Can We Talk About Name Availability For A Minute

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

>do we really think that ANet should spend resources catering to those whose creativity ~~stops~~ starts working after trying out a dozen names?

 

FTFY

 

imo most of the problems comes from people wanting only Flavor of The Month names instead of a unique, creative name. The last time I made a new, permanent char I tried a name. It was taken. Added a lore friendly last name. It went through. For my key runners I get a book and page through it looking at first names till I see one I like. Then I’ll either use a last name I’ve used for other chars on my account or I go through the book again for a last name and each time the name goes through on the first try. With those methods I haven’t seen the problem of names taken that some complain about.

[Klipso.8653]

With account name/numbers. Why does the characters name matter at all?

 

3 different people with the same character name would still have different account numbers. I don't see why it's a problem

[mauried.5608]

No MMos do this and the reason is the same .

They hope that players who have left the game will eventually come back, and think of the outrage when you do and your name is gone.

Also, such a policy would have to be declared when the game was released so people would be assured that they wont be penalised for taking a break.

 

 

[IndigoSundown.5419]

> @"Klipso.8653" said:

> With account name/numbers. Why does the characters name matter at all?

>

> 3 different people with the same character name would still have different account numbers. I don't see why it's a problem

 

In order to avoid confusion by other players, names would have to display a unique identifier. The games created by Cryptic use that system (Star Trek, Champions, Neverwinter). At a guess, changing the existing systems to do that would have been better done when the systems were being designed rather than engineered in after the fact. It seems that explanation applies to other requests for functionality -- for example, an effects slider.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

They tried this with City of Heroes. It didn't work so well. Most of the names from inactive accounts were never taken again. All of the people came up with unique names for their toons, and the really simple/popular names got snatched up instantly.

 

Freeing up names is a lot of resources for effectively no payoff.

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"PseudoOAlias.4279" said:

> Look I get that this is an older mmo. I also get that arenanet probably doesn't want to introduce things like forced-name changes after x amount of time. I also concede that people want to retain the rights to names they got when they first started playing the game. That's all fine.

>

> But frankly this situation is getting ridiculous. Every time I go to remake a character the name that I want is of course taken so I go to use a combination of accent letters (which you're not supposed' to use anyway) and it usually takes about 6 of those as well before I find one that's actually available.

>

> I don't have a problem with people who still play the game, or who have even logged in in the last 2 years or so retaining their names. That's fine. I'm also totally fine with the practice of buying names & if a person with a name doesn't want to sell it that's fine too. They have the characters & should be able to retain the rights to said names. But this game is in dire need of a system that retires old names, or puts them back in the pool for re-selection after a few years or so.

>

> Arenanet please. The existing system makes it a nightmare to try to have people join on you when you're leading trains or hosting events. Not to mention it looks terrible because most of your existing player base was forced to compromise on names they wanted.

>

> Granted that name-change contracts are already over-priced, but one system that I think might work is some kind of "super-name change contract." One that's more expensive but that lets you buy names from people who have been inactive for more than 2 years. Then when & if that person logged back into the game they could either a) reclaim the name & you'd get a refund for your contract or b) change the name & they'd get a small reward like 800 gems or whatever the difference of price between the normal name-change contract and the upgraded version was decided to be.

>

> Love it or hate it I think this is a discussion that really needs to happen. Post your ideas / opinions below.

>

> Cheers all!

 

So what name were you trying to get?

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:

> >do we really think that ANet should spend resources catering to those whose creativity ~~stops~~ starts working after trying out a dozen names?

>

> FTFY

>

> imo most of the problems comes from people wanting only Flavor of The Month names instead of a unique, creative name. The last time I made a new, permanent char I tried a name. It was taken. Added a lore friendly last name. It went through. For my key runners I get a book and page through it looking at first names till I see one I like. Then I’ll either use a last name I’ve used for other chars on my account or I go through the book again for a last name and each time the name goes through on the first try. With those methods I haven’t seen the problem of names taken that some complain about.

 

I don't think additional resources should be spent on this suggestion, no matter when creativity kicks in. But, definitely not when trying only a few names, and then giving up and claiming it's impossible to find a name. There's absolutely *no* creativity shown in that case.

