In this topic i'd like to address two rather loosly connected subjects.
Firstly I'd like to ask you how do you intend (and usually do) name your alts? Do you invent separate, unique name for each of your chars (perhaps you have a list of the aliases that you always use) or rather you go with [Nick] The Second/The Third and so on or [Nick] The Enchanter/The Warrior?
Secondly I'd like to ask you more technical matter. Each pledger will be able to reserve one name for themselves - and this is great. But what of the "unreserved" names in situation when we didn't play one given character for over a year or better yet - haven't even log into the game for such amount of time (I know - it's crazy right?!). Should our names be permanent - at least till we decide to delete the char or after long period of time of not playing should the name be available for someone else if one decides to use it (and if we decide to come back, we'll have to rename it differently). What are your thoughts about it?
both. Some are unique, some are part two.
Names are permanent: forever. until a character is deleted with the name you want. you will never have it. period. I have had the same name on my EQ account since 1999. I quit playing for about 7-9 years and went back and my names are still the same. if you want a name that someone else has THAT badly, make a character on a different servers until you find a server that allows you to have that name.
The ONLY time names aren't forever, is if game pop gets so low that they have to merge servers and someone has your name on that server. This is usually a non issue because if they are having to merge servers, the game is on it's last leg and about to close down anyways.
(just as an FYI, kilsin has already said, they will never ever delete toons or names no matter how long the account is not active, so really the 2nd question is kind of moot at this point)
My surname is Always the same if able. otherwise i always use one of a few that i came up with depending on the gender of the character along with what i picture the character being.. if i have more characters than the names i have (which is a total of playing MMO's for so long) then i generally spend time trying to find the right name that is unique both in sound and Look, but is not what i deem lazy. ( im sure everyone has seen names that are silly on purpose )
Flapp said:Names are permanent: forever. until a character is deleted with the name you want. you will never have it. period. I have had the same name on my EQ account since 1999. I quit playing for about 7-9 years and went back and my names are still the same. if you want a name that someone else has THAT badly, make a character on a different servers until you find a server that allows you to have that name.
That's pretty much the whole problem with names. The older the game, the harder it gets for new players or new characters to have names that aren't crippled by accents, ¨ or ' . Even if I understand and am liking too the concept of "keeping my names even if I quit a game for years", I'm not contributing to the game anymore and a 9 years caveat should not be a security of "I keep what I had forever".
Having names requiring a first and last name extend the possibility of naming, even if it means you might cross duplicates of your first name, but let's be honest : If you're named "Gandalf Thewhite", it shouldn't be a surprise to cross "Gandalf The'white" from time to time, not every idea or name is truly genuine as we draw inspiration from everything we saw in the past.
That's not a pleasant subject to talk about, but should we hinder the game if we no longer play it for long periods of time ? Shoulds names not be unique to guarantee future "naming space" for newcomers if the game lives for decades ? Thoses problems only get major considerations once games are old, but it's better to think about it before it's too late.
I always agonise over names. I can sit looking at character creation for half an hour trying to pick an appropriate name suited to the class, race, look, imagined background, lore, etc. I try and pick something appropriate.
For Pantheon, though, I intend to be streaming and making helping YouTube like I have for Battlefield 1, so I'd like my character name to be recognisable.
For both parts of the OP's question I think I really need a surname at creation and for the either the surname itself or the surname/firstname combo to be reserved. I think names should be reserved forever (unless you delete the character) and without the surname at creation, after a while players will struggle to be able to pick a name they want that isn't already reserved. Also, without the surname at creation I can't use my channel 'brand' in the name.
It does depend on the naming system, though. If the user/player name is somehow visible I suppose I won't need to use the surname for 'branding'...
If it's like old school naming, and taking a halfling rogue for example, I imagine I will pick something like Tricky for first name then eventually add Disposalist as the surname. I'd end up with a 'stable' of characters: -
Tricky Disposalist
Valorous Disposalist
Brutal Disposalist
Incandescent Disposalist
etc
I have set names for different classes that I play and all of then have the same surname. It's actually my hope that VR forces surnames on characters from the same account. So once that surname is set, it's the surname for all toons of that account. Being able to toggle it on or off though.
Question 1. I tend to take names from books - from characters similar in some important ways to the way I want the character in the game to work. Thus, I might take the name of a noted witch from Andre Norton's Witch World (1962 release) for a female human with a magic using class. I avoid names that are too obvious like the plague. No names under any circumstances from Game of Thrones or Wheel of Time for example.
If - as some of us have suggested - the character screen or other documentation contains information about how names are typically used by a particular race I may use this information and create a lore-appropriate name even if not on a roleplaying server. LOTRO is good at providing this type of lore-based naming information which is never mandatory even on roleplaying servers.
Question 2. As long as someone remains a subscriber and pays to support the game their names should not be at risk even if the character is low level and hasn't been played for years. Barring server mergers.
If someone leaves the game I can see a system whereby their name is released after X years so others can have it. On the one hand this discourages them from returning - which is bad. On the other hand an e-mail on the second anniversary of them cancelling saying their names will be released might encourage them to come back.
I note that this issue becomes far less important if VR adopts a two name unique identifier which they were leaning towards a while back. Any first name you want will be available if you are willing to accept a second or third or fourth choice of last names.
Flapp - quite a few games that have merged servers are still going strong many years later. A MMO can remain profitable with far fewer people than it may have started with if that initial number was fairly high. If initial interest (actual subscriptions is what I mean) in Pantheon supports 10 servers I can very easily see this going down to 3-5 in a few years and staying at that number indefinitely. This is not the ideal result but it is far from an unlikely result.
Games that have merged servers may still add new servers later for specific purposes even if overall demand for the game remains plateaued. Thus LOTRO had not one but two rounds of mergers over the years yet still introduced a "legendary" server recently. As a progression server not bringing back all the mechanics from original LOTRO. The server was so popular they added a second one the same day.
I tend to read in to the lore of the races, spend hours in character creation and come up with a unique name as the character is finished.
Hardly any character would be of the same race, so all would have different names that would be acceptable within their own lore.
Alts for me, do not have to be linked to one another directly, but if one has the time for it, you could create a story how your character might have met your fantasy story.