I think 4 year absence is enough, this game isn't subscription based and people who left had plenty of time to log in and there is many people who tried and played eso at launch expecting it to be skyrim online and so are unlikely to come back.

YarYar wrote: »

itscompton wrote: »

What possible logic do you people have to argue against something as reasonable as someone requesting names being reclaimed from defunct accounts that haven't logged on in months, if not years?

People leave games and come back to them. By purging old names (and by extension, old characters) it reduces the likelihood that they would come back, stay, and invest more in the game. I know if I were lured back to a game because of something like an expansion dropping soon and found my old character deleted there is no way I'd play it again.

They wouldn't have to delete the character. Just make it so when you log in you have to choose a new name. Still I kinda think once a name is gone it should probably stay gone.

i like this idea, i hope eso does this.

SydneyGrey wrote: »

I'd only be ok with a name purge of people who haven't played in at least five years, because then there's a high chance that they'll never be back.
ESO isn't five yet.
But I've had games that I've put away for a year, or two years, and then started playing again. It would make me sick if I took a one-year or two-year absence from a game, only to have all my names gone when I returned.

They could send out an email to everyone and post an article in the news section that they were planning a name purge in say a month or two so anyone still interested in the game had a heads up to just log onto that character by a certain date. Might even be a decent incentive to get old players to log on and check out the game for a minute.

YarYar wrote: »

itscompton wrote: »

What possible logic do you people have to argue against something as reasonable as someone requesting names being reclaimed from defunct accounts that haven't logged on in months, if not years?

People leave games and come back to them. By purging old names (and by extension, old characters) it reduces the likelihood that they would come back, stay, and invest more in the game. I know if I were lured back to a game because of something like an expansion dropping soon and found my old character deleted there is no way I'd play it again.

Your average player is probably not that invested in their characters name that it determines whether or not they come back to the game and a name purge would definitely not delete that persons character. It would be just like using a name change token, the next time u tried to log onto that character after being inactive for that long period of time it would ask you to enter a new name. You could use the same one if it wasn't later taken by someone else.

Versispellis wrote: »

I took a break for over a year, with the intention of coming back. If I found that my characters had been tampered with in any way in that time, I would have quit for good. I'm not a fan of any mechanics that punish people for prioritizing other things than the game.

I could see your point if it was a mechanic punishing you for not logging on the game once a week or once a month but something that releases names held by players that have been inactive for as long as two or three years is a benefit for existing players more than it is a punishment to the small percentage of players that would come back to the game after that length of time.

Twohothardware wrote: »

Versispellis wrote: »

I took a break for over a year, with the intention of coming back. If I found that my characters had been tampered with in any way in that time, I would have quit for good. I'm not a fan of any mechanics that punish people for prioritizing other things than the game.

Unless you're locked up in prison or deployed overseas there's not a lot of reasons why you don't have the time to log on a game you care about once every year or two.

Thank you for displaying your encyclopedic knowledge of the circumstances of the lives of others.

Or to put it another way, how many people would you be comfortable with losing access to the name of their character due to circumstances that may have nothing to do with laziness or lack of interest?

Not a fan of name purges TBH.

ESO allows first and second names and special characters, it shouldn't be too hard to find a name which isn't used unless you're being very unimaginative.

Also it's never fun for players on breaks who then return to find they now have to put a ticket in for a name change because their once owned named is cleared. We're also not even five years into the game yet, I might be more on board with this when we hit ten years and there are accounts which haven't been used in five plus years but we're still very young in the game.

idrankyourbeer wrote: »

EvilCroc wrote: »

Good names are taken and will never return.

DEAL
WITH
IT

if i wasnt already at my character limit i would try making an argonian named Deals-With-It

but for all i know, someone who quit the game years ago and will never return might have already have taken it

You can not know he will never return or not. Nobody should have the right to decide such things.

Varana wrote: »

I quit in early or mid 2015 and came back with Morrowind. So yeah.

Gandalf, Tyrion, or whatever some anime character is called, are _not_ "cool names". Cool names in ESO are Ashibaal Mantashpi or Ildos Rothren.

If names like Gandalf and Tyrion were the only names already taken then yeah. Pretty sure sites like Nameberry.com have had their entire database registered on ESO.

Twohothardware wrote: »

Varana wrote: »

I quit in early or mid 2015 and came back with Morrowind. So yeah.

Gandalf, Tyrion, or whatever some anime character is called, are _not_ "cool names". Cool names in ESO are Ashibaal Mantashpi or Ildos Rothren.

If names like Gandalf and Tyrion were the only names already taken then yeah. Pretty sure sites like Nameberry.com have had their entire database registered on ESO.

If you're going for a single character name it's very hard. I've yet to find anything which isn't taken by using first and second name for all characters.
Also some originality helps, if you're taking names from popular fiction or media then they're going to be taken. It might be one of the blessings of becoming a roleplayer that I aim for more interesting and unique names. That said I do wish I took "Shadow" at early access just to sell it to someone now for millions of gold.

Use vowels with accent marks. That is how I have gotten many of my desired names.

YarYar wrote: »

itscompton wrote: »

What possible logic do you people have to argue against something as reasonable as someone requesting names being reclaimed from defunct accounts that haven't logged on in months, if not years?

People leave games and come back to them. By purging old names (and by extension, old characters) it reduces the likelihood that they would come back, stay, and invest more in the game. I know if I were lured back to a game because of something like an expansion dropping soon and found my old character deleted there is no way I'd play it again.

Can relate to this,
if returning to the game and finding my characters had been altered in such a manner
would turn away from playing further

If there were some way for the system to function
so that the new individual who took the name received a name change token and had to change their name if the original user logged back in
could be in support of the system

ESO has a robust enough naming system that such a purge would not be necessary to begin with tho

jedtb16_ESO wrote: »

the only time i've had 'name in use' was when i tried to use a name i was already using on another toon.

Had the message pop up on the first day of early access
after making Tantrika and Samadhi as characters
tried to make Shakti, but it was listed as taken
to be fair, Shakti has been taken in almost every other online game with the exception of one
Played as Shakti in that one for some time, left, they merged servers and whoever had the most hours clocked kept the name, relogged and found the name on my character

as an important philosophical concept for various traditions,
and the name of a Goddess
Shakti does have a tendency to get taken

Tantrika and Samadhi are somewhat less common as philisophical terms,
and have been able to utilize them in other games that have been established for several years