[Leo G.4501]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> They tried this with City of Heroes. It didn't work so well. Most of the names from inactive accounts were never taken again. All of the people came up with unique names for their toons, and the really simple/popular names got snatched up instantly.

>

> Freeing up names is a lot of resources for effectively no payoff.

 

You also could use the same name on different servers.

 

GW2 has a unique complication since mega-servers means only 1 person across all servers can use a specific name. [EDIT] Now that I think about it, is that even true? I always figured that WvW and mega-servers did but I never actually looked into it.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Of course, Mega-servers had no effect on the reason for the policy. It does, actually, pre-date Mega-servers by years (a decade?).

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Of course, Mega-servers had no effect on the reason for the policy. It does, of course, pre-date Mega-servers by years (a decade?).

 

Correct. The policy was the same for the original Guild Wars.

As with GW2, there were periodic requests to "free" up names and Gaile's response was consistent: "it wouldn't be fair to the people who decided to return, even years later."

[Henry.5713]

Most people are going to jump in and comment how easy it is to come up with "creative names" and they assume you would like to snatch names like "Naruto" or "Legolas" whenever this topic arises. I don't exactly share that opinion. It can indeed be annoying to find that none of the names you'd like to pick are avaible anymore, talking as someone who prefers short names without any special letters or a surname. Most of us have been there before.

 

However, it would be even more annoying to have all of the names people know me under be given to someone else. I am going to care even after I quit the game for good. The character names you leave behind are a part of your legacy. People who knew you will remember them with all of the good times and experiences you shared. Not to mention that I do not wish for anyone to be scammed or misled by someone using "my" old names.Thus I am rather happy about their policy on this matter.

[SexyMofo.8923]

> @"MikeG.6389" said:

> > @"SexyMofo.8923" said:

> > No one wants the name PseudoOAlias

>

> Interesting you would say that...

>

> Nah, kidding only, SexyMofo. Besides it's the display name of the account and OP is talking about Character names.

 

I know. But I’m sure he has a character named that.

 

[Healix.5819]

> @"mauried.5608" said:

> No MMos do this and the reason is the same .

> They hope that players who have left the game will eventually come back, and think of the outrage when you do and your name is gone.

> Also, such a policy would have to be declared when the game was released so people would be assured that they wont be penalised for taking a break.

 

Some MMOs do eventually release names as they age. They kind of have to when they only support 1 word names. Even ArenaNet has released names in the past, though only for trial accounts that didn't upgrade in GW1. WoW for example just released names last year from accounts that had been inactive for over 8 years and is now planning to do it with every expansion.

 

If ArenaNet was going to do it, everyone would know, since it would be announced up to a year in advanced and those affected would be emailed. The main reason to do it wouldn't be to release names, it's a last attempt to get those people to login.

[Astralporing.1957]

There's also the not so minor point, that if the name is desirable, and such policy would get released, the chance anyone would be able to get it is small. Most likely someone else would beat them to it, and they'd end in the same spot they are now - the name would _still_ be taken. And OP (and other people that started similar threads in the past) would probably still complain and ask for it to be released.

[mercury ranique.2170]

To be fair, I never had any issue getting a name. unless it was a very uncreative one. So maybe try using names that are a bit more creative.

To make a suggestion, instead of starting a discussion with somewhat entitlement in the content, start one asking people how they picked their names and ask them to explain themselfs.

 

For me, some of my names are a royal title followed by Ranique. One of my favourite bands is Queen. Ranique means singing Queen in the Sanskrit language.

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

On the one hand, I'm not sure I believe the situation is as bad as the OP makes out. (I've only once been unable to use a name I wanted in GW2, and I've never had that problem in GW1 even though some of my characters were made ~10 years into the life of the game - but of course I realise this is anecdotal and that other people will be affected differently.)

 

On the other hand, I think given that the naming conventions for asura and sylvari are so restrictive, ANet should have come up with a system that allowed multiple players to have the same name. I absolutely wouldn't want a system where players could pay to take names from each other though.

