Name stealing a reality?

[IceStormx]

<p>Hiya</p><p>Can any one at Sony please clear this up for me?</p><p>Why should people on The_Bazaar and Vox have to be worried about losing there names?</p><p><div><p><cite>Smokejumper wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Names are just first-come, first-serve. There won't be any server merges until the Live Gamer servers merge, so if you're not on Vox or The Bazaar, then you don't have to worry. If you have characters on those servers, then details of naming merge rules will be posted before those merges. But if you're not on those servers, don't worry about it. There is no membership priority on names.</p></blockquote><p>Does this mean any one can steal any and all of my character names and there is nothing at all I can do about it?</p><p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2x/posts/list.m?topic_id=10548" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2x...?topic_id=10548</a></p></div></p>

[Arbreth]

<p>When a server merges it is possible that there may end up with two characters that have the same name spelling.  It is not name stealing, it is a name clash.  Usually, the older toon gets to keep the name and the younger may choose another, but don't quote me on this as they have a tendency to convolute the system trying to be fair.</p><p>If you are not on a server that is merging, do not worry about it, and only those that have the same name spelling will have an issue.</p>

[TheSpin]

<p>There are some rules about who gets to keep their name upon a server merger.  You might want to poke around for the post of the rules the last time servers were merged.</p><p>The main rules that come to mind that I believe are important to remember is that the older character keeps the name, as long it was logged in recently.  If it is a really old character that hasn't been played in  years than I think a newer but active player get the name priority.</p><p>If you had a name changed and you suspect the character that got your name is inactive, I've heard of people petitioning and getting names changed back.</p>

[CoLD MeTaL]

<p><cite>IceStormx wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Hiya</p><p>Can any one at Sony please clear this up for me?</p><p>Why should people on The_Bazaar and Vox have to be worried about losing there names?</p><p><div><p><cite>Smokejumper wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Names are just first-come, first-serve. There won't be any server merges until the Live Gamer servers merge, so if you're not on Vox or The Bazaar, then you don't have to worry. If you have characters on those servers, then details of naming merge rules will be posted before those merges. But if you're not on those servers, don't worry about it. There is no membership priority on names.</p></blockquote><p>Does this mean any one can steal any and all of my character names and there is nothing at all I can do about it?</p><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2x/posts/list.m?topic_id=10548" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2x...?topic_id=10548</a></p></div></p></blockquote><p>If the other character was created before yours in our current space-time continium then they get to retain the name and you get a free rename potion otherwise they get the free rename potion.</p><p>I have 24 90s, last merge I had to rename 1 char.</p>

[Nrgy]

<p>There are two real actions you can take concerning player names when servers merge...</p><ol><li>Login to the target server and create a toon with the name you "Want", you'll know immediately if it is available or not.<ol><li>If it is available, then keep that toon on that target server so someone cannot snipe it from you.<ol><li>When your main toon merges you will get an x_NAME_x</li><li>You can delete your "place holder"</li><li>You can petition a GM to have your x's removed since there is not longer a clash</li></ol></li><li>If it is not available, choose another and try not to snipe one from your friend</li></ol></li><li>Login to the target server and create a toon with your current name that you no longer "Want" AND a toon with the name you do "Want"<ol><li>When your main toon is merged it will get an x_NAME_x</li><li>Delete your placeholder toon of the name you want</li><li>You can petition a GM to "Change" your name to something which you want</li><li>Delete your placeholder toon that you do not want</li><li>... You have esentially changed your toons name without having to purchase a SC token and save yourself some cash/SC.</li></ol></li></ol>

[Nrgy]

<p><cite>IceStormx wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Does this mean any one can steal any and all of my character names and there is nothing at all I can do about it?</blockquote><p>The reality might turn out that people on your own server will be more guilty and more likely of stealing names from their own server.  Toon names which they "Wanted" when they rolled that were unavailble on that server.  If they get to the server befvore the merge and lock a name, then they just might be able to snipe it from you.</p><p>I don't know any of the grandfather clauses in server merges ... but watch it.</p>

[thephantomposter]

<p><cite>Nrgy wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>There are two real actions you can take concerning player names when servers merge...</p><ol><li>Login to the target server and create a toon with the name you "Want", you'll know immediately if it is available or not.<ol><li>If it is available, then keep that toon on that target server so someone cannot snipe it from you.<ol><li>When your main toon merges you will get an x_NAME_x</li><li>You can delete your "place holder"</li><li>You can petition a GM to have your x's removed since there is not longer a clash</li></ol></li><li>If it is not available, choose another and try not to snipe one from your friend</li></ol></li><li>Login to the target server and create a toon with your current name that you no longer "Want" AND a toon with the name you do "Want"<ol><li>When your main toon is merged it will get an x_NAME_x</li><li>Delete your placeholder toon of the name you want</li><li>You can petition a GM to "Change" your name to something which you want</li><li>Delete your placeholder toon that you do not want</li><li>... You have esentially changed your toons name without having to purchase a SC token and save yourself some cash/SC.</li></ol></li></ol></blockquote><p>great advice ty</p>

