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Heroes With No Name - New (Un)Naming Policy
SteamRanger
Member UncommonPosts: 920
In case you didn't hear, Cryptic has changed their character saving policy regarding accounts which are inactive for 90 days. Here's the link:
http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/archives/2005/10/city_of_heroes_22.html
This is being warmly recieved by current players who are chomping at the bit to shanghai names that they have seen and would like to have. I guess this is what greases me most. Some of us were there on Day 1, stopped playing for whatever reason, but have continued monitoring the game in hopes that things would improve. This little move makes it a dead certainty Cryptic won't be getting my paltry $14.95 a month. Extortion is no way to win back players. Uninstalling now.
Remember, if you decide to renew your subscription after October 24, there is no guarantee that some bushwacker won't have latched on to the names of some of your characters.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
Comments
So, in order to "keep" a name, you need to at least get to level 35 with that character, or keep an active account. Sounds good to me. How married could you be to a name of a character that you didn't get to level 35 on an account that's been inactive for over three months?
so...
So to keep our names we have to pay while they f$%^ around with our characters? Screw that. They screwed me so far up my arse you can park a car up there now after all the changes to my Dark Armour character. I was there since beta just to reserve my damn name. Hes the only on currently above 35, but I have other characters that are in their 20s.
Anyone who played DA during issue 1/2/3/4 understands all the nerfs we went through, and understand the amoutn of time it took that template to level. Yet I leveled thinking that one day they would fix my character. Because I spent so much time on that character, others were shelved. Well after 3 screw ups on their behalf (how do you ruin an already perfect game?!), I took a break and said I would come back later. Now they are going to take away my character names? Cause thats what gonna happen.
I am an MMORPG hopper. My attention span for any game drops immesnly after 8 months play, so I start playing it on and off. Now COH demands that I play once every 3 months just to keep my other character names. They are VERY popular names too (not versions of exisiting characters though).
GRRR. Im conflicted. Ive been long supporting CoH. Even after they constantly ignored certain archtypes. I tried to be understanding, but this is just a way to rack in extra cash IMO. And its a GREAT IDEA. I think it will work. Just not sure if I am gonna go for it.
NCsoft just keeps moving up on my nazi list. They keep going like this and SOE will have to give up their crown :-/
I don't want to write this, and you don't want to read it. But now it's too late for both of us.
Here is the exact text:
Starting 10/24/2005 the City of Heroes® and City of Villains character name policy will change. Names for characters under level 35 on game accounts that have been inactive for over 90 days will be changed to unreserved status. This means that those names will become available for new character names if picked by an active player. This policy is being enacted in order to free up character names based on player feedback
This is really odd timing though. To think they would also release this info right after the biggest incoming game change ever (Enhancement Diversification Nerf)
Personally, I think they are doing this to get extra money back from the former players who want to
save there heroes names. It seems to punish those who arent playing much (people who I would consider casual). There is a great deal of people wanting to play "fill_blank_named_character" I admit, but this is just another way for them to get a quick profit and in no way enhances the game.
Wouldnt you feel mad if you logged in to find someone stole your name? I mean, thats terrible.
Now granted, it isnt deleting your character, but its awfully close to deleting it as you get replaced
to GenericName23132 if you arent playing all the time.
Im a thumbsdown and not paying $15 dollars for this new feature. Also Im not buying City of Villains.
So there!
your arguement is so persuasive, so filled with knowledge and insight. You back up your argument very articulately, with suggestions of improvements and raising examples to glorify your position....oh wait, you didn't
Blame the community for asking the request?
or blame the company that implemented delete name under level 35 request?
Asking is one thing, but to actually go forward with that request
is totally in the hands of the person who executed that plan. I can't blame the community because they arent the ones who actually implement these ideas.
Ah well.
your arguement is so persuasive, so filled with knowledge and insight. You back up your argument very articulately, with suggestions of improvements and raising examples to glorify your position....oh wait, you didn't
So let me get this straight some of you are upset at a company deciding to take something away from you that you are not paying for? WOW. If I don't pay my car note the banker comes and takes it. If I don't pay my rent, I get kicked out of my home. If I don't pay to play the game they have every right to unreserve my characters name. On top of that they are giving me three months of not paying before the wipe the name, plus they will only do so if the character is below level 35.
