Stolen Names, Just for Fun or out of Spite...

[ElMismo]

First of all, I don't know in what section of the forums this should go, so I'm hoping for someone more experienced in whining to come in and nock me on the noggin for being such a n3wb.

I want to know if there's a procedure or a way of punishing those people that like to steal the names of other players, just for the fun of it or out of spite for someone. By stealing I mean the following; creating a character with a well known name in the realm and never ever logging in or using the character. Is that allowed? I mean, isn't there some sort of punishment for those people?

I played in Deathwing and I won't say I was popular, but my character's name was known. Then, when the Lordaeron realm opened up I was excited and decided to make a toon there as well. I proceeded to create my character, same look as always and the name as well... just to find out it was already taken.
Someone logged into Lordaeron before me and created a toon with dare I say MY name.

I continued to create my character despite the fact that my name was taken, I added the character who took my name to my friends list and waited....waited...and waited for him or her to log in. It never happened.

Is there any way, at all, to reclaim the name?

I bet it has happened to some of you as well, and I'm pretty sure you'd like your name back.

[Obnoxious]

First off, it isn't your name. On Lordaeron, it's their name. A name belong to whoever gets it first.
Until they actually make a point that it was in fact "out of spite," they just happened to pick and save that name for use later or whatever.
Besides them doing that and the GMs deciding it was worth taking action, you can "reclaim" the name if it ever gets deleted, and until someone else uses it.

[ElMismo]

I see; why don't you have an avatar?

[Sixtyninee]

Avatars are too mainstream, Obnoxious is a rebel.

[mikeym]

This was a hot topic a few days after launch, with many people complaining about other people getting to their favorite character names in the mad rush that was 25-Sep-2015. There was mention by staff that eventually they'd do a "scrub", where characters with popular or well-known names would be deleted if they weren't used. Has anyone heard if this is this still a consideration?

[Obnoxious]

I see; why don't you have an avatar?

It used to be a black dot, but I haven't felt like bothering with that on this new layout

This was a hot topic a few days after launch, with many people complaining about other people getting to their favorite character names in the mad rush that was 25-Sep-2015. There was mention by staff that eventually they'd do a "scrub", where characters with popular or well-known names would be deleted if they weren't used. Has anyone heard if this is this still a consideration?

There was nothing like that. All that happened was the mentioning of the possibility a clean-up might be made occasionally with characters of level 10 or lower. No specifics, no date, nothing about "popular names," not even a statement that it would in fact be a thing

[Radvo]

I see; why don't you have an avatar?

This guy is asking the real questions

[Cerberus]

There was nothing like that. All that happened was the mentioning of the possibility a clean-up might be made occasionally with characters of level 10 or lower. No specifics, no date, nothing about "popular names," not even a statement that it would in fact be a thing

Warmane's premium membership grants exclusion from database clean-up of inactive accounts, and taking from the guideline there is no exception made for Lordaeron regarding this feature.

Would you please confirm that characters of level 10 or lower will not be deleted in Lordaeron provided they belong to a premium account? Thank you very much in advance!

PS: Just for the record, I am not a name hoarder, in fact, I do not even reach the 10 character limit. However, due to work and a busy life, I can't play all my characters at once, and I would not like any of them to be deleted just because a few so-called "popular names" got stolen, as it is subjectively claimed by some, despite the fact the legitimacy of the concept itself is still arguable, since character naming is FCFS anyway.

[Obnoxious]

No, I won't confirm anything, one way or another. As I clearly stated, all that happened was a possibility being mentioned.
But if it does happens, it won't be because of "stolen names" per se, but to keep names from being hoarded and unused. You call it illegitimate, but I personally consider it much more illegitimate to hold onto names that you haven't used enough to get them to level 10, something so trivial I can barely consider a "limitation."

[Cerberus]

No, I won't confirm anything, one way or another. As I clearly stated, all that happened was a possibility being mentioned.
But if it does happens, it won't be because of "stolen names" per se, but to keep names from being hoarded and unused. You call it illegitimate, but I personally consider it much more illegitimate to hold onto names that you haven't used enough to get them to level 10, something so trivial I can barely consider a "limitation."

You misunderstood me, I do not consider a data base clean-up illegitimate, but the concept of name ownership due to a self-given idea of popularity, when the character naming is undoubtedly FCFS. My characters are named in a role-playing fashion, I do not think any of these names steals any so-called popular identities, as none of them ever were any popular anyway. However, I personally would not take nicely to be forced to level all my low-level characters just to avoid them to be deleted. This also does not make me feel encouraged to donate further and attain the premium membership for this reason.

Either way, you may consider updating Warmane's premium membership noting this exception in the "exclusion from database clean-up" clause to avoid lots of angry premium members if such clean-up ever takes place.

[Skuddy]

You misunderstood me, I do not consider a data base clean-up illegitimate, but the concept of name ownership due to a self-given idea of popularity, when the character naming is undoubtedly FCFS. My characters are named in a role-playing fashion, I do not think any of these names steals any so-called popular identities, as none of them ever were any popular anyway. However, I personally would not take nicely to be forced to level all my low-level characters just to avoid them to be deleted. This also does not make me feel encouraged to donate further and attain the premium membership for this reason.

Either way, you may consider updating Warmane's premium membership noting this exception in the "exclusion from database clean-up" clause to avoid lots of angry premium members if such clean-up ever takes place.

it takes no time at all to reach level 10. even on 1x. if you can't be bothered than that's your problem.