New World locks character names to accounts forever

[Kane]

If names in MMORPG's are important to you....this thread is for you. For everyone else who doesn't care about your name in MMORPG's or what people refer to you as over discord....move along.

Creating a character's name in an MMORPG is often a frustrating process. There are some MMORPG's I don't play simply because so many names are taken that the only thing left is to put spaces between multiple words or type in gibberish. Elder Scrolls Online is a game I never played simply because I could never find a decent name. New World's naming policy is similar to Elder Scrolls Online.

Names are locked to your account. This is worse than in games like World of Warcraft where names are locked to a server. Meaning that there are even less names available in New World.

I read somewhere that a name becomes available to other accounts if it is inactive for 90 days. Kind of like in World of Warcraft when I didn't log into World of Warcraft Classic for 5 months and discovered that I had to change the names of all my characters because those names had been taken by other people. I was ok with that because I had been gone for so long. I thought that was how it worked in New World too...but learned that is not the case.

I contacted New World customer service and learned how the reserving names process works. If a character was DELETED that name will become available to other accounts after 90 days. However, if the character was NOT DELETED the name is PERMANENTLY locked to that account. Meaning if on the day of release a bunch of people created several characters for the sole purpose of reserving those names then a few days later decided to get a refund on Steam.....those names will NEVER be available again and are PERMANENTLY locked to that account....which is very frustrating. In some games I can ask for customer service to make certain names available that have not been used for a very long time because the account is not active. The customer service person I communicated with made it very clear that anyone who requested a refund on the first day the game was released and did not delete their characters....those names will be locked forever. I just find that to be ridiculous in a game where it is almost impossible to find an available name.

[DayChap]

What name could be so sought after you went to all that trouble? Reminds me of 'Legolas' back on World of Warcraft.

[Kane]

Originally posted by DayChap:

What name could be so sought after you went to all that trouble? Reminds me of 'Legolas' back on World of Warcraft.

The name itself is not important. I have a list of 100 names on it that I use for each MMORPG. All 100 names were taken in New World. The point is not so much about a specific name....but more so that so many names are taken that people can't even find a decent name to use. What is even worse is that several of the names that are reserved are on dead accounts.

[Tzunny]

AG devs should do a name PURGE asap of those that didn't login to the game in the last 6-12months to make place for new players, fresh blood & fresh money.

[Trubbles]

That's funny because my name is usually taken, and I just started New World two days ago on the new-ish server and it was not taken!

In the early WoW days names were locked forever on dead accounts, so at least be happy that there is SOME recycling of names. Their policy doesn't seem ridiculous - there has to be some leeway for the people who got the name in the first place.

Also, "undeleted" means deleted and then ... un-deleted. It doesn't mean "was not deleted." Took me a minute to understand your post title there.

[Kane]

Originally posted by Trubbles:

That's funny because my name is usually taken, and I just started New World two days ago on the new-ish server and it was not taken!

In the early WoW days names were locked forever on dead accounts, so at least be happy that there is SOME recycling of names. Their policy doesn't seem ridiculous - there has to be some leeway for the people who got the name in the first place.

Also, "undeleted" means deleted and then ... un-deleted. It doesn't mean "was not deleted." Took me a minute to understand your post title there.

Characters that were "never" deleted have those names locked to the account permanently...and that is ridiculous. Should someone who refunded the game because they didn't like the game and will never play the game for the rest of their life....get to keep the names they reserved forever?

[Harry.Taco]

Having these illogical practices is just lack of forethought and laziness on the part of Game Devs. Thats it period.

[RivalGrimReaper5]

Not playing a game, simply because you are incapable of coming up with a random name isn't something to be proud of.

[CyberDown]

Im pretty sure they only allow one instance of a name across all servers, on top of forever locking the name even if they dont play.

One of the only games where legit every name I use is taken, which is very strange.

[fauxpas]

Something that I found interesting is that the PTS shares the name list with the normal servers.

[Knavenformed]

Honestly I managed to snatch a pretty commonly wanted name for myself then, very nice.

[fauxpas]

As did I (one month after launch) by adding a surname.

[Crunktanium]

Originally posted by Kane:

I just find that to be ridiculous in a game where it is almost impossible to find an available name.

They did this because it makes transfers and mergers less of a headache. Nobody wants to be forced to rename if they move servers or get merged.

[CyberDown]

Originally posted by napkinfactory:

xxKane69xx was taken?

(sry)

I dont get why everyone assumes when "a name is taken" its like some 14 year olds wow name circa 2002. Tons of people use totally normal names that get taken. I have a bunch I use and its a pain not having one of those names, its actually annoying.

[-={LG}=-]

Originally posted by Kane:

The name itself is not important. I have a list of 100 names on it that I use for each MMORPG.

It was pretty challenging, but when I played it at launch I managed to crank out a half dozen decent names. I was bouncing around servers a lot, trying to find ones with a decent population and also a non-toxic community.

That was harder than finding names, actually.

[fauxpas]

Originally posted by Crunktanium:

Originally posted by Kane:

I just find that to be ridiculous in a game where it is almost impossible to find an available name.

They did this because it makes transfers and mergers less of a headache. Nobody wants to be forced to rename if they move servers or get merged.

Which is silly as all they'd have to do is add a string of numbers that can be toggled hidden or visible and let people have duplicate names.