STOP COMPLAINING.
It is extremely generous of them to give you the three months before unreserving. If they wanted they could take away your name the second you cancel your subscription.
So lets complain that they won't let my names sit there indefinately even though I am no longer playing the game. Grow up people. If you are not paying then you have NO right to complain about a game.
How can I be polite when someone responds like this.
No.
And I betting you want to steal someone elses name too as soon as this feature arrives.
Otherwise you wouldnt be arguing for it.
By recognizing he's right?
You stopped paying for the service, why should the service continue to care about you?
They're giving people three months to come back before wiping the name.
And recognize they're still not talking about wiping the character itself, just the name.
If having that particular name on your character is so important to you, why aren't you playing the game?
I understand people get bored with a game, suspend their account for awhile and come back later.
So does NCSoft - that's why they're not wiping the char data, just unused names.
But three months is a fair window to give. Many people against the change seem to be all upset and think this isn't fair for the people who aren't paying (which ignores for the moment the question of why any company should be expected to care about people who aren't customers but okay)
If you're that worried about the name, come back for a month, leave fo2 and a half, come back for one. Keep this up and you can keep your name indefinitely.
Consider for one moment that this isn't all about You.
In the spirit of that little piece of immaturity:Consider for one moment that hundreds if not thousands of people created accounts and characters with the 14 day trials. What is is, 7 sloyts per server?
And 11 servers.
Now not everyone would have filled all their slots on all the servers, but the potential is there for a HUGE buttload of names to have been created by players who will never in their lives shell out another penny for the game. Why are those names just sitting there reserved when paying customers are spending up to 15 mins coming up with ancient greek
translations of a variant of the name they really wanted? How is that fair to the people who Are paying?
And I bet you're one of the people sitting on 17 names that are actually In English, Pronouncable, reasonably easy for fellow players to type for sending tells, make sense with a variety of character designs, and haven't paid for the game in over six months. Plus you're hamster looks silly!
[I said it was in the spirit of immaturity didn't I?
The point is, paying customers have repeatedly asked, en masse, for a specific change. The only ones hurt by the change are non-paying (and therefore) non-customers. How does it makes business sense not to go through with this change? No business model in the world tells you to annoy the people giving you money because it might bother some people who aren't.
Let go. It's not that important. It's a name of a fictional character in a game you'rte not even playing anymore. By all that's holy, you must have something more important than this to worry about in your life, right?
Nope, I respectfully disagree.
This is called forcing to give them your money to save your character. I feel sorry for those
poor souls who cant make it back in 3 months to renew there account to save their name.
Extended vacations, or people on military duty, kids at prep school, anything to causes them to not renew the account in 3 months.
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Anyway you look at this, it is stealing by other players who cant afford it.
I bet little timmy will have a nice little tear in his eye coming back from camp to find Mr. Marvel is running around not by him behind the computer.
People who steal other players names are no different than buying there characters off ebay.
If youre not creative enough to come out with a name, thats the players fault.
Thats all I have to say.
I'm sorry, but I literally laughed out loud at this:
well Duh!I'm sorry but... Yeah!
Money=active
no money= inactive
They are completely within their rights to wipe all character data as soon as you don't give them the next month's money. That you keep the character data is nice.
Well then by the same token, if you're not creative enough to come up with a new name that's your problem. Your first problem is this obsession with calling it 'stealing'. You didn't buy the character name. If anything, you're buying the privledge of playing the game, anything else is gravy. If someone hacks the database and reassigns the name, I'll give you 'stealing'. Picking a name because it works for your character and not being told it's reserved -- hardly stealing.Secondly, the analogy is plainly laughable. There's no character data associated here. No pool of Influence or uber power set being granted. It's not even a 'transfer' of names, just releasing the hold on the names. Plus, we're talking about people paying the exact same fees as anyone else, following the exact same rules. Buying a character a)is against EULA etc b)requires more money than the game sub [something you're obviously not paying if your characters are affected by this] c)is an attempt at an end-run around the normal rules [that any people invloved in this situation are following]
You seem convinced there's this horde of people just rubbing their plams together all eager for the change, staring at a list of names you once picked for characters, who just can't wait to name their characters the same. Why? Because there's some secret mystical meaning to these names that anyone who has a character with that name automatically becomes the wealthiest poerson on Earth? Unless someone randomly happens to choose a name that's been newly released, you're free to keep it -- assuming you actually PAY for the game again.
