Free Up Names (Suggestion)

[Cherrycubus]

Hey everyone,

As I was looking to change my name, I came across so many inactive level 1 characters - some of which I have been keeping an eye on for years through Lodestone. I feel like there should be a system in place where a character that has clearly been made just to “gatekeep” a name should get auto-deleted after a reasonable amount of time.

Please keep in mind that I do not mean characters that have been leveled and were actually in use and have some sort of progress. I’m only referring to the inactive characters that have been level 1 or a low level (1-20?) for a long, long time.

Would this be possible to do or is this not considered an issue by the majority?

[Penthea]

I'm not against this coming to the game, but I am wondering how you got into the situation in which a name you want is taken. Due to being able to use first names and surnames it is incredibly unlikely that someone would have both parts of the full name you want...unless the name you want is from a famous character in media, example: Cloud Strife. Or if you're trying to be as generic as possible with a John Smith sort of name.

[Cherrycubus]

I'm not against this coming to the game, but I am wondering how you got into the situation in which a name you want is taken. Due to being able to use first names and surnames it is incredibly unlikely that someone would have both parts of the full name you want...unless the name you want is from a famous character in media, example: Cloud Strife. Or if you're trying to be as generic as possible with a John Smith sort of name.

I’ve tried using my real life name and some variants of it but unfortunately they are all taken on my server, mostly by level 1 characters. It seems inevitable as FFXIV has been out for 10+ years, so all the inactive low level characters made over that decade (or less depending on server) have accumulated. I genuinely hope something will be done about it, but if not - oh well. It’s certainly not a priority issue but it would free up so many names: both popular, generic names but also others.

[Jijifli]

I’ve tried using my real life name and some variants of it

I highly recommend not doing that, for potentially obvious information reasons.

[Cherrycubus]

I highly recommend not doing that, for potentially obvious information reasons.

Thank you for your concern! However, I have 8 names and I simply use my more dormant, unknown names, so no safety issues there as I’m publicly only traceable/known for 2 of them (which I won’t use as my character name).

[Jeeqbit]

You can also visit other worlds on your data center, and soon even other data centers, so is the name you want taken on every single world?

I haven't seen anyone else express that this is an issue. Most people just get it from the random name generator or a non-random name they came up with that fits the lore in the same way.

I wouldn't recommend using your real life information. That is best kept between you and those you trust.

[Cherrycubus]

You can also visit other worlds on your data center, and soon even other data centers, so is the name you want taken on every single world?

I unfortunately can’t leave my world as I’m in a free company with friends and I don’t want to leave them behind... I guess I’ll just have to accept it then.. I guess I’m glad not many consider this to be an issue, though. Thank you for your message!

[Zfz]

I don't mind some kind of name culling, but at what point do you draw the line? Lv 2? Lv 10? Lv 30? Last log-in date? I would propose the point just beyond the limits of the trial accounts, so that trial accounts can't be used to keep names.

I don't think it is an inherent right of a player to keep names using unplayed characters. It should be the realm of the TOS decide on this, so I don't mind it.

[Cherrycubus]

I don't mind some kind of name culling, but at what point do you draw the line? Lv 2? Lv 10? Lv 30? Last log-in date? I would propose the point just beyond the limits of the trial accounts, so that trial accounts can't be used to keep names.

I don't think it is an inherent right of a player to keep names using unplayed characters. It should be the realm of the TOS decide on this, so I don't mind it.

That’s a really good point and I agree! That would be perfect.

[Penthea]

I’ve tried using my real life name and some variants of it

Be very careful with this. Even the most cautious people can fall prey to a creep who knows how to dig for information you think is safe. It is particularly unsafe if you have ever used your real name in any social media. I would stick with variants if you really want a tie in with your real name. Perhaps consider using a version of your name in a different language? For example if your name is Flora you could use Florette. Maybe for the surname look up the origins behind your own surname and use a word relating to that. My own real life surname means "vigilant" which is an entirely different word to my actual surname so something like that would be safe to use.

Also your current name is pretty cute