 

My experience is that, regardless of how much effort I put into naming my characters (and I probably put in too much), after playing for a few minutes I'll invariably come across players who've named their characters things like 'Illiddan Storrmrage' and 'Qjhsdzz' and 'X Hitsugaya X', not to mention the occasional [NPC whose name doesn't make sense](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jonathan_McKellar "NPC whose name doesn't make sense")...

[Lunia.2736]

I agree with the OP and not everyone wants to be forced to use a name with spaces. Has nothing to do with a "lack of creativity" as everyone claims.

Loads of inactive accounts that will never ever touch this game again are hoarding interesting, fun and good names with level 2 characters.

WoW used to free up completely dead and idle names through tickets until they automated it, I wish this game would too.

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Leo G.4501" said:

> > @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> > They tried this with City of Heroes. It didn't work so well. Most of the names from inactive accounts were never taken again. All of the people came up with unique names for their toons, and the really simple/popular names got snatched up instantly.

> >

> > Freeing up names is a lot of resources for effectively no payoff.

>

> You also could use the same name on different servers.

>

> GW2 has a unique complication since mega-servers means only 1 person across all servers can use a specific name. [EDIT] Now that I think about it, is that even true? I always figured that WvW and mega-servers did but I never actually looked into it.

 

That is true - GW2 character names have to be completely unique, not just within mega-server clusters but across regions too. If a name is taken on an EU server then no one on NA servers will be able to use it. That's why no one is ever required to change character names when transferring to another server. (And as other people said this policy has existed since before mega-servers were introduced. It was probably put in place because some things, including the mail system, have always been game-wide.)

 

But even then there's _a lot_ of options for names. You're allowed between 3 and 19 characters and have 26 letters, space and several special characters to work with so there's literally thousands of options.

 

I _was_ going to say that includes ones like Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa which obviously no one would ever want to use...but then I decided to check that was actually allowed (some games restrict the number of times you can use the same letter in a row) and guess what? It's already taken! As is Abcdefghijklmnopqrs and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. (I'm not going to check the remaining 26 letters.)

 

So when you factor in people who are willing to use things which are obviously not a name there are even more options. :D

[Zaklex.6308]

That's why have those websites that are random name generators...if I can't think of one myself(I try to make all my names look like they belong in the game), then I'll just pop open a random name generator of my choosing and find one I like...those are almost never taken.

[Rasimir.6239]

> @"Lunia.2736" said:

> Loads of inactive accounts that will never ever touch this game again are hoarding interesting, fun and good names with level 2 characters.

How do you know that?

 

 

[Neworder.7981]

https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/human_gw_names.php will get u all the names you will ever need. Male/Female/Neutral

 

[Lunia.2736]

> @"Rasimir.6239" said:

> > @"Lunia.2736" said:

> > Loads of inactive accounts that will never ever touch this game again are hoarding interesting, fun and good names with level 2 characters.

> How do you know that?

>

>

 

Add them to your friendslist. They never log on, ever. In years.

[kharmin.7683]

> @"Lunia.2736" said:

> > @"Rasimir.6239" said:

> > > @"Lunia.2736" said:

> > > Loads of inactive accounts that will never ever touch this game again are hoarding interesting, fun and good names with level 2 characters.

> > How do you know that?

> >

> >

>

> Add them to your friendslist. They never log on, ever. In years.

 

But they could, one day, log in. And then, on that day, find out that their name has been stripped. GW2 is not founded on this practice.

[kettering.6823]

I've made upwards of 30 characters in this game and have never had a problem finding good names. You just have to be creative. There are name generators all over the internet if you can't think of anything yourself.

 

Plus I took a three year break. I would be *unimaginably pissed* if I logged back in only to find that anet had cleared my character names due to inactivity. Just because someone hasn't been online in years doesn't mean they'll never play again.

[Mewcifer.5198]

I have so many characters I use a spreedsheet to keep track of them. I've never had that much issue finding a name that wasn't taken. As long as you don't latch onto a single idea and refuse to leave it you should be good. You can add titles or last names. Or just find a different name.