Ok, here it is as simple as can be spelled out. Other game companies usually say they'll hold your character for a few months or even six months, but after that they can't guarantee that your character won't be slicked from their servers. I believe FF even goes so far as to say you have to purchase the game again if you cancel your account for more than six months.. can't confirm that right now though. In SOE's SWG KB section, they state that if you cancel your account, they can't guarantee your characters won't get wiped.
TBH, I find it acceptable for a company to wipe your characters after six months of inactivity. I don't agree with having to purchase the product again, but to cleanse their databases of inactive accounts, that's fine with me. I guess I don't feel like I have a "right" to store data in their databases if I'm not actually paying them to store that data.
Anyway, just my 2¢.
so...
I think what Cryptic needs to do is clearly define whether they are taking measures in the game based upon good business sense, or good gaming sense. I get the feeling they have not done so.
This change makes sense to the 'heroes' looking to take a name somebody else already has.
It makes no good business sense though. Their perspective that this will force people to pay to retain their character names is foolish thinking really, and will only serve to drive even more of the potential future playerbase away from the product.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
This annoucement is being driven by CoV, since its going to co-exist on the CoH servers.
Names are going to be extremely hard to come by, if this isn't done. Prior to this annoucement it was a growing concern amongst the active community.
They aren't deleteing characters, so nothing will be lost excuding possibly the names you associated with them.
The community has been asking for something like this, for a long time.
In the old days, there must have been 2000 different versions of 'Wolverine'.
So what if you can't spell Mike Hunt perfectly and have to take it from a character in the database?
It's rare that I see a serious name in this game anyway, or something other than different versions of Storm. With all the creative tools available at character creation in CoH, you'd think that people in pink berets named 'Doodilizer' would be rare.
edit - And with all the serious problems with this game, you'd think this would be a minor issue. Instead it stacks on top of all the other minors issues that continually plague it, and are improperly addressed by Jack in a poor set of priorities.
But then again, that's common among developers.
__________________________
"For one who seeks what he cannot obtain suffers torture; one who has what is not desirable is cheated; and one who does not seek what is worth seeking is diseased." - Augustine of Hippo
Just another reason why I decided that I will not be getting COV... I started to get interested in the game agian since well there is pretty much nothing out there.. Then I started to read up on all the nerfs and changes and blah blah blah and now this... LOL I swear Devs of MMORPG's make a great project then release it.. Soon after that they seem to do what ever they can to destroy it..
Frankly I'm sick of it, Xbox 360 and PS3 here I come.. Agian.
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You see, every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You spread to an area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.-Mr.Smith
Just another reason why I decided that I will not be getting COV... I started to get interested in the game agian since well there is pretty much nothing out there.. Then I started to read up on all the nerfs and changes and blah blah blah and now this... LOL I swear Devs of MMORPG's make a great project then release it.. Soon after that they seem to do what ever they can to destroy it..
Frankly I'm sick of it, Xbox 360 and PS3 here I come.. Agian.
------------------------------
You see, every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You spread to an area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.-Mr.Smith
Cry more noob.
Roflcopter.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
I give Cryptic two thumbs up on this move
. More than likely most of those people would never come back. So why should a paying customer not be able to use the names? We are not asking for your heros that you put alot of time in to and reached above 35.
http://cityofvillains.streetwise.com/
This is called forcing to give them your money to save your character. I feel sorry for those
poor souls who cant make it back in 3 months to renew there account to save their name.
Cryptic Studios isnt deleting your character. They made it very clearly on their website that someone can take your name if that character is inactive for 90 days. So if your character was Super Bob and you went inactive for 90 days someone else could use that name Super Bob. You can come back a year later and your character will still be there. In a way I think this is reasonable, so there wont be a load of names that was taken by inactive characters preventing new or existing players naming their character.
Have played: CoH, DDO EQ2, FFXI, L2, HZ, SoR, and WW2 online