Naming Policy Compromise

[Wurl]

So we have the original problem to solve:

1. Everyone should be able to get the names that they've been using on Blue for years, without having someone else snipe those names on Green.

The current plan to make it so you have to have a character with that name on Blue to create a character with that same name on Green. Unfortunately this creates a new problem:

2. There are thousands of characters with desirable names that haven't been played in years and won't ever be played again, and many people would like some amount of name recycling.


I think the best way to solve both of these problems, is to have the proposed must-own-the-name-on-blue requirement in place for only the first month of Green's life. After that, make names a free-for-all. That way, everyone that wants to claim their Blue names on Green has ample time to do that.

[soronil]

Actually a really good idea.

But, when the servers merge, what then? Hundreds of people with x appdended to their names, having to petition volunteer GM's to change their name. Now how do you find your friends? Kind of a mess

It's not that hard to come up with a name now. After the unused level 1 character purge that is coming, it should help a lot.

[Wurl]

Originally Posted by soronil [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But, when the servers merge, what then? Hundreds of people with x appdended to their names, having to petition volunteer GM's to change their name. Now how do you find your friends?

Yeah, this will already happen with the currently proposed system, for everyone that plans to reuse their blue names [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]. I think they can set a flag to enable /rename for every character that they merge. I don't think they've revealed how this will work currently, or if they've even decided for sure themselves! Either way, the merging process is going to be a big event with lots of questions to be answered.

[El-Hefe]

I like it.

[Drayc]

IMO: It should be something like if the character hasnt been logged in recently 30 days, 90 days, 1 year? Then the name is free game.

[Wenai]

I actually side with their current implementation of naming policy given the dilemma they will be facing: currently, at launch, and at merge.

Currently they need to make sure that people's names and identities are protected. People would not want copycats scooping up their name. Can you imagine Riot players trying to scoop up Aftermath leaderships names etc? It would be a mess, and there would be a ton of CSR requests to have this manually corrected.

Launch time they would be potentially dealing with people wanting to use their same character names they have been using for 20 years. There is the potential for CSR support to manually provide names for people, or re-name existing Blue characters to free up names for green etc.

Merging green into blue will potentially become a big mess. There have been talks of appending random characters to the end of the name String. I think this is a problem they have not 100% solved because it just isn't relevant at this point.

I know for the EQ Client it will only display Aa-Zz characters with a few specialty characters, in the names on screen and in text. So for example, a lot of times the actual names of NPC's will be like: a_decaying_skeleton003. Part of me wonders if there was a way to leverage hidden characters somehow for merged names, but I feel like it is probably more trouble than it is worth.

[Wurl]

Originally Posted by Wenai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I actually side with their current implementation of naming policy given the dilemma they will be facing: currently, at launch, and at merge.

Sure, but name recycling needs to be solved as well.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by Drayc [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

IMO: It should be something like if the character hasnt been logged in recently 30 days, 90 days, 1 year? Then the name is free game.

For the record, the classic requirement was only 30 days:

Originally Posted by Patch Notes August 9, 2000

Character Purge

Time has come to do some cleanup on character data across the servers. On August 23rd (Pacific), we will be doing a system-wide cleanup of level 1 characters. All level 1 characters that have that have not been played within 30 days from the date of the purge will be deleted. As GMs will not be able to restore any characters that are deleted, please be certain to log in any level 1 characters that you wish to keep prior to the purge.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Patch_No...gust_9.2C_2000

[Daud]

30 day warning for a rename via adding an "x" to level one characters with no experience, coin, items (save noob stuff), that are on login accounts that have no been logged in during the last year.

[Kornaki]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

For the record, the classic requirement was only 30 days:



http://wiki.project1999.com/Patch_No...gust_9.2C_2000

That's only for level one characters dude.