character names [rant]

[Seytra]

The buddy list only works for people you already know. Furthermore, if you put on it every single person that you\'ll chat with occasionally, it\'s going to be like 100 entries, and thus be extremely hard to manage or use.
Furthermore, there is not just 1:1 chat going on, so what are you going to do in the normal /say scenario?

If the chat says part of the name, it\'s even more prone to duplicates. If you use player-input names, it\'s even worse: either these must be unique as well, or they\'re bound to be the highly non-unique. It would also totally destroy the RP if you use totally different names. The only purpose of this seems to be the ability to sneak in 1337 or non-RP names...

The auto finish won\'t work well due to bandwidth limitations. To do the completion, the client has to know every single name that\'s in the game, so it\'d have to download a list of all the 10 billions of names you\'re all expecting. Alternatively, it could send the request to the server and get a response, but that\'d be laggy like hell.

I know perfectly well that John is an ancient name. However, it is in rather common usage today, which makes it feel modern. Furthermore, as I continously fail to get accross, \"Thazer\" may be unique, but it doesn\'t feel medieval. It feels future to me.

Additionally, I didn\'t find it hard to get a name of my imagination and liking despite all these names taken in MB. I even had four of them. One of them even had only three letters in total!

While I agree that lastnames don\'t necessarily need to be unique if firstnames stay unique, I don\'t want more than one \"XYZ Aragorn\" running around, one is sad enough. :rolleyes:
Also, I really enjoy the idea of distinct families. After all, if RP is done for an extended time, the lastnames will spread, just like IRL. But, jist like IRL, few would marry just to get \"that cool lastname\".

And I don\'t see \"dixie\" to be an acceptable name, due to it\'s RL occurance.

[John_Thazer]

Neither I want to see....Noobster, Nooby, Uber, Killer, and endless list of stupid names...

Now forget me, yes I am the main supported of camp \"Give us name freedom\" but there is no I in the team, I am thinking of community rather myself, I can always improvise...

mikedean: Towards the end of Molecular Blue, it was *extremely* hard to find a name that wasn\'t already taken by one of the hundreds of thousands of accounts that had been created.

What do you think will happen, on a more popular version of the game, with two name fields that must both be unique, thus effectively halving the number of usable names in the game world?



Unique lastnames is a massive NO from my front. Just because someone else is using another person\'s lastname doesn\'t mean they\'re from the same family, and it doesn\'t mean they have to be from the same family either. It isn\'t that way in RL, after all. How many \"Smith\"s can a single person know?

And Venge: As far as I\'ve heard (from Talad himself, no less), unique lastnames was a BUG that has never been fixed.

D\'oh!? And that was ONLY 100,000 people...In few years, we\'ll see what will happen and don\'t say I didn\'t warn you...

Not as of yet. I have not received my name, and will not until my backstory, Chain of Souls, is done (it\'s an RP thing ). When I finish, I may or may not join a guild, my character is very... complicated. I will support causes that I believe in, when that is my path.

By the way, your net vodoo mind tricks will not work on me, I am part Gypsy (in RL not IC). Save them for weaker minds.

I will look into your guild though.

For now, your can call me Moon .

*edit* Now I remember, You are a Battle Roy in The Holy Searing. Your name must have been floating around in the back of my head. Read Mael\'s (Depthblade, ya I read his stories) Guild threads (towards the end) and you will find my standing.

He he he.... Moon...soon soon The Holy Searing will be much more...hehe...

[Seytra]

Originally posted by John_Thazer
D\'oh!? And that was ONLY 100,000 people...In few years, we\'ll see what will happen and don\'t say I didn\'t warn you...

There will be no problem if accounts and chars expire due to inactivity, as proposed in the inheritance thread.

[John_Thazer]

IF...and how you define inactivity...I wouldn\'t want my account deleted if I just havn\'t played for a year after year of playing...that sort of thing...

[Seytra]

Inactivity is defined by not logging in. However, it has been proposed to add another (possibly web-based) method of resetting the inactivity timer so that people who don\'t have a way of actually logging in can still keep their accounts without having to bother the admins. The timer would expire after 6 months unless reset.

[John_Thazer]

Originally posted by Seytra
Inactivity is defined by not logging in. However, it has been proposed to add another (possibly web-based) method of resetting the inactivity timer so that people who don\'t have a way of actually logging in can still keep their accounts without having to bother the admins. The timer would expire after 6 months unless reset.

It was a retorical question...anyways...you can\'t just start deleting accounts just because they inactive...how do you know that person won\'t start playing again...it\'s all good deleting inactive players, freeing database space, freeing names...

