I’m going to go with inactive one expansion instead of two. Sounds fair I think.
I actually do a name “search”’ every now and then just to see. This name here, I’ve had it almost a year. Nab another name just a few months ago.
And honestly, I’m not really into the last name idea. Unless we can hide it.
My take on this issue: Add surnames and make it FREE to change your name with a lengthy cooldown because we are already paying for a subscription and expansions. Also, continue clearing inactive names but after a 3-year period.
Another idea is a challenge system where we can fight someone for a name. When I see a name I want, I send a challenge request to that other person. He has to accept within a month or by default I will win and get his name. When he accepts, we’re both ported into an octagon instance where we do PvP and the winner gets the name and loser has to re-name.
“I do NOT PvP. Not now. Not EVER.”
I’m just brainstorming. This is an issue that’s hard to define what’s fair for everyone. I admit I reserve a lot of names that I might never use, but I still think I might use them.
No this time line is stupid … plain and simple. put it to years and maybe. no active sub should be losing names like that . there are some people who have lives they have no choice but to live out side the game. don’t try to punish them because you want a name they have cleared up. IF an account is inactive for 2 or more years sure clear the names. but this could cause issues for those who had guilds and other things attached to them. For active accounts … if they are paying for time . then no absolutely not and they should not have to log into every toon . logging into the account should be good enough. but a second name i agree would be a better idea and or allow proper spacing and punctuation for naming
“I have been reading along, and I do like the idea of Last Names. My Husband and I play couples with our Toons. It would be cool if they could have the same last name.”
Surnames would solve everything
Literally never had a problem getting a good name for my character. I’m all for spaces and apostrophes and whatnot being allowed. Not for striping other people of their names just because they haven’t logged in in a bit.
I just want the ability to have a last name. Just like irl, first names are shared by people constantly, I even had a neighbor that used to live across the street from me who had the same rl first name as me! The last names (And looks ofc, but human appearances are more varied than WoW characters) were what differentiated us. So names being “taken” and thus unable to be used feel silly for me on that note. Name repeats are gonna happen, but it’s not hard to make them different by putting a surname/last name to it either.
Will it make referring to the two first names a little confusing? Maybe, but I’d probably differentiate them by saying “Worgen Todd” to tell him apart from Vulpera Todd or something. Not only that, but some races like playable Tauren feel off without surnames since they usually have one outside some cases, and can probably help for rping/world-building purposes too. How did they get the surname? Does it fit them? Etc.
Seriously, last names would open things up a lot, and it baffles me that WoW to this day has never extended their namespace to be bigger to account for them without addons.
Last names would be awful, absolutely awful.
It’s bad enough already when somebody has an alt-code in their names. Having people with last names would make things even more tedious.
Here’s where I’m coming from on this:
Sending mail. Auto-fill is the devil on mail and it’s already a pain to make sure your mail is going exactly where you need it to be. I do not want to be typing out first and last names when I’m sending out multiple mails.
Addons. Take something like Mythic Azshara, where the fight pretty much required an extensive weakaura list with everyone plugged in multiple times. That thing was a pain in the neck to set up and update, I hated it whenever anybody was lagging and had to be replaced because I had to go in and redo a bunch of the data. Adding last names would make that even worse.
Inviting people to groups by name. This is already a pain with alt-codes (sense a theme?) and it doesn’t need to get even worse because of last names.
Sending tells. Same thing. Now I need to put in a last name? No thank you.
The interface works around single names. Requiring last names would be a hassle.
If you’re just somebody who uses queues for everything and lets the computer decide whom you’re going to play with, I can see how you would miss these issues. But if you’re somebody who invites people to groups… no. Just no.
“Then make it optional. You either chose a last name, or the game assigns you a #number.”
So now when I invite friends to groups I need to add a number at the end?
No. Just no.
You can use a little creativity and find a nice name. It’s worked for people for 15 years.
“I have no problem making names. I just want Last Names for RP purpose.”
“I am a simple player, with simple needs.”
The thing is even if you do find a nice name that isn’t jumbled, it somehow still is taken.
I think I went through 5 generators for unique sounding names or something and the vast majority of those that I like that fit the race I’m playing that day just happen to be already taken to where I need to slap an extra letter in the middle to use it (And sometimes even those extra-lettered names are taken!). Creativity doesn’t do much when your options get smaller and smaller. >3>
Three months is entitled as hell, OP.
“The number would be automatically added, by the game. As could be the last names.”
Autofill is a disaster, though. Even when sending mail I need to be very careful that it’s going to the person I want, and not some random autofill person.
“They can’t please ALL the people ALL the time.”
“Last Names is a doable compromise. We ALL have quirks. We need to find a middle ground, and Last Names could be just that.”
The game has worked fine with single names since its inception, there’s no need to add something like this that would disrupt everything in the game, all the way down to Blizzard having to overhaul the character databases. Which would be a nightmare, just look at what happened to Khadgar server recently.