Besides, I've never heard of any MMO relinquishing names.

[Yasuhiro]

If I weren't going to play and was logged off for over a year someone could have my name I don't really care.

I could always come back as Darkkiritio Uchihara

[Neri]

Is this about your Oshino Shinobu issue again?

[Colorful]

The fact that we can have a first and last name, should clear up most of the naming issues people have. Choose a different name...
It really is too bad so sad that you didnt get to that name first, but that does not mean that SE should kill off anyone's character no matter how little or long or it has been played.

Besides, I've never heard of any MMO relinquishing names.

Blizzard does it, but only on request. If a character is under level 10 (or around there) and hasn't been logged into for quite some time, Blizzard will force a name change on them and give you the chance to grab the name. WoW doesn't have a first and last name system though, so it makes sense there especially with how many people have played WoW over the years.

[Titor]

It would be nice to free up characters that were barely played or logged into. If someone wanted to keep a name on a server or something get it to like level ten at least. If they did character pruning it would free up server storage space which seems to be an often limiting factor on things.