[kahonen]

<p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><strong>From previous server merges</strong>:</span></p><hr /><p><em>"In the event of duplicate character names as a result of this server merge, priority will be given to the character who has logged in to the game within the past sixty (60) days; if both characters have logged in within the past sixty (60) days, then the character which has accrued the most gameplay time overall will retain its name. Other characters will have an "x" added to their names until a unique name has been determined.</em></p><p><em>Players with a character whose name has been affected by the server merge can type "/rename" in their in-game chat window and receive a one-time complimentary name change"</em></p><hr /><p>You don't need to mess around "reserving names" or anything like that, the toon that has been played the most keeps the name.</p><p>If you must know in advance of the merge, go to Community part of the SOE forums and search for your toon name on the server you are moving to.  If it doesn't exist now, you don't have a problem and won't have a problem when the merge goes through.  If it does exist now you <strong>may</strong> have a problem and there is nothing you can do to influence the outcome.  The person who has played the toon most and longest gets to keep the name, which is exactly how it should be!</p><p>It's that simple!</p>

[Darq]

<p>In the 2007 free character transfer period that wasn't the case.</p><p>There was a character named Darq that was lower level, less time logged in, created before mine, wasn't logged in for years while mine was just recently and I had to rename my character.</p><p>When I moved my Brigand to Nagafen this year someone created a character with the same name on the server it was moved away from. I didn't try to transfer back to this server, however should I ever want to I guess I'd have to petition.</p>

[Maisland]

<p><cite>Darq wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>In the 2007 free character transfer period that wasn't the case.</p><p>There was a character named Darq that was lower level, less time logged in, created before mine, wasn't logged in for years while mine was just recently and I had to rename my character.</p><p>When I moved my Brigand to Nagafen this year someone created a character with the same name on the server it was moved away from. I didn't try to transfer back to this server, however should I ever want to I guess I'd have to petition.</p></blockquote><p>Character transfers are treated differently than server mergers.  This is because a transfer is voluntary (i.e. something <em><strong>you</strong></em> chose to do) and a merger is not.</p>

[kahonen]

<p>Exactly.  You <strong>chose</strong> to transfer so you can hardly expect someone else to lose their name.</p>

[Ahlana]

<p><cite>kahonen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><strong>From previous server merges</strong>:</span></p><hr /><p><em>"In the event of duplicate character names as a result of this server merge, priority will be given to the character who has logged in to the game within the past sixty (60) days; if both characters have logged in within the past sixty (60) days, then the character which has accrued the most gameplay time overall will retain its name. Other characters will have an "x" added to their names until a unique name has been determined.</em></p><p><em>Players with a character whose name has been affected by the server merge can type "/rename" in their in-game chat window and receive a one-time complimentary name change"</em></p><hr /></blockquote><p>Is this confirmed?</p><p>In previous mergers it did not matter if a character had logged into the game within the past 60 days. It was simply who ever had the name the longest, regardless of if they even played anymore.</p><p>Though a GM was willing often times to give the name to the person currently playing, it was not always the case.</p>

[kahonen]

<p>That is the detail that was posted, by SOE, prior to the last batch of server merges and is, to the best of my knowledge, what has happened each time servers have merged.</p>

[Cyliena]

<p><cite>Ahlana wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>kahonen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><strong>From previous server merges</strong>:</span></p><hr /><p><em>"In the event of duplicate character names as a result of this server merge, priority will be given to the character who has logged in to the game within the past sixty (60) days; if both characters have logged in within the past sixty (60) days, then the character which has accrued the most gameplay time overall will retain its name. Other characters will have an "x" added to their names until a unique name has been determined.</em></p><p><em>Players with a character whose name has been affected by the server merge can type "/rename" in their in-game chat window and receive a one-time complimentary name change"</em></p><hr /></blockquote><p>Is this confirmed?</p><p>In previous mergers it did not matter if a character had logged into the game within the past 60 days. It was simply who ever had the name the longest, regardless of if they even played anymore.</p><p>Though a GM was willing often times to give the name to the person currently playing, it was not always the case.</p></blockquote><p>That's what they did for the 2010 merges. Doesn't necessarily mean they'll do it again but I think it was a good policy and hope that they keep it.</p>

[Ahlana]

<p>I hope you two are correct... as that bodes well for me <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>