Imagine...you got sick of PlaneShift, or for whatever other reason you don\'t want to play it anymore...you forget about it...delete it...then one morning, you get this feeling...\"Ye I remeber now PlaneShift, how fun was that, let\'s give it another try...\" You download it...enter your account number...and...you see blank screen and messege saying your \"Characters have been deleted due to inactivity.\" How would you feel then ...

This is hard to explain...but there is more to inactivity than just not logging on...more criterias apply...criterias that cannot be measured by online methods...what if this...what if that...people change their minds etc...etc...

[Mezasa]

Most games DO wipe characters.  Diablo 2 I know for sure, and I\'m pretty sure EQ does, and I think FFXI too.  I mean, why should you waste their space?  If your not playing anymore, why take someone elses fun away?  Maybe it should be more along the lines of Ultima Onlines housing system.  If nobody checks on it, it rots away.  That is something to keep people logging in, to not lose their house.

[Black_rose]

Originally posted by Seytra
Inactivity is defined by not logging in. However, it has been proposed to add another (possibly web-based) method of resetting the inactivity timer so that people who don\'t have a way of actually logging in can still keep their accounts without having to bother the admins. The timer would expire after 6 months unless reset.

well i am in a good mood so i won\'t get to touchy (thank my old sublime cd for that)

well anywase the reason i quit tibia was because my account was deleted, and  i just forgot about it after some stuff. man i was pissed

so you might forget about planeshift for a bit and your char will be deleted, yet you remember about it so you come back saying \"finnaly i have the time\" then you go back and that charactor you made with the 10 million k tria, get it?

[Grindalyx]

Originally posted by Seytra
Inactivity is defined by not logging in. However, it has been proposed to add another (possibly web-based) method of resetting the inactivity timer so that people who don\'t have a way of actually logging in can still keep their accounts without having to bother the admins. The timer would expire after 6 months unless reset.

If such a thing is implemented, will there be an automatic notification email sent at the 5 month mark to warn you that you\'re in danger of losing your account?

At least that way, the people who want to keep their accounts will have a month(surely enough time?) to become somewhat active to reset the timer.

Probably not a good idea, but it\'s just a thought.

[Harkin]

wouldnt work for this game, but many after so long of cancelling the service, or inactive service delete your characters... AO after 3 months of a cancelled or inactive payment service they wipe your characters but leave your account :\\ ..unless you reactivate your account

but since this game has no payment service.. all i can see is that they put somewhere, \"After # of months of account inactivity the account will be wiped.\" I\'m sure people will see it and if they forget about it then its their fault

[Grindalyx]

But say the user had to reformat their drive for one reason or another, and didn\'t have the time when it was initially done to redownload PS, and then when they did have time, it slipped their mind.

Without an automatic notification they wouldn\'t even have a chance to reactivate their account before it was lost (once someone forgets about something, it can take a kick before they remember it.. believe me, i know ), also i\'m sure it would be easy enough to implement (if furcadia, which only charges for the add-ons, can do it, i\'m sure it can be done here), it would just have to be set to send after #months of incativity.

Eh, what do i know? Ignore me, most people do.

[Harkin]

well an email notification can also be set for a certain time before expiration... i dont see why there couldn\'t be one

[Grindalyx]

Originally posted by Harkin
well an email notification can also be set for a certain time before expiration... i dont see why there couldn\'t be one

That was my original point, mate, as you can see below once more

Originally posted by me

If such a thing is implemented, will there be an automatic notification email sent at the 5 month mark to warn you that you\'re in danger of losing your account?

At least that way, the people who want to keep their accounts will have a month(surely enough time?) to become somewhat active to reset the timer.

Probably not a good idea, but it\'s just a thought.

[Moogie]

Originally posted by Grindalyx
But say the user had to reformat their drive for one reason or another, and didn\'t have the time when it was initially done to redownload PS, and then when they did have time, it slipped their mind.

I just have one thing to say about that. If it slips their mind every day for an entire 6 months in a row, they deserve nothing less. They obviously arn\'t too passionate about the game, are they? Why would anyone be pissed off at their account being removed when the game obviously means little to them in the first place (otherwise they would have been playing already!)? They should feel sorry that they had been wasting space in the database, not angry just because \"I want what I want right now and not a moment sooner!\"

[Hatchnet]

\'Reaches for can of Zippo lighter fluid (pure naptha) and lighter and takes aim at the acount deletion people\'

I can think of a lot of reasons why account deletion, unless after years of inactivity, should not be a routine afair. And honestly I would rather see more Hatcnets running around than more Dubons (you can guess where I stand on the issue). The /tell system could be reworked to use last name instead of first thats no big deal and it would not be hard to add shortcuts to the buddy list so that you only needed to see the first name.


Ok that takes care of that. Any body else? I still have a can of Rhonsonal to use.