Removing unaccessed lvl1 characters

[Stormfur]

Perhaps to free up space on high pop servers?

[basketofseals]

Perhaps to free up space on high pop servers?

The server population only really depends on how many people are logged on. You can still get on Balmung and Gilgamesh if you can find a time when there's no log-in queue.

[SaitoHikari]

This is an old wives tale. There's never been proof that this actually works, it's only just hear say by individuals with no proof provided to support their claim.

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to get alts onto both servers before and after maintenance with no luck, and until I succeed or physically witness some other person succeed. I will be incline to believe that this statement is false.

I would guess that the person you quoted is actually right, but the reason why people still have a super hard time getting in is because a few months ago, someone made the observation that bots IMMEDIATELY flooded those servers as soon as maintenance ends - despite Balmung's reputation of being relatively bot-free.

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Also on the topic of deleting old characters to free up names:

It's a good idea on paper, but it comes with its own set of problems. I came from another game that did that, and all it really resulted in was a lot of names being strung up by tons of new level 1 alts and thrown into a black market. It got so bad that I (as a volunteer moderator for that game's official forum) was instructed by the staff of that game to start deleting trade threads where people were blatantly selling character names.

A couple people did get their desired names though, but there was so much shady crap in the aftermath. ("This guy promised to delete his character so I can use that name if I gave him the gold for it, but he didn't!")

[Kosmos992k]

This is an old wives tale. There's never been proof that this actually works, it's only just hear say by individuals with no proof provided to support their claim.

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to get alts onto both servers before and after maintenance with no luck, and until I succeed or physically witness some other person succeed. I will be incline to believe that this statement is false.

It's no old wives tale, I know because I've done it before - not on Balmung,but you can create a character on a locked server if you are in the right place at the right time.

[LaylaTsarra]

This is an old wives tale. There's never been proof that this actually works, it's only just hear say by individuals with no proof provided to support their claim.

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to get alts onto both servers before and after maintenance with no luck, and until I succeed or physically witness some other person succeed. I will be incline to believe that this statement is false.

I have 3 on Gilgamesh and 2 on Balmung I created after maintenance so it's certainly possible.

[Cakekizyy]

Characters should never be removed except by user or if they commit an offense.

[Annah]

I remember when they did this in City of Heroes. It did not go over to well.

I remember seeing "Player01999291," "Player033122798," "Player 03719992113," etc after they implemented the changes.

It did not bode well

[Ksenia]

It doesn't impact me. If I made an Alt it was for the retainers so they made it to 17 but I would guess most just wanted a name.

EVE Online kind of did this after 8 or 9 years I want to say? It was tied to names and what they did was took inactive characters with a certain amount of skill points and renamed them 'Amarr citizen 123456' or Caldari citizen 123456 and so on. They could rename here to Hyur Midlander 123456 etc but I really don't know if there is a need or a point.

[Dzian]

I'd imagine it'd be for names. Maybe there's a level 1 cloud strife and they want the name....

they could delete inactive accounts characters though. would likely require an email notification to the registered address or something giving that player a chance to log on and keep it sort of thing. kinda like what they do with reclaiming housing plots but on a longer time frame.

that said I have a couple of level 1 characters that hold names I've used in the past or may use again in future. if I ever change race again.

long term it can become a problem admittedly. you can look at things like xbox live or psn, hell even gmail lol. where its almost impossible to get an id that doesn't have a million numbers at the end or some other babble so yeah I can see a valid argument for removing long standing inactive accounts / names.