I played in beta and up through early 2015, then dropped the game and only came back in 2017 because Marvel Heroes Online shut down and I was looking for something to hop back in to. I've been logging daily ever since and would have been very annoyed and likely would not have played again if my characters names were gone.

So not sure how long it takes before cold storage is invoked but I'd guess almost 2 years would do it, which is how long I went without playing before coming back.

I think they need to release names after 5 years there are probably tons of players with cool names that bought the game on release played it once and never again. This seems like to much of a hassle so I doubt ZOS would do it anyways.

So how do we know when they are released back, if that was to go ahead

ZOS could create a a list of released names and Auction them off to the highest bidder, another good revenue stream

As Goregrinder put it, First come, first served.

No.

If you're about to play the game again after a long layoff and the first thing you have to do is to rename your characters, that's just going to suck. And maybe make you not want to play the game again.

notvenousdrake wrote: »

Hell no the name Adolf critler will forever be for my khajiit nb and my khajiit nb only 😡

Good job self-reporting your character name

notvenousdrake wrote: »

essi2 wrote: »

notvenousdrake wrote: »

Hell no the name Adolf critler will forever be for my khajiit nb and my khajiit nb only 😡

Good job self-reporting your character name

Good luck with that 😘

With what? I'm not the one who posted their Naming Policy circumventing character name in the developers forums

Re: having to change your name when you first make the character and having to change it later on, it's very different. At least for me.

For example in Guild Wars 1 I made a character I tried to call Alleria Windrunner after a character I naively thought of as a relatively obscure NPC from the expansion pack to Warcraft 2. Turns out other people liked her too (unlike my lame friends) and the name was taken. So I got Alleria Wildrunner instead. Fast-forward a few years and I'm starting Guild Wars 2. I now know it's a long-shot but I have a chance to get the name I originally wanted. But now I don't want to. Even though It'll be a new character anyway (and going from a human to a sylvari) I'm too attached to my version and don't want to change it, even if I can.

I suspect it's the same for a lot of other people. Changing a name when you first make a character isn't a big deal because you can change their appearance, mentally tweak their backstory etc. to suit the change if you need to, but once you've had them for a long time and you're used to them as they are that's a lot less desirable.

(BTW I do normally use original names, and usually have no trouble getting one which isn't taken, even on the first try. This was supposed to be a temporary character to practice for the Survivor (no deaths) achievement and I had no concept for her beyond 'tiny, sneaky ranger' so I thought the name fit and didn't want to spend too long thinking one up when I'd only mess up the achievement and have to delete her. Then she ended up being the one who got the survivor achievement and became a permanent character and a concept I liked enough to keep. Had I known I'd probably have gone for a more original name, but like I said by then I was attached to the one I had and didn't want to change it.)

Tandor wrote: »

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

SpacemanSpiff1 wrote: »

Why? Someone have a name you want?

Newer players encounter this all the time and it's a problem that just gets worse over time.

It's not a problem, if anything the problem for newer players is that they may not realise that they can add additional wording to their chosen name and it will be accepted. Use a surname, a prefix, or a suffix.

For example - you want "Freddie" and it's taken, so you get "Freddie Forsaken", "Forsaken Freddie", "Freddie Fails the Medical" etc. It isn't hard, and if necessary you can always bow to those who have been playing the game for 5 years - even if they haven't played for the last 12 months - and come up with something original.

One of my favourite 'new player' moments revolved around this. A guy was standing in Daggerfall (I can't remember his name but it was clearly two words joined together, something like Cooldave) asking everyone how they got "invisible letters" in their name and if anyone could tell him what to type to glitch it into an "invisible letter".

Eventually someone realised he meant a space and told him literally all you have to do is push the space bar. I don't know what archaic MMO he'd been playing before but apparently he had never imagined that a game would let you do that and was so happy to find out you could.

I hung around and about 10 minutes later Cool Dave was back with his new, improved name.

I've lost my names in other games I haven't played for years. I think it's fine.

Sorry but in a game this old--if someone hasn't logged in since 2014, I don't think it's unfair to clear names.

League of Legends releases names after the account has been offline for quite some time. I know not same genre and apples to oranges comparison but food for thought. Also LoL and ESO are now where near in terms of player base.

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

When an account is put into Cold Storage (an eventual part of the Performance Improvements Plan), should the character names be released back into availability?

No, you cannot have the name Elric of Melnibonè.

You never know why someone leaves the game. Maybe they had an illness or suffered some tragedy; it would be terrible to twist the knife by stealing their name out from under them.

Names should only be released if players actively delete their accounts.

Didn't read whole thread.

IMO Yes, certain names should be released and dormant characters renamed. Provided they are below X level and have been dormant for greater than Y period.

The very common practice of players tying up more desirable names on "maybe level one day alts" when a game launches, then quitting permanently a month later should not be protected in any way.