Hi ho all, Just thought i'd hare a little story with you.
I was recently looking through the dev tracker, reading our loveable rarebits replies to the ask the devs thread when i came across something more than a little disheartening.
Claimed player names... That list of names claimed by players, made no longer available for creation. That list which has remained growing since beta, to never have been cleared out, to never have any names taken away. That list which still has the names from beta, the stress tests, over a year of live and now every member of the free trial.
Rarebit tells us it is technicually possible to free names but would cause 'too much hassle', rarebit tells us he predicts that list will never have anything done to it.
That is wrong.
Having names from people who have quit, have no intention of ever returning, dont care about the game anymore, came on for a stress test / free trial for the hell of it and left, players who likely claimed cool and meaningful names, stay on the system and stay barred from use for all time.
The free trial-ers will likely find name claiming extremely difficult. Any new players will likely find name claiming extremely difficult. This game will be reduced to endless streams of l337 replacement, small x's and random numbers.
Yes, this may take 'hassle' but yes, it needs to be done. It needs to be done because its not fair on both existing costumers and future costumers, it needs to be done because the whole idea of never clearing names goes against the whole concept of mmos. People come, people go, the game will see thousands throughout its lifespan and it is only fair, only right, that half decent names should be made available.
I will make no proposals as to name clearing schemes, how long it should be claimed for etc, i leave that to you. To the the community i love, the community i have faith in, the community i don't want to see reduced to CloudWolf0928374920122222's.
/Discuss.
