should SE delete characters that were never used

[Lexia]

And what military members deployed where they can't log in?

Lot of people use this as a argument but it not really a valid one as they usually have plans set up for someone else to take care of this. They usually just don't talk about it cause of ToS reasons. This pretty much goes for anything in the game that would have a timer.

[DeadRiser]

This MMO has the absolute BEST naming system and it still surprises me that people can't come up with their own original name.

Lightning Sephiroth
Sssephiroth Cloud
Cloud Sephiroth

Go away.

I'm all for giving up low level inactive character names and giving them a free name change.

[Sicno]

...Really, just do a little effort and try to come up with an original name, not some stolen character from some anime.

[WinterLuna]

...Really, just do a little effort and try to come up with an original name, not some stolen character from some anime.

Many people have the same name I used to have and I made it up myself. It's not from a show or an anime or a book, simply two names that a lot of people put together because it sounds nice. Just because someone else has a name doesn't make it unoriginal.

[Sicno]

Many people have the same name I used to have and I made it up myself. It's not from a show or an anime or a book, simply two names that a lot of people put together because it sounds nice. Just because someone else has a name doesn't make it unoriginal.

Well, that's an unfortunate coincidence. But honestly we can see where op was going with this.

Anyway, I think deleting characters is not something that should be done at all. And if there was any reason for deleting... I don't think allowing a new player to be called Sasuke Uchiha would be a good one. Doesn't matter if that player hasn't played in a year of if he only created it and then stopped playing. It's not a simple thing where you can just apply one ruling for everybody. That person may have valuable seasonal items that can no longer be acquired, for instance.

[Niwashi]

If you want a name and somebody else already has it, just pick something else. The person who has actually played that character with that name gets precedence over anyone else making a new character because the new player has no association with that name regardless of whether they like it or not.

That's just as true when the existing character is level 1 as it is if they're 60. As soon as somebody has played a character in the shared game world (i.e. they've passed the first level 1 intro quest), they can be known by their name and that name should from then on represent that character and nobody else's unless the owner of that character decides for themselves they want to delete or rename it.

Not everybody who plays a character levels it. You can roleplay at level 1. There's absolutely no justification for regarding low level characters as any less important than endgame level characters are. Both can be important to the people who play them, and neither should have their names taken away just because somebody else can't think up